Summertime in Morocco is a strange and interesting thing I’m
finding. My site is holding steady right around 110 degree’s (although it
topped out at 132 last summer), the modira of my Sports Center laughed at me
when I said I was going to have class, and it’s inadvisable to be outside
between around 12:30 and 6:00pm, not only because of the heat, but because
simply nobody is outside, so you’re a little alone and vulnerable, however, as
soon as the sun goes down, it seems the entire 80,000-strong population of my
town is outside and alive. It’s an opportunity to finally rest after being “on”
non-stop for the past 6 months, but it’s also an opportunity to really lose
your mind if you let it all get to you.
This morning I left my house around 11am, paid my rent, came
back to my apartment, stripped down to the coolest clothes possible (aka, very
few clothes), and turned on a movie to watch. I ended up dozing off and on for
most of the afternoon. I knew I needed to go see my host family today, but, as
I mentioned earlier, it’s pointless to try and do anything before about 6pm, so
I had time. At one point in the afternoon I woke up from my stupor, suddenly
feeling like I wasn't doing something I was supposed to be doing, thought about
it awhile, realized I had nothing to do, and went back to sleep. This is
summertime in Morocco. If you can sleep away the heat, it’s the best choice, if
not, option B is to just sit in the kitchen and sweat. Classes shut down,
people hide in their houses all day during the heat, and emerge only at dusk,
essentially becoming nocturnal. And this is all only going to be emphasized
when Ramadan starts in about a week, meaning it’s both really hot, and you
cannot eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset.
Now add all of this on top of the stress and emotional
instability that defines Peace Corps living. It can break people. Easily. The
group of volunteers that came into Morocco the year before me arrived at their
site’s right as summer set in, meaning zero work the first 3 months in site, a
time when you’re energized and ready to start building community relations and
work everywhere. In a case like that, summer really did break them. They lost a
decent sized handful of people to the fate of ET’s (Early Termination’s) over
the course of the summer, and I often wonder if my staj will suffer the same
fate (we are nearly six months in country and ET free thus far!). Already I can
see the effects of the summertime lack of activity/Peace Corps madness setting
in some days. It is often very difficult to talk myself into putting pants on
in order to leave my house, since my calves already sweat without the help of
pants warm embrace. I spend most of my nights talking to the gecko’s I find in
my house or cussing out the cockroaches while I chase them down and murder them
cruelly. And yesterday, I mopped my floors with vinegar and I swear my house
smelt like Cinebon for the rest of the day, no joke.
Public service announcement to all future Peace Corps
Volunteers: The staff will tell you it is required for you to be flexible in
order to be a good volunteer, and will say it until you just want to tie your
ears shut, but here is what you really need: resiliency. It’s similar to
flexibility, but it goes one step further. It means that when you plan on
showing up to your center for class, not because you expect kids to come, but
because it’s an excuse to leave your house, and your modira laughs at the idea,
you keep coming anyways. It means that on those days when your language sucks,
your students are being jackass’s, your host family is fighting, and you burn
dinner, you recognize that it’s perfectly fine to sit on your kitchen floor
crying. Because sometimes you need to. But the next day, you’ll still wake up,
put some pants on, and head back to the center to teach again, then stop back
by your local hanut and try out your Darija skills once more. And maybe that
day, everything will just fall into place. But no matter what, you keep moving forward.
Brush those shoulders off, laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation around
you, and find ways to entertain yourself at the end of a long day.
So, what do you do to survive? Or, as Peace Corps loves to
say, “Try not just to survive this summer, but to thrive!” (This statement came
in an email telling us the 2nd in command here was going back to the
States for the summer to escape the heat… Half ironic statement, half a slap in
the face, let me see you thrive). But
anyways… Back to the point. Peace Corps pushes you…hard. This is the first time
I've ever lived alone, and it’s in a foreign land, with another language, for 2
years. I think half of my insanity simply comes from not having a roommate for the
first time. I miss human interaction… in English. But you have good days, and
you have bad days, and you have to make it through all of them.
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| April 21-April 25 |
Every volunteer has different coping methods, and everyone
needs more than one, so you always have a backup. I always love hearing about
what different people do in order to make it through service. Some have great
ideas that I steal for myself, some have ideas that work great for them, but
make me fairly depressed just at hearing them, but no matter what, everyone
needs something. My own personal things I like to do is use Peace Corps to
refine or pick up random skills I wouldn't find time for otherwise. I've gotten
really good at hackysack since I came to Peace Corps, I've worked on my
juggling skills, and I've read more books since I've been in country than I
have in the 4 years before I joined Peace Corps. My personal favorite though, I
stole from my best friend here in country. Every night before I go to bed I
write down 3 happy things about the day I just had. Big or small, it can be
anything from “I hit 50% in wins on Freecell” (April, 10), to “I haven’t ET-ed
yet” (April 13, clearly not a great day), to “I had a great conversation in
Darija and learned the name of my bakery guy, Mustafa!” (June 18). By doing
this, it forces me to think back on each day and try and find something
positive, and on a bad day, it’s really entertaining to look back at what made
my day each day.
But what works for me wouldn't necessarily work for everyone
else. One of my good friends here in country is a numbers guy. He calculates everything
out. During CBT (Community Based Training), he could tell us exactly how many
days we’d been in country, what percentage of time of service we still had to
go, and how many months were left in service. Each day he sits down and
calculates the percentage of service we have completed, and, on a scale from 1
to 10, he gives each day a number in terms of happiness and likelihood of
staying to complete his full service. He then graphs all of these numbers out
to see how his emotions have fluctuated over the course of time in Morocco. For
him, this helps him to remain stable and keep a tangible grasp on time while he’s
in the Peace Corps. For me, I looked at those numbers and knew it would never
work for me to do the same. Giving myself a percentage each day of how likely
it is that I’m going to ET and go home early would freak me out. But it’s
perfect for him. And what matters most is finding ways to cope that work for
each individual.
When it all comes down to it, if you don’t have a way to
keep yourself occupied and entertained when you’re alone in site during the hot
summer when nothing is going on, you’re gonna lose it. More than you already will
in Peace Corps. Sometimes its things you did back in the States that you can
keep doing here to keep you sane, and sometimes, you have to get a little
creative, and a lot a bit bored, and find new strategies. But I think when I’m
done with this adventure, my favorite things I’ll bring away with me will be
the random skills I picked up out of solely boredom. But we’ll have to wait and
see. Until then, here’s to surviving the heat, and coming out stronger and a
little bit more… unique.
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