The logo we designed. The logo itself is the Arabic characters 'waw' which has an 'ou' sound and 'ayn' which are the first characters of Ouled L'Arbia which means the children of Arab women, thus the logo is supposed to be a woman holding a child. Plus, red and green are the colors that represent women in Morocco and it is the colors of the flag.
Business card I designed for the potters
Since peanut butter is not widely available and is very expensive we made some by hand. It turned out really good and wasn't full of preservatives or other junk that food in America is full of.
Me playing some kora (soccer) with the boys. Everybody had soccer fever (more than usual) because Morocco played France which I'll talk more about.
CBT is finally over and I said goodbye to my family and the village of Ouled L'Arbia this morning which was very emotional. I really love the village life and my family was AMAZING so it was hard to say goodbye. We had a few language classes and wrapped up our work with the potters which ended with them adopting a logo which we designed and we had a meeting with the village association to get them on the right track to create a co-operative. We also designed an awesome brochure to be given to the tourists staying at the local hotel when they check in that tells all about the village, potters, and women's association so hopefully that will increase their sales. One of my fellow CBT trainees Ashley was actually placed in Ouled to continue her service working with them for the next 2 years which is super cool. It is always good to know that all the work we did will be continued and we're not just leaving them with a bunch of unfinished promises. Last night we had a big party with all of our families and even cooked them pizza and hand made peanut butter which went over very well. Although later we found a plate full of half-eaten pizza in the kitchen that people had been sneaking out trying not to offend us and our hard work. Mashi mushkil. I gave my Mom the picture book of Michigan that I have been carrying around the entire country for the past 3 months which she loved-- I think it is the first book she has ever owned herself. I even wrote, "shukran bzzaf 3la kulshi! Magransakumsh u gantwhshkum, welakin nrj3 inshallah" which means, "thank you very much for everything. I will not forget you and I will miss you, but I will return if Allah wills it" all in Arabic script. It was actually a very enlightening trip-- for the first time I was able to have a complete conversation with my Mom without me having to say, "ma-fhmt-sh" (I don't understand) or "3awd a3ffeck" (repeat please) every 2 seconds. Shwiya b shwiya (little by little) everything has been coming together and I can actually have semi-intelligent conversations with people which is super exciting-- I'm not just some 5 year old who sits at the side, people actually include me in conversations now and I can understand it. Speaking of which, tomorrow is our final language test the LPI. I will do fine-- I am pretty good at conversational Arabic right now even though I don't necessarily respect all of the grammatical rules or conjugate the verbs on the fly. There was also a very important futbol match between the Moroccan and French national teams which ended in a tie 2-2. This was probably one of the coolest moments I have experienced so far because for a little while I really felt Moroccan. Plus, I have had to censor my thoughts/blog in the past regarding the French influence/tourists in Morocco for political reasons (I do work for the U.S. government and anything I say can be construed differently). Basically, it was good to see the Moroccan team do so well and a great cultural experience rooting for the home team.
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