Hello everyone. im writing from an undisclosed location in morocco because ive learned during our security briefings, of which we have had many, that i am required to password protect this blogsite. this will have advantages for me, because I can talk openly about where I am, and what I am doing here. Also, there is some law or ruling about losing publication writes to anything which is posted openly on the internet. I don't know if that will ever become an issue, but you never know, maybe one day I'll want to write a book.
The plan is this. The password is going to be kentucky which I think will probably be the easiest thing for everyone to remember. I'm going to have this posted for the next week or two so anyone interested in checking up on me will have it. After that, I'm going to password protect this sight, and remove this section of the email. Dad, show Mom how to use the password login if its not obvious to her after her computor classes.
Life has been interesting, but so far relatively easy. After 3 days of orientation in Philedelphia, we flew into Casablanca, and then immediately drove 2 hours up the coast to Rabat. The coastline seems very prosperous for the most part, and greener than I ever would have imagined. 52 of us, all in the health and environment sectors, did another 3 days of orientation on security, health, transportation, motivation, commitment, emergency action etc etc etc. I think I acquired another 20 pounds of stuff to lug around just in logistical handbooks and paperwork alone. The night before we left Rabat, I had planned on staying up all night studying Arabic knowing that I had an 8 hour busride to sleep on, but a couple people informed me that I was being teased about being antisocial so i decided there would be time for Arabic later and I ended up staying up talking with various people about all that we were about to embark upon. Two of them were in the health sector. One was a Mormon girl from Utah who had never left her state is engaged in a spiritual struggle between her religion which pressed her to marry, and her heart which led her here. The other was focused on her long term boyfriend who she left behind. I listened to both attentively, humbled before the understanding of just how powerful commitments are upon a person. It seems that everyone here has been struggling within a dichotomy of their own creation, and both sides of the ocean have come to represent for them, concepts much bigger than the locations themselves. It has been said and disputed that we will never really be able to understand the lives the other volnteers in the group have lived. It is certainly true right now, for it seems that as soon as we got on the plane, a division which we'd been living under ever since this application process begun, suddenly disappeared. Now there is just this. What exactly this is, we are waiting to find out.
I was glad to say goodbye to those two girls, because they were the first I'd permitted myself to be really open with at this stage in the process. I'm warry of such easy emotional outlets at this point, and while the orientations really instilled in us the need to be an emotional support system for one another, I still remember Chris Ginnaruses's words (though I have no idea how to spell his last name) "There's always time." I know Miles remembers them as well. Anyway, the environmentalists of the group, 22 in number, traveled to the undisclosed location which we are currently abiding at. The drive was substantial and the landscapes we passed through ranged from huge snowcapped mountain peaks to miles and miles of desert expanse. Its truly a different world once you cross over those mountains. And so hot, though I heard its only 77 degrees F. All that bitching we do in GA about, "its not the heat its the humidity..." I don't buy it. Here the saying would have to be, "its not the heat, its the sun!" I have yet to see a cloud, and we can see for miles from where we are.
We got the day off today, the first since I left Savannah, and slept in until noon. I had an interview to discuss the type of site I would prefer to be placed at, and weighed the pros and cons of about 80 different scenarios. Since then I have been roaming the market, practicing my Arabic and trying to get comfortable with the currency. Most people I've encountered thusfar have been very honest, yet difficult, for they lie to my about prices, or give me the wrong amount of change back just to see if I'll catch it. Then they laugh and lecture me on it in a broken Frenglish that I dont really understand and slap me on my back saying "No problem. You dont speak arabic, I dont speak english! No problem. There is no problem." I imagine Shadi would be especially amused if he could see me in these scenarios, but I don't fully even understand why. So far I'm about 2 for 6 on catching people tricking me on money, to the best of my knowledge, and my streak is growing.
Its about time for dinner. We start our 11 week training tomorrow which is expected to be much more strenuous. I think they gave us about a week to get all the wishy-washy American liberalism out of our system, and it must have worked because if I here another person start a object because they are offended by words like peasant, academic, back-country, or take up 30 peoples time to talk about their feelings and struggles, etc, I'm gonna go nuts. It seems like alot of these people are used to being the token liberal in every group and dont know what else to talk about. I trust that everyone is relatively consumed by their own lives, but thinks about me from time to time and I wouldn't have it any other way. I wanted to get a cell phone today, but it didn't happen, but that is going to be a communication option which I will keep you all up to date on. If anyone gets the chance, do shoot me an email, I've received none, though I hear reports about people wanting to know how to get in touch with me. And don't forget that password. You will need it for my next post.

BenJammin
lsthorizns@msn.com