you've probably noticed that morocco seems to come up in my journals whenever i'm talking about presence... or lack thereof! indeed, my top choice for a peace corps assignment was morocco. and, on some level, i wasn't able to get over that. it seems like whenever i felt less than present in cameroon, i thought about this magical place i'd never even been to.
with that in mind, i thought i'd introduce someone who is actually present in morocco. my good friend madeleine (maddie and i went to grad school together, where we were both interns on a community forestry program in new haven 2 summers ago). maddie is now in morocco with the peace corps. on assignment as an environment volunteer.
there are some interesting cross-cultural connections here... i'm writing this blog about my time as a middle eastern + muslim + american in a country in sub-saharan africa. and maddie is writing articles for her hometown newspaper about being an american in a middle eastern muslim country in north africa. so... here's some of what maddie's been writing home about:
madeleine has some great insight into moroccan culture and the life of a PCV in a muslim country. as for me, i've yet to visit morocco... only in my daydreams, i suppose. but like my mother said, "morocco's been there for a long time... and it's not going anywhere. so why are you in such a rush?"
IMAGE: that's my friend madeleine in morocco! :)
ReplyDeletea friend of mine was a PCV in morocco. about a year (i think) before you did your stint in cameroon. she was in the atlas mountains and came back with - guess what - water parasites! :)
ReplyDeleteahhh, yes... water parasites. i had my share of those. but in the high atlas? how? :\
ReplyDeleteok, so my friend said she was in the mid-atlas not high atlas mountains. but she said the first PCVs to get water illness were in the high atlas. i don't know anything about this or why altitude would matter.
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