Home(ish) for the Holidays
It’s been nearly a month since my last post and I’m pleased to say that it is not due to a lack of stories to tell or experiences to share.
I’ve been trying for some time to write a blog post about a typical day in the Peace Corps but I continue to find that, for now, a typical day is anything but. I’m sure I’ll settle in to a nice routine some day. I’ll be begging to get out of this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere… but I count myself lucky today.
The most “typical” thing I do is grab a cup of coffee at the café. I use this time to practice language (if I’m with someone else), read a good book, organize my chaotic life, or plan a lesson for my next English Class.
Just another day at the Cafe
Each new week brings its own exciting adventures. A trip to Outerbate to visit a couple volunteers 3 hours away, a taxi ride to Midelt for a training about AIDS, or a nice Christmas Party and some friends up for New Years Eve. Through all this, I’m doing my best to learn a new language, integrate into a new city, make new friends, find a house to rent, and maybe get a little time to watch a good movie or play the guitar.
The good news is that my language is progressing (ever so slowly), I’ve just moved into my own place (pictures coming next time), I tend to know at least 3-4 people everytime I take a walk, and the guitar hasn’t been totally neglected.
This Christmas and New Years were my first spent away from my family, but I’m happy to say that I was able to spend time with new friends and that home didn’t feel nearly as far away as I thought it would.
In lieu of writing a ridiculously long post about my past month I’ll just tell one story about The Night Before Christmas….
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature could see, not even a mouse…
The stockings were hung on the wall with Duct Tape
And the Tree on the wall was still in good shape.
The fuses had blown, and no light could be found
Chicken Dinner in the electric oven…. My smile had frowned
So, quick as a flash went my Moroccan Friend and I
To fix the fuse box……but the box was too high!Up, up and Away, On my shoulders he did get
But the fuses in the house were pieces of shit.
We cut up a cord for some new copper wire
And hoped our repair would not start a fire
Flipping the switch, our fingers were crossed
But no light could be found and our Christmas was lost…
When out on the door there arose such a cladder…
The Landlord and electrician to see what was the matter!
Christmas was saved, electricity was there…
But we still got woken up by the damn call to prayer!
The Christmas Crew!
New Years was blast too! Below are a ton of pictures from both the Holidays and just walking around Rich. I hope you like them and I hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! Much Love, Taylor
Taylor
I suspect, Taylor, that 2012 will probably be one of the most memorable years of your life. Am thoroughly enjoying your blog and love the pictures, especially the shadow dancing, very fun. You never fail to bring smiles. Wishing for you the best of everything in the new year, Inshallah.
Fortunately, you are away from the embarrassing (yet comical) republican debates/primaries.
January 8, 2012 at 6:40 pm
so dan lauer and i play in a fantasy football league every year with players from around the country, guys in texas, indiana, pennsylvania, california, colorado (me), and florida (him). so we still keep in touch quite a bit through text or email or Facebook (except that i killed my facebook recently–so you won’t find me–because i was rarely going to it, and i don’t find myself that narcisstic to need to gather friends and have the world revolve around me–no offense to those who have a FB…by all means, friend away). anyway…and that is the definition of a digression, everyone…dan and i are going back and forth all season long. we are both fighting to get into the top four, which means you’ve made the playoffs. outside of the four, and you are playing for pride in that “other” bracket for people who want to pretend they are still playing for something. i’m 5th and dan is 6th going into the last 3 weeks. we are fighting it out and chatting back and forth, as if the fate of the economics in the US depends on it. it’s his romney vs. my gingrich in the south carolina primary (i chose gingrich because i’m a big idea guy with grandiose thoughts, but you never know what i might say next…i’m unpredictable and may burn my campaign with the next words i say…i.e. i may burn my team with the next waiver wire move i make). neither of us makes it into the playoffs, and i actually finish 6th to his 5th. anticlimactic, huh? but it also means that come the “playoffs for losers”, which he and i are steeped into, we are on a collision course…it’s destiny with me and dan. so the texting goes on and gets more heated since the stakes are high, but not really. dan and i are in the losers finals. i send him a voicemail, which we are fond of, because it means you are going to get something entertaining (a russian voice, a ricky williams voice where you don’t pronounce the ‘s’ in williams because we think that is how he talks, he’s posed as one of my students in a really high voice wanting fantasy advice, etc…). in the final weeks it got hilarious, because we left songs to one another. now, when i say songs, i mean i had to rewrite the words to james blunt’s “so you had a bad day, you’re taking one down, you sing a sad song and you turn it around / you say you don’t know, you tell me don’t lie…” but my version had andre johnson in it, who never played with a bad hamstring; wishing you had ray rice, i dropped his own team name in there, “Roddy’s Not White”, had a line in there sounding like, “you started james starks who was out with the flu-u-u-u”; another line like, “so, you had a bad day / you’re taking one down / you had andre johnson who couldn’t get up off the ground / you say you can’t draft / you should’ve grabbed rice…”; and so on.i thought it was hilarious and even surprised his voicemail let me stay on there that long to go for almost 3 minutes and that i could get through it without falling apart with laughter. but he trumps me. 4 days later he sends me a version of eminem’s “lose yourself” from 8 Mile. he has the guitar chords in the background and he has rewritten the rap all fantasy football laden. hilarious. it is still on my voicemail, and i can’t bring myself to delete it. i’m not even going to try and duplicate for you, just appreciate how hard it must have been. he goes 3 minutes with his best marshall at the mic, and it is gold.
i thought you’d enjoy that story. be good. in your spare time, rewrite a stand-out song with a fantasy emphasis. apparently, it is easier than you think…
d
January 22, 2012 at 1:02 am