9/6/09

Today I had my induction meeting with Asmaa, one of the Projects Abroad staff members and three other new American volunteers: Amrita and Barbara (recent graduates from law school in California), and Henry (recent graduate from high school in Maryland). It was so wonderful to speak English with all of them!

Amrita, Barbara, and I are all working at the same place. They are teaching English in the afternoons and I am caring for the disabled children in the mornings. (I'll describe work in more depth later). We then went to the Projects Abroad office to go over some papers, drink some water, and rest for a moment. We then went with Asmaa to the Meditel store so the other volunteers could buy cell phones and to the bank to change/take out money.

Then Asmaa took me to meet my French tutor Salma. She lives near me in the Medina. We had our first lesson a few hours later...it was rough. She only speaks to me in French and I spent most of the time completely lost, but somehow I managed to get through the exercises. I understand much more than I can actually speak. I am noticing though that I'm getting better each day at deciphering other peoples' conversations in French. By no means am I able to translate everything, but its the beginning of Step 1!