On breathing easy

Since being notified of my grant, there was just one more hurdle to be cleared – medical clearance. The rational version of me wasn’t worried about it, but paranoia started eating away at me. I figured the only thing that could possibly hold me back was Tuberculosis. 21st century America doesn’t tend to be too concerned with TB but I thought it would be so poetically tragic if I somehow contracted it and had my grant taken away. My paranoia was irrational, but not completely unfounded, thanks to brother’s recent run-in with TB.

But, hamdulilah, my lungs are officially Tuberculin free. The paperwork hasn’t made it to the authorities yet, but things are looking good for an early September departure. Last week I attended a 3-day orientation. I found out that I will probably not get an additional language grant (LAME!!) but that a nice-sized language allowance is included in my research grant itself, so I’ll be able to take some classes in the Moroccan dialect – with the shwia’s and the bizaf’s and the lack of vowels.

The orientation made me antsy to get going. Just hearing words like “wakha” (which means “okay” in Moroccan), and hearing people flow from English to Moroccan to English to French all in the same sentence made me nostalgic for my other home.

I’ll probably go back and live with the Khattabis (my old host family) for a bit. The oldest daughter, Dounia had her first son a week ago. I can’t wait to see the little guy. I expect that they'll be my home base until I find an apartment, hopefully in the same part of the Medina.

Suddenly I feel like the next 2 months before I leave will be very long. I have an extensive reading list in preparation for my research, but I’m starting to get jittery. At least now that I know I don’t have Tuberculosis I can breathe easy.