Meanwhile, in Morocco

I've been working on a committee organizing the Marché Maroc Marrakech, a series of workshops and subsequent craft fair scheduled for mid-April, at which artisans working with PCVs from across the country can come to receive training and immediately put into practice what they've learned. Should be good. Honestly, it's refreshing to take part in a project that involves more immediate, less abstract work. Ok, so it mostly involves lots of e-mailing and Excel spreadsheets so far, but still...

Other stuff-- a couple recent treks out in the warm, sunny weather, one with Tea Master Abdel Ali to a dry riverbed in a big green valley, another with the neighborhood guys to the mountains to cook a tajine and spend the afternoon out and about.

Mr. Aziz aka Scorpion, proudly presenting our lunch in the works

The Explore Amizmiz project hasn't exactly taken off, though we're working on ways to lure some people in. There are people who are HERE-- visiting tourists-- who would probably be willing to participate if they had any idea that this thing existed. I have done much scouring of the internet, finding travel sites on which to shamelessly advertise, but really we need something more local. Perhaps my landlord would let me spray paint a billboard across the side of my house... a good high-traffic location, really. The woman at the helm of the project works with these tourists on a daily basis, so she's working on spreading the word amongst them. Also, as the majority of Moroccan tourists are French, thanks to Google translator and a neighborhood helper, I will hopefully have a French version of the website up. (...baguette??)

In the meantime, there are several other avenues for projects. Primarily, I've delved back into the world of soil (as you may recall, one of the potters' main issues is bad clay), looking for ways in which to either improve their existing land or find new areas. I learned a lot more after some enthusiastic and perhaps hasty groundwork, but found myself circled around to the same initial conundrum: Would they even be receptive to this at all? 

Thought it seems the simple way to an answer would be to just ask, doing so doesn't necessarily give you a reliable response. Most people are quite open toward the idea in itself, though when it comes to taking that idea and considering how it would affect their actual real-life work, there is a disconnect. I think it's my responsibility to present that concept, whatever it may be, in a tangible way that relates to the reality of their work and lives. But I feel like there's so much I still don't understand-- that they do things a certain way for a reason, and even though it may be destructive long-term, it's tough to present them with a solution more convincing than their quick fix when there are basic needs to be met (making pottery = money = food and rent). I have a hard time knowing what is realistic, and though this could be considered a good thing, I struggle with it.

 Abderrahim and Sufian in quiet repose with freshly picked wild mint bushels

Quite a few things for life post-Peace Corps are taking shape in their beginning stages, some of them revolving around having stumbled across a field of work and study that has had my interest piqued for some time now, only I didn't know until recently that it actually existed. Very exciting... more on that another time!

Countdown to San Francisco: 43 days, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Taking Stock

Arriving at site in November of 2008 was akin to a Quantum Leap-style immersion-- suddenly appearing in an entirely new context, dropped into a point in history with vague notions of some equally vague purpose that seemed impossibly distant-- that so much adjustment would have to take place simply to get my footing, let alone spearhead some kind of development work.

Or at least that's how my mind wants to remember it. A more honest examination of my memories, journal and blog entries of the past eighteen months presents a less frantic, more balanced settling in. Yes, things are new, yes I don't quite know what I'm doing, but that's alright. Let's see what happens. Life here has long since attained a sense of normalcy, as perhaps indicated by the lack of wacky situations and entertaining awkward beginnings related here. They have, with the occasional exception, been left at the beginning.

Initially my purpose was more of an assignment-- an obligation shaped by Peace Corps literature, lectures, and expectations. I was to take actions toward the fulfillment of certain goals during my time here. The assumption was that something was indeed needed-- thus PC's choice of the area and my subsequent placement here-- and that I now had the capacity to affect that change. That wasn't quite how I found it.

The steps toward understanding my environment and assembling a somewhat solid base from which to work have slowly formed in front of me. The picture as a whole has come into greater focus as I've gradually identified the pieces and players, learned the history, the complexities, the relationships, the cycles and attitudes, and have made connections between them. This has happened through the help of friends, observation, and many "mistakes", false starts, wrongful assumptions-- feeling my way along in the dark-- though the light brightens a little bit more each time I hit a wall or become completely lost, the former often resulting in the latter.

My capabilities toward doing have evolved as my understanding of the place and people has clarified. The process has been a tug-of-war between what is realistic, PC goals, and the boundaries of my own comfort zone. My approach has been to use PC goals as a reference, but much more so to simply respond to the realities of my unique environment, and to find and exercise the potential in it. What I find may or may not pertain to one of PC's small business development-specific goals, and though one can almost always stretch any activity to appear relevant to those aims, doing so is not personally a high priority.

The relationships I've had the fortune to build here, both within the volunteer community and among the Moroccan community are by far my most valued aspect of the experience, and are the core around which everything else moves. I find them immensely fulfilling, and how interesting that anything I would deem a "success" here has been due almost entirely to the development of these relationships.

It's almost impossible for anything to be hurried along here and result in any lasting prosperity. This is old news, but it remains stubbornly persistent. Perhaps this is true for any place, but this one seems to recognize and exist in accordance with the idea, rather than opposition. Initially and still occasionally frustrating, but it showed the desire to "get things done" to be a machination of the ego-- to appear successful with tangible, immediate and specific results at which to point. See, I know exactly what I'm doing. See how on top of things I am?

As there are periods of momentum and of considerable down time, the challenge is to learn how to make the best use of both-- learning when to take steps, when to wait, when to let things evolve out of your hands. To trust that they always are happening as they should, even if you can't see. Again, old news, and I hope to not belittle it through writing of it here, but time and again this theory has proven itself true to me, and has profoundly reshaped my approach to living. I hope to be able to carry the virtues found in life here back to life in America, when the time comes-- to that new, strange place.