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