Written the week of March 10th:

Life here is all about the little adventures. It is about the times you say “wa7a” and just agree to go with whatever happens around you that produces the most amazing days. The past few days have been a series of these small adventures.

After a week long Peace Corps meeting in a town up north, I returned to Az with a new found appreciation for my town. I came back with a new passion and drive and told myself that I was going to get out of my comfortable apartment and push myself more into the heart of this community and experience. So here are a few small adventures I partook in this week:

1. Agreed to a long overdue Friday lunch with a student’s family—aka playtime with my student’s young nephews
2. Attended an over the top, disco ball, flashing lights, cultural center opening in which all of my youth center kid’s strutted their stuff in suits and dress outfits (they are too dang cute!). – and to my surprise both the “governor” and a scary imitation of mickey mouse attended.
3. Went to a Diabetes testing/info exposition at which all the older Berber women interrogated us (as only they know how to) about our names, houses, jobs, and most importantly marital statuses.
4. Completed “Azilopoly” a game probably only us mountain PCVs find amusing—yes my town is the 3^rd most desired property on the board, be jealous
5. Jen and I dug through thousands of shirts to come up with 20 usable, non-stained, non-smelly T-shirts to make into team T-shirts, only to be quoted a “white person’s price” at souq and had to walk away spouting words of disgust in both Tamazeight and Arabic—and yes the same thing happened at the next table at souq. What can I say, we are now natives and that $0.50 is more of a matter of integrity than anything else.
6. Wandered around the big town an hour and a half away with all of our groceries trying desperately to find fresh flowers—2 hours later we succeeded, but my newly purchased cheese melted on the walk :(

There are so many small happenings that truly make or break my days here. This week was a funny, somewhat tiring but laugh filled week of excursions. I can’t even imagine what is waiting for me in the coming week, but insh’allah it will be as entertaining as the last !