Christmas + New Years

Last year I kind of celebrated Christmas. And that was kind of good. Well… it was good to get out of my house, whatever the circumstances that led to me being social. 

December had been a rough month. I was able to sort out some social issues that had been plaguing my service for most of 2010, which was great, but it was also the month where I became extremely frustrated with my work and my director in my town. I didn’t have students to teach on a regular basis and the director of my center was completely indifferent to the lack of students believing there to be a lack of desire on the part of the students to learn. I was frustrated by what he was telling me… but it was the same thing that parents and students alike had told me. It was just, alarming. I had been under the impression that I was placed in this town to help people achieve their own goals, but what I discovered was a lack of interest in what I had been sent to do.

So in December when my Peace Corps programming team sent me a questionnaire about my site in preparation for my site visit, I filled it out immediately telling them everything that had been going on and requesting to be moved. Ultimately, my request for a location change was denied/not addressed urgently enough.

Actually, my request for a change of site was the result of negotiations with myself as I had been very seriously considering leaving.

Christmas I wound up going to Tata to spend the holiday with some of the girls of the region. I had originally planned to go visit Fauve but instead I met her for New Years. Christmas was a nice affair in which we did a white elephant gift exchange. That was kind of nostalgic for me because I had last done ‘Secret Santa’ freshman year of college and, as it turned out, I had never done ‘White Elephant’ before. White Elephant is where everyone contributes a gift and then numbers are drawn to determine the order in which people pick gifts but it gets tricky because each subsequent person can either steal a gift that has been previously revealed or open a gift that is yet to be opened. Anyway, it was nice time. We made nachos and watched lots of Glee and I was happy to not be in my house.

For new years I made it up to Fauve’s site which was the loveliest place in the world to be. Not because it’s especially grand, but because she is my best friend in Morocco and I didn’t need or want to party. I just wanted good company who understood me, and that’s exactly what I found with Fauve. Her house was freezing (not central air or heat in most Moroccan homes!). The highest temperature I experienced in her house that trip was 49ºF, so we were bundled up most the time watching various shows on our laptops and eating great food. Fauve’s a really good cook and we had fun in the kitchen together.

New years was a really emotional time for both of us. December hadn’t been too terribly kind to me and I actually wound up crying out the final minutes of 2010. I can honestly say, this is the first year that I can recall having no trouble writing 2011 as the date. I don’t think I’ve slipped up once and written 2010, which is kind of amazing for me.

December ended with tears. And January began with love. Hurray for being with Fauve and spending hours talking to David on the 1^st.