The more keys you have, the more doors you can open. In my town, being a female means you can eat couscous with the women on Fridays. Being a foreigner means you can sit at the café with the other male teachers after class. The more people you meet in town, the more relationships you … More Access
When I was 18, my mother walked me into our local banking branch and helped me open my first credit card with a limit of $500. Talk about privilege. In the US, women weren’t allowed to complete a credit application without a male cosigner until 1974. As a senior in high school, the strongest woman … More The Power of Credit
Sometimes Peace Corps service feels like a game of Mario Kart played by my thirteen-year-old self, high on blue Mountain Dew. Some days I’m speeding around the bend collecting all the stars and others I’m turned around backwards forever pressing “A” into the racetrack wall. Last week, I hit lap two at full speed, but … More Princess Peach: Lap 2/2
“Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to spare.” It plays over and over in my head as I wait for the first drop of the evening. It’s finally September. Last night we walked down to the center of town. Tourists had begun slowly trickling into the cafes, but our attention was drawn to another … More Water
Lately, every day feels like it’s been drenched in honey. One day sticks to the other. Then every day cascades into a gooey mess becoming a week. I walk around like a sloth in my apartment, but everything around the edges somehow leaves a drawn-out sweetness on my tongue. A year gone by, a year … More It’s not hot
On New Years Eve, we found ourselves in a beautiful home perched on a cliff. The coastline stretched for miles on the southern edge of Morocco without a soul in sight. The night faded into darkness to the tune of the waves crashing along the shoreline. We played a game to highlight our low moments, … More Letting Go
It was the third day of bus stops, train connections, and begging taxi’s to take our overweight baggage. Our group had left Meknes in a downpour of rain and traveled through every major city in Morocco, aside from Tangier. Through train and bus windows, we glimpsed mountains and coastline and desert, and everything in between. … More Arrival
A group of 107 trainees sat on the edge of their seats, while staff members began presentations mimicking travel agency sales pitches. The room filled with a level of anticipation equivalent to the impending drop of the rollercoaster ride, which certainly depicts our community based training experience. My fellow trainees reached out to each other … More Home Awaits
Recently, our training class discussed resiliency in service and shared some practices of self-care. Immediately, I was struck with a humorous collision of self-care practice and some mild resiliency. For me, cooking has always helped manage stress and invoked a sense of calmness. There’s just a bone in my body that aches for a pan in my … More Spaghetti & Meatballs
From September to November, my home is a small town near Meknes. On my left, there are endless olive trees and grape vines. On my right, there are glittering lights of larger towns and the Atlas mountains in the distance. At the center, you’ll find my loving family above mama’s bakery; we are surrounded by … More Simplicity
Fay Jocelyn 