Im uploading a video on YouTube and a few photos of my new town, if possible. Theres been a lot since my last post; I will try my best.

Its nearly 6 PM and when these finish I will go watch the football game, Real Madrid vs Barcelona. You can feel more anticipation for that than for Eid Kbir which we celebrated yesterday.

I got here 2 weeks ago, and there was a wedding the first night. It was maybe 300 or 400 people in the same space for three straight days while this happened. The only thing bigger so far was Eid, where the entire town left their homes to pray, go to the mosque, and then go home to kill and start barbecuing their sheep. I was worried about this, never seen an animal killed. And Im vegetarian. But it was a boon in disguise. Putting on the white clothes of a Muslim man, I walked to the side of the Genderame's office. Me and the other foreigner in my town, a German man building a hotel here, went to there. Then when the time came to kill the sheep, I was invited only after it had already begun. So I was able to make an appearance and I saw an animal already covered in red being ¨gibleted¨. But almost as soon as I walked into the courtyard where they did this, my host aunt invited me for tea and a creamy corn thing that tastes like hominy in a corn paste. So this day I dreaded, the biggest day of the year except the end of Ramanadan--which I witnessed, too-- turned into me sitting in my white robes watching WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. And I was happy to see the famous Meg Ryan moaning scene; but the censors took that part out just a minute after it began. But it was a glorious minute. Then they excised the first kiss between the two that happens not much longer after, at their New Year party. But I was so happy because suddenly it was Christmas in New York, snow on the ground, people talking in English. Briefly I was able to catch the Holiday spirit and to think that these Moroccan people must be feeling much the same. You cant imagine how transported I was in those moments.

The second worry was that for the next 2 weeks, these people will only eat the sheep, every meal until its gone, no vegetables. But this turned out to be a secret boon to me. Since the German man and I are both vegetarian, we get special consideration. Before the veggies were all cooked in the same pot as the big piece of meat. Not now. The meat is roasted, and the veggies prepared seperately in their own dish. Yay! so the veggies now actually taste even better and I can eat the entire dish to myself. When i happily realized this I was in a daze. § ° )

Beyond this, I went to the memorial service. After a 13 hour ride to Rabat, I found the hotel full of PCV's. It wasnt long till I discovered that they were not there for the service, but they were 2nd years doing their 72 hour checkout. The end for them would be the day before the memorial. So I met some of them, a few which still have 6 months left and came to usher off the rest. They showed me where the

Ive said before that PC is a giant revolving belt and youre lucky if you get to bump into people further along than you before they are gone for good. In this instant, it was even more lucky than I could imagine. I was able to accompany them to the American Club in Rabat and spent 3 hours or so with them, listening to their stories while they enjoyed hamburgers and beer. Now these people are spread over every continent and in many countries. I was especially interested to meet Edan (possibly Edam) , who had the same host family as me during training... two years ago exactly. This is the person I had heard so much about! My room in training still had a sign on the door: Edan's room.
Then the next day I saw David Lillie give them their last talk as PCVs during the swear-out ceremony. This is the only thing that I didnt get to do in Peru when we were evacuated. I know nearly everything else in PC that there is to have done. But thats an elusive thing to achieve, dependend on a million things going right; many of which are out of our control. A point in fact is that once in Rabat, I saw my friend headed home, in the process of Early Terminating. She was not happy about it.

So one group of people were swearing-out, another group was mourning the loss of their friend (the girl that died was Korean-American, but a good friend of hers was a Korean volunteer. I met her at the service and she told me how she is in Korea's Peace Corps, which is based exactly on the American version. Most impressively, she said how Korea is the first country to have had Peace Corps volunteers and now is sending its own volunteers out into the world... pretty awesome and major success for that country). Still a third group, just one person, was there to go back to home for good. And I also met a Moroccan girl who is an intern at PC headquarters in Rabat. So its strange the reach of what we do, how many different individuals it touches. The worst thing was the idea that the people that knew her best, that spent more time with the girl before she died--the people in her town-- could not be there at the memorial to share their stories with us.

Since I had not known the girl, I went with the intention of meeting her through the stories of the people that were there.

But that will be another post.
The game has started so I will go now. The video didnt upload, the pictures didnt upload, and it says it will take 7 hours to download the latest Radiolab podcast. but at least I wrote!
* other stuff from the trip: met people from my region, we went to see the Michael Jackson concert movie at the Royal Cinema along with a few others, had a turkey kefta thanksgiving, complete with cranberry salad, green bean casserole, stuffing, and both sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, plus sangria for the alcohol drinkers, then picked up my luggage from
I even found the Cervantes institute, which will be able to supply me with books each time I go to Rabat ... so long as I read them quickly and mail them back. Shouldnt be a problem. ; )