Words I put into sentences......

Hola everyone! I hope you all are doing well. Inchallah (God willing). Since my last entry a couple of things have happened. First and most exciting was my show at Cafe Clock in Fez last weekend (October 15th.) Aside from needing an amp and a mic, it was so much fun! I definitely could have used some amp-action due to the fact that we were in a restaurant on the main floor……BUT still, hella fun. I must say thank you again to all the PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) who made the trek up to Fez. I know it is far and then very far for some of you but from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU! Your support means the world :) Also, I gotta thank my buddy David Freedman for stepping to perform some covers and originals. He is a truly gifted musician and I hope to get a couple of more jam sessions in before our Peace Corps service is over with. Finally, Cafe Clock for hosting the event and dealing with crazy volunteers AND making a kick-ass menu that was even laminated!!!! So awesome :) 

I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t nervous…..I’m always nervous. I believe I told everyone that I was really nervous. Hands were sweating and knees were shaking, the whole nine-yards so to speak. Then something crazy happened, I stood up out of the “musicians corner”, strapped on my guitar (we’ll talk about the guitar strap in a second) and just started singing. I opened up with one of my favorite originals “Home”. I wrote this song during college when I was supposed to be studying haha. Actually most of the songs I wrote in college were during a time when I should have been doing something else but I just couldn’t concentrate, so I would write a song or just a line down and then return back to whatever it was that I was supposed to be doing.

After “Home”, I moved on to sing more originals, most from the album that I’ve been working on during my service called “Rough Cuts from da Bl3d.” It was awesome and although some of the songs were only half-done, I decided to sing them anyway. I thought, “Why not?” Any who, it was just a magical night for me. I felt pretty damn confident singing up there.  Of course I had to add some covers like “That’s All Right, Mama” by Elvis Presley and even tried to tackle “Someone Like You” by Adele. So all in all the show was sooo much fun and I definitely want to go back again before I leave, inchallah. I even got another gig out of it! Hopefully I’ll be performing at the English Language Center in Fez! 

Aside from trying to get my rockstar on, I’ve been working on a sort of huge Earth Day science fair project with the awesome volunteers in my region. I must say a quick thank you to all of them who have decided to join me on this crazy ride! 

A quick overview of the project to be inchallah: Middle/Jr. High school students and High School students from 7 cities will compete. Each city will have a local competition where only one group from the Middle/Jr. High division and one group from the High School division can win. Each group is a small group of 3 students. The students will work to create projects based on the following theme “Environmental Problems in Morocco and Ways to Combat Them.” The winning groups from each city will advance to the final competition in Oujda (big North-East Moroccan city.) The final competition will take place April 14-15, 2012. 

My personal hopes for the project are that students get to be creative, voice their opinions and feel like they are being heard. Youth are the future of Morocco, so I think it’s important to give students different opportunities to express themselves, especially opportunities that can really help dynamic and visual learners. 

Knowing that this is a strange idea to most students, I’ve tailored the method of presentation (i.e. display boards), to be more in-tune with what Moroccan kids like doing already, plays and videos. I’m going to assume that most students are going to put together a play, which is awesome but some, perhaps High School students will put together a little video, either way I’m very excited to see what students come up with. Hopefully at the end we’ll have some great prizes for the winners! 

Keeping with the science fair, last week I met with the Delegate of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Oujda to discuss the project. I had my awesome Regional Manager, Amina there AND my Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed. It was great to have support from both angles going into this meeting. I really felt like we had a solid presentation, though I hardly spoke haha. The Delegate really seemed to love the idea and got excited enough to add his own personal association to the mix of partners, even stating that we could get t-shirts made! And you know how I love t-shirts! So things are looking pretty positive on the Oujda front. My mission now is to just concentrate on working in my site and my souk (market) town to get students interested and involved in the fair. Easier said that done fo sho but I have met great school directors and students who seem to be very excited about the prospect of going to Oujda. So we’ll see. 

Aside from the science fair, my sitemate and I are working on a world map mural at the dar chebab (youth center). It’s going very well. Students are excited and come to paint each day. Some have even started saying (in English), “This is Morocco, This is the United States, this is Australia, which is just awesome. For a geography nerd like myself, this is awesome! I love maps, my house is pretty much decorated with maps haha. So to be able to share my love and knowledge of geography with students has been awesome. My sitemate and I plan on doing some activities with the map, the one I’m most excited about is “Music of the World”. This activity would most likely be a listening party and perhaps getting some videos to expose students to different types of music! 

Like the title of this entry states “Now I’m busy?” With 6 1/2-ish months left, damn. Everyday I have something to do that involves work, whether it is writing the grant for the science fair, meeting students, school directors, teachers, making photocopies, painting etc. I’m busy! It feels awesome and at the same time, I feel very unprepared, almost as if I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be busy haha. Sounds weird but maybe it’s just a PCV thing. It’s rare that we feel productive in an “American” sense and so I think when we find ourselves in these busy situations, we are excited about it and confused all at the same time. 

Well I think that’s all for now. Like I said I’m writing a grant to help fund the science fair. There will be a link on the Peace Corps website where those of you who can/want to, can donate. I’ll post that link A.S.A.P. 

Check out www.facebook.com/socorracmusic for photos from the Cafe Clock show. I’ll post videos to www.youtube.com/socorracamposanto when I have faster internet :) 

Peace!