Quechua and Arabic.... not so dissimilar!

1)  So far it seems the way you show possession is that you take your noun, 'ism, and you add suffixes, just like in Quechua.  Even some of the endings so far seem like Quechua endings.  

'Ismi -my name

'Ismiki - your name

Sutiy - my name

Sutiyki - your name

So this is interesting!

2) Implied verbs.  This seems more common in Arabic than in Quechua.  But in Quechua we'd ask -Ima sutiki?  - and that means, what your name?   Similarly in Arabic, you do that without ever using a verb. So it's also - what your name?- and not -what is your name?-.

More to come!  The closer arabic is to a language I already now, the better.

This is an old memory of an old place that meant a lot to me:

I say it because it's a person that went to Morocco more than once, and really did a good job finding themself. The person last I  heard worked as a life coach rather than continuing in the business that they didn't love.

The story is that the man went to the MdS the first day and dropped out rather than finishing the second day out of seven.  But I was there when he came across the finish line of the second, which was the hardest of all, and included a steep one kilometer mountain up and back down after crossing twenty miles earlier in the day.  It was literally a perfectly flat route that led up to this mountain, and for four hours it grew before me, just getting larger and never seeming to come closer.  So I sat at the finish line, half-dead myself, and anxious that this man can cross that mental block of finishing the second day, doing more than he did last time.  If he could finish this one tough day, then he'd have no trouble in the rest of the day.  And over the Moroccan desert the sun went down, and they brought out a giant green laser they shined up the other side of the mountain so that people could find their way back once they made it up there (in case they got stuck and couldn't find camp). 

But soon he came across.  And I never was more proud.  But this message below comes from the MdS blog (the marathon des sables is the race being discussed here, that I did in 05 and is a 150 mile ultramarathon in the desert lasting a week, self-sufficient with everything you need on your back except the provided water).  And it says a lot about the thing that shaped my life so profoundly and ultimately I will return to, when I leave for Morocco.  But, as can be expected, the race was mainly about the effects on my life of the people I met there. And Gerry was one of them.  We earlier sang blues songs, and a Gershwin tune at the hotel while waiting for the day when we'd leave the hotel in Ourzazate and head out into the desert.  

It was a shock to us when that same song--the ethereal Summertime--was sung in a special concert for the 20th... in the middle of the desert. They flew a professional opera singer and a string quintet to the desert for us one night in the middle of the race, and forty of the athletes gathered around them as they serenaded us.  Then for the encore she sang the song again.  WQ

this is his site:

http://uklifestyles.com/life_subpage.php?fid=26

Nervous Sheep & Bagpipes :-) 

Hi there,

My name is Gerry D. and I am really looking forward to the pain again.

I am originally from Scotland where the sheep get nervous and the bagpipes howl loud,
scary tunes, but that's just to annoy the English!

Now, running a business between CA and VA.

I went on the MDS as a "bringing in the millennium" gift to myself in 2000.

Wow, what a stupid idea, but I met some really fantastic people whom I am still good friends with today so it wasn't all bad.

If you haven't done this, or something like it before, you are in for a real treat. The place is just amazing. The desert, atmosphere, the people you meet and compete with are extra special because their all happy for you. :-) ...Honest!!

I am an Ironman Triathlete and have a solid fitness foundation anyway, but here, the running is key and started my MDS training in ernest on Monday. So should be leaner and fitter come April. Standing on the line, a mere 275lbs and feeling groovy! ( I ate a lot as a child )

I hope you all have a great time in the preparation, getting there and being part of something extraordinary.

Must dash, the sheep are a calling!

Gerry

A little bit of what to expect

About an hour ago, I checked my internet and saw this message from Facebook:

Jennifer added you as a friend on Facebook. We need to confirm that you know Jennifer in order for you to be friends on Facebook.

Jennifer says, "PC Morocco Invitee.".

So I added her, went to her FB page and saw this:

Employer:Peace Corps
Position:TEFL VOLUNTEER--REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
Time Period:June 2008 - September 2008
Description:The Russians took care of that one...

Wow! Then I wrote this on her wall:

"Hey! You are one of us: a special kind of RPCV: Refugee PCV. I got kicked out of Bolivia in September... and Kathleen Sifer was our Country director! She has great, but she had a lot of bad luck. Did you ever meet her? She was CD in Georgia not too long ago And you said you're going to Morocco. I was there once and it's the best. & do you have a friend in Bolivia now?"

Not too long thereafter, she messaged me:

Jennifer : Strange world, eh?
Ben yep!

Jennifer :There will be another Refugee pcv from georgia going to morocco too, btw
Ben: one of my friends Pat is transferring to Armenia you were evacuated there, right?

Jennifer: Yep
Ben : what did you think?

Jennifer : Armenia holds a special place in my heart. But being holed up in a hotel for a month under crummy circumstances makes it hard to be objective

Ben : even worse: some of the Georgia evacuees were finalizing paperwork to come to Bolivia the week we were kicked out

Jennifer : I know!
Ben: if they had come... it would have been a bad thing to go through 2x

Jennifer: Another Geo evacuee was about to go to Macedonia on the 9th of march
Ben : i wanted to transfer to Madagascar
and they evacuated i believe you were in georgia half a year?

Jennifer : then on the 11th they evacuated
I meant madagascar when I wrote macedonia
Ben : wow. it's bad' haha... in my mind, i thought... OH NO! Macedonia too?!?

Jennifer: No, Macedonia isn't evacuating
Ben : are you doing Youth dev?

Jennifer: yeah
Ben: i asked you about a person on your wall that wrote about Bolivia. what's the story there?

Jennifer : My friend is teaching english in peru and had to go to bolivia to renew her visa

Jennifer: So how many bolivia volunteers took new assignments?
Ben : we'll talk more again. if you dont mind, id like to put the first part of this conversation on my blog. it's descriptive of what to look forward to

Jennifer: ok
So how many bolivia volunteers took new assignments?
Ben: half
Jennifer: Cool. Well take care!

Ben: about 1/3 did immediately
then some more are reenrolling now

Jennifer : nice
Ben: the other half returned to Bolivia as soon as our two weeks in lima were done

Jennifer: Its fun to think how your group is spread across the globe, given second chances
Ben :yes what about with ya'll?. i think many are unhappy with their second assignment (the process of not fully integrating into the post), the ones that went directly to another country. i'm glad to have had some time to visit home, and to do PC again, but do it the right way, with PST and everything

Jennifer
Most transfers went to Ukraine, Albania, and Romania (and love their new assignments) ((Georgia is a tough assignment) and now others have reenrolled all over the place
Ben: wow. i love Romania. my friend is from Cluj

Jennifer: My best friend of all time is from bucharest
Ben: have you been?

Jennifer: Ive not.
Ben: i met a girl there on a train.
she knew my friend
and she went to my same school
but she started speaking, and out came
a REALLLL southern drawl
heavy as molasses
and it's because she learned English at the U Miss

Jennifer: crazy
Ben: so she learned THEIR english

----------
So I dont feel so alone now about going. And it's great to have someone with a bad, shared experience. But more than anything, this shows more of the connections to be made with people from all PC posts. She knows people that are now all over, and people from my group are now all over everywhere. That was true somewhat already when in Bolivia, but by now going to a second post in a very different place, it's a different order of experience higher of mixing and the web of interaction. It's less

(Peace Corps Bolivia) + (Peace Corps Morocco) = 2(Peace Corps)

and more

(Peace Corps Bolivia) x (Peace Corps Morocco) = (Peace Corps)²

A good video from GRIST

I like this video, and it ties into PC Morocco because there will likely be many small ecoprojects to pass the time and enlighten the children there as a Youth volunteer.

With five months before I go, I feel like I am close enough and the motivation is high to really get started on the language, the culture and everything. I looked at different things about Morocco online, especially Friends of Morocco and the FB group. It sounds like Youth Development goes to Azrou for Pre-Service Training, and I discovered that is less than 60 miles from Fez, and not too far from Tangier, the famous city where the European intellectuals went to, below Gibraltar.

I also found my important, missing first Disc of the Living Language Arabic textbook that I bought a couple of years back. And instead of keeping up with the CDs, I've put the lessons on my iPod so I can read the book simultaneously. Unlike other audio lessons, this group only repeats the words in Arabic, not wasting your time listening to someone saying everything in English.

But it's tiring to think of these grand changes. I'd rather not. But it is exciting, too, and I know it will be a meaningful thing, just like before.

I think I got kickstarted out of my complacency by Diana, who texted me telling me she had just heard I had accepted the invitation to go there. And she sounded more excited than me! Also, the past week my friend Konte was married in Angola, and so it got my brain involved again in dreaming of the two years awaiting me of living in Africa. And not only that, but things like seeing Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, and he mispronounces Ougadougou, the city in Burkina Faso that I know because of Chris, my good friend from Icla in Bolivia who went there the first thing when he finished his service (abruptly, just like all of us... I said to him when I saw him again for the first time in consolidation: "A couple of more weeks and you would have missed history!").

I can tell you for a fact, that when we were together in Sucre--the few times there was a big group of PCVs drinking beer and eating chocolate chip pancakes--and Chris pointed to Africa and described the trip he'd be taking, including the Festival au desert, in Mali, I had no idea at all that I'd soon be calling those Saharan nations my neighbor.