Bringing the World Home (the Peace Corps Third Goal)

"The logic of the Peace Corps is that 

someday we are going to bring it home to America." 

President John F. Kennedy, 1961 

What makes Peace Corps service unusual (amongst many other things), is that service continues long after volunteers leave their host countries! I have written in previous posts about the goals of the Peace Corps that volunteers are expected to work towards - Here's a quick reminder:

1. Helping the people of the host country with technical skills.

2. Helping to promote to the host country a better understanding of Americans.

3. Helping to promote to Americans a better understanding of the host country.

Goals 1 and 2 were very much a part of my time in Morocco. I was able to take small steps towards Goal 3 during my service: through this blog, through time spent with visitors, through a pen pal program with a home school in Connecticut, and a few guest blog posts here and there. But the real work on Goal 3 started when I came back to the US.

A lot of Goal 3 seems to happen informally as we catch back up with friends and family, but I am also on the lookout for chances to speak about our experiences in larger settings, and Justin and I were recently fortunate to have our first opportunity to speak formally about Morocco; in this case, to the 8th grade class of The Emery/Weiner School from Houston, Texas! 

How did I manage to connect with 8th graders from Houston you might ask? Through my lovely friend Nishta, a high school classmate and teacher at The Emery/Weiner School. Nishta and I have been able to stay in touch through the wonders of Facebook and I even wrote a guest post for her fantastic blog while in Morocco. When I got back stateside, Nishta and I reconnected and set up a time to speak to her students when they came to visit Washington, DC on a class trip. So earlier this month, Justin and I put on our coworker hats once again and collaborated on a powerpoint presentation to deliver about our experiences - ranging from why we joined the Peace Corps, to the type of projects that we did, to some of the key lessons we would want Americans to learn about Morocco. We weren't sure how our presentation would go over, but to the credit of these mature, respectful, and talented students, we spoke to an excited and engaged crowd of 60 with tons of interest and lots of questions!

Huge thanks to Nishta and the wonderful folks at The Emery/Weiner School for the work that they do with these great students. We were really impressed by their interest in Morocco and the Peace Corps and questions that showed real thoughtfulness, but beyond that, when having a dialogue with the students about volunteerism and service, we were also incredibly impressed by the volunteer activities that these students were already doing back in their own communities.

Incredibly thoughtful thank-you notes from Nishta and her students.

It was truly a fantastic Goal 3 experience and we're looking for lots more of them! If you're interested or know of opportunities, please let me know. And if you're interested in seeing the presentation that we gave to Nishta's students, you can download it from here.

Time flies!

I am writing this blog post from New York, where Justin and I have been spending the Christmas holiday with his family. It's so hard to believe that we have been back in the U.S. for nearly 5 months! I've been a bit delinquent on posting (it's on my New Years resolutions list to be more frequent!), so let me catch you up on the last few months.

New City:
We're now settled into Washington, DC where we are slowly but surely getting used to life there. It's a slower pace than New York City and certainly very different from Morocco! The transition has taken a while but I think we are finally getting used to both life in the U.S. and life in our new city.

New Apartment:
After living in a temporary place for a month or so, we moved into a permanent apartment in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, which I just recently read has the largest concentration of returned Peace Corps Volunteers in the world! So I'm happy that we're in good company. It took a few months but we're almost fully unpacked and settled in.

New Jobs:
Justin has started back at school to get his PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland (proud wife brag: It's the number one program for this in the country!) and he's doing really well and enjoying the work. I am working as a Marketing Manager at an amazing education technology company called EverFi. The company creates interactive, web platform-based programs to teach critical skills to students that might be missing from either the school or their home (for example, financial education for high schoolers or alcohol abuse prevention for college students) and partners with corporations to bring these into schools free of charge. It's very much a change from my days working in corporate advertising, and I love coming to work knowing that my work has the potential to enrich and improve people's future prospects.

New Year:
Now that we are finally feeling more settled, I'm so excited to begin the next year and to see what adventures are ahead! From our home to yours, wherever you may be in the world, wishing you a year filled with learning, wonder, and beauty. I look forward to continuing to chart our journeys in 2014!

Ringing in an exciting new year

It's hard to believe that an entire year has come and gone! As we move towards 2013, I can't help but reflect upon the past year and think about how much has developed and changed. This time last year, Justin and I were new residents of Tiflet, knowing a handful of people, not sure about what we might plan or accomplish during our time in Morocco, and certainly very nervous about our new lives. Today, we have established strong relationships with people young and old in the community, we have developed some great programs, and we now look at each obstacle and challenge with confidence and readiness. And another big difference from last year - I haven't broken any bones!! 

In looking back on some of the goals that I set for myself at the end of last year, I wanted to call out a few for which I am particularly proud of my progress:

1. Take better care of myself
Coming out of a year in which I broke bones in both my hand and leg, I wanted to make sure that taking care of my health became a priority. And I am happy to say that I have made amazing strides. In November I had a mid-service physical check-up and the doctors reported that I am in great shape - not only that, but I have lost 44.5 pounds since I came to Morocco! This has come mainly from exercising regularly and eating lots of healthy vegetable-rich meals that we cook for ourselves.

2. Explore and travel 

If you've kept up with this blog, then you have seen lots of travel-related posts. I'm happy to have had the chance to see many of Morocco's beautiful places and in the coming year, I hope to visit many more! (Going up to Tanger for New Year's, my first time up north, stay tuned!)

3. Develop a support network

Over the last few months, I have begun to develop some truly strong friendships in our community. And with these friendships, I have been able to learn much more about Moroccan culture and to teach about American culture. Beyond the support network in our community, I have developed a strong support network of Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco and friends and family in the U.S. who have provided more love and strength than I could imagine. Please know that I am so very grateful for it! 

It's been a tough year, full of uncertainty, confusion, and disorder - but out of all this has come so much learning, beauty, and adventure - and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store!

From Justin and me, wishing you a year filled with learning, beauty, and adventure. 

I look forward to continuing to chart our journey in 2013!

Goal #3

Pop quiz! Who knows what the 3 goals of the Peace Corps are?

Just kidding, I'll tell you, they are quite simple (and I am paraphrasing here):

1. Helping the people of my host country to develop new skills.

2. Helping to promote to my host country a better understanding of Americans.

3. Helping to promote to Americans a better understanding of my host country.

Goals 1 and 2 are part of my everyday life - teaching English, doing activities with women, talking to people about American culture, lots of the things that I often write about on this blog. What I don't often write about is Goal 3 - teaching Americans more about Morocco and Moroccan culture. That's where all of YOU come in - part of the purpose of this blog, in addition to chronicling our travel/cooking/work adventures, is to teach you a little about Morocco - its people, culture, religion, food, history, geography, you name it. And hopefully I've done a bit of that over the past year.

One of my intended goals over the next year is to do more "Goal 3" activities - and I've started it off with my first pen pals! Through a Peace Corps program, I have been matched with a family who runs a home school in Connecticut and I will be starting a monthly correspondence with them, talking about my experiences and teaching a bit about Morocco along the way. Check out excerpts from my first letter - Got a little excited about writing real letters and had some fun with the markers :)

What I would LOVE over the coming year is to have more opportunities to talk to people in the U.S. about Morocco - with so much ignorance and misinformation out today, particularly about the Arab/Muslim world, I think it's important for Americans to hear voices of people (particularly other Americans) who are actually living here. And I knew so little about Morocco before I came here and have discovered that it truly is a wonderful country with an amazing culture that others should know more about. So, if you can think of any opportunities for me to speak about Morocco, I'd love to have as many as I can! Some ideas could be:

- Writing a guest blog post

- Skype calls or taped videos with a classroom or another group

- Articles in a local newspaper, journal, or magazine about culture, travels, recipes, music, etc

- Corresponding with a religious group, or a religion class in school, about things I've learned living in a Muslim country

- Setting up an information exchange with one of our English classes

If you might have opportunities for groups with which you are associated, please leave a comment or email me. I'd love the chance to tell more people about this great country!

Out with the old, in with the new...

Breaking news, just in time for the new year – Yesterday, at 3:46 PM, my cast came OFF!

before photo, nervously anticipating the doctor

after, furiously scrubbing 6 weeks of dried skin off my foot!

And for your entertainment, below is a video that Justin shot of my hilarious Moroccan doctor goofing off just prior to taking off the cast.

I'm already able to walk, though with a bit of difficulty as my foot is quite stiff and sore. I'll be starting physical therapy next week but I'm confident that I'll be able to gain back the strength quickly.

All of this is perfect timing for me, because I truly view the new year as a chance to take stock of the past, shed the things holding us back, and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead in the coming year. I know that there's really no difference between December 31 and January 1, but for me the new year is a symbolic street sign along the road of life that reminds me to mentally reflect and plan.

So with that, here are some of my initial goals and thoughts for the coming year. I imagine that I will  add to/develop these as I spend more time in Morocco and evolve the type of work I do here.

1. Take better care of myself

This has been a year of ridiculousness. In February I broke a bone in my right hand while walking our foster dog, and then in November I fractured a bone in my leg. Accidents happen, and the February break was an accident, but I attribute the November fracture to being careless and making bad decisions. With that, I have decided that I will no longer wear flip flops (anyone who has seen me wearing flip flops in New York in December knows that this is a bold decision!). I fractured the bone in my leg by slipping on stairs in flip flops and I am convinced that wearing a piece of slippery rubber with no traction is more trouble waiting to happen. Beyond my flip-flop decision, I want to make sure that I maintain a healthy lifestyle in Morocco – exercising regularly, making smart eating decisions, etc. There are some fantastic things about our lifestyle here – lots of walking, great weather year-round for exercising outside, and not a frozen meal to be found for miles! 

2. Improve my language skills

I've been blown away by how quickly I have been able to pick up the language. In just a little over 4 months, I have gotten myself to a strong intermediate level in which I do a pretty good job of communicating with people in the community. But still, every day there are sentences I don't quite understand, or things I want to say but just don't know how. Justin and I have a tutor that we will be working with twice a week, but beyond that I want to devote time weekly to learning new vocabulary, studying new aspects of the language, and evaluating my progress.

3. Explore and travel – mainly throughout Morocco, but elsewhere if possible

This is an obvious one. I want to make sure to spend lots of time in my community, but one of the reasons that I joined the Peace Corps was to get to know another country and its culture, beyond just one city. So I want to make sure to plan lots of trips throughout the country, and hopefully beyond.

4. Continue to develop a support network in my community

I'm really proud of the integration that Justin and I have already done in the community – we have an amazing host family who think of us as one of their own and will be so important to have over the next 2 years. Beyond that, we have developed friendships with youth in their 20's who go to our Youth Center and I expect that these will develop even further with time. I also want to be sure that Justin and I develop our own friends in the community – and the natural gender divisions that occur in Moroccan culture should make this fairly easy to achieve.

5. Consistently evaluate my work and what more I can do

We've only been in the community for a short time, but as we start to really settle here, it will be important for me to not just get into a routine of teaching classes, but to constantly be talking to youth and other members of the community about issues that are meaningful to them, things they want to learn, and activities that they want to do, and making sure that I am always looking for ways to address all of these. 

6. Maintain communication with everyone back home!

Whether that means letters, emails, phone calls, Skype conversations, Facebook, smoke signals, whatever... just making sure that I am still a part of everyone's lives back home. And keeping up the blog of course – I plan to continue posting new entries at least once a week. And I want to try to potentially develop a communication network between my classes in Morocco and classes in a U.S. school. More to come on that soon.

That about covers it. I'll be sure to write updates on how I'm doing with the above goals. Tonight, our host family is throwing a big party for 30 of their closest friends and family, to celebrate what Moroccans call Rass L'Ԑam (“rass” meaning “head” and “l'Ԑam” meaning “of the year”) and I'm looking forward to ringing in 2012 Moroccan style!

From Justin and me, wishing everyone a wonderful year filled with new plans, adventures, experiences, and relationships. I look forward to continuing to chart our journey in the coming year!