sad and happy

the past few days have been a little bit crazy.

teaching has improved. i an really getting to know my students and their english level and what they like to do. they are getting to know me. one of them, fatiha, invited me to her house for the holiday this week, eid. its the holiday where the whole family gets together, slaughters a sheep, and eats a big meal. i'm really excited to be able to participate in a moroccan holiday! but i dont know if i can watch a sheep getting slaughtered... we'll see how that works out. its on tuesday.

i dont teach classes on friday, so i worked with one of the other volunteers at the childrens hospital. its a bit strange, the hospital is dark, the basement floods when it rains, has no heat and, i saw a baby on a bed next to a plastic bag. i'm told all of these things are normal. but the kids are so adorable!!! we colored some giraffes and elephants. there is one boy who must be 12 who is there because his brother is in the hospital. he speaks a little bit of english and is so sweet and enthusiastic. he was out with us, coloring with the 3 year olds and making bracelets with string and helping us play with the kids. such a sweet helpful boy, so much energy. some of the kids take a while to warm up, but then they chatter away and drag you around the play room. the mothers appreciated that i spoke french, since the other volunteer doesnt speak french or arabic. there was also a french volunteer who was happy to have someone to talk to; a retired woman from burgundy. so all in all, i'm looking forward to having my fridays there, until the university students are back from break and i can do english classes there. the university students are mostly getting their masters' in sciences and want to work on conversational english.

in other news, some of my new friends are going home this weekend. they have been here 9 weeks and are at the end of their programs. that will be sad, they're really funny.

in other sad news, one of my good friends from high school passed away last week and i only just found out two days ago. he was a friend that i just assumed would always be in my life, and i'm shocked and just so sad that he wont be around. now i have no one to marry for eu citizenship. the funeral is today, and obviously i couldnt go since i had to work and flights to london are over $1000 last minute. i'm just remembering all of the fun we had together, in high school and when i lived in london a few years ago. i missed him when i hadnt seen him for several years, and now i miss him even more since i know we'll never be able to meet up in london or dc again. he was sweet, funny, lively, smart, sarcastic, and i loved him very much. he was one of the only friends i actually kept from high school and we kept in touch with email and facebook chats. strangely enough, i saw posts on his facebook page which were weird, which led me to contact his sister to find out what was wrong, and then she told me he had died. we had talked about meeting up when i was out here and i was just going to email him and see if we could get together. facebook is all pervaisive these days. its just so sad; i was so excited about seeing him again while i'm here, and now i cant.

anyway, thats my good news and bad. i have a week off of work for this crazy sheep holiday and i'm looking forward to getting to know rabat better. i'm posting a bunch of pics of my house so you all can see where i'm living!