Sunday, May 16

Working Abroad: Morocco

My job with the US Peace Corps involves a lot of travel. Too much travel if you ask me but it is interesting work. I get to meet our overseas staff, work with counterparts and see places I would have never otherwise seen.

Waiting for a taxi in Rabat, Morocco
Morocco marks the first of many work related trips this year. After Morocco, I will be going to Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, China and Mongolia. This is going to wreak havoc on my bowling game, which is in bad enough shape as it is.

Server training with Azeddine, the local IT Specialist
Morocco is one of our biggest posts in the region, boasting 42 staff members and over 270 Volunteers. My job involves 'refreshing' or migrating the old computer system to a new system over a 2 week period which includes training staff, the local IT Specialists and mentoring colleagues.

Team dinner with the Country Director (far left), PCMO (2nd from left), AO (middle)
This trip was unique in that we were a contingent of five instead of the usual team of two. Normally I'd say that five was three too many but the new system we deployed is still in its infancy stage and needed a lot of extra work. I hope it improves significantly before we push it out to the rest of the region or I will lose a lot of hair this year.

Peace Corps Morocco office turtle
One of the cool things about the Morocco office is that they have 2 turtles roaming the compound. This is a photo of the larger of the 2 turtles.

The blue Petite taxis of Rabat
Each morning and evening is an adventure in the form of a ride in Rabat's blue Petite taxis. Not only are these taxis small as their name suggests but I swear these drivers have death wishes. I've had more near death experiences in 2 weeks than I've had in a lifetime. I'm exaggerating a little bit but you get the picture. And I thought DC drivers were bad!

Training the backup IT Specialists
This trip is almost at an end, I'm scheduled to return home in a few days. Whoever came up the phrase, "There's no place like home" knew what he or she was talking about. I can't wait to see Rach and Maddy again. I better do some shopping soon, returning home empty handed won't go down too well with my 7 year old.

4 comments:

  1. lovely post hon :) maddy's counting down the days when you get home. See you soon xox

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  2. Not long to go now babe.

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  3. Man, I've always wanted to do that map thing where you post little flags on all the places that you've been in the world. Mine would come to about 10 flags but imagine what yours would look like!! You've been to some awesome places bro - not just the touristy destinations but some places with real history and culture.
    Thanks for the update and sorry about the late posts/comments. We've been outta action for a while! xxx

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  4. You'd have way more than 10 flags sis. And don't worry about late comments, better late than never!

    Hope you, Mark and Micah are well, we've missed you guys in cyber space :)

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