March 9th

Today we woke up to find out that really it is March 1st---well in the Arabic calendar they decide after the first lunar full moon that the following day will be the first, thus loosing about 11 days a year. SO now we are working off of totally different time zones and days. We had orientation today which allowed for us to meet everyone and walk around our neighborhood to get familiar with our surroundings. We were told about which buses, taxis ect. we can take and cannot take. (blue=good white=bad).... No smoking by females (they then think you are a prostitute) WE have curfew at 10 pm. Mom's working assignment is the longest hours of all placements, with the least amount of time off. I say that because Mohamad their Kings birthday is March 12 and we (except mom and Brenda) do not have to work next thursday and friday. Many of us went into the city of Rabat today to the medina or souk which is the open air market. We didnt yet buy anything but it was an exciting adventure. Many men come up to our group (9 people) to show us around as a tour guide, well finally we gave in and ended up in an elderly womans home--when we were leaving she started to pinch mom for more money. These people are very poor and will do almost anything for a couple of dirhams...one dollar=7 -8 dirham in Morooco. We had mint tea or "shay" on the ocean front at an outdoor restauant. When leaving the town to get a cab back to homebase one of the volunteers (Alyssa) got pulled by a young girl that started painting her hand with henna. She couldn't get away and screamed for Laura for help. Mom then yelled "pull your arm and run" she did and she got away back to us. She was a little frightened but it was all about getting aquainted with the culture and I believe we suceeded. No one would have gone to the medina by themselves because it is off tourist season and the entire day we only saw one other non morrocan people which we think were european tourists. We made it back to home base for dinner which was pasta, potatoes, salad, dates and soup. Talk to you soon....
Kirsten and Laura