Here you go

I'll try to describe everything the best I can. If you have questions, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

I am in Rabat which is the capital of Morocco. We are living in Hay Ryad which is actually a nice and newer neighborhood (the king's sisters live around here, so it's not too shabby). It's not the best representation of Morocco at all, but it's hard to house and keep track of 26 foreigners in other areas of town. Our house is very pretty and spacious. There are six bedrooms(one in the basement--where the boys sleep, one on the first floor and four on the second floor) with bunkbeds. We were assigned our rooms, so I am bunking with three other girls on the first floor. (In case you are wondering, I got the bottom bunk).

The volunteers are from USA, Canada, UK and Australia. Two of my roommates are British and one is Canadian. We have a really fun mix of nationalities and backgrounds, so it's really truly a cultural experience every minute of each day. For instance, we have a girl who is Korean by nationality but grew up in Argentina and is now in college in the US. Her English is accented though with a Spanish accent rather than Korean. Anyway, we range in age from 18 up to...I'm guessing in her 50's or 60's. I would say the majority are on the younger end and in/about to begin/just finished college. Oh, and there are only two boys. I think they are extremely overwhelmed by living with all these girls! Each of use can choose to stay for anywhere from 3-12 weeks. Almost everyone is leaving after 3 weeks. There are about 6 of us staying for more than 3 weeks. One is leaving after 4, one is leaving after 5, one is leaving after 6, one is leaving after 8, one after 10 and then me after 12. There is one lady from the July start group who will in total 12 weeks, so she'll leave after my week 8. We'll have a new group of people arriving in the beginning of September. This group is really getting along well, so it'll be sad to see so many of them to go so soon.

Because it's the summer and it's Morocco, many of the agencies where we volunteer are closed. So, we have only three options: Children's Hospital, orphanage and a foundation where one can teach English. Most are at the orphange, 4 of us are at the hospital and 2 are at the foundation. I'll probably check out the other placements later, but for now I am at the hospital. This is one of the only Children's Hospitals in Morocco, so kids from all over go there. We are split into two groups and allegedly are placed on the asthma and diabetes floors. I have seen no signage or anything that would lead me to believe I'm actually on the diabetes floor or that there such a thing as a diabetes floor in this place, but oh well. As far as hospitals go, I guess it's alright. It definitely does not have that sterile, "I want to have surgery here" feel, but then again, what did I expect from a developing country? Another lady and I are in charge of a small activity room where we basically just play with the kids who "have diabetes." (I'm not going to believe it until I really see something that tells me that). We color, do puzzles, make beaded necklaces, play with a bouncy ball, etc. The number of kids who come in changes each day. It was like a zoo on Tuesday, but today it was very calm. I have become very good friends with a young boy who has down syndrome who likes to order me around to stack and unstack blocks. Sometimes he counts them, sometimes he just makes sure I'm doing it correctly.

We are only at our placements in the morning which is kind of annoying. It gives us a lot of time to explore and for some planned activities, but it also makes me feel like we're really not doing much. I think once the organizations reopen after summer, there will be more oppportunities to do things in the afternoon. But this week, we have mainly just explored around Rabat and Sale. I have seen my uncle once (my aunt is coming back on Monday). Two years ago, I spent 7 weeks with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Rabat. I had an internship with UNICEF and helped my aunt out at her school. So, it's been two years, but I was pretty sure I knew how to walk to their house from this big city park. I was semi-correct. I definitely didn't take the correct route, but I am alive to say that I did finally make it to their front door. However, next time I want to do that, I think i'm going to take a taxi.

I'm sorry this is rather boring. I'm going to attempt to post some pictures soon. A group of us is going to Fes tomorrow (Saturday), so I should have some more fun stories after that.

~Sunshine