Up the Creek Without the Water

Hey All,Post Timnit week 2 and in Ouarzazate for another night before heading out for a field trip to imichil in the Eastern high atlas national park. (don't ask me more specifics about where that is because I don't know, but I'm sure that a good guide book or map will have it labeled). This will be the first time out and about more or less on our own. I'm going with a girl named Shumona and we have to figure out how to get ourselves there and back. Its not a tashelhiet speaking region which means I'll probably be of little help and she'll have to do all the work. (she's learning arabic). It will be a fun experinance regardless, especially considering we'll have to take 2 busses, a taxi, a tranzit van, and walk 2 hours to get to the village where we are staying with a current environment voulenteer. (the bus to the village only runs on mondays *shrug*). I'm looking forward to getting some one on one time with someone who's already on the ground doing what I'm going to be doing. Shumona also has a camera that works I think so maybe I'll be able to get some pictures. inshallah (god willing). Thats about all I know about next week except that we'll be getting back to Oz a day or so later than usual so don't expect mail from me until sunday night instead of saturday, not that I've been punctual about it up to now.Timnit was much easier this time around, which is both gratifying and strange considering I really didn't find it all that challenging to begin with. I can converse in simple(very) sentences now, providing I can remember the appropriate nouns and verb combinations. This is not always possible dispite the fact that the language is only about half as expressive as english. (for example they only have one word for sad, whereas in english we have sad, sorrow, grief etc.) For all you women out there there is also no word for friend, only girlfriend so everyone in timnit probably thinks I'm married to at least a half dozen of you after I tried to explain my photo album. Many of the words sound the same, for isnstance bismilla, (thank god) bislamma (god be with you/goodbye) and bitlama (bathroom) and this is a common sorce of both confusion, frustration, and hilarity for pretty much everyone. Also there is about 4 letters that, no matter what letters of the english alphabet youcombineyoucan't come up with the same sound. This provides my host brothers no end of amusement as I talk myself into a deeper and deeper hole trying to say simple things like "good morning." I am told that I'm getting better, witch is nice...When we arrived back in Timnit on Tuesday we came to find out (for some of us later than others) that someone had stolen the solar pannels off the roof of the water tower and there was no more treated running water in town. People had resorted back to using the wells, all of which are privately owned, though generally sharing is not an issue. According to peace corps we are supposed to boil this water before drinking it. Of course no one bothered to inform a couple of us that the water they were providing was well water until the second day we were there so I've been drinking it all week, thankfully with no ill effects. Other people completely freaked out and tried to teach their families exactly why all of a sudden we needed to increase thier daily workload by yet another step and have them boil and cool all the water that they use before letting us touch it. I'm still healthy and happy and hope to stay that way inshallah. The lack of water has reopened a previously heatedland dispute that then caused the power to get shut off again for a reason that took us a week to figure out and which I won't go into here... but our first sucsess story was brokering an arrangement to keep the streetlights on and continue the process of getting power to every house in town... not bad for two weeks on the job.They still have a lot of water issues. The river looks like it probably won't ever fill this year as the snow is starting to melt off the mountiains and the six towns between Timnit and the river's source have diverted nearly 100% of the flow for thier personal crop use. They understand in Timnit that this probably can't be changed becuase they are very fair when it comes to water and they can't deny the other towns the use of water because they would have used it if it had made it as far as thier town. Instead they rely mostly on an underground river system which bubbles to the surface in the form of a spring and they rotate who gets to water thier fields starting with those closest and moving to those that are farthest away. Its equitable, but not nessicarily the most practical system. We are supposed to do a mini project over the 6 weeks that we are in Timnit and I think that the group consensus is that we want to try and organize some better system of water sharing, bothfrom the household wells and the spring for crop irrigation. (thats as technical as I'll get I promise!)I learned a new, and very complicated card game called Rrhonda (roll the r) played with a 40 card deck of moroccan cards (spanish cards) that I was proud of myself for learning dispite the launguage barrier. Its addictive and pretty rough, and there is never a shortage of players to make out the pairs. Its done wonders for my counting as well as learning some new and interesting swear words. (hey... my brothers can swear in 3 languages already I have some catching up to do). We've also managed to teach them some fun games. I think I've got them understanding about 50% of mancala and I will try and wrap that up when I return from the mountains in a week. They are super friendly people and they've invited my family and any other americans who I happen to know to come and visit any time. This is a serious invitation and anyone who knows me is welcome. Of course if you like to sit and use the bathroom, enjoy showes, electicity, running water, or eating with silverware Timnit mightnot be the place for you. There is a very nice hostel with a generator going in though! I love it there and I've learned more in 2 weeks than I thought would be possible. Its already starting to feel like home and everyone in town was dissapointed that we were all leaving for more than our customary weekend. Of course there was also a serious offer to anyone who is interested to come and either buy/renovate one of the Kasbahs for tourists, or to buy some farmland for cultivation of dates. I think that I'm going to help plan new olive trees in the next few weeks so thats cool.Still not much word from my 2 friends in the health sector. When Mark left for home he took my only line of direct communication with him in the form of his cell phone, so hopefully they've sent some mail my way and I'll be getting that when I come back from the mountians. I heard from one of them when they got to use the internet for the first time last saturday but it was only a brief message and a link for some pictures of me and them... I'll include it when I figure out how, as its password protected and I want to make sure she's cool with giving the broader world access to them. (I'm sure she will be I just want to double check.) I've made some good friends in the environment group now so its not the end of the world, but we did make a solid friendship and I would hate to lose it so soon. In other news, when we got back to the hotel in Ourzazate (OZ forevermore) they were starting preperations for the marathon de sables. This is a big deal for OZ which is the finishing point for said marathon. I never thought that I would meet people crazier than a group of 23 american environmental voulenteers but now I can say that I have. Let me explain a bit about the marathon in order to make this more clear. This is not your averavge marathon. Its a 7 day road race across the Sahara where the competitors do about 70 klicks a day. They have to wear special sunglasses to avoid going blind... the trucks that act as resupply stations have 50 meter bilboards built on so that hopefully the racers won't miss them. On a normal day they have to wear a special scarf across thier faces to keep thier lungs from becoming liked dried toast. I asked where most of the racers come from and the Moroccan I asked said that they are mostly europeans from spain and other countries with someamericans. I asked him if Moroccans participated and he looked at me funny and then said that Moroccans wern't that stupid.Anyway.... thats enough for now... all's well and I'm fine.... I miss each and every one of you and hope to hear from you when I get back from the mountians. (yay cool weather... its been uper 80s into the 90s and hotter every day). Tons of love and luckCheers!-Andy