La plage!

Other than a short lesson in Arabic today I haven't learned nearly as much Arabic as I thought I would. Almost all I've been speaking is French, which is great because I'm realizing how much I have actually learned and a lot of stuff is coming back to me (as well as confidence!). So that's fun, but I'm really glad that I'm going to the Arabic school after this because I really want to get a grasp of Arabic while I'm here and try it out a little :)

Today at the orphanage I spent most of my time walking Bader around and pushing Nadia and Ali around the courtyard. They love doing loops around the parking lot and around the little garden paths and both of them point to where I want them to go and smile when I push them fast or around in circles and figure eights. I had no idea how much they liked that, otherwise I would have done it the past two days as well! I really like Nadia, she has the sweetest smile even though most of her teeth are missing. Whenever I look at her, she seems to have a knowing look in her eyes and she smiles an encouraging smile. I don't know how mentally impaired she is but I really think she has a good idea of what's going on. I started to be able to understand some things she said too which was exciting!

After work we had an Arabic lesson where I got to review a few phrases and learn some numbers which was great. I also learned a lot of new verbs that will help me with my teaching placement next week. I'm really nervous about going to work at the East West foundation because apparently the students think of us as real english teachers! The only thing I have ever taught was a dance class! Luckily there are tons of evaluation forms filled out by previous volunteers who have worked at the same placement and they give a lot of helpful hints and advice on how to prepare. After writing this I'm going to begin planning my first week's lesson plan. How weird is that? Me? A teacher? ...sigh... I can do all things through christ who gives me strength right?

On a less stressful note, a couple of us volunteers went down to the beach in Rabat today. It was absolutely gorgeous water and there were multiple games of soccer being played on the beach as well as a few mini sail boats full of little boys learning how to sail or swim or something (we weren't quite sure). There were also a lot of people trying to surf or just laying around on the lighthouse rocks sunning themselves and enjoying the perfect weather. There were mostly men on the beach and only a few european women in bathing suits so we got a little extra attention from the boys on surf boards, but other than that nobody seemed to care that we were in bathing suits and we got to enjoy the waves in peace.
Plage de Rabat <---we were on the left side of the channel


B'slama!
-Sarah-