Weeks which Elude a Title (WET)

            Actually, only one of the weeks was very wet, but it seemed as good a title as any (read: I’m running out of title ideas).

            Most of last week I spent in Rabat for the joint affair of a SIDA Committee Meeting and Thanksgiving. The meeting went all right, but obviously Thanksgiving with 200+ volunteers was the real highlight. Not too much to write about, but I’ve got one funny story. Last time I took the bus to Rabat I noticed that we pass right by the end of the tramline in Sale, the city across the river from Rabat. Since it takes almost an hour to get to the bus station from there and an expensive taxi ride into the center to finish the trek, this time I hopped off to catch the tram. As expected, it was cheaper and faster, though I confused the hell out of a bunch of commuters as the strange European who boarded the tram with a pressure cooker (filled with apple sauce for Thanksgiving). Upon exiting the tram it was only a short walk to the hotel, and I congratulated myself on how well I’ve learned Rabat. Immediately on finishing this thought I came to the wrong street corner, and had to turn and walk uphill into the sun to reach my destination. Hit me right in the hubris.

            After Rabat, I returned to Khenifra (the nearest big city to mine) where some other volunteers and I assisted a group of Moroccan students teaching about SIDA. Before going to Rabat, some other PCVs and I helped the students clear up their questions about SIDA and prepare lessons for peer education. Their lessons centered on discussions and educational games. On Saturday, the students led a fantastic World AIDS Day event, teaching over 40 local teens and adults about SIDA’s biology, transmission, and prevention. I was very impressed with their work.

            The next day, I returned to my site and ran a drawing event for young children with my mudir. We had planned the event for the International Day of Tolerance in mid-November, but a couple of hiccups (read: power outages) prevented us from running the event until this Sunday. It went well, though there was an unforeseen strangeness. In Morocco, the idea of tolerance is wrapped up with the idea of anti-terrorism. While an important message, I think this oversimplifies all the forms intolerance can take. It also let to some frighteningly graphically violent pictures from a bunch of 10 year olds; one girl’s picture reminded me of “The Bombing of Guernica” in terms of violence. On the flip side, this all has an understandable origin in the greater fear of terrorism here (it is closer to home), and the increased violence children are exposed to on T.V. (parents generally don’t censor which violent Western movies their kids watch, even from a young age).

            Nothing else to report really, classes have started back up and I’m looking forward to a full couple of weeks before I head home to visit for Christmas!