The Devil You Know.

Peace Corps keeps telling us what an amazing experience we are all in for. How we will have completely different experiences from one another, and how nobody will share the same experience. This theory of course can be used in any aspect of life. Even if the person is standing right next to you, they will experience the event in a different way and come away with a different perspective.  With life here I can’t think of a better way to explain it.

Each day a new friend tells me how they feel like an anxety teen. “I can’t really complain because I heard insert someone else’s horrible story here. No one likes to complain especially when a generalized concept of what we are here to do is help others that are worst off then us. Though with even the simplest task here being difficult it is made even harder when a person who has no right to yell at you (and no reason) does so.  This is of course my complaint and others here have their own. No matter how little they even is it still packs a major punch.

After not being able to shower for an extended period of time or needing to use a sock as a washcloth, or even not being able to communicate that you want to help in the kitchen and it is not Hshuma (Shameful). Each little event takes its toll. Of course the Peace Corps is there for when things get to tough and offer you help in the ways that they can, but not even including language it is hard to culturally get your point across things just don’t translate.

A simple “sharable” example is language. For quite some time I was able to make it through life without the ability to read. Now reading is one of my favorite extra-curricular activities. Though it is still quite difficult with my dyslexia I have grown to have the ability to read and write and get by (let this also be a warning for those of you who read this spelling is still not my forte). When I took on the challenge of moving to Morocco I came in know that my focus would be on speaking and not on reading or writing. Getting by for the next two years and being illiterate would be the easiest thing for me to do being able to communicate with the people around me for now is the most important.

For the last month and a bit we have been working on speaking the language. Peace Corps has come up with phonetic spelling for us to be able to read and write to learn how to speak, but of course people here have no idea what any of it mean.  Shwiya b shwiya (little by little) the language gets better. On a rainy day when we were unable to go out on one of our community walks we began learning script. As of now the only word I can write is sun or ṧms but it was amazing at how easily it came. Obviously this is me we are talking about I am still last in my class when it comes to just about everything, but my courage double as I was able to work through this task with ease.

The Devil you know may just be the devil you want to face. You don’t know if what’s behind door number two is, it may be better or worse, and of course there is a 10% chance it will be worse. Picking your battles is inevitable. Once you go through something try to step back and realize the new skills you have acquired through this hardship and you many not want to avoid this challenge the next time. Take the bull by the horns and with your friends by your side and your trusty stead you can make it through.  Even if it takes and advent calendar made by your friend counting down the days until you get to move out to your final site.

                                                  Working with Kid

                                     Friends By Your Side in Font of Our Dar Chabab

                       Getting Through Everything Even the Mud in Moulay Yacoub