Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I'm coming to you all live from Chicago's Midway airport, having just completed about half of the first leg of my journey. In the scale of the journey to come, a short flight from Seattle to Chicago really doesn't add up to much, but I'm happy to have made it through the first take-off and landing, and to have a few moments to relax here and listen (but not watch... I cannot see the TV) to snippets from President Obama's speech last night. I have another flight from here to Providence RI tonight, a few days in Newport RI there with my family, and then another short flight from there to Philly on Sunday night to join my Peace Corps compatriots.
I sign all my paperwork on Monday to spend a few hours talking about what is in store for us with the PC staff. Tuesday morning we bus to NYC, and fly to Casablanca in the evening. Our first few days are probably going to be hectic! We're headed straight for a town at the base of the Middle Atlas Mountains. We'll be there for four days (4th-8th) then on the 9th I will head out to a smaller town in the area with a few other volunteers to begin the Community Based Training (CBT) phase of training. That means that I'll be living with a host family that will, if all goes well, be my family in Morocco on and off for the 8 weeks of training. I'll be learning either Tamazight or Tashelhiyt, the two main dialects of Berber-speaking Morocco, as well as more Moroccan Arabic (Darija) and Arabic Script. My self-directed language studies these past few months have not been going well, so I'm pretty excited about this!
As training nears it's conclusions, we will be assigned a permanent site. After the swearing in ceremony takes place, I'll be off to my new home for the next two years, first living with a host family and then finding a place on my own. I'm pretty excited about that, because I get the feeling I'm going to get sick of living out of my luggage pretty quickly!
While I am in Morocco, I will be using whatever forms of communication that I have to stay in contact with people. Internet usage will be intermittant, but I'll do my best to keep updating this blog. I'll be able to send emails, too, so feel free to contact me that way. I'm planning on purchasing a cell phone in country, too, so I'll be able to recieve calls and texts.
My very favorite way of recieving news from home is through snail mail. During training, I will be able to recieve envelopes only. No packages until I am at my site and have an address of my own. Mail is sent through the PC office in Rabat, then passed on to me.
The address is:
Molly Skinner-Day
s/c Corps de la Paix
2, Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi Agdal,
Rabat 10100
Morocco
I also want to quickly address the purpose of keeping a blog. The Peace Corps has a three-fold mission-
1. Helping people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of the US on the part of people served.
3. Helping to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Keeping a blog is just one way that I see of working towards that third goal. I hope to write mostly about my observations on Morocco, Islam, and life in a developing country, as well as a bit about my journey here. I'd like to spend some of my time with this blog writing about my culinary journey as well. Hence the earlier post about preserved lemons! Please feel free to contact me with questions or to open a discussion on any topics that interest you. I will do better at writing and staying in touch if I know people are reading and finding what I am writing about interesting!
I also wanted to thank everyone for the help that they have given me in the past few days. I was a basket case yesterday, but it could have been a lot worse had it not been for all the help I've received! As it is, I managed to get everything done and stowed, with minimal griping, and was in bed by 11pm. I was ready to pull an overnighter, but there was no need, thanks to all the help I had! I am constantly blown away by the generosity of my family and friends, and hope that someday I will be able to repay your kindnesses!
I sign all my paperwork on Monday to spend a few hours talking about what is in store for us with the PC staff. Tuesday morning we bus to NYC, and fly to Casablanca in the evening. Our first few days are probably going to be hectic! We're headed straight for a town at the base of the Middle Atlas Mountains. We'll be there for four days (4th-8th) then on the 9th I will head out to a smaller town in the area with a few other volunteers to begin the Community Based Training (CBT) phase of training. That means that I'll be living with a host family that will, if all goes well, be my family in Morocco on and off for the 8 weeks of training. I'll be learning either Tamazight or Tashelhiyt, the two main dialects of Berber-speaking Morocco, as well as more Moroccan Arabic (Darija) and Arabic Script. My self-directed language studies these past few months have not been going well, so I'm pretty excited about this!
As training nears it's conclusions, we will be assigned a permanent site. After the swearing in ceremony takes place, I'll be off to my new home for the next two years, first living with a host family and then finding a place on my own. I'm pretty excited about that, because I get the feeling I'm going to get sick of living out of my luggage pretty quickly!
While I am in Morocco, I will be using whatever forms of communication that I have to stay in contact with people. Internet usage will be intermittant, but I'll do my best to keep updating this blog. I'll be able to send emails, too, so feel free to contact me that way. I'm planning on purchasing a cell phone in country, too, so I'll be able to recieve calls and texts.
My very favorite way of recieving news from home is through snail mail. During training, I will be able to recieve envelopes only. No packages until I am at my site and have an address of my own. Mail is sent through the PC office in Rabat, then passed on to me.
The address is:
Molly Skinner-Day
s/c Corps de la Paix
2, Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi Agdal,
Rabat 10100
Morocco
I also want to quickly address the purpose of keeping a blog. The Peace Corps has a three-fold mission-
1. Helping people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of the US on the part of people served.
3. Helping to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Keeping a blog is just one way that I see of working towards that third goal. I hope to write mostly about my observations on Morocco, Islam, and life in a developing country, as well as a bit about my journey here. I'd like to spend some of my time with this blog writing about my culinary journey as well. Hence the earlier post about preserved lemons! Please feel free to contact me with questions or to open a discussion on any topics that interest you. I will do better at writing and staying in touch if I know people are reading and finding what I am writing about interesting!
I also wanted to thank everyone for the help that they have given me in the past few days. I was a basket case yesterday, but it could have been a lot worse had it not been for all the help I've received! As it is, I managed to get everything done and stowed, with minimal griping, and was in bed by 11pm. I was ready to pull an overnighter, but there was no need, thanks to all the help I had! I am constantly blown away by the generosity of my family and friends, and hope that someday I will be able to repay your kindnesses!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Lemons and Birds
Over the holidays I made Preserved Meyer Lemons for a lot of people. If you happen to have been presented with one of these jars, you're probably wondering what to do with them. Some of you got a few recipes and instructions for usage from me but most of you didn't. So I thought I'd follow through and pass along a bit more info.
If you did not receive a jar of lemons, but you are interested in making some of your own (it's so easy!) check this out: http://www.foodgal.com/2009/01/meyer-lemons-the-salty/
In Arabic, preserved lemons are حامض مرقد (hamad m'rakad). It literally translates to "sleeping lemons." Preserved lemons can be all sorts of fancy, but mine are just Meyer lemons, a bit of extra juice, and sea salt (A LOT of sea salt.) To use them, fish out a quarter, half, or whole lemon, scrape away the pulp and the white part of the rind, and use only what's left of the yellow part of the rind. Most recipes call for it to be thinly sliced in long strips. You can also use the pulp if you'd like to kick things up a notch or two, but generally it's just the rind.
Preserved lemon goes well with chicken or lamb dishes, in salads, vinagrettes... it's a strong salty/sour mix, kind of like capers. So anything that you think that would go well with.
Here are some great recipes to try out:
I made this for Christmas Eve dinner and it was a hit! Made it again with dad's family for our winter gathering and it went over well!
http://rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com/2008/05/lemony-beef-and-new-potato-tajine.html
Lamb with preserved lemon and lots of spices:
http://www.janespice.com/recipes/slow-braised-lamb-with-preserved-lemon-cumin-coriander-and-turmeric
Super excited to try this one- Moroccan style gazpacho!
http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/07/08/moroccan-gazpacho/
So that's the lemons. And what about the birds? It's just one, specifically. I just purchased Andrew Bird's new album, Noble Beast. I could probably have moved to Morocco without it in my life, but I probably would have felt like a lot was missing. Now I have it and my life is that much richer for it.
If you did not receive a jar of lemons, but you are interested in making some of your own (it's so easy!) check this out: http://www.foodgal.com/2009/01/meyer-lemons-the-salty/
In Arabic, preserved lemons are حامض مرقد (hamad m'rakad). It literally translates to "sleeping lemons." Preserved lemons can be all sorts of fancy, but mine are just Meyer lemons, a bit of extra juice, and sea salt (A LOT of sea salt.) To use them, fish out a quarter, half, or whole lemon, scrape away the pulp and the white part of the rind, and use only what's left of the yellow part of the rind. Most recipes call for it to be thinly sliced in long strips. You can also use the pulp if you'd like to kick things up a notch or two, but generally it's just the rind.
Preserved lemon goes well with chicken or lamb dishes, in salads, vinagrettes... it's a strong salty/sour mix, kind of like capers. So anything that you think that would go well with.
Here are some great recipes to try out:
I made this for Christmas Eve dinner and it was a hit! Made it again with dad's family for our winter gathering and it went over well!
http://rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com/2008/05/lemony-beef-and-new-potato-tajine.html
Lamb with preserved lemon and lots of spices:
http://www.janespice.com/recipes/slow-braised-lamb-with-preserved-lemon-cumin-coriander-and-turmeric
Super excited to try this one- Moroccan style gazpacho!
http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2008/07/08/moroccan-gazpacho/
So that's the lemons. And what about the birds? It's just one, specifically. I just purchased Andrew Bird's new album, Noble Beast. I could probably have moved to Morocco without it in my life, but I probably would have felt like a lot was missing. Now I have it and my life is that much richer for it.
But who's counting?
I've only got a few days left in Washington before I take off for my next adventure. I'm planning on spending four days with the East Coast side of the family (brother, sister-in-law, nephew, great uncle, and great aunt) before reporting for staging in Philly on the Second. It's been a bit of a whirlwind these past few weeks, but I've been enjoying myself. Up until last week I was killing myself working 10 hours nearly every day, then trying to get things done and see people.
I taught my last Family Night from Planned Parenthood last week and had a BLAST. I was grumbling to my housemate about how I wished I hadn't signed up for the class because it turned out to be a really long day for me, and she said "But you always come back from those classes really excited and you won't shut up." Oh, yeah... Nothing was different this time around. I returned home totally jazzed. I feel so blessed that I've had the opportunity to work for such a great organization, and my co-instructors were just fantastic. We had a blast and I think the kids did too. It was the first group of kids I've ever seen who seemed absolutely thrilled to talk about pubic hair and periods (I just lost my brother's attention.) For those of you who don't know, these classes are for pre-teen kids and their parents to talk about puberty and open the door for communication about the stickier topics of surrounding sex. I don't do a whole lot of imparting actual information about puberty, but we talk about communication, mental health, and development. I just love it. Who knows whether I'll get to talk about these things in Morocco? Whether I do or I don't, this experience with Planned Parenthood has been fantastic. The people are amazing, the classes are fun, and I know for certain that wherever I land and whatever I do after the Peace Corps, I will find a way to work for them again.
I also got the chance to see some good friends this past weekend. Only a few of my in-town friends came, but one of my good friends flew in from San Francisco just for the weekend, and another (who I haven't seen for three years!) surprised me by showing up about two hours before the party. A lot of the people who couldn't make it to that party are either taking me out for dinner sometime this week, or coming to the family shindig we're having in B-ham this weekend. I always love an excuse to get people together.
Now I'm just tying up some loose ends, packing things up, and adding to my tea collection!
One note: People keep asking me about my emotional state. Even though I know I should expect this, it almost always takes me off guard. Am I excited? Scared? Anxious? Ready? Yes, all those things, and no, none of those things. I'm packing up my life, moving to across the world, leaving everyone and pretty much everything I know- of course I'm nervous! I don't speak the language- Of course I'm anxious! Am I excited? I've been thinking about the Peace Corps since just after I graduated from College and been thinking about Morocco since I got my nomination 11 months ago! Of course I'm excited! Am I ready? Uh... any help you have to offer would be greatly appreciated....
Anyway...it's 9 days till Rhode Island, 2 weeks until I'm a "trainee," and just over 15 days until Morocco. Wooooopeee!!!
I taught my last Family Night from Planned Parenthood last week and had a BLAST. I was grumbling to my housemate about how I wished I hadn't signed up for the class because it turned out to be a really long day for me, and she said "But you always come back from those classes really excited and you won't shut up." Oh, yeah... Nothing was different this time around. I returned home totally jazzed. I feel so blessed that I've had the opportunity to work for such a great organization, and my co-instructors were just fantastic. We had a blast and I think the kids did too. It was the first group of kids I've ever seen who seemed absolutely thrilled to talk about pubic hair and periods (I just lost my brother's attention.) For those of you who don't know, these classes are for pre-teen kids and their parents to talk about puberty and open the door for communication about the stickier topics of surrounding sex. I don't do a whole lot of imparting actual information about puberty, but we talk about communication, mental health, and development. I just love it. Who knows whether I'll get to talk about these things in Morocco? Whether I do or I don't, this experience with Planned Parenthood has been fantastic. The people are amazing, the classes are fun, and I know for certain that wherever I land and whatever I do after the Peace Corps, I will find a way to work for them again.
I also got the chance to see some good friends this past weekend. Only a few of my in-town friends came, but one of my good friends flew in from San Francisco just for the weekend, and another (who I haven't seen for three years!) surprised me by showing up about two hours before the party. A lot of the people who couldn't make it to that party are either taking me out for dinner sometime this week, or coming to the family shindig we're having in B-ham this weekend. I always love an excuse to get people together.
Now I'm just tying up some loose ends, packing things up, and adding to my tea collection!
One note: People keep asking me about my emotional state. Even though I know I should expect this, it almost always takes me off guard. Am I excited? Scared? Anxious? Ready? Yes, all those things, and no, none of those things. I'm packing up my life, moving to across the world, leaving everyone and pretty much everything I know- of course I'm nervous! I don't speak the language- Of course I'm anxious! Am I excited? I've been thinking about the Peace Corps since just after I graduated from College and been thinking about Morocco since I got my nomination 11 months ago! Of course I'm excited! Am I ready? Uh... any help you have to offer would be greatly appreciated....
Anyway...it's 9 days till Rhode Island, 2 weeks until I'm a "trainee," and just over 15 days until Morocco. Wooooopeee!!!
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