End of CBT Week 1

Thus endeth my last full day in our village, and my 3rd week in the Peace Corps.

There was no special fuss made, no henna or big meal…and I don’t know if it’s because I’ll be back in a week, because I still haven’t figured out this family’s customs, because they’re far from wealthy, or some combination thereof with who knows how many other factors. But they know I’m leaving for the the big(ish) city tomorrow morning at 9, so we’ll see what happens then. I love these guys! I’ll be back soon enough…and in the meantime, I get to return to the land of hot showers and western plumbing – neither of which I miss half as much as I’d expected to. Of course, it may help that I don’t have a mirror bigger than the palm of my hand, so I don’t know how badly I need to wash my hair!

Today’s Tamazight review was pretty amazing. It was fun, yeah, because we all did a good job at coming up with games (especially Dan’s Verb Smackdown), but also because we’ve learned so much. In addition to mastering all the basic greetings, we’ve got the numbers COLD, days of the week, groceries, money conversions, body parts, past participle conjugation, directions, family relations, and a mountain of vocabulary under our belts. Yeah, there’s a nearly infinite amount left to learn, but I’m going to take a beat to be grateful for all that we’ve learned so far. Today I recognized numbers, time, and greetings from Moroccans, as well as “afla” (above) from one of our gaggle and “wllf” (become accustomed to) from a woman in the village. OK, that’s not huge, but it’s an accomplishment. Plus, last night, I explained to A**’s family (and assorted visitors) that we’d only been studying the language for a week and a half, because we’d studied Darija before that. And they understood me! Who knows how many mistakes I made, but I was able to communicate and be understood, which is the entire goal of communication, as A** keeps reminding me.

Working on the pictures and powerpoint was fun, too, as was chatting with Peace Corps staff making their rounds. Our staff is so awesome. OK, I should probably stop raving so repetitively, and spend more time whining or something, but there’s just so much to be grateful for! :)