Seated in a room with some medical volunteers, listening to them talk about their upcoming projects, the last Med projects as such for Peace Corps Morocco until another revolution in programming brings the program back. They seem really with it// there's talk of blood pressure presentations, SIDA workshops (AIDS), diabetes, dental hygiene, hand hygiene, food hygiene. And so forth. We always were jealous of each other, us programs. In one room, silent intense discussions about the more intractible developmental issues. In ours, hysterics, antics and the discussion of how to best utilize Hangman as a student retention and English warm up activity. Learning all of the words to a half dozen camp songs. The jealousy consisted of entertainment vs. legitimacy. They had the levity we never did, and we had the exuberancy. Though I feel they maybe expressed their jealousy the more, we kept our doubts to ourselves as to our function -- at worst, we pass two years as babysitters and ping-pong peddlars. At best, YD can be transcendant. Likely, we persevered because we had a ready audience and clearly delineated goals. But since when was PC ever about that? Especially with YD, you could literally do the same thing in the same place, outside of Peace Corps and make a great deal more money from it. In other words, there's a potential downfall to losing our unique position, we become banal.

There's a huge swarth of changes and a lot of upset people. How do I feel about it? Is it a good idea? What does that question mean and how can people know what a good idea is? The internal gas combustion engine seemed like a good idea over the battery powered kind. But even if it has its upsides, I recognize this is a tragedy, necessary or otherwise, and so I want to say GOOD JOB and that it's Enviro, Health and SBD that most genuinely reflected the purpose of Peace Corps: going out to the places where literally no other aid groups go. And unlike the aid groups--and unlike the now-ascendant Youth program here in PCM--they learn the strange, difficult languages that few speak. And they don't go to the cities in their land rovers but live in the same housing as their constituents.

PC HQ is focused more on numbers, so we'll be in the cities where you can have 100 students a week. Arabic with small bits of Berber to those going to those sites. In comparison, PC Bolivia put me in a town with 300 people. So its a matter of quantity vs quality. But I can relate very strongly to how it feels to know that your work is going to reach a dead-end when you finish: they canceled three training groups during my eight months there, and saw many PCVs go home disappointed that their replacements were sent elsewhere. With each one canceled, we could more clearly feel that our work would be disrupted significantly and the threat of the entire program never recovering. So, a similar spiel.

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Having a good conversation at the moment : ''I found with my Colombian girlfriend that I'd end up always speaking Spanish to her, and she'd speak back in English to me." W.T.F.? It seems backwards, until you realize... if she speaks native Spanish at me, I'll get lost after the first syllables. Likewise with her if I get down-and-funky with some English awesomeness.
But this girl next to me, learned the same thing through PC life : she found she'd speak Tamazight to her community, and when they could they'd talk back in English. More complex to understand is how these French speakers from all parts of the world, and they'd speak French to her, for her to speak English to the others. Rather than speaking French directly to the others. Haha, not sure but that's what they preferred!

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So, I've couch-surfed. Something I had not heard of, however, is Monastary Stays. So that might be a thing to keep in mind next time I'm in monastary-type territory // Ireland, fall 2011...? //

Hello from Tangier

Salam walaykum kulshi

Doing fine. Realized just now I've seen nearly all of the corners of this country Morocco in the past couple of weeks--// Agadir to Tangier to Zagora and elsewhere. Pretty astonishing breadth and range, from a Casa night club to the most rural places, and now here within sight of Spain.

A friend from spring camp, Aaron Z, said one of the pitfalls of our model for Peace Corps is that people are headquartered in their site and the nearly endless hours there start to become their conception of the entirety of Morocco--you might say, misinterpreting quantity of time with expertise about what is Moroccan. If you're in your Berber hut washing your clothes day in and day out, you start thinking that is the complete picture, and you're maybe feeling down a lot of the time and so don't have a generous opinion about this place. But if, two days later, you're out dancing at 2 AM surrounded by mainly Moroccans, you have to adjust your perspective about the country. Most of us don't get that, or if we do then it's in our regional city that has the same whiff as the town you came from. I see I've had the fortune of being in enough places all over this country in order to fragment the sovereignty of Nkob as my basis of comparison. That Morocco is still able to surprise is a happy thing for me, even a necessary one. In doing so, it demonstrates its vitality, the same symptom you might have in a healthy marriage.

Here the surprises are the families and women out till midnight, laughing with friends. If not for the veils, you'd see the same with old teens or college students. And much more. OK, more to come. Hoping to get back into the swing of things with my blog. to do that, I'm hoping to review, reflect and come out with some posts of higher literary value than the dubious ones where it's just music videos that I'd been into while here.

This is nice, from CNN.com:

Ten must-read blogs from the Middle East (CNN) -- Political unrest across the Middle East has increased appetite in the wider world for comment from within the region, and some are turning to bloggers for insider views on the events unfolding on their television screens. Social media -- including blogging, Twitter and Facebook -- has played an often-crucial role in organizing the protests sweeping the region. But it's not all politics, and blogs about the ups and downs of daily life can offer a fascinating glimpse of real life in the Middle East. Here, we have drawn up an entirely unscientific list of 10 of the most interesting blogs from the region. The bloggers come from a variety of backgrounds and countries. Our only criteria were that they are based in the region, write mostly in English and have something worth saying. Politics in Egypt and the wider Arab world Arabist is popular for its insightful comment on Egyptian politics. Often thought provoking, it's a good place to monitor developments in post-revolution Egypt. The principal blogger on this site is Issandr El Amrani, a freelance journalist and commentator for several international publications. El Amrani was born in Morocco, and has lived in Cairo, Egypt, since 2000. The Saudi woman who got tired of reading "expert" opinion on her country Riyadh-based mother of three and post-graduate student Eman Al Nafjan, 32, set up her blog Saudiwoman as a response to reading non-Arabs and non-Saudis giving expert opinions on life and culture in the kingdom. She said: "I felt that I would rather represent myself instead of having others speak for me. There was no long-term plan but eventually I became addicted to it. To me it's an outlet and a way to voice my concerns about everything, including Islamophobia, human rights violations and women's movement in Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict." Saudiwoman was a finalist for Best Asian Blog in the 2011 Bloggies. Bahrain's "Blogfather" Mahmood Nasser Al-Yousif, the author of Mahmood's Den, is a long-time blogger who has been described as the region's "Blogfather." Al-Yousif was recently arrested and briefly detained by the Bahraini authorities. He describes his blog as "an Arab man's attempt at bridging the cultural gap. Trying to make a difference. Failing a lot. Succeeding once in a while." Young Yemeni woman reporting on protests Afrah Nasser is a 25-year-old journalist at the Yemen Observer. Nasser has been blogging for just over a year, featuring politics, news and views. Her recent posts have been about the protests in Yemen and include updates from Sanaa's Change Square, a focal point for protest in the capital. She said: "I love to blog about political topics especially since the revo started. It's my gateway to express my views freely. However, that caused me trouble sometimes." Nasser said she recently received a threatening message on her Facebook account. Her response? She just translated it from Arabic to English and posted it on her blog. "Rantings" from Egypt The Rantings of a Sandmonkey was an anonymous blog until its author Mahmoud Salem went public, saying he had been attacked close to Cairo's Tahrir Square during pro-democracy demonstrations in February this year. Salem said his car was destroyed and he was beaten up by pro-government thugs in the days before the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Sandmonkey has just won the best English language blog -- a people's choice award -- in The Bobs, Deutsche Welle's Blog Awards. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said in its citation: "The activist blogger's witty and courageous writing has called for freedom and democracy in Egypt long before this year's uprising." Flower of Jordan Naseem Tarawnah, a 24-year-old Masters student, writes the blog BlackIris, named after the national flower of Jordan. Tarawnah, who lives in Amman, wrote on his blog: "From cultural journeys to poetic ramblings, this blog was created, amongst many things, to address Jordanian issues ranging from the political to the social and to chronicle the extraordinary voyage of metamorphosis that this nation has embarked upon." Tarawnah is also co-founder of 7iber, an online citizen media platform in Arabic. Black Iris has won two Brass Crescent Awards for Best Middle Eastern Blog. Poetry and politics from Gaza LivefromGaza: 360 square km of chaos is the work of Lina Al Sharif, a 22-year-old English Literature student at the Islamic University in Gaza. Lina, who started LivefromGaza in 2007, said: "The purpose of my blog is to reflect on the life in Gaza, in general, and on my life particularly. "My blog's biggest achievement has been in giving a chance to the people of Gaza to narrate the situation as experienced by them. "I believe my blog helps me to share and to educate people, not just on the hardships, but also the good times." Definitely not silly, but she is Bahraini and worth reading Amira Al Hussaini is regional editor for North Africa and the Middle East on Global Voices, an international community of bloggers. She has her own blog, called SillyBahrainiGirl, but is more active on Twitter. She says in her blog: "A Bahraini girl is never silly but there are some factions out there who insist that we are not given our place in the society." Want a break from politics? Try 248am for a slice of Kuwaiti life Mark Makhoul, 32, a creative director at an advertising agency, began his current blog, 248am, in 2005. Mark's wife Nataly Tawil, a designer, makes occasional contributions to the blog. The pair are both Lebanese and live in Kuwait. While it may not offer the political insight of some of the other blogs on the list, it does present a slice of life in Kuwait, covering art, technology and more, with lots of reader contributions. And it's not entirely without controversy ... Makhoul is apparently being sued by a Japanese restaurant chain over a negative review. For something completely different ... Cartoonist Maya Zankoul, 24, has gained international attention for her blog, Maya's Amalgam, consisting mainly of her illustrations. Zankoul, who grew up in Saudi Arabia and now works in Lebanon, said: "The workplace in Lebanon was not allowing me to fully express my opinion about the things I was noticing about living in Lebanon and the Lebanese society, so I decided to start my own cartoon series, telling stories from my daily life, from my point of view -- all in illustrations." Maya's Amalgam has been online since 2009 and her blog illustrations have been made into two books. Did we miss out your favorite blogs? Which blogs from the region do you think are "must reads?" Share your favorites by commenting below.

Links referenced within this article Arabist http://www.arabist.net/ Saudiwoman http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/ 2011 Bloggies http://2011.bloggi.es/ Mahmood's Den http://mahmood.tv/ Afrah Nasser http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/ The Rantings of a Sandmonkey http://www.sandmonkey.org/ attacked http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/04/police-attack-cairo-tweeter-destroy-car/ BlackIris http://www.black-iris.com/ 7iber http://www.7iber.com/ Brass Crescent Awards http://www.brasscrescent.org/ LivefromGaza: 360 square km of chaos http://livefromgaza.wordpress.com/ SillyBahrainiGirl http://sillybahrainigirl.blogspot.com/ Twitter http://twitter.com/justamira 248am http://www.248am.com/ Maya's Amalgam http://mayazankoul.com/

Find this article at: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/04/14/bloggers.middle.east/index.html?hpt=Sbin

30 day song challenge part 2


song that reminds you of a person




song that reminds you of a place



song that reminds you of an event


meeting my best friend Cristy Paez

a song you know all the words to

''i can dig the earth until past my death, just to cover you with gold and light'' - song you know all the words to. not true-- i know the syllables that are maybe like the words he says, is about all--but i take the rules more as suggestions. 30 Day Song Challenge


Miscellaneous and evocative videos

Day 5 and 6 of the 30 Day Song challenge

songs that remind you of a place, and of a person

This was on TV, haven't read all of it yet.

"We're a long way from Kansas, Toto"

Here at the top is the original articles from the Corriere della Sera, then down below the English description (and relevance)

Mamma denuncia 26enne: troppo procace per stare in topless davanti ai figli

L'episodio è avvenuto in spiaggia tra Anzio e Lavinio

LITORALE ROMANO

Mamma denuncia 26enne: troppo procace per stare in topless davanti ai figli

«Turbata la serenità dei miei ragazzi di 12 e 14 anni»
L'episodio è avvenuto in spiaggia tra Anzio e Lavinio

ROMA - Bella e piena di curve. Per qualcuno, troppe per prendere il sole in topless. Luisa D.B., una formosa ragazza romana di 26 anni, è stata denunciata per atti osceni in luogo pubblico. La giovane, che porta una quarta di reggiseno e lavora come commessa in un negozio d'abbigliamento in via del Corso, lunedì mattina stava prendendo il sole in topless su un tratto di spiaggia libera tra Lavinio e Anzio, sul litorale romano.

L'AGGRESSIONE - La ragazza, mentre stava spalmandosi la crema solare protettiva anche sul seno, ha subito l'aggressione verbale di una mamma che si trovava anche lei in spiaggia con i suoi due figli maschi di 12 e 14 anni. A raccontare l'episodio, in una nota, è l'avvocato Gianluca Arrighi, incaricato dall'avvenente commessa di assumere la sua difesa. Luisa D.B., secondo le accuse della signora, avrebbe «turbato» la serenità dei suoi figli, sorpresi dalla madre mentre osservavano con estrema attenzione l'attività della signorina intenta a spalmarsi la crema solare sul seno.

«SI RICOMPONGA!» - La signora ha invitato la ragazza a «ricomporsi» e, visto il rifiuto della giovane a rimettersi il pezzo di sopra del bikini, ha preso i suoi due figli e si è recata in commissariato dove ha denunciato Luisa D.B. per il reato di atti osceni. La ragazza è stata quindi identificata dalle forze dell'ordine e invitata ad eleggere il domicilio, ricevendo in sostanza un avviso di garanzia, relativamente al conseguente procedimento penale incardinato dinanzi alla procura di Velletri. «A fronte di una formale denuncia, l'iscrizione della mia assistita nel registro degli indagati risulta un atto dovuto. Tuttavia prendere il sole in topless sulla spiaggia non può certo essere considerata una condotta illecita né tantomeno può integrare il delitto di atti osceni spalmarsi sul seno la crema solare protettiva. Molto rumore per nulla - ha concluso il penalista - tutto si risolverà in una bolla di sapone».

Denuncio' donna in topless condannata per calunnia

È stata condannata ad un anno di reclusione per calunnia la donna che lo scorso anno denunciò Luisa D.B., giovane commessa romana, perché prendeva il sole in topless in spiaggia. La sentenza è stata emessa dal gup di Roma previo patteggiamento e con sospensione condizionale della condanna. L' imputata aveva denunciato per atti osceni la commessa, ritenendo che quest' ultima, spalmandosi la crema solare sul seno, avesse turbato i suoi figli adolescenti. Il procedimento penale nei confronti di Luisa D.B. fu archiviato e a finire sotto processo, per calunnia, è stata la denunciante. Nell' udienza tenutasi davanti al gup, la commessa, assistita dall' avvocato Gianluca Arrighi, non si è costituita parte civile, poiché è già stata risarcita in sede stragiudiziale con 25 mila euro.

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In case this is Greek to you, the basic gist is : in Italy a topless woman was sued in court after she applied suntan lotion to her body on the beach, for acting indecently in front of the other lady's children.

Italy being Italy, a great place at times, the finely tanned lady then won the original verdict, decided to countersue for 'defamation of character' and won 25,000 euros. The person telling me this had an amazed look of triumph and irony on their face. In my mind was a lot of turbulence and incredulity, with a tinge of irony, considering where I live-- the story did not end as I expected.

30 day song challenge - #1 & 2 & 3

I picked this up from Rachel Weiner, my old province-mate. So hers then mine, then hers then mine, and les explications as well.

Day 1 is "your favorite song"

Rachel: This is my favorite song right now. Calm at first, and happy in the middle - it's everything I want right now.

Ben: This is HER favorite of hers, and it's one of the more serious and musically dynamic tunes she's written. I redid a version where it builds into a Free Bird-type shred-fest but didn't get to perform it yet (with EVH-style tapping).

Day # 2 - ''least favorite song''



Ben: not much into the Zanga Zanga Qhaddafi remixes going around -- creepy dude. But talk about a great way using humor to disarm him, literally.



Rachel: Born this way by Lady Gaga (I never heard this til now but i like it plenty)

Day 3 is "a song that makes you happy"

Rachel: I'm posting this an hour early because I know I won't have great access to Facebook tomorrow. I love this song in Portuguese. Check out a snippet of the lyrics: "We are free to celebrate, we are free to release. Like children playing, children laughing, children being children..." How can that NOT make you happy?

My pick (there was a tie, and an honorable mention) : Heard this first in Riomaggiore

Then, this next is tied with the other one, or maybe a little bit ahead. First glance and i thought it was dubbed over with the real music because the sugar hill gang part sounded too much like the original...? But it starts good and only gets better.

A good one-two punch is this and then the Evolution of Dance



Not sure what the next day is supposed to be, but i'm having fun already.

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And... why not? More ''makes-for-a-happy-Ben'' -ish songs.





'' It's time now to learn Portuguese... it's time now to learn what I know, and what I don't know...''