Moving on to CBT II

Happy couscous Friday!! It's tradition to serve couscous on Fridays. Some families have it other days, but since Friday is a day that businesses close early for the jame (mosque) and long gda (lunch), there's time for a couscous meal. Yum!

I don't know if I've shared our overall training schedule either, so here it is:
Week 1 Rabat, then move to Azrou for the set up of CBT (Community Based Training)
Week 2 Azrou
Week 3 CBT I Site-Ain Leuh, live w/host families and Mon-Sat classes in language and technical skills (tools for working w/artisans)
Week 4 CBT I
Week 5 Azrou-technical training, cross culture, CBT I debrief and CBT II training-we're at the end of this week right now
Week 6 CBT II Ain Leuh-host families, Mon-Sat classes and working on individual projects with our artisan group
Week 7 CBT II
Week 8 CBT II, end of week back to Azrou for final site assignments
Week 9 Final site visit-meet host family (live w/them for 2 mos) and target artisan group
Week 10 Azrou, final language testing, prep for final sites
Week 11 Swearing in-location not yet determined-rumored to be Fez
November 21 we leave for our final sites and are on our own

A few more factoids:
Morocco is the 2nd largest Peace Corps country w/259 volunteers
We've been poked w/needles a lot; immunizations included rabies, tetanus, hep a and b, flu, typhoid and meningitis. Fortunately I've not been adversely affected by any of them (not true for everyone).
Prolonged pronunciation of the Moroccan Arabic letters "g", "h" and "x" can lead to a sore throat
REI super absorbable towels are fabulous for packing/travel, but lousy for comfort. I've bought a big old fluffy thing-will be better for cold winter bit lma showers in my future.

You know that some people see their glass as half empty while others' glass is half full, right? Did you know that a PC volunteer can take a shower with theirs?? Ha!

Well, we leave for Ain Leuh in the morning. That means that I have a major re-packing job to do this evening, as it is getting COLD (rumor has it that the rain storm we got this week in Azrou may have left snow in Ain Leuh). I've got warmer clothes, and we'll be in Ain Leuh almost 3 weeks, so I'll take my big suitcase, but will have to shift everything around. FYI-they let us store whatever we want here at the Auberge in Azrou, so we don't have to lug everything around with us for CBT.

Well, I'll likely check in on Sunday-trying to take advantage of the internet access I have while I have it, as final site conditions are still unknown!