Ill be going to Rabat this weekend for the memorial of Sou-Youn Kim. But I wanted to put my first email with WWS here on the site.

Sorry, I am at a Cyber cafe and the message sent immediately without my being able to type anything.

Hello! I live in the Sahara desert in Morocco, in the Zagora region. It is my first week here as a Peace Corps volunteer after 9 weeks of training in the North of Morocco, which is very European and green. In contrast, my town is almost exactly the opposite. Beyond the door there are sand dunes, mountains, dried river ouds and the oases of the Draa river that host different towns. My town is Kob (not the real name) and it is on one of these oases.

Im 24 years old, I come from Tennessee and I studied at the University of Memphis. This is my second time to serve in Peace Corps, because I was a volunteer for all of 2008 in Peace Corps Bolivia, but we were evacuated after being in country for 8 months. I went home for a year to be with my family, helping to watch over my 1 year old niece and my grandmother who is bed bound after having a stroke 4 years ago.

It was hard to leave Bolivia, but Im glad to have the opportunity to come to serve in Morocco. I see you are from Louisville. My good friend from Peace Corps Bolivia came from there, AndrewPorter. After evacation, he went on to serve in PC Paraguay and is nearly finished there.

I do not know anything of what ages you teach, or what school subjects you do. At college I studied Spanish, French and Portuguese, with a minor in Music. Since leaving there, Ive lived in countries for different periods of time that speak all of those languages. But as a PCV it is possible to become much closer to the people in those places because they do such a good job preparing their volunteers to integrate into the community. And working in a place for 2 years, you have the opportunity to really feel at home and to make an impact. Hopefully I can find something sustainable, since as a Youth Development volunteer I can directly share life skills that will remain in Kob long after Im gone.

I look forward to starting a dialogue with your classroom. I have the advantage of going through this process for the 2nd time as a PC volunteer, so I will be able to reflect not just on the differences between here and there but also to share what I have experienced while in countries like Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia. The first time in PC Bolivia I was an agriculture volunteer, working with a beekeeping association and a school garden program at an exchange school in Candelaria, Bolivia; I lived at 10,000 feet above sea level. Now Im adjusting to my new community and Im looking forward to competing in the 2011 Marathon Des Sables, a race near here which I completed in 2005. It was my first trip abroad then, and it was a 155 mile ultramarathon race through the Sahara desert. Maybe as I prepare for this race again, it can serve as a springboard to talk with your class about the best ways to set goals, how to make long term plans and how to properly evaluate what is success and what is not in more positive terms.

Some day we can maybe set up a Skype call, or something along these lines? I will try to put a Postcard in the mail by the end of the week, I think PC sent me your mailing address already.


Tala frask - ¨Take care of your head¨. Bslama, bye bye.
Ben Pennington