Email turned Blog post

30/3/2010

Email turned blog post:

Apparently Morocco is one of the most desired programs and I can tell why. We are well funded and strongly supported by the Moroccan government. There are about 250 volunteers in Morocco split between four categories: Youth Development, Small Business Development, Rural Community Health, and Environment. My training stage totals about 70 people and is split between Health and Environment. The big news this month has been a raise of $50 per month to our resettlement pay, which is given upon completion of service. Our total resettlement pay comes to $7,150 (26 months at $275/month). Of course, the lack of information provided by Peace Corps before training about schedules, placement, expectations, etc continues through training. We work off of an irregular pay system for walk around money and food right now (annoying the CMCer inside of me), and still don’t find out about our final placements until April 15th. And while I complain about the pay system, I definitely feel like I have plenty of money for eating out when I’m back at the Hub site from my home stay.

I am definitely one of the lucky ones who get to learn Darija/Moroccan Arabic. Out of 38 people in my Health stage only seven of us are learning Arabic. The rest are learning one of two Berber dialects. Also, as a health volunteer I feel as though my job is more set up for me than volunteers in other sectors. At my site I will be paired with a local health clinic, or ‘sbitar’. When I start at my site I will have work hours at the sbitar, most likely 9-5 Mon-Fri. I have weekends off and after the first three months in site can use those weekends to travel within Morocco without taking vacation days, which accrue at 2 days per month. During this time I’ll also be working on getting my bearings in the community, establishing myself, and either doing research on what the community needs or continuing a project started by a previous volunteer. There is about a 50% chance I’ll be at a new site verses replacing an existing volunteer.

As for those travel days, my CBT has already made a pact to celebrate Halloween in the far south site of Tata with whichever of us ends up getting placed there. Then in January, discussion has begun on trekking to Timbuktu for an annual West African music festival in the desert. It’s going to be a great two years.

Tags: Peace Corps info