Recently I've fielded several questions about what I do in Morocco and what my responsibilities actually are. The answer to this question is a little bit more complicated than you might think at first blush, and I will try to explain this as clearly as possible. Peace Corps has three main goals; which are to provide technical assistance, to foster an understanding of American culture abroad, and foster an understanding of the cultures we operate in back home in the States. So, in reality I have three jobs in one.
The first part of my job, technical assistance, covers one of the three projects I am working on right now. I have a grant proposal in the works to secure funding for the purchase of materials for the construction of five hundred meters of new irrigation canal in my main duwar (village). The idea is that by providing the start-up capital; the Peace Corps is providing an opportunity for many members of my community to learn and implement new skills so that next time they won't need us at all.
The other two projects that I am working on are developing presentations for cultural events put on by Moroccans. These two events have different focuses, but satisfy the same Peace Corps requirement. That would be number two, communicating American culture abroad. The larger of the two festivals is a yearly event that gives volunteers in my province the opportunity to talk about stewardship, conservation, and adventure as we give the national park we live next a little bit of good publicity. The second festival is happening for the first time this year in my souq town. We had the first planning meeting for it a few days prior to this post, and it looks like our role will be to educate the public about pollution sources, recycling, and water conservation. These may not seem terribly "cultural" on the surface, but they convey to our audience something important about the United States. It says that our culture values forethought, thriftiness, innovation, and hard work. This message is not obvious on the surface but it is part of what I plan to speak about at these events.
I am satisfying the last requirement of Peace Corps through several mediums. The first and most obvious means to that end is sitting right in front of your face. Through this blog I try, as often as I can, to send little snap shots of my life here back home to you. The other means of communication that I use is a program called Worldwise Schools. Through this program I will be sending letters and pictures back home to a class of elementary school students in the United States. I will try to give them an age appropriate version of what I try give you each week on this blog; a little taste of Morocco.
The rest of my time is spent taking care of the mundane tasks that life requires of all of us, checking the mail, buying groceries, doing the laundry, and taking a little time for myself when I can. These things eat up a lot more of my time than I am used to, but that's part of the experience. Laundry, for example, takes an aggregate total of an hour, at most, in the states. I include putting it in the wash switching it over to the dryer and folding it. In Morocco it takes at least half a day, usually longer. I wash by hand which involves soaking, scrubbing and rinsing each piece of clothing. I then hang my laundry out to dry, this takes several hours on a sunny day, on a cold or cloudy day it could take much longer. Then I fold and put away my clothes. If I start at 8 am then I am usually done by two if I break for lunch. After that I can get on with cleaning my house, walking around my village to speak to the people I need to speak with, buying dinner groceries, and/or playing with kids. The same principal holds true for every task I considered easy or mundane in the states.
So, while it may seem like I spend all my time travelling, drinking tea, taking showers, and hanging out in my souq town, I do these things as a means to an end. I travel an hour to check the mail, and three hours to my weekly market. So I spend a lot of time on a transit van having strange and interesting conversations and experiences. I drink tea before and after every business meeting or significant social interaction, to not do so would be rude, and frankly it's a social ritual I enjoy. I take actual showers once a week at most, the rest of the time I heat water on my stove in a kettle, stand in a large bucket and use soap and a big green cup to rinse, lather, and repeat. I hang out in my souq town waiting for my tutoring appointments, using the internet (see goal #3), haggling with vegetable and meat merchants, buying odds and ends, waiting for the transit back to site, and socializing with my fellow volunteers. The fact is that I do a lot of things, and spend a lot of time, that doesn't seem productive. I spend most of my time doing things that are not goal #1, and that's how it has to be, but life in the Peace Corps is a lot more complicated than just technical assistance. Life in the Peace Corps is like no other job one can possibly have. It stands alone, and that's why I'm doing it in the first place.
I posted this because I was confused when I applied, and when I first entered training and again when I arrived in site. I had it completely wrong back home. The Peace Corps was nothing like I first imagined, and it's important to me that the people who read this blog have as clear a picture as possible about what the Peace Corps actually is. I want this to be a dialogue. I welcome your questions and feedback. I want everyone who reads this silly little blog to be as much a part of this as I am. So please, if there is something here that is confusing, doesn't make sense, or provokes any reaction at all, post a response. Find your local returned Peace Corps volunteer and ask them, they're out there I promise. We, all volunteers that I've met anyway, love to talk about our experiences. We have great stories, and we want our friends, families, and communities to understand this part of our lives. Thanks for reading, and thanks for writing. The best is yet to come…
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