3/4/09 Happy Anniversary!

Today marks one full year that I've been in Morocco. My plane landed a confusing number of hours (thanks to the five-hour time difference) after leaving JFK. We took off in the evening and landed in the morning, so 3/3/08 was the last day I lived in America, and 3/4/08 was the first day I lived in Morocco. :D

The new batch of Environment and Health Trainees arrived a few minutes ago, ready to begin this adventure...

This seems like a good time to take stock.

In the past year, I have...

• Made dozens of new friends
• Joined two new families - three, if you count my Peace Corps family
• Learned how to peel an apple in one long curl
• Helped plant 250 trees (and am planning to plant 550 more)
  
• Become proficient at feeding myself from scratch - life without a microwave!
• Helped create EE clubs at multiple schools
  
• Mastered the butane gas heaters, stove, and oven
• Learned conversational Tamazight
  
• Mastered the squat toilet
• Carried on long, complicated, technical conversations in French
  
• Survived indoor temperatures below freezing
• Drank tea with hundreds (literally, well over 500) women
  
• Weathered meter-plus snowfalls
• Helped paint & coordinate three huge murals in Berberville, and hundreds of small ones in SouqTown
• Baked dozens and dozens of chocolate chip cookies
• Traversed Morocco from Marrakesh (SW) to Oujda (NE)
• Bought produce, train tickets, souvenirs, hardware, kitchenware...without using English
• ...and lots more, but this list is long enough.

It's been an amazing year, and I'm so grateful for it. Thanks, too, to you, dear readers, for sharing the journey with me. :D