Is it Everyone's Birthday?

Hey all,So I figured I would stop slacking and get back to writing everyone. Some big news today with the announcement of the final sites where we will be living for the next couple of years. Unfortunately for you you are all going to have to wait till the end of the letter to find out about that. If you have a problem with that imagine waiting 2 months for it. If you have a problem with that then I suppose that you could just skip to the end of the letter and get your fix but a few other interesting if not exciting things have happened in the interm since my last letter which I hope you'll enjoy reading.Firstly I should probably mention that on the 16th I turned 23 years old. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes. I've gotten a couple of cards and a couple of e-mail variants. For everyone who forgot... shame on you.... no.. just kidding really it was a great birthday and I had more attention then I really wanted anyway. I spent half the birthday in my training community Timnit and half here in Ouarzazate. I should probably learn to accept birthdays just like the Moroccans do... which is just to forget that it exists. When I asked my family about thier birthdays it started a heated argument about how old they actually were and though I did manage to get across that I was a year older well... lets just say that there was no parade or fireworks. Its actually kind of refreshing.One birthday they did not forget is that of the Prophet. This year it fell on the 21st of April and was celebrated throughout the country of Morocco. The prohpet shared his birthday with Melanie, a girl in my group and the other Andy in the group down the road. They celebrate the prophets birthday on the Lunar calander, which only has 29 or 30 days a month and therefore jumps forward 11 or 12 days every standard calendar year. (for instance, next year the prophets birthday will be sometime around the 10th of april) All the religous holidays share this calander and rotate on the same basis so Ramadan for instance is at a different time of the standard year every time around. (falls in september this year). Most moroccans have family members living in the big citys sending money back home and they use these holidays which generally last a couple of days to come home and be with their families. My older host brother was one of these people. Usually he travels around to variouscities putting up cell towers for the national cellular office but ne came home for a week to celebrate the holiday with us. When he goes back my middle host brother who has been my compainion will go with him to increase the families income level. There was a pretty close to tearfull goodbye, though I think that saying goodbye to Melanie caused more tears than I did *wink*. To celebrate the prophets birthday the moroccans eat. I'm begining to suspect that this is a primary means of celebrating pretty much anything in Morocco, much to my waistline's dismay. This is even backed up language wise where the word for celebration (layd) is the same word they use for feast. We had a crazy large breakfast followed up by several snack times and visits to other people's homes(where we ate more and drank tea bizzaf (alot)), then a crazier big lunch. After lunch we went out to the fields to water, because that can't stop even for the Prophet. I got to watch the whole irrigation processfrom begining to end (usually I'm in school) which was neat. The irrigation ditches are simple but effective so long as there is water and gravity to move it around. After that we played soccer in the dry riverbed. I sucked for a number of reasons. First there were rocks and holes and sticks and hills everywhere and I couldn't help thinking continueously that the number one reason for Peace Corps medical evactuations is soccer related injuries. Second, I've been doing nothing but sitting in a classroom for hours on end during the last 2 months. Neither is very condusive to keeping up with a bunch of hardworking able bodied moroccan teenagers on thier home turf but I'm proud to announce that at least my team won. I also did score a few times... It was good to get out and exersize but I think that next time I'll wait until they have stadium lighting and I don't have to play in the blistering 90 degree sun...Speaking of lighting... As I mentioned power has come permanently to my little oasis town. Its many advantages are already showing. My family now spends most of its free time watching video cd's or trying to get the picture to come in clear from the antenna so they can watch egyption soap operas. This all wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't expected to be wonderfully amazed by endless hours of TV that I can't understand a word of. What am I supposed to do though except tell them that its cool when they ask because to them it means the world at the moment. I can only hope that it wears off eventually... I'm also expected, as the resident american to be the expert on TV. However I've never had to play with things like the antenna gain, or the vertical hold so usually I'm just as clueless if not more so than they are. Its kind of humiliating to have to admit technilogical inferiority to people whom a light switch is brand new technology but I find that I can live with it. Ialready have to admit that I don't understand THEM 10 or 11 times every day so its becoming familiar. There are true advanages to the power though. The lights in the rooms are definately easier on the eyes and they don't have to use batteries as much, which is good because they have no way to dispose of them and so just throw them on the ground. Also helps with arts and crafts and cooking. It provides more time for women to make things to sell in the suq (market) and therefore increases income (part of which will go to paying the bill so it remains to be seen if its actually that benificial) and for cooking its just easier on the women and the men can do something in other areas of the house instead of hanging out by the one light in the kitchen.We finished up the holdiay by having a big community meeting organized by us americans so that everyone could talk about the benifits and problems of living in Timnit. Overall it was a huge success with 24 people attending and participating including 13 women, which is almost unheard of in this country. We learned a lot and despite some current and raging community infighting the people that did attend had a pretty good idea of the strenghs of their community and what they wanted to see happen in the future. We can only help them minmally but they are genuinely grateful even to have us there to try and to do what we can and its an awesome experiance over all.Alright... I guess thats all I've got going on for Timnit so if you'll give me a drumroll i'll let you in on where I'm going... I'll know more about it next weekend so I'll go into it much more in depth then. I'm heading way way way way out there into Toubkal national park to a small village of about 43 familys that I think is called Asoukzar. If not then I'll be sure to correct it. Its 60 klicks from the nearest paved road, with seasonal running water (pipes freeze in the winter) and no power with the exception of solar and some hydro electric. No cell service though there is some in my market town only 3 kliometers away so people should be able to call me on wednesdays during market times. The nearest internet is actually here.. in Oz which is 130 klicks and about 5 hours on a good day so my internet is going to drop off I would imagine to about once a month or so or when I go into marakeseh (230klicks) to meet with my supervisors in the park office. There are 3 othervoulenteers from my group going to the park, one only 10 klicks from me so we will be working together often. The others are a 2 day over the mountians hike from me... which I will probably also do on a semi regualar basis. My town, which you won't find on a map is right next to Jbel Toukbal, the highest mountian in north africa so that will be a fun climb at 4000 plus meters. Anyay... thats about all I know so far so I'll let you know more as life progresses here... Ohh.. its stunningly gorgeous by the way so everyone will have to come visit!Out of time but I love you allHope things are going well and keep the e-mails flowing while I have the chanceCheers-Andy