Paperwork

Upon instructions from Mr. S, the K-5 team arrived in Khenifra yesterday to pick up our attestations. These official documents formalize our jobs and are proof that we are working legally. We needed the attestation to apply for our national identity cards, which we needed to complete before June 4th. After that, if we were stopped at a police check point, we could be deported. So, the papers were important.

We discovered that Mr. S. wasn't in the office, the paperwork wasn't ready, and told to return tomorrow. We debated what to do. Both Tori and I decided it would cost us the same amount of money to spend the night in Khenifra as it would to get home and back again. We met up with Jed, Duncan and Samuel, who were still in town for their meetings and spent the evening at a cafe drinking hot chocolate and getting to know each other.

The next day, Sarah got up bright and early to get her paperwork and get back to her village, only to find out that they needed one more signature from someone who wouldn't be in the office until after lunch. Lunch in Morocco can stretch from noon until 2 or 3 o'clock. We had some time to kill. I took a real, hot shower at the hotel and thoroughly enjoyed it. Tori and I took an extended breakfast at a cafe – we soaked up fresh air, real coffee and the company of each other. We traded stories about our host families' quirks, the situations in our villages and news from other volunteers.

For lunch, we met up with the health guys and Samuel showed us his favorite sandwich shop. The owner is college-educated, speaks English meticulously and owns a sandwich shop in Khenifra. Unfortunately, this is indicative of the job market in Morocco. More and more people are staying in school and attending university, only to graduate with no job prospects. Lunch was great and the owner friendly and happy to meet us. There isn't much to do in Khenifra and it was drizzling, so we spent the next two hours at the cafe drinking coffee and playing cards, until it was time for the Health guys to return to the office.

Thankfully, when Tori and I returned to our office, the paperwork was ready!

Side note: As part of our getting to know each other conversations, we were talking about why each of was here. I was telling them that I had been at my job for 5 years and had realized that I either had to find a new job or go to grad school to continue to advance in my field. Since those options seemed too daunting, I had applied for Peace Corps instead. Someone started laughing and I realized how my silly it sounded. Here I am in Morocco, a country with a culture vastly different from my own, where I have a kindergartener's vocabulary, doing development work, a field in which I have no experience. How is that any easier than grad school or finding a new job? There is irony in there somewhere.