The "not-so-grand" taxis

Well.......one over month in and all is well.  I was able to go and visit one of the current environment volunteers who’s working in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Ifrane National Park last week.  While an incredibly beautiful place, national parks here are of name only and have grazing, logging, people living, and even large cities inside their boundaries.  The volunteer I visited was working on documenting medicinal plants in the area.  We were also able to meet with some of the other Ifrane Environment volunteers and hear about some of their projects.  I still don’t know exactly where I’ll be or working but its exciting to see some of the possibilities.

On that trip we had many opportunities to experience the “grand taxis.”  They are almost always old Mercedes from the 80’s and carry 6 passengers plus the driver.  Now keep in mind that this is a 5 passenger car.  4 people cram in the back and then there’s usually 3 people up front with the driver.  Though I’ve yet to see this personally, apparently sometimes a 7 passenger rides up front on the left side of the driver.  The advice I got from a current volunteer is to just let your body go limp and allow the other passengers bodies form around you.

CBT (community based training) continues to go well and I think I’m making some progress towards Darija mastery.  Returning for my 2nd week it was pretty cool to actually be able to engage in some type of limited conversation with my host family.  It still requires a great deal of time, patience, and exaggerated hand motions to get my point across but I can usually get the job done.  I can now accomplish a few very basic daily actions without receiving a confused, quizzical look.  One of the more entertaining conversations I’ve had yet was when my host uncle asked if when I was done with Peace Corps if I would put him in my backpack and smuggle him back to America.  He also has the idea that my father (in the US) is a very powerful man who can get him a visa.  I tried to explain that I didn’t have those kind of connections but I think i was unsuccessful.  Better start working on that visa Dad.

Well........all for now.  Miss you guys!