So it looks like I broke my blog promise. It has been about 3 weeks since my last entry, and by no means have I been updating it more frequently as I said I would. Sorry, to all my fans out there. Maybe I’ll just stop making promises.

Life has been a little slow recently, but good. Over the past few weeks I have been able attack my soon to be apartment full force with cleaning supplies, and have bought some furniture so its about time to move out of the host families place. Despite my cleaning efforts however, yesterday my Turkish toilet went insane and sewage began to come up through the drain in my shower, leaving my bathroom resembling a broken outdoor latrine. On a good note, I was able to practice my Darija with a local plumber. I hadn’t had much plumbing vocabulary practice prior to this event.

I have been able to get out on several bike rides and hikes, which have been therapeutic. The day before Christmas I hiked the Todra Gorge with a fellow PCV, and last weekend I went on a bike ride through the Dades gorge. Both of these places are close to me and beautiful. Hiking through the Mid-Atlas mountains reminds me a lot of hiking through the Rocky’s in CO, yet in CO there are no nomads, donkeys, and randoms sheep herds that you might run into while hiking. It’s interesting to hike 10 miles into what seems like the middle of nowhere and find a wardrobes’ worth of clothing laid out and drying on a rock, along with a make-shift lean-to with a donkey tied to it. To me the most fascinating thing about the nomads is that they seem to move themselves, along with everything they own everyday. There are days when I barley leave my apartment.

Today there will actually be the celebration of another Moroccan holiday called Ashura. The 10th of January is officially Islamic New Year. Magic, good, and evil is practiced on the Ashura day and on the preceding night which is said to favor witches. People gather and wear masks and costumes and speak in disguised voices the night before, which is apparently today (even though today is the 18th). On Ashura eve, “the bonfire night” fires are built throughout the town and people sing and dance around them. In addition, there are water rites attributed to this holiday, and it is said that you can freely soak someone with water on the morning of it. So from the sounds of it, it seems like a Moroccan Halloween without candy, but water, and in the coldest time of year. Today there will be a festival for this near my site, so I will have to go and see for myself, and perhaps wear my raincoat.

As for teaching, it continues to go well. I recently got a camcorder (thanks parents!), so my next big perceived activity will be making a documentary video with my students about life in Tinejdad. They are all very excited about this idea, as am I. Part of me has always secretly wanted to make documentary videos, and I can’t think of a better place to start than right here.

That’s it for today. Hopefully the next few weeks will be more eventful so I will have more interesting things to write about. Until then…