Seminar Site Training

Since we arrived in Ouarzazate, we’ve had 3 language lessons, 4 technical sessions, 1 medical session, and an introduction to Islam.

Our meal schedule is pretty interesting. Because it is Ramadan, we eat up to 5 meals a day! We have our normal breakfast at 8 am, which consists of Bread with honey or butter and coffee and orange juice. We are served lunch at 12:30 pm which is a salad of sorts, pretty good actually. It is usually all the same ingredients and maybe one different one. Usually cucumber, carrots, rice, potatoes, beets, lettuce, tomatoes (or a sort of salsa), and sometimes something hot like beans of some sort. We have bottled water with this meal ☺ Neither of these two meals are eaten by Muslims. They are fasting during this time. At 6:45, Muslims break their fast and begin their meals… l-fthur or breakfast is served. There is always a type of soup and one or two types of bread, dates (I think these are pure fructose sugar) and usually some other very sweet items. Coffee, tea, and orange juice are all served. At 10 pm, we have another meal (the biggest of all the meals), this one usually has a type of meat, as well as salad and bread. All drinks served again. Two nights ago, we even had a milkshake! It tasted like a vanilla milkshake, but it was green and one of our teachers suggested it might be avocado. There is one last meal at about 3 am, but none of the PCTs get up for that, although, I suppose we could if we wanted to. I’m not sure, but I think this one consists of fruit, bread and cheese usually. Sometimes, they set out bags with these in them for those that wake up to eat and pray. I’ll get some pictures of the meals on soon ☺



We have ventured out just a bit to try to buy a few things we need and such. The markets are really different here than what I’m used to. It seems that the Moroccan way of obtaining customers is have a long conversation with them. They ask a lot of questions and almost always invite you to sit and have tea with them. I haven’t yet felt comfortable negotiating the market, but that will come. I also only learned the numbers yesterday, so that will really help. A few days ago, we managed to buy some water and toilet paper without speaking Arabic hardly at all ☺ I’m looking forward to being able to communicate though.





The view from our hotel is pretty great. Today, we did our laundry on the roof of the hotel. That was really a process! It took 2 hours for me to do it and my back and wrists hurt afterwards! Then, just my luck, it started raining!! It stopped shortly after, but it was pretty dramatic.




Today I had an interview with the Program Director and Assistant to talk about what our skills are exactly and our site placement preferences. We’ll see what happens. I figure we will probably find out on Friday what language we are learning (since we leave Saturday to start our Community Based
Training (which will be our first homestay and at a site where they will speak the language we are learning). I requested to learn derija (Moroccan Arabic) instead of one of the Berber languages, but I have a feeling I’m not the only one requesting this, so they said they would do their best to accommodate our preferences. “en shallah” they say, or God willing.