morocco

here begins my twenty-seven month service with the peacecorps in the kingdom of Morocco. i will be a environmental volunteer in a location yet to be decided. to catch everyone up to the present, the group of 60 volunteers met in philly for a couple days in early march. then flew to casablanca (see map) and immediately drove to rabat, the capital. there we began language (darija the local dialect of arabic) and cultural sensitivity training. a couple days later the group split in half, with the environmental sector heading to the mountain town of azrou (between marrakech and fes) to begin focused orientation. in azrou i learned i would be learning a different language called tamazigt, an amazigt (the pc version of berber) tongue. after a week we broke into smaller groups (6) for community based training (CBT) where we will live in homestays in the surrounding area of azrou.



the palace mosque from the hotel in rabat located beside king mohammed VI palace



view of the old medina in rabat





rows and rows of tombstones outside the old city ramparts in rabat





















the european style town of azrou, training site for the environmental sector



huge atlas cedar, remanants of the old grown forests in the middle atlas mountains above azrou


the traditional sitting room in the auberge (hotel) notice the tiled walls and cushioned backless sofas



souk (market) in azrou, fresh vegetables in abundance


the toughest crew peacecorps ever saw!!