Ok, so we FINALLY started language today and already we've split into ability groups. There were a couple of us who came already able to read and write (maybe without knowing what it was we were reading and writing) So we didn't have to go throught the learning the alphabet process with the rest of the group. I think the few people we have who know the script are all very dedicated to learning the language and I'm excited about that.
I went out today to get some change and I was quite sure that I wouldn't have any difficulty communicating since I'm pretty proficient in French, but the lady I was talking to had little to now French at all and it was a challange. I forgot what it was like living in Germany and Hungary and not speaking the language. In addition to that our hotel has hot water showers, but not in the rooms and some of us are going ahead and using just the cold water to get used to it since we are going to have to anyway. I forgot what that was like too. I have been in the States for far to long to remember experientially what our life was like in Eastern Europe. It saddens me, but it also invigorates me. I'm pumped up about the next two years.
I'm on our lunch break right now and I just got done playing some soccer with the local kids which was a blast. They weren't running circles around me like the little kids did in Romania and Moldova, but the altitude was definitely getting to me. We are about 2000 ft. up here in this town and combining that with the fact that I am inexcusibly out of shape, it wasn't a pretty sight. Well, I don't think there was much of a sight, but it didn't sit well with me. Some of us are going running later tonight. A couple of us are thinking about starting to train for the Marakesh marathon a little less than a year from now.
I need to get back to my room to study for our afternoon classes but a quick blog administrative note...
... For a while I was thinking about password protecting my blog so that I could be a little more liberal with my stories and words, but I quickly abandoned that idea realizing that it just wasn't practical for the vast majority of people who would be reading my blog. So if you got some sort of email invitation from either Kristy or my mom then just disregard it. Everyone can access. I'm not sure what it takes to comment, but all of you should be able to do that to.
Talk to you soon.
صاموىل كنتر
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Friday, March 9, 2007
A pure heart
I am so excited to have this avenue to you. I am also looking forward to taking this journey with you even if only in text. My heart is full of respect and admiration for you. Your life is such a source of joy to all who know you. Life is a better place with you in it. Your family is very proud of you. We will continue to hold you up in prayer............Love, Aunt Sherri
Training
We have arrived at our training site in the Atlas mountains and it is absolutely breathtaking. Strangely enough it reminds me very much of the Carpathian Alps in Romania. A lot of the countryside has reminded me of Romania and it makes me somewhat nostalgic to a certain degree. The drive was very windy though and I was starting to get car sick. I really wish I had my bike though because the climb was amazing both in grade and length, not to mention the view.
We begin language training tomorrow and i cannot wait to get started.
I hope all is well with you.
We begin language training tomorrow and i cannot wait to get started.
I hope all is well with you.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Finally Here
OK, so this can't be a long post because the internet is expensive and I don't really make that much money as a volunteer...
... We finally arrived in country and made it to the capitol city. We've been in and out of more meetings since we've been here and mostly they have been more general stuff from what we got at staging in Philadelphia. Today, though we had a talk about why we came here.
We all wrote whatever various reasons we had for joining the Peace Corps down and then at the end of that the man leading the session asked if anyone wrote down that they were here for training and of course none of us stood up because that was not our interpretation of the question posed us.
His advice... the moral of the story... we are to set aside whatever idealistic tendancies brought us to morocco and whatever ideas we have about helping people because we start training tomorrow and that should be our only focus.
i have a feeling that out of my time here that the time I will have the least amount of access to communication will be the next 11 weeks of training. Bear with me because I will be intensely focused on something else.
You are all in my thoughts though, and email me when you get a chance. Whenever I get to check email it will be a welcome escape.
... We finally arrived in country and made it to the capitol city. We've been in and out of more meetings since we've been here and mostly they have been more general stuff from what we got at staging in Philadelphia. Today, though we had a talk about why we came here.
We all wrote whatever various reasons we had for joining the Peace Corps down and then at the end of that the man leading the session asked if anyone wrote down that they were here for training and of course none of us stood up because that was not our interpretation of the question posed us.
His advice... the moral of the story... we are to set aside whatever idealistic tendancies brought us to morocco and whatever ideas we have about helping people because we start training tomorrow and that should be our only focus.
i have a feeling that out of my time here that the time I will have the least amount of access to communication will be the next 11 weeks of training. Bear with me because I will be intensely focused on something else.
You are all in my thoughts though, and email me when you get a chance. Whenever I get to check email it will be a welcome escape.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Day 1
Well, my first day as a trainee is done. I'm here in Philadelphia with 62 other volunteers headed to Morocco split amongst the Health and Environmental fields. It's strange to think once again that this particular group of people is going to be with me for quite some time, and that I'm not headed home in a short while. It's a lot like the feeling I got getting to know some of the Texas 4000 people for the first time. You have it in the back of your head that you are going to form some profound relationships with these people, but for now they are just an array of trivial facts and possibly names if my memory is working really well.
I'm excited about flying out of here on Monday for Morocco, and the orientation sessions today did little to quiet that restless excitement. I had lunch and dinner with different groups of people and so far it seems that there are a good mix of personalities. It is going to be interesting seeing how everyone does when we take them out of their comfort zones... including me.
I"M READY TO FLY!!!
I'm excited about flying out of here on Monday for Morocco, and the orientation sessions today did little to quiet that restless excitement. I had lunch and dinner with different groups of people and so far it seems that there are a good mix of personalities. It is going to be interesting seeing how everyone does when we take them out of their comfort zones... including me.
I"M READY TO FLY!!!
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Finalized Library
Ok, so I know many people were curious as to what books I would finally land on. This was a long and painful process and the books I ended up with are not the books I started with. All of them hold their own reasoning and each are a microcosm of my own personality. So here it is...
The Bible
by... well, various authors?
... well, I don't really think this one needs an explanation.
Greek New Testament... a gift from Bethany Baer
by... most of the same various authors?
... I bring this so as not to completely forget my Greek, but even more so for sentimental reasons. There are some objects that just seem to make you feel at ease when you hold them and this is one of those books. It was published in 1907 and has obviously been rebound a couple of times.
"The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear"
by... very different various authors
... I assume things will get hard and the contributers to this book have all spent their lives challenging systems and holding steadfast even though it may have seemed the fight had been lost. I will have much need of their words.
"Beyond Good and Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future"
by Friedrich Nietzsche
... this book is my alter ego and keeps me balanced in a strange way so as not to become a child of "late cultures and of refracted light."
"Biography as Theology: How Life Stories can Remake Today's Theology"
by James Wm McClendon Jr.
... the McClendon is the one theology book I bring with me. I have come to greatly appreciate McClendon's theology over the last year and I thank Suzii Paynter for pointing me in his and Stanley Hauwerwas' direction. Much like Plutarch this book looks at the lives of great men, but unlike Plutarch, through the lens of theology.
"Cu Dumnezeu in Subterana"
by Richard Wurmbrand
...the Wurmbrand is also a last minute addition and is mostly there to keep me connected to Romania in some way. I was going to bring a Romanian translation of the Bible, but it was starting to look like I was going to have the Bible in four or five different languages so I switched it up.
"To a God Unknown"
by John Steinbeck
... the Steinbeck isn't my favorite of his, but my favorite is "East of Eden" and my copy is HUGE. Steinbeck is by far my favorite novelist and so I take him with me.
"The War Prayer"
by Mark Twain
... this small yet profound piece of literature was instrumental in my journey out of ROTC and Carson Newman and into the life that is now leading me to service with the Peace Corps. I don't actually have it in a bound copy. I'm just printing it out on paper, folding it up and sticking it in one of my other books. I have to have it with me though.
"The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives"
by Plutarch
"The History"
by Herodotus
... the Plutarch and Herodotus were last minute additions. I was a Classics major for a while and enjoy the stories of the city states and great men of Greece. I also translated part of Herodotus from Greek into English so it holds a little bit of sentimental value.
"Morocco since 1830: a History"
by C.R. Pennell
"Islam"
by Fazlur Rahman
"Where There is No Doctor: a Village Health Care Handbook"
by David Werner
... so the last three are reference books. One for health, and the other two were books from my "Islamic Studies" courses.
THE END
The Bible
by... well, various authors?
... well, I don't really think this one needs an explanation.
Greek New Testament... a gift from Bethany Baer
by... most of the same various authors?
... I bring this so as not to completely forget my Greek, but even more so for sentimental reasons. There are some objects that just seem to make you feel at ease when you hold them and this is one of those books. It was published in 1907 and has obviously been rebound a couple of times.
"The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear"
by... very different various authors
... I assume things will get hard and the contributers to this book have all spent their lives challenging systems and holding steadfast even though it may have seemed the fight had been lost. I will have much need of their words.
"Beyond Good and Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future"
by Friedrich Nietzsche
... this book is my alter ego and keeps me balanced in a strange way so as not to become a child of "late cultures and of refracted light."
"Biography as Theology: How Life Stories can Remake Today's Theology"
by James Wm McClendon Jr.
... the McClendon is the one theology book I bring with me. I have come to greatly appreciate McClendon's theology over the last year and I thank Suzii Paynter for pointing me in his and Stanley Hauwerwas' direction. Much like Plutarch this book looks at the lives of great men, but unlike Plutarch, through the lens of theology.
"Cu Dumnezeu in Subterana"
by Richard Wurmbrand
...the Wurmbrand is also a last minute addition and is mostly there to keep me connected to Romania in some way. I was going to bring a Romanian translation of the Bible, but it was starting to look like I was going to have the Bible in four or five different languages so I switched it up.
"To a God Unknown"
by John Steinbeck
... the Steinbeck isn't my favorite of his, but my favorite is "East of Eden" and my copy is HUGE. Steinbeck is by far my favorite novelist and so I take him with me.
"The War Prayer"
by Mark Twain
... this small yet profound piece of literature was instrumental in my journey out of ROTC and Carson Newman and into the life that is now leading me to service with the Peace Corps. I don't actually have it in a bound copy. I'm just printing it out on paper, folding it up and sticking it in one of my other books. I have to have it with me though.
"The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives"
by Plutarch
"The History"
by Herodotus
... the Plutarch and Herodotus were last minute additions. I was a Classics major for a while and enjoy the stories of the city states and great men of Greece. I also translated part of Herodotus from Greek into English so it holds a little bit of sentimental value.
"Morocco since 1830: a History"
by C.R. Pennell
"Islam"
by Fazlur Rahman
"Where There is No Doctor: a Village Health Care Handbook"
by David Werner
... so the last three are reference books. One for health, and the other two were books from my "Islamic Studies" courses.
THE END
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Mailing Address
Ok... so sadly I was informed that posting my mailing address is not the wisest of decision. If I had taken a moment to think through it I probably should have come to that conclusion too. The Peace Corps office doesn't want to be inundated with the packages that I know all of you would send me so for the training portion of my service I will keep my address to myself only to divulge it to those of you ask for it. My email address is...
wayfarer1635@gmail.com
... so shoot me an email, KEEP IN CONTACT, and if you want to mail something just let me know.
wayfarer1635@gmail.com
... so shoot me an email, KEEP IN CONTACT, and if you want to mail something just let me know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)