8/16/09 ...the Mouths of Babes...

Despite some logistical hiccups (and yes, I'm being kind), today's SouqTown festival accomplished several of its goals.

One of those: Present anti-smoking lessons to the people of SouqTown.

Advising folks on the perils of smoking and second-hand-smoke falls under the rubric of the Health PCVs, who make up more than half of the PCVs who share SouqTown with me.

So you'd think we'd be well prepared for this.

But there's a catch.

A surprising percentage of Health Volunteers in Peace Corps Morocco are themselves smokers.

Pretty serious smokers, in fact.

Including two of this evening's presenters.

One felt the need to brace himself with a smoke before heading out. The other ducked out of the session to grab a cig.

Both recognized their own hypocrisy enough to avoid smoking right there at the Anti-Smoking Booth, at least. Both came back to the hotel that serves as Peace Corps' SouqTown base of operations and smoked indoors.

Both underestimated our SouqTown neighbors.

Mr. Smoked-Before-The-Session tried to snag a passing kid with the question, "Hey, do you smoke?"

The kid looked at him for a second before announcing, "No, but you do."

He followed this bombshell with, "You smoke a lot." He looked over at Mr. Ducked-Out-To-Smoke, then back at my gaping buddy, adding, "So does he."

As they sat there and blinked at him, he cheerfully continued, "You really shouldn't. It's bad for you. Really, really bad for you. My lungs are still white, but yours are all black now."

He turned to go, but not before tossing off a cheerful, "You're probably going to die soon."

The two smokers-cum-Health PCVs looked at each other. Then looked away, trying their best to ignore the laughter around them...