Language and CBT site assigned!

We've been in-country for a week as of this morning. Every time I've mentioned that to someone, they challenge it, stop and think for a bit, and then their eyes widen. It feels like we've been here for weeks, maybe months...but it really has been only seven days.

Already, the food is familiar, the greetings sound normal (s-slamu ‏3laykum!*), and we're all dropping as many Arabic phrases into conversation as humanly possible, in our efforts to learn the language.

Speaking of language... This morning we were told which of the three possible languages - Darija, aka Moroccan Arabic, Tashelheit, or Tamazight - we would spend the next 11 weeks learning. I had requested Darija, and explained why it was important to me, and then left the decision with them. Turns out I'll be learning Tamazight. I'll also be picking up a fair bit of Darija, just because the languages have borrowed extensively from each other in the centuries that the Berbers have lived in Morocco. Also, Tamazight is spoken, in various dialects, from Morocco to Syria to Mongolia, so maybe it will turn out to be more useful than I'd originally thought.

Along with the language, we learned the site where we'll be doing our Community-Based Training (CBT). Mine will be in [River Village], a tiny village that doesn't appear on any map I've found, but which is near [River Town], which does, and which is actually widely known for its festivals. The nearest Internet access to [River Village] is here in [Mountain City], so I won't be sending emails or updating my blog while I'm at CBT, which will be about 10 of every 14 days for the rest of training. On the plus side, I will have cell phone service. Once I get a local SIM card, I'll be able to receive phone calls. (Calling out is suuuuuper expensive, but receiving calls is not.)

OK, the line for internet access is growing, and some of my friends are in the line, so I'm going to go and let them enjoy the same priviledge I've been enjoying. Love to you!!

* Most of the sounds in Arabic match up directly with English sounds, but there are about six letters in Arabic that don't have English equivalents. One of these, 3ain, is pronounced like an "a" that's half-swallowed. The teachers don't usually bother to transliterate it, but just write it in its Arabic form, which looks like a backwards 3.