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!