mid-service medicals in Rabat

We recently had to go to Rabat for a few days for our mid-service medical exams - it was my first time back to the capital city since we arrived in Morocco almost 15 months ago. A lot of our time was spent going around to different labs, to the dentist, and to the Peace Corps medical office. I'm glad to say I've made it through my first year without any big problems - no TB and no parasites! In our free time we got to eat at some of Rabat's delicious restaurants and also got some shopping done. I was also happy to take advantage of Peace Corps' excellent library. These are some photos from an evening walk around Rabat's old medina.

presentation at the dar chebab for World AIDS Day

On December 1st we had a presentation/discussion on AIDS (or SIDA as it's known by its French acronym). A cool thing about this was that a lot of it was run by the students themselves in addition to several adult participants. Three of the students presented facts on AIDS including a definition, transmission, prevention, and treatment. My students who came to summer camp and participated in AIDS activities there used that experience to help here. We did an activity (the one with red and clear water in cups) to demonstrate how HIV/AIDS spreads and to show the effectiveness of preventative measures. Everyone also took home a rather good and simple brochure explaining all these things with illustrations and written in Arabic and French as well as information on how and where to get a free anonymous HIV/AIDS test. The hope is that they will share their knowledge with friends and family. After the presentation there was a question and answer session that turned into a discussion/debate on many related (and controversial) issues. It was interesting trying to follow it as it went between Darija (Moroccan Arabic), FossHa (Standard Arabic), Tamazight (the local language), as well as the occasional French and English thrown in.