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...? //