I left homestay at the end of January, moving into a house on the upper side of town in a quiet neighborhood at the base of the closest mountain near to my counterpart, tutor, artisans, and several friends.
Most of January was spent house-hunting. After a few false starts and with the help of several kind individuals I began to actually go look at houses, sometimes even from the inside. Through an odd series of events I’ve ended up here, where I am currently residing, on a road just outside the main area of this side of town-- in a house that is too big for me and nicer than I had ever imagined with four bedrooms, tiled floors and walls, a terrace in front overlooking a small garden area and further, the valley, the town below, and the eastern mountains. A million dollar view for about eighty-two dollars per month.
The downside to all of this is that after signing the rental agreement and Peace Corps’ approval of the place, it was sold by the owners and I have two to three weeks to live here and find a new place. It’s actually all my fault but, er, I won’t bore you with that just now.
So I moved in anyway, eager to leave my host family’s house and not having any other reasonable options. I hired men with horse carts to haul my stuff over, literally riding through town on piles of my possessions (which aren’t many, but still, kind of embarrassing…). Despite being out of homestay, I’ve found it trying to not be able to have a place in which to settle-- to still be “floating”-- that I can’t unpack yet even after five months.
Ultimately, I think it’s a good thing that I won’t be living here. Though beautiful, it’s very isolated and I think residing here would be a detriment to interaction in the community and perhaps to my sanity. I’m not here on vacation, after all.
I can’t say for sure, but at last there are some promising prospects and it looks like I’ll be in a place before long. I hope.
The past month has been the first time since coming to this country that I feel I’ve experienced genuine frustration-- a result of impatience getting the better of me. It’s certainly been an exercise in the cultivation of such a virtue. Learning when to step forward and when to let things work themselves out.
AND, though I don’t yet have a place of relative permanence, I’m at least living on my own and can enjoy cooking for myself, along with buying groceries, doing laundry, and paying bills-- all of those things you get to do when you move out of mom’s house.
I have actually participated in a few instances of Peace Corps-related work in the past few weeks. If I had to leave tomorrow I could say truthfully that I contributed something.
I attended a meeting at the local Chamber of Handicraft with many artisans, my counterpart, and a delegate from Marrakech who spoke in a concerned manner for two hours non-stop. In Arabic, of course. Needless to say, I didn’t catch all of it. Luckily my counterpart’s son who speaks English and who has become a good friend of mine was able to give me a summary afterwards. OK, so no contributions there. Still, something work-related.
It was decided, without my input, that I would begin to teach an English class to the interested youth. I declined, on the grounds that I’m not here to teach English (that’s more geared toward the Youth Development sector of PC), and that my efforts would be better spent working to understand the needs of the artisans. I did agree to informally tutor small groups, mostly just my little gang of friends-- something we’ve been doing all along.
Last night, however, I found myself in front of a blackboard in a small garage transformed into a makeshift classroom complete with desks, chairs, maps of the world-- and students. Oh well; I’m rolling with it. It helps them out with their English, me with my Arabic, and affords an opportunity to interact with people in a new area of town where the integration process has had to start from scratch. And it’s really fun.
It’s been a long, rainy past month with lots of what initially have appeared to be disappointments. Despite this, I think things are, as always, working out as they should, and that’s exciting and comforting.
Most of January was spent house-hunting. After a few false starts and with the help of several kind individuals I began to actually go look at houses, sometimes even from the inside. Through an odd series of events I’ve ended up here, where I am currently residing, on a road just outside the main area of this side of town-- in a house that is too big for me and nicer than I had ever imagined with four bedrooms, tiled floors and walls, a terrace in front overlooking a small garden area and further, the valley, the town below, and the eastern mountains. A million dollar view for about eighty-two dollars per month.
The downside to all of this is that after signing the rental agreement and Peace Corps’ approval of the place, it was sold by the owners and I have two to three weeks to live here and find a new place. It’s actually all my fault but, er, I won’t bore you with that just now.
So I moved in anyway, eager to leave my host family’s house and not having any other reasonable options. I hired men with horse carts to haul my stuff over, literally riding through town on piles of my possessions (which aren’t many, but still, kind of embarrassing…). Despite being out of homestay, I’ve found it trying to not be able to have a place in which to settle-- to still be “floating”-- that I can’t unpack yet even after five months.
Ultimately, I think it’s a good thing that I won’t be living here. Though beautiful, it’s very isolated and I think residing here would be a detriment to interaction in the community and perhaps to my sanity. I’m not here on vacation, after all.
I can’t say for sure, but at last there are some promising prospects and it looks like I’ll be in a place before long. I hope.
The past month has been the first time since coming to this country that I feel I’ve experienced genuine frustration-- a result of impatience getting the better of me. It’s certainly been an exercise in the cultivation of such a virtue. Learning when to step forward and when to let things work themselves out.
AND, though I don’t yet have a place of relative permanence, I’m at least living on my own and can enjoy cooking for myself, along with buying groceries, doing laundry, and paying bills-- all of those things you get to do when you move out of mom’s house.
I have actually participated in a few instances of Peace Corps-related work in the past few weeks. If I had to leave tomorrow I could say truthfully that I contributed something.
I attended a meeting at the local Chamber of Handicraft with many artisans, my counterpart, and a delegate from Marrakech who spoke in a concerned manner for two hours non-stop. In Arabic, of course. Needless to say, I didn’t catch all of it. Luckily my counterpart’s son who speaks English and who has become a good friend of mine was able to give me a summary afterwards. OK, so no contributions there. Still, something work-related.
It was decided, without my input, that I would begin to teach an English class to the interested youth. I declined, on the grounds that I’m not here to teach English (that’s more geared toward the Youth Development sector of PC), and that my efforts would be better spent working to understand the needs of the artisans. I did agree to informally tutor small groups, mostly just my little gang of friends-- something we’ve been doing all along.
Last night, however, I found myself in front of a blackboard in a small garage transformed into a makeshift classroom complete with desks, chairs, maps of the world-- and students. Oh well; I’m rolling with it. It helps them out with their English, me with my Arabic, and affords an opportunity to interact with people in a new area of town where the integration process has had to start from scratch. And it’s really fun.
It’s been a long, rainy past month with lots of what initially have appeared to be disappointments. Despite this, I think things are, as always, working out as they should, and that’s exciting and comforting.
4 comments:
I was beginning to worry about you finding a place to live. Might get easier the more integrated you become in the community. Take lots of pictures of this and your next place; those are places you'll want to remember when you're rich & famous.
Hey Nathaniel, I just wanted to say I've really enjoyed reading your blog. I'm reading up to prepare for join the health program over there in March, and your site has been a real pleasure.
um, ....to prepare to join...
Marjorie, I'm glad you've enjoying reading the blog...thanks for the comments. I'm excited to hear that you're headed this way next month! If you have any questions about anything at all, feel free to ask. Good luck with everything!
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