Rabat

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Rabat, Morocco right now. Suffice to say, i've found out where i'm working, and i'm now staying in an apartment... without going into details on my interesting day on monday, involving talking to half of the municipal employees at two prefecture buildings in casa, i managed to find the director of reseau maillage in casa, who has NO idea that the salaam program is going on this year. Luckily though, he knew the people in Rabat, and i got in touch with them. The director in Casa, Mr. Ghaita, had this pseudo-security guard come with me to the train station. This guy, whose name i don't remember, came on the train with me (kind of against my wishes), where he proceeded to make me promise to call his brother, who spoke english... he rode with me to rabat. i passed the mildly awkward time by pulling out the ipod and having us share the earbuds. He liked bob dylan and the allman brothers, but had mixed opinions on broken social scene. keep in mind that this guy spoke no french at all, so all of our communication was pantomiming.
once in rabat, i met up with the moroccan aiesecers and the other 8 or so people i'll be working with here. we have this huge apartment, and but no real furniture or anything, and i didn't even bother asking about the lack of a/c. luckily, we can see the atlantic (far off) from our window and get some decent ocean breeze.
some people from one branch of reseau maillage came over last night, and we talked more about the options for helping out. reseau is a big umbrella org that deals with kids, and their education in practical matters, computers, english, etc, with the goal of changing morocco for future generations by giving these kids guidance and real work skills. education in morocco can get expensive, and without programs like reseau, there's really no way for these kids to get ahead. the other part of the work, or even the sole part for some of us, involves projects, such as raising money, or getting donations in kind. There's a lot of more straightforward ones, but some are distinctly cultural, and go beyond getting a dentist to go around and give kids checkups in the quartiers populaires. for example, in morocco, it's muslim custom to be circumcised around the age of five, but even that costs money. So, one of the past projects involved a "circumcision wagon" (so to speak), that traveled around and gave circumcisions to kids and young adults.
we also went down to one of the reseau offices qnd talked about other opportunities, such as organizing concert and sporting events... i talked to a lot of the guys who ran it (my french is getting pretty damn good at this point) and they all seemed really motivated and passionate.
cheers for now. when i get a chance, i'll talk more about rabat, and the food and cultural part, etc