The second week continues ... clarity!

We're getting more clarity on our data and how we're going to respond to our client, and we're getting to know each other a bit better. It's time to reach out beyond our team of four people and make sure we take advantage of the knowledge of other team members. Tuesday night, Sayoko (from Japan) and Brittany (from Washington DC) and I went back to the Hammam for round two (for me - it was the first time for the other two women.) I can't believe that my skin is even MORE soft now than I've ever known it to be. It's amazing. I do feel a bit soggy and it's getting more hot and humid here, but I can't stop petting my arms. :) After our Hammam, the three of us had dinner at our hotel and really enjoyed the singer who's there every night. It's funny because he mouths (sings) the words of popular American songs but he clearly doesn't know what he's saying and many words don't come out quite right, but he gets the idea.
On Wednesday we visited three different areas during the day - a transportation/logistics trade show for all the training groups (private trainers and our OFPPT client), then we went to the school of textiles, where people learn sewing and maintenance of sewing machines. That was really interesting - made me think of my grandmother's business where she had many seamstresses all sewing on big industrial machines at the same time. There were Pfaffs, Necchis, Singers, and Rimoldi (?) machines. And last, we went to the IT school to learn about their curriculum - Networking, Development, and Telecom, for the most part, but they also get some CISCO and Microsoft certifications from some classes.
Wednesday night we went to a great restaurant right on the water near the lighthouse (pictures to come) called le Cabestan. The women were dressed to the nines in some of the shortest skirts I'd ever seen - I guess they trade in their jelabas and kaftans and come out at night as a new person. The meal was great although it was a long day and a long night. We met Nicole, the wife of our IBM contact here in Morocco (Nabil), who is an American from Seattle, who's settled in Morocco in Environmental Engineering and Environmental Accounting (whatever that is). We also met the IBM Communications contact person, Nadia, who told us about some possibilities for our project. A late night - bed at midnight. Thank goodness we don't have to be up super-early on Thursday.