Last One Standing

Well, Lola has left for Spain.

This past week Dr.Solis, Carmen and Fabiana arrived in order to take her home and drop Fabiana off here for her 'month on' in Morocco. I adore them, but jheez - messy roommates. The dishes that were left over this morning when they left were DISgusting - rivals college boys - I'm not even exaggerating. But they should be safely over the border by now and waiting for the ferry to take Lola and Carmen back to mainland Spain (a trip I shall be making in just under two weeks).

But overall, this means I'm the only short-term (relatively speaking) volunteer left here for now. The apartment is left just to me (woo, less people to clean up after), which means more peace and quiet, but night time is going to be less enjoyable - again, I don't like being in an apartment on my own at night, heh.

But, as minorly referenced before, I shall be leaving in just under two weeks for Spain (the 9th), and will stay in Malaga for two nights before flying up to Denmark. I only have two official 'shifts' at the orphanage between now and then, but will have multiple part-day shifts to entertain the kiddies, which will be fun. I confess, even though they're terrorists, I've gotten attached to one of the toddlers - as in, I'd bring her with me if I could. Yes, be glad I can't! The babes are all doing well, spoiled rotten and full of energy as ever. Because it's been so hot, we've been having to keep them cooler with more baths and water, but so far so good.

We've all done various amounts of cooking for each other during my stay, and Myrna has promised to give me some of her recipes to take home, which will be exciting! I made a non-soy sauce variation of fried rice the other day, and apparently it was a hit, as I got home from work and it was all gone, hehe. I had plenty though, and have plenty of other stuff to make, so I'm not particularly worried.

As far as my Denmark plans go, they've been shifting around a fair deal, but I believe that we're close to having the first part of my stay finalized, which will be a relief (because I like to have a solid plan). What we'll be doing is having me fly into Copenhagen and hop onto a train to Odense to stay with one of my aunts for a week, get settled, see cousins, buy warmer clothes (having Danes describe the current weather as 'chilly' scares me to death), and overall just take a bit of a breather from Morocco. At the end of that week, I'll be driven back to Copenhagen by my aunt and uncle, and will start Danish classes in the city two days after that. It's basically a two-day-a-week, 2.5 hour-a-class sort of thing that is a good intensive language program, which will hopefully let me learn a good deal of Danish before coming home. Basically, short summer program at GT, without summer or GT.

Really though, not much has happened in 11 days, and not much will probably happen before leaving, aside from packing, unpacking, REpacking, and generally being neurotic about my suitcase... but that's perfectly normal for me! Thanks for passing that down genetically Mum - real helpful!

And after my just-under-two-weeks in Morocco, I'll be driven to the border, cross it on foot, and then be picked up on the other side (all of this legally, btw), hop a ferry, then hop a taxi and then a bus back to my two-day layover in Spain. Alllllll in a day's travel!

Sometimes my life is far too interesting...

Listening to the Rain fall and Thunder roll / A Month of Giving and Peace

Well, today is the first rainy rainy day we've had since I've been in Chefchaouen, and I'm enjoying it - it got sunny and horrifically humid while I was walking up the mountain (yes, comparable to GA), but it wasn't raining, which was really a blessing. The rain has brought nice cold winds with it, with mixed sunshine and deep black clouds, which are gorgeous and I'm very much enjoying during a quiet day.

This week is the week of prayer for GT (24/7 people praying, usually 15 minute intervals each during some scheduled time of day), so I asked Myrna if it was ok for me to have just night shifts this week, and being the wonderful person she is, she let me. That means that, between 6am and 8am, instead of getting ready for work, I'm using some of my extra sleep time at the hospital to do my 4 intervals, which is nice. Four nights of work this week (since the new volunteer didn't show, we're covering her shifts), but I enjoy it, so that's fine with me.

Also, Ramadan started about a week ago, so that's brought about a lot of changes here. First of all, for those of you who aren't familiar with the holiday, Ramadan's main rule, as far as I can tell, is no eating nor drinking during daylight hours (or when the sun is over the horizon). So from about 7am to 7:30pm, none of the citizens are eating. Cafes and stores are usually closed, the town bakery hasn't opened it's doors (as far as we can tell) since the beginning of the holiday, and this trend continues for a month. Now, though we're not fasting, we're also not eating in public during daylight hours - it's rude and would probably get people ticked at us, so it's a little inconvenient, but good for self-control I guess. ^_^ Unfortunately, people tend to be more grumpy during this time, and I'm having to leave realllly early for work in the evenings, because taxis aren't running (before the sun rises and right at sunset is a huge QUICK GO HOME AND EAT time, so EVERYONE is home - not even taxis are out). BUT, along with the cons come the pros... well, kind of - the month of Ramadan has a lot of traditions, most of which concern food, and oh good lord - the pastries - there are SO many for SO cheap and SO delicious... there goes my waistline... worth it.

I picked up my two souvenirs while in old town with the girls yesterday - a lovely scarf and a satchel bag - if and when you see them, you're going to tell me that I could have found similar things anywhere, but A) I like them a lot, B) They were cheaper here than most other places, C) Even though they're not specifically Moroccan, they're still from here, and I'll enjoy that, and D) the typically Moroccan stuff - I don't have room nor desire for any of it, so I'm not bothering, hehe. But all in all, I love them and am very happy ^_^ The bag will be a bigger purse (for flying - score one on not getting another suitcase at least until Denmark) and the scarf will be very very appreciated in Denmark, I'm sure!

Now it's been a busy couple of weeks - last weekend, Marjorie left for home (she was only here for about a week, as work wouldn't let her off for longer), so that cut us down to three girls in the apartment. Sadly, Christina also came to the end of her more extended tenure here this morning while I was at work - she and Enrique headed off to get her to Tangier for her flight back home, so I won't be able to see her again before leaving Spain myself - she is a lovely woman, and I'm very pleased to have been able to have the chance to get to know her.

And with those two gone it just leaves me and Lola - we're both laptop junkies, but I'm still significantly less interactive than her (lack of hispanic blood, I think), so I'm going to try and work on that to make her more comfy and less lonely. We get along very well and have lots of interest in going to old town (of course, I prefer walking, but I'll deal with taxis) so we're going to have fun rambling around I'm sure. She's here for two more weeks, until she heads home for exams, so that'll leave me alone for my last bit of stay here - but I'll love those two weeks I have!

Having been here for two months now, I find I'm settling in fairly well - I'm used to being the strange person on the street, the obvious foreigner in the group, and the quiet person in the conversation. I can't pretend I won't enjoy getting home (or at least back into an environment where I won't stick out so much), but I think this last month will be easier. That and my parents are excellent about keeping up with me on Skype, so I'm incredibly grateful for that!

POST SCRIPT: Also, something I'd just like to point out - for the eating times here, at the end of the day, a giant siren goes off basically saying 'You can eat now' - loud, somewhat unsettling if you weren't expecting it. Not only in the evening, but to wake people up for their breakfast, the same, incredibly loud (because it has to reach the whole valley) siren goes of at 4 am... heart attacks come daily now. That or I think I'm waking up in the middle of an air raid during the Blitz... *sigh*

Moments in time, too fleeting to capture each one...

Alrighty, well, it's been a fair while since I updated, so here goes.

Work continues well, Christina and I continue to get along well.

We have our two other volunteers that will be here for some time - the first one, Lolah, is sweet and wonderful. She's from Malaga, where I arrived, so not too far away. Sort of a punk girl, short hair, lots of piercings, but very sweet - loves music and photography and is studying the Spanish language (and local Malaga dialect) to teach to foreign kids and wants to work with children with disabilities - very nice - we get along very well.

She was brought on Saturday (while I was at work) by Silvia and her husband and daughter, who stayed for a day or two and cooked up a storm (chicken and chorizo and sausage and potato salad..mmmm), and were overall very good company. Fabiana returned to Ceuta with them for some time there (she switches between here and there, to kind of keep herself sane, which sounds like a good practice to me, heh).

And on Tuesday Enrique (who picked me up at the airport and saved my life when doing the train/bus transfer) brought the new girl called Marjorie from Colombia - and yes, she's full Latina. Don't let the name fool you. She seems nice, though very latina in the fact that she's direct and to the point. Kinda meh with me, but that's ok. My only issue so far has been with the hour-long bathroom needs for showers - my poor toothbrush... held hostage...

In other news, haven't really slept well recently - but after three days of not doing more than a light doze for 20 minutes at a time and no naps, who'da thunk, I slept well last night, which was a relief. Still up at 7 every morning for my stretches and devotional, but I enjoy it. Definitely going to work that into my schedule when I get home - love it THAT much.

Funny moment of the week: Yesterday when we were walking through old town, which has a fair number of tourists this time of year, we were passing a group of tourists that was mostly comprised of boys, but had two girls among them wearing fairly short shorts and tank tops (absolutely normal summer wear in the USA) - I was *Scandalized* - I couldn't help but stare for a moment, I blushed, and my mouth even fell open a bit. My roommates almost collapsed they were laughing so hard - apparently, I've been here too long. ^_^

Work again tonight, probably with some writing, then work on Saturday... yay!