Harharhar

April 3, 2010
For dinner tonight, we had a big plate of over-cooked white rice with olive oil poured all over it, there was nothing else, not even any spices. Bland-sauce extreme. We all ate from one plate. My host family kept pouring more and more oil on my section of the plate, either because they think I like eat cupfuls of oil or because they were trying to be hospitable. The thought of eating unseasoned mushy rice with oil was daunting. I ate maybe five bites and then chugged a bottle of water to fill me up. Unfortunately, tomorrow is Sunday, which means I won’t be getting a delicious, well-balanced, and sufficient Peace Corps lunch. This is particularly sad since tomorrow is Easter and I know all my family back in the States will be stuffing their faces with delicious and plentiful food.
Entirely unrelated, my 12 year old host sister has been walking around all day in extremely high-heeled dress shoes. This makes no sense to me.
I’m also currently reading Orin Hargrave’s Culture Shock Morocco book. If I’m not mistaking, Orin did Peace Corps in Morocco many a year ago, and so the book is of particular importance and insight to be as a volunteer.

April 4, 2010
I went on my first Morocco-based run this morning. Two other trainees, Avery and Caity, joined me and we provided excellent support and motivation for each other since we were all a bit out of shape. The weather was hot and our altitude is quite high, nonetheless, if felt so good to finally start running again. Insha’allah, I will one day run the Marrakesh Marathon. Or at least the half-marathon.
Today was also Easter. If I had been in the United States, I’d be with my family stuffing my face with lots of delicious home-cooked food (although now that I think about it, I have been away at college and not with family for the past 4 Easters). Since Easter does not exist in Morocco, the other trainees in my CBT group decided to organize a movie day instead. We took our laptops to our LCF house (where we have class everyday) and watched “A Serious Man” and “10 Things I Hate About You.” We sat around, drank coffee, watched movies, shared music, chatted it up, etc. Mary and Gerry were so kind as to bring us Moroccan cheese-puffs infused with ketchup flavoring; this was the closest thing to popcorn that they could find at the local hanut. And as a replacement for dying Easter eggs, Mary wore her bright green African-designed dress that she picked up in Mali.