The Weasel

Oh The Places You'll Go!

2011-03-07T18:01:00.000-06:00

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2010-06-28T01:16:00.001-05:00

Cairo airport is fancy! Heading to Paris today, and tomorrow...heading HOME!!!!! Woot!!!!

Catch up in Cairo

2010-06-26T16:05:00.182-05:00

I haven’t kept up with my blog this past week because we’ve been so busy on our tour of Egypt! It’s been a terrific trip, and right now I am camped out at my lovely hotel back in Cairo for a much needed “rest day.” I am not going to leave the hotel today except to acquire water and food – I seriously need a break from all the noise, hassling, haggling, and offers for Egyptian husbands.

I believe I left off before our trip to Abu Simbel temple – on Tuesday (June 22) we left in the caravan at “stupid o’clock” as Nicola called it, but I’m glad we did! By the time we arrived, the sun was already blazing and there was no place to escape from it, but since it was early in the morning we managed to avoid some of the scorching heat of midday. The temples were take-your-breath-away exquisite; unfortunately, there are no cameras allowed inside, but the outside gives you an idea of the grandiosity of these temples. We spent a couple of hours exploring Abu Simbel, then started the long bus ride back towards Aswan.

On our way home we stopped at an Egyptian Pharmacy – which is actually a perfumery. We got a crash course in how essential oils and perfumes are made, complete with a free lunch and massage by the Nubian women who work there. They made us try about 25 different scents and we all left the Pharmacy covered in perfumes and oils. For the first time since arriving in hot Egypt I really smelled great, and of course I bought a yummy scent for my honey (called “Sphinx” – raaawwwr!).

Wednesday morning we woke up to board our felucca boat, which is a simple, traditional Egyptian sailboat. It was an awesome, relaxing break from all the insanity of the cities! The deck of the boat was covered in comfortable mattresses and we had a fabric roof to protect us from the sun; we spent the entire day sailing down the Nile River on our comfy, breezy felucca boat which we named GINA. It was so lovely!!! (from the left that's Nathan, Nicola and Euan. I think those are Spencer's legs) Sights along the way included a couple of donkeys being amorous and a stark naked man taking a dip in the water. See if you can spot the camels just chillaxin' next to the river! That night we docked and slept on our felucca boat on the Nile, under the stars.

Thursday morning (June 24) we woke up with the sun (it’s hard to sleep past sunrise when you’re sleeping outside), brushed our teeth, then loaded our stinky selves onto a van to head for two small towns and their temples.

At the start of the Kom Ombo Temple, Mudi gave us a little history and showed us some pictures of important hieroglyphics in a book. It was a bit like an Easter egg hunt after that, trying to find the real-life versions of the photos he had shown us. The first one was my favorite (ha ha ha!!). I found it! :-) I also think the hieroglyphics of medical equipment are pretty cool. The mummification process was actually an advanced surgical procedure that we still, to this day, have not been able to successfully duplicate.

After Aswan we drove to the town of Edfu where we stopped to visit the Temple of Horus. It's the most well preserved ancient temple in Egypt. If you look at the third picture below, you might notice that it looks like someone took a hammer to the images of the people. That's exactly what happened - during the early years of Christianity, groups of Christians did this to many of the ancient ruins. They especially had a field day in Edfu.

After a few more hours we finally made it to Luxor, checked in to our very nice hotel, and spent the evening relaxing and exploring.

I realize that we woke up so early to beat some of the heat, which I honestly appreciate, but it’s a little weird to wake up every morning of your vacation before 5 AM! However, on Friday we had another early wakeup call so that we could begin what I think might have been my most favorite part of the tour – a 1 ½ hour donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings! My trusty, friendly donkey was named Casper and he did a great job carting me along the west bank of the Nile at sunrise. It was AWESOME!

We arrived at the Valley of the Kings, which is basically a huge archeological site where dozens of pharaoh’s tombs have been discovered – including the tomb of King Tutankhamen. It was an awesome place that would really take days to explore, and of course no cameras were allowed inside. One ticket allows you access to only three tombs, so we took Mudi’s recommendation on which three to visit. They were fantastic and all of us were disappointed that we couldn't see more. Guess I’ll have to come back another time!

After Valley of the Kings, we caught our van to Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple – the only female ruler ancient Egypt ever had. Check out the hieroglyphic of the dude drinking right out of the cow's udder!

We had the rest of the afternoon free to explore Luxor, which was probably my favorite city that we visited in Egypt. This little dude cracked all of us up – he wanted to give us a shoe shine, even though we were only wearing flip flops. I gave him a dollar to let me take a picture with him. He was so cute!!

The last outing we had as a tour group was definitely the most amazing – Luxor Temple at sunset. The temple itself is awe inspiring, and to see it at sunset and at night was just breathtaking. It’s a huge, huge temple that actually got added on to by several different pharaohs and even some Christians. There is a fantastic road lined with sphinx statues that leads up to the front of the temple, then a huge obelisk at the entrance (there were two obelisks, but only one is still standing). Luxor Temple was buried beneath the sand for ages and various buildings and roads had actually been built on top of it before it was discovered. The only building remaining is a mosque that is planted right in the middle of the temple. As we were enjoying the sunset and watching the temple lights come on, the mosque’s muezzin added a haunting air to everything. It gave me goose bumps!

This morning we again woke up at “stupid o’clock” and caught an early flight back to Cairo. I found a great little hotel that is really nice and the proprietors are helping me set up some activities for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, in case you are too lazy to go to McDonalds, they have delivery service in Luxor.

2010-06-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

I am sailing down the river Nile on a felucca boat!

Egypt is HOT

2010-06-21T21:37:00.060-05:00

No, I mean REALLY hot, a heat like I’ve never before experienced. No, seriously, you can’t comprehend how hot it is – I am not exaggerating or kidding – we rode camels in the desert of Aswan at somewhere around 130F. I actually didn’t know that it was possible for human beings to survive temperatures that high. I spent the entire time concentrating on not throwing up and not passing out and falling off the camel. Later that day, local temps read 60C – which is 140F.

Besides the unbearable heat, Egypt is amazing! I definitely recommend coming to visit when they aren’t having a record breaking heat wave. January or February is probably quite nice.

In Cairo, on Sunday, we visited the Egyptian History Museum, which houses an incredible collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts (including King Tut’s complete tomb!). It’s crazy to see 4000 year old things up close and personal that I’ve only previously read about or seen in photos. Unfortunately, many of the monuments and museums do not allow any photography inside, so I only have a few pictures from outside the museum. (Well, ahem, maybe I tried to sneak a couple of pictures with my iPhone that didn’t turn out great. Here is a mummy of one of the ancient queens and a mummified doggie.)

After spending several hours at the museum we made our way to the Great Pyramids of Giza. It’s a little strange to be driving through the suburbs of Cairo and see one of the Great Pyramids poking out from behind some buildings, but Cairo has grown right up to the borders of the area. Once we entered the pyramid area, however, it was like being transported to another world. Those suckers are huge!!!

We went inside the medium sized pyramid, the one behind the Sphinx – it’s nothing much inside, just some long narrow tunnels that lead to a room with a coffin. But I can now say that I’ve been inside an ancient pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt!

After the pyramids we stopped for some delicious falafel and then on to a papyrus factory, where we learned how the ancient Egyptians used the papyrus plant to make paper. We got to try it out for ourselves, then did a little shopping for some lovely paintings on papyrus paper. Since I have a little collection of art from most of the countries I’ve visited, of course I had to make a purchase here!

Sunday night we made our way to the train station to take an overnight sleeper train to Aswan. I’ve never been on an overnight train before! I had my own cabin and the 12-hour ride was pretty cool. All of our cabins were right next to one another, and there was an unintentionally retro Club Car a couple of cars down – it was too smoky for me to hang out for long, but I did get one surreal picture that kinda captured the spirit of it all. From the left that's Nathan, Brian and Spencer.

This morning (Monday) we arrived in Aswan, which is a small town right on the Nile in the far south of Egypt. It's picturesque and much calmer than crazy Cairo - these two photos are the view from the rooftop of our hotel. We checked into our hotel, showered (which I have since realized is a pointless venture because the buckets of sweat start pouring as soon as you get out), and then took a little motor boat over to the west side of the Nile. This is where the desert camel ride in the ridiculous heat happened, and I honestly don’t remember most of it due to the previously mentioned concentration on not fainting and not throwing up. We rode (for what seemed like hours, but I think it was only 30 minutes) out to a sixth century monastery called St Simeon.

I asked Mudi, our guide, to make my camel go faster for the return trip, so he tethered my camel to the back of his and we literally galloped through the desert back to our boat. This entire experience would have been a lot of fun if my skin hadn’t been hot enough to bake cookies on. The boat took us to Kitchener Island, which contains a botanical garden where I sat on a bench in the shade and tried to regain consciousness while everyone else walked around.

After shade, lots of beverages, and dumping a liter of cold water on my head and torso, I was feeling much more human when we re-boarded our boat and made it over to a Nubian village where we met up with a very nice man and had a delicious lunch in his house! It was awesome (the food, the village, the company, the experience – all of it!)! One of the Nubian ladies came by and gave us all henna tattoos.

Tomorrow morning we wake up at 3 AM to join a caravan down to Abu Simbel temple. Apparently, Abu Simbel is out in the middle of nowhere, so the Tourist Police of Egypt require all tourists to travel in an escorted caravan to the site for safety reasons. Otherwise, the road to Abu Simbel is deserted and if your vehicle breaks down you’re screwed. Unfortunately, the caravan leaves at 4 AM! But we just have to wake up, board the van, and then sleep for the 2-3 hour drive to Abu Simbel. Good night!

Casa to Cairo

2010-06-19T23:30:00.006-05:00

My Cairo-bound plane left Casablanca at 1 AM on Saturday morning, and I had maybe two (fitful) hours of sleep during the flight. Arrived safely in Cairo and am relieved that, so far, most people seem to speak at least some English! Attempting to communicate in my broken French was getting kind of old.

Cairo is a huge, sprawling city with old and new, dirty and pristine areas. After checking into my hotel, which is in the middle of downtown, I walked around for a little while and then took a shower and crashed for a nice long nap. Then I ate my very first Turkish coffee! (Ate is the correct word for this thick, crunchy, strange tasting caffeine buzz.)

There are only 6 of us in the tour group and we met up with each other and our tour leader at 6 PM for an introductory meeting. Our tour leader’s name is Mudi and he seems pretty cool, and the rest of the group consists of a married couple from Scotland (Nic and Euan), an Aussie (Nathan), and two Canadian boys (Brian and Spencer). Everyone seems really great and I think we have a nice dynamic, so it should be a fun trip!

2010-06-19T06:20:00.001-05:00

Made it to Cairo!

Volubilis...et au revoir Maroc

2010-06-18T06:13:00.000-05:00

Today is my last day in Morocco; I'm taking the train to Casablanca this afternoon and then flying to Cairo tonight. While in Egypt, I will be with a tour group and I'm not sure if I will be able to do any blog updates. However, since I posted about 4 new items today, that should keep you busy reading for a while. :-) If I can't post anything while in Egypt, I will be sure to update when I get home. (Ahhhh, home, that sounds really nice.)

Yesterday I chartered a Grand Taxi to take me to the ancient Roman ruins of Volubilis (and the nearby small town of Moulay Idriss). The scenery along the way was breathtaking and the ruins were fascinating; I can see why this was a location for Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. Just gorgeous!!!! It was also really nice to be alone in the quiet for a while. Nobody around, no men gawking, nobody trying to talk me up, just plain old peace and quiet. Ahhhhhhh.....

I did meet this ancient Roman donkey, but he was pretty quiet.

Meknes

2010-06-16T22:54:00.027-05:00

Wednesday morning I caught the 30 minute train to Meknes…and this time I knew better than to take an unmarked “taxi” to my hotel. Fifty cents is a much better price than three dollars. :-) My hotel in Meknes is hilarious – it’s called Hotel Majestic and it’s an old 1930’s building that has attempted to keep the vintage feel. It’s really funky, cheap, and in a good location right in the middle of town.

Wednesday afternoon I roamed around Meknes on foot and tried to find the Ville Imperiale. I got lost in the medina and didn’t find the palace remains, but it was a relief to not be hassled by guides at every turn.

On my way to the medina, I did run across this – that says “Pizza Hut” in Arabic, folks.

Abdesslam is awesome!

2010-06-16T05:44:00.025-05:00

Needing an escape from Fes, I decided on a day trip to Sefrou for Tuesday. As I mentioned previously, I befriended the proprietor of an Internet café there who turned out to be a wonderful, kind, sweet gentleman named Abdesslam. We struck up a conversation and before I knew it I was getting a free, first class tour of the province with my own personal guide!

Sefrou is absolutely beautiful and there is no way I would have seen everything I saw without Abdesslam. He drove me around for hours, showed me some of the most fantastic views, treated me to a delicious meal, introduced me to lots of people in Sefrou (including the mayor) and insisted on driving me all the way back to my hotel in Fes.

It was such a surprising and relaxing day – a much needed respite from the crazy streets of Fes. Abdesslam is awesome!!!

Sefrou

2010-06-15T07:09:00.000-05:00

I took a Grand Taxi to the tiny town of Sefrou today. Its much calmer than crazy Fes and a welcome relief from all the chaos. I believe I prefer the smaller towns of Morocco to the larger, more touristy areas (although they have a draw, too).

A word about taxis here...Morocco actually has pretty extensive means of public transportation - from an interesting set up of Grand or Petit Taxis to lots of buses and trains. The Petit Taxis are tiny little cars that stay within one city and operate similarly to taxis in the States, although they can only allow up to 3 passengers. They can be a bit confusing if someone is already in the car when you join or if the taxi picks up additional passengers along the way, but they are very cheap and reliable.

Grand Taxis are a little different - they are old Mercedes and they are only allowed to go on fixed routes between set destinations. The first challenge in finding a Grand Taxi is figuring out where to catch the one that goes to the location youre trying to reach. GT stands are scattered throughout the cities, and of course none of them are labeled - you just have to know! Once you find the correct Grand Taxi stand, you have a couple of options. The charge for a GT is a fixed amount per seat from point A to point B. If you cant wait for the GT to fill up with other passengers before leaving, or if you just want the vehicle to yourself, then you can buy all of the seats and effectively charter the car for yourself. This morning I wanted to get the real Moroccan experience, so I bought my single seat in a GT from Fes to Sefrou and plastered myself up against the inside of the car door to make room for the other three passengers shoved in the backseat with me. Along with the two passengers in the front seat and the driver, seven people ride in each GT from point A to point B. The amazing thing about this is the dirt cheap price - my seat cost only 10 dirhams...the equivalent of about $1 USD. So, for a 30-35 minute ride to another town, the driver raked in a whopping six bucks. Im not sure how that even covers the cost of his gas, but here I am.

I have no real agenda today, just wandering around Sefrou to check it out. Ive already made friends with the proprietor of this internet cafe, so maybe an adventure will come of that! I hear there are people not far from here who actually live in caves and will invite you into their homes for a visit - that sounds interesting...

Fes? Pfffft!

2010-06-15T05:08:00.071-05:00

I am glad that I got to see Fes, but I’m even gladder that I’m done seeing Fes. It’s a fascinating city, but from the time I stepped off the bus I was being hustled, swindled or ripped off. Urrrgh! I know that the people there are just trying to eke out a living, but it never feels good to know you’re being taken advantage of.

Anyway, I arrived in Fes on Sunday after a scenic, but rainy, 5 hour bus ride from Chefchaouen. Apparently the luggage compartment of our bus was not weatherized, because my luggage (and everything in it) was dripping wet when I got it. Since I’m backpacking this trip I had to put on the wet backpack and leave the bus station with a soaking wet ass. As soon as I walked outside a man asked if I wanted a taxi, so I threw my bag in the back and hopped in to realize that this wasn’t a regular, metered taxi. Oops! By this point I just wanted to get to my hotel, so I paid five times more than I should have for a quick ride down the street. Hustle number one, complete.

On the ride from Chefchaouen I read through the Fes section of my guidebook to figure out where I should stay. I decided to “splurge” and go for a nice hotel in the nice part of town for a whopping $30 USD per night (my own private bathroom where I could wash some dirty clothes sounded very appealing). When I arrived at the Splendid Hotel, I asked the clerk how much the room would be per night and he told me 250 dirhams (around $28 USD). Fantastic! I will stay here for three nights then! I’m not sure if his English was just incorrect or if the dude on check-out day was lying, but it actually cost 350 dirhams (~$40 USD) per night. Still much cheaper than a decent hotel in the States, but I’m counting that as Fes swindle number two.

Sunday night I spent drying out my backpack and its contents, washing some clothes, and figuring out what I wanted to see while in Fes. Monday morning, bright and early, I woke up and took a taxi to the old medina and looked for an official guide to take me through Fes el Bali.

Fes el Bali (the oldest section of the medina) is quite interesting. It’s one of the most complete medieval cities still in use and is the largest car-free urban area in the world (this is a picture of the Fes garbage collection service – seriously!). It’s like a maze with hundreds of narrow, winding streets and dead-end alleys. Some quarter of a million people still live inside the walls of this city that seems like it hasn’t changed much at all since it was built in the 8th century.

My guide, Abdu, was really cool at first. He was funny and showed me a lot of interesting stuff, such as the camel meat stall. Look closely – yes, that is an actual camel head hanging next to me, and some raw camel meat just in front of me. Abdul tried to make me eat some, but I refused.

He also took me to the Medersa Bou Inania (a medersa is a religious school where students come to study Islam), which allows non-Muslims to enter the courtyard. I was not allowed into the actual prayer hall itself, but did get some pictures and a good glimpse at what a mosque looks like on the inside. The building is truly spectacular – all of the dark cedar wood and stucco were carved by hand and the zellij mosaic tile work was also placed by hand, one piece at a time. The intricate decorations cover every surface of the building – it takes your breath away when you walk into the space for the first time.

Next Abdu started taking me into various shops “to see how crafts are made,” including a carpet/rug factory. It was actually quite fascinating to see how the rugs are hand knotted on a loom (I even got to try it), but then they bring out the tea and snacks and expect you to sit and look at rug after rug after rug. I was very clear that I was not in the market for buying a rug, but they continued to come out…and Abdu conveniently disappeared. Sometime during the eternity that I sat in the rug shop, two English-speaking girls came in and we all started chatting. Mandy and Erin (I always seem to meet Erins when I’m traveling!) invited me to meet up with them after my tour finished, and I’m glad I did – they were really cool and fun to hang out with! Eventually Abdu finally reappeared and we set off to see more of Fes el Bali.

I told Abdu that I wanted to see the spice souk, but we ended up in some “pharmacy” that pimps natural cures along with spices. It was not what I had in mind, but I sat and listened to the shopkeeper’s sales pitch and ended up buying a few things. Here is where rip-off number three comes in (and I do realize that all of these are totally my fault). Everywhere else in the world uses the handy metric system for measurements. However, since I’m American, I’m not really sure what one gram of something should look like. I decided to buy some spices and by the time he added everything up it came out to 700 dirhams – eighty bucks for three packets of spices and some essential oil. Rip off number three, complete!

During the various “tours” of the different craft shops, I did get to see some beautiful homes and buildings that I never would have found on my own.

One of the most interesting areas, where I lingered for a long while, was the tanneries Chouwara where animal hides are spread out on rooftops to dry, vats of pigeon dung and phosphorous are used to treat the skins, and men work knee-deep in honeycombed vats of dye to color the leather. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before!

Eventually my tour ended and we ended up (surprise!) back in the rug shop. I had agreed to meet Mandy and Erin there at 3:30, but Abdu made sure to get me there at 3 o’clock so I could “relax” (and look at more effing rugs). I successfully managed to escape without buying a rug (attempted hustle #4 – FAIL. Woo hoo! I won one!) and ran around with Mandy and Erin for the rest of the day.

There really is a lot to see in Fes, and I’m glad that I went, but after one very tiring and very expensive day, I was ready to try something different. And I found it in Sefrou!

Oh yes, one other interesting tidbit. Berbers (the native people of Morocco, prior to Arab influence) believe that bread is sacred. I learned about this in Rabat at the CCS home base, because we were not allowed to throw any bread away. If we didn't finish our bread, we had to give it to the kitchen ladies and I never was sure what they did with it. We were told that they feed it to animals or needy people. While in Fes, I came across this gigantic pile of bread....

Quick Update from Fes

2010-06-13T15:19:00.000-05:00

I am alive and well in Fes!! I no longer have wireless connectivity, so I am parked at a cafe in Fes for a quick update. The keyboards here are in three languages and very confusing, so it takes me 5 times longer to type a sentence!

I had an awesome weekend in Chefchaouen with my friend Erin, and now I am on my own for the rest of my travels. I will be in Morocco until Friday and then I leave for Egypt. I am continuing to write blog entries on my personal computer, but I dont know when I will be able to upload them here. Sorry to all my fans out there (HA HA HA).

Much love from North Africa!!
Kimberly

I love Chefchaouen!

2010-06-13T10:00:00.041-05:00

I am writing this from a bus, somewhere between Chefchaouen and Fes in the middle of Morocco. Just typing that sentence raises my awareness of the incredible life I live and my gratitude for the journey I'm on right now in North Africa. Experiencing a culture so very different from my own is an awesome, heart-opening opportunity that I wish everyone could experience for themselves.

Chefchaouen is a beautiful, quaint, laid-back, hippy kind of town in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco. The most striking feature is the blue-washed walls of the town - here are some photos, but they don't come close to capturing the feeling of walking around in a medieval medina bathed in soft blue hues. It's gorgeous!!

Our hotel was inside the medina and cost us a whopping $6/night. Yes, that's right, SIX US DOLLARS per person per night. SCORE! And it was an adorable little place, perfect for a couple of nights. (It's the Hotel Ouarzazat if you're ever in the neighborhood.) Here are a couple pics of what six bucks gets you in Chefchaouen:

The overall pace of the town is much more relaxed than the bigger cities. My friend Erin and I spent time walking around the narrow streets of the medina, shopping, watching the artisans at work, exploring and bargaining. Most of the shopkeepers leave you alone unless you seem interested in something they have to offer, although the occasional proprietor likes to "just practice" his English speaking skills (and, in turn, try to rope you in to looking at his products).

We did encounter two VERY friendly shopkeepers - they were beyond kind, funny and unique, and I'm glad we met both of them, though both Erin and I felt a little molested after the experiences in their shops! We chatted and laughed with each of them for a good while, and received an abundance of hugs and kisses from them both. Neither seemed to care that both Erin and I are married (we made it a point to tell them), so we aren't sure if the lack of personal space and over-the-top affection is just a cultural difference, or if we were, indeed, being molested. Either way, it was hilarious and we have some great stories and pictures from it! :-)

We also did some light hiking outside of the town to see an old Spanish mosque that is supposed to be accessible to tourists (the mosques in Morocco are off-limits to foreigners). We made it up the mountain to the mosque to find it closed, but the views along the way and at the top were totally worth the trek.

If you ever find yourself in Morocco, I highly recommend some time in Chefchaouen. It's an awesome little town and totally worth the long bus ride to get there. I heart Chefchaouen!!

(this, ladies and gentlemen, is a SNAIL BAR):

Volunteer Wrap Up

2010-06-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

After being home sick for two days, I was really looking forward to my last day of placement at the University because I wanted to see my students and say goodbye before leaving Rabat. But if there is one 'rule' in Africa, it's that things never seem to go as planned; I'm telling myself that the three hours I spent working on unused lesson plans were not wasted, I just saved the next volunteer some time! But, I did get a chance to see some of my favorite students and exchange contact information before the end of the day, so it was not a complete bomb.

I've been thinking a lot about my volunteer placement and the work I've done here in Rabat – this was an absolutely different experience from my time in Tanzania last year, where I felt as though I had been scrubbed raw from the inside out. Instead, my Moroccan volunteer work seems to have been more for me than for the people I worked with. I feel like I personally gained much more from this experience than my students could have possibly gained from me.

To be quite frank, I was a little scared of Islam and the Arab world before I came to Morocco. I knew that the images we see in the news at home are sensationalized and the stories very one-sided, but that was still where my preconceived ideas were formed. So of course I was nervous and not sure what to expect. Because I wanted to break through my own prejudices and learn the “other side” of things, I asked my students to teach me about their religion and culture – yes, that helped them practice English, but I am truly the one who benefited most from our classes.

I realize that we only scratched the surface of Islam in our discussions, but I do feel much more informed than before. I cannot say that I agree with everything my students told me, but I was able to listen with an open mind to concepts that were new to me or even contradictory to my own beliefs. And I can say that with every question and explanation we exchanged, I learned more about them as individuals, as Muslims, as Moroccans, and as human beings.

In Tanzania I was overwhelmed with the question of “WHAT DO I DO?” to help people who were literally dying from poverty and disease. There is definitely poverty in Morocco, but here my journey has been more about acknowledging the fact that we are all dying a little each time that we fail to see the humanity in one another.

Desert Weekend

2010-06-10T06:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the length of time since my last update - I've been down and out with a nasty bug for the past few days. :-( It really sucks, I've missed three days of my volunteer placement over these two weeks - the main reason for coming here in the first place! That's definitely a bummer. Anyway, here is an update from last weekend and I'll try to catch up soon.

Friday afternoon I began an amazing journey with four other CCS volunteers (Erin, Hanna, Alex and Monty) to the edge of the Sahara desert. We had a FANTASTIC guide named Hamza - he was so wonderful - and a funny driver we nicknamed Abdu. Friday afternoon we drove for about 5 hours, stopping along the way to see some of the sights. The landscape in Morocco is beautiful and varied - from the Mediterranean climate of Rabat to the desert of Merzouga with forest, pastures, and mountains in between. Saturday consisted of another 6 hours of driving and sightseeing before we reached the desert dunes.

One of our first stops was to feed some monkeys in a forested area - they were so sweet! They came right up to us and took bread from our hands. I was so excited feeding them that I didn't get many good pictures. :-)

Each town in Morocco has, somewhere, the Moroccan motto spelled out in the landscape. We saw this in a few towns - it reads "God, Country, King" (from right to left). I was trying to think of the U.S.' motto - is it Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness? Or Land of the Free, Home of the Brave? What is it? (my patriotic knowledge = FAIL) Morocco is a royal kingdom and something interesting I learned is that it is illegal for Moroccan's to speak badly of the King - you get jailed, for a long time, if you're caught. It does sound like the current King (Mohammed VI) has actually done quite a bit to improve the lives of Moroccans, particularly women.

Here is a big pile of goat and sheep skins on the side of the road, waiting to be taken to the tanneries in Fez. Plus a few other really cool sights we saw on our way to the Sahara!

Hamza took us into the bowels of a kasbah - it must have been 100 degrees outside (miserable heat), but when we went through the halls of the kasbah the temperature dropped considerably. The walls are made of a mixture of mud, straw and water. We actually got to go into someone's home and have tea in a real Moroccan's living room! It was very cool.

We finally made it to the dunes of Merzouga in the late afternoon. It was so ridiculously hot - Hanna has an alarm clock/thermometer device and it was about 103 degrees inside our van while driving down the highway with all the windows open. Uggh! We had some tea to relax before learning how to tie our turbans and heading off into the desert on the camels. The turbans were quite helpful - you leave a long piece of cloth loose to protect your face from the sand (when the wind gusts) or to protect your skin from the searing hot sun. We also found it helpful to keep flies from going into our mouths.

The camel ride was surreal - I mean, come on, I rode a camel in the Sahara desert!!! Such a crazy and unexpected experience! We rode on our stinky, snotty camels for about an hour and a half across the dunes to a Berber camp. The camp was actually really nice and comfortable - they had very sturdy tents with small mattresses and sheets for each of us, a nice table with comfy cushions for us to relax. But watch out for the yellow sand! ha ha ha

We climbed one of the dunes near camp to see the spectacular sunset and hung out with each other and Hamza, enjoying the lovely evening. We were served a tasty dinner and then treated to some traditional Berber music - the three guys who run the camp played trance-like drums and sang songs to us while we relaxed under the bazillions of stars in the sky. It was an amazing experience. We all pulled our mattresses out of the tents and fell asleep under the stars of the Sahara desert.

So that we could see the sunrise, we woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning and got back on the camels to head home. It was breathtaking! The rest of Sunday was spent in the van driving back to Rabat (about 11 hours).

Thursday & Friday

2010-06-04T04:43:00.000-05:00

There are a few things I've failed to mention in previous posts. On Wednesday night, Erin, Alex and I decided to take a walk down to the Marjane, which is kind of like a WalMart on steroids. It was a huge, crazy, busy shopping center where the price checker guys wore Rollerblades and a Zamboni moved through the crowds to mop the floors. It was hilarious!

Also, have I mentioned the driving here? It is really insane. SCARY insane, not funny insane. There are lane lines painted on the streets, but I have no idea why they waste the paint because not a single car pays attention to them. A street that's intended to have one lane of cars in each direction is "easily" made into a four-lane road by the crazy drivers here. And god forbid you try to put on a seat belt in a taxi - the driver actually gets offended and takes it off of you! One thing I do like, however, is that everyone is very liberal with their car horns. That always gives me a chuckle.

Yesterday (Thursday) we were scheduled with the PhD student(s) again. Turns out there are actually 2 students, the guy Hamid who we met on Monday, and a woman who joined us for the first time yesterday. I haven't quite figured out her name, but she was awesome! We chatted at the University for a little while, then the students took us to the new Moroccan National Library to show us around. It's a beautiful facility (apparently the largest in Africa), very modern and well equipped. We had to cut our tour a bit short so we weren't able to see the entire thing, but it was a nice little side trip.

In the afternoon we had a Moroccan cooking lesson! Khadija taught us how to use a tagine to make a traditional Moroccan dish. I don't think I've mentioned the food here yet - it's awesome! Lots of fresh vegetables, some sort of soup and yummy bread accompany every meal. The staff at the home base are wonderful, especially the cooks!

Last night I hung out at the house because I wasn't feeling really great. Unfortunately, I woke up early this morning because I had to throw up, which is really awesome when you're on the top bunk of a bunk-bed. I'm glad I made it to the bathroom, but I had to stay home from placement this morning because my stomach would not settle down. :-( Bummer. I've been resting this morning and am feeling a little better now. I hope my illness passes quickly, because we are heading out for a weekend excursion this afternoon! A trip to the Sahara Desert to ride on camels and play in sand dunes. :-)

3 days of Volunteer Placement

2010-06-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

My first day of volunteer work was at the University, teaching conversational English to Chemistry PhD students. Turns out that the PhD class is very small - only 1 student - so I was really glad that another volunteer went with me! We asked him what he would like to focus on during our time here, and he just wants to practice conversation. His English speaking skills are quite advanced, so we just spent time talking and getting to know one another. When I couldn't think of anything to talk about, Jennifer (my co-volunteer) would jump in with questions. It was actually pretty difficult to fill up an hour and 45 minutes with conversation! When we meet with him next time, we will be bringing some articles to discuss or have other topics of conversation planned. All in all, I think it was a good first day.

In the afternoon, after lunch, we had a two hour discussion about Morocco at the home base. Mohammed, the CCS Country Director for Morocco, gave a little bit of a lecture but mostly allowed us to ask whatever questions we wanted to ask. It was a very interesting and lively session! I learned a lot about the country and am really looking forward to more sessions like this.

After that, four of us decided to go into town and explore the medina on our own. It was crazy and a lot like the Stone Town in Zanzibar. Thankfully, the medina in Rabat is a lot less pressure than those in more touristy areas, such as Marrakesh. It was crowded, but we were able to walk around and look at all the cool stuff without being hassled. We made our way through the medina to the beach and a little boardwalk area where we had a yummy dinner for really cheap!

Second day of placement (yesterday) was different - we had Master's level students this time, and it was a class of 11! They were a lot more lively and competitive, and the activities we had planned went much faster than we thought they would. Their English speaking skills were definitely not as advanced as our PhD student's, but many of them are still able to easily communicate with just a little help. Jennifer and I were scrambling to think of more to teach/talk about, so we definitely need to prepare better for upcoming classes. It was a fun group, but it's stressful being a teacher! I have that much more respect for all of you teachers out there.

After placement the volunteers went on a "field trip" with the CCS staff - Abdullah took us to the medina and several other tourist sites, such as the old kasbah, the ruins of an unfinished mosque, and the King's tombs. It was awesome! Rabat has a lot of history and some beautiful sights.

Today our University students had a conference, so we did not teach. Instead, I spent the morning at the local orphanage helping take care of the children. It was really heart wrenching. Culturally, children born out of wedlock in Morocco bring huge amounts of shame to the woman who bears the child (and her family). Most of the kids who end up in the orphanage are abandoned because they were the result of adultery.

The orphanage was actually a nice facility by local standards, but the standard of care for these children is atrocious. Healthy children tend to get adopted pretty quickly (it's a six month adoption process, and three or four adoptive parents were there today playing with their soon-to-be-kids). But most of the kids in the orphanage have some sort of disability and, unfortunately, the kids with special needs tend to spent their entire lives in the orphanage. Some were in their 20s or 30s and have been there since birth. It was incredibly sad - I've never before seen human bodies so contorted and mangled from disease. And beyond their physical disabilities, the standard of care at the orphanage was really rather disgusting. Several of the wheelchair-bound kids had skin infections, none of the kids ever get their teeth brushed so they all have rotting teeth, and perhaps the saddest part was the diapers. Because the orphanage has very little money, they only allow each child three diapers per day. One when they wake up, one after lunch, and one before bed. That's it. It doesn't matter if the kid needs more, they just have to sit in it. And because they don't want the kids to pee very much, they aren't given any liquids at all; they are fed three meals but get no water or beverages.

I was helping with the three year olds, and given two kids to watch for the morning. One, Emande (probably spelled that wrong,) was an adorable little girl who wanted to be held all the time. I feel confident that she will be adopted soon - she is really cute and playful and calls everyone "mama" (including me). The other child, whose name I do not know, was a wheelchair-bound little boy. I don't know exactly what is wrong with him, but he is severely disabled and disfigured, unable to walk, see or communicate. I don't think anyone had picked him up out of his wheelchair to just hold him in ages. He was so happy to just have me pick him up for a while. It really broke my heart to be there and see the lives of these abandoned kids.

Here are some pictures for you. In order, they are: 1) the ceiling of the King's tomb, 2) looking down into the King's tomb onto his grave, 3) wall detail in the King's tomb, 4) fancy gold thing outside of the King's tomb, 5) man on a horse outside the King's tomb, 6) an orange juice stand in the medina where they juice the orange for you and give you the MOST DELICIOUS glass of orange juice you've ever had in your life!, 7) me rocking the kasbah, 8, 9 & 10) inside the kasbah, 11) the entrance to the kasbah, 12) a neat door, 13) an alley in the medina, 14) the Rabat port/river/beach, 15) a view of the kasbah from the beach, 16 & 17) looking up in the medina, 18) A VIDEO FOR BUDDY!

Getting to Morocco and the CCS Home Base

2010-05-31T10:23:00.000-05:00

The Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is a crazy place. It's huge and spread out. I decided to be adventurous and fly a discount European airline called EasyJet from Paris to Morocco. I believe the reason that EasyJet has such cheap fares ($125 roundtrip Paris/Casablanca) is because they are advertisement whores - the back of every seat was plastered with an ad for some cell phone company and the flight attendants actually go through the cabin trying to sell you stuff, multiple times throughout the flight. It was amusing.

Anyway, I arrived safely in Casablanca with gorgeous weather. As I walked into the terminal they were playing some awesome Middle Eastern/Arabic tunes. Then as I waited to go through immigration, the next song was a Muzak version Careless Whisper (George Michael) - ha!! I muddled my way through immigration and security, got to the train station and managed to purchase a ticket to Rabat. Score!

The first train from Casa airport was a confusing, hot, sweaty mess. There was no AC, it was about 85 degrees outside, and for some reason the folks sitting next to windows did not feel the need to open them. People (myself included) were sweating like crazy and it was completely packed. I got the lucky seat right next to the toilet, so that was a nice scent mixed in with all the sweat. ;-) I am so glad it was a quick 30 minute trip to my next stop! And I am very thankful to the woman beside me who looked at my ticket and told me when to get off the train!! I would have completely missed my stop, as the stations are not labeled in English or French. Probably not in Arabic either, but I can't be sure about that one.

The second train was MUCH BETTER. Air conditioning! Lots of leg room! Fantastic views of Morocco on the way to Rabat! Yay!

And I saw the poverty very clearly - trash piled along the side of the roads, rows and rows of dilapidated multi-family housing, buildings that look like they are about to crumble, etc. At the same time, there are some beautiful, lavish grounds that obviously belong to wealthy people. It's funny, a friend I was talking to before this trip was really surprised when I said I was going to volunteer in Morocco. She has a friend from Morocco who is from a wealthy family, so the only things she's heard about the country are how beautiful everything is and how much her friend loves living here. Just like in many countries, there seems to be a sharp divide between the rich and the poor here.

After planes, trains and automobiles, I made it safely to the CCS home base in Rabat. Yay! The home base grounds are beautiful, in a very nice neighborhood/suburb of Rabat (the royal family lives down the street). I met several of the volunteers as soon as I arrived, and was informed that it was the last night of a huge, free music festival. During the prior week the volunteers had seen BB King, Santana, and Elton John - I got to see....STING! Woot!!

The rest of Paris

2010-05-30T17:01:00.000-05:00

Although I did not want to leave the Louvre, I felt that I couldn't call it a proper trip to Paris without seeing some of the other sights! So I forced myself to leave, bought a ticket for the Batobus (which is a boat that runs a loop up and down the river Siene) and hit up Notre Dame Cathedral, the Champs Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, and Eiffel Tower. I was WORN OUT by the end of the day but I faithfully executed my tourist duties. :-)

First stop was Notre Dame cathedral, which looked like this from the Siene. Once I got off the boat and approached ND, I heard some music and saw a big crowd gathered to watch these guys break-dancing. Inside the cathedral was very dark, very Gothic, and very Catholic. The stained glass windows were beautiful and these photos don't do them justice.

After the crowds at ND I wandered around the famous Latin Quarter for a bit. The most fragrant and lovely scent drew me into this garden - the roses were so amazing and I could smell them from the street! Mom, you would have loved it! It instantly reminded me of you and Goggi. I was inspired to grab another crepe with Nutella so that I had an excuse to sit in the little park and enjoy. Here are a few more pics of some of the sights I saw....

J'arrive a Maroc

2010-05-30T05:07:00.000-05:00

Made it to Morocco safely - we are in orientation all day today so I will make an update later.

Louvre Museum

2010-05-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

Here I am, happy as a clam at my first spotting of the Louvre! This is the back side of the museum, but I had to take a picture anyway. My plan was to spend the morning in the Louvre then catch a free 3 hour walking tour of the city that started at 1 PM. But the Louvre was so captivating that I just couldn't leave!! It's something I've dreamed of seeing since I was a teenager, so I stayed for a few extra hours. I know that I didn't even scratch the surface of all the Louvre holds, but it was AMAZING!!!

Buddy, next time you go hunting, I think you should do it in the nude like this guy:

I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures - anything I have to say about this art would be an injustice.

After spending 6 hours in the Louvre, I finally decided to leave and look around at the rest of Paris. When you exit the Louvre, it spits you out into this weird underground shopping mall (that's also where the inverted pyramid can be found). I looked everywhere for a restroom, and actually walked by this place several times before I realized that it was, indeed, the toilet. Had to pay 1 Euro to pee there, but it sure was fancy! This is the "welcome wall."

Montmartre District, Paris (FRANCE, baby!)

2010-05-27T15:24:00.000-05:00

So, after about 9 hours of hanging out in Chicago O'Hare airport, the plane finally left...a mere 3 hours late. As soon as I got on the plane I popped a melatonin, put on my eye mask and tried to sleep. I was semi-successful at sleeping on the plane, and have managed to stay awake since my arrival in Paris except for one brief nod on the train. Good work.

I cannot believe that I'm in Paris!!! It is rather surreal to walk around hearing the language and seeing the things that I've only read about! I also cannot believe how little I prepared/planned for my time here. That is rather unlike me, but I wanted to just play it by ear and allow myself to wander wherever the wind blows me. So far, so good!

Speaking of wandering, I managed to find my way to the train from the airport, get on the correct train, and get off at the correct train stop. That's where my luck with directions ended, which also happened to coincide with a downpour. Thus, my very first experience of Paris (outside of the train station) was schlepping my heavy luggage around the rainy streets for a good hour, lost and trying to find my hotel. :-) I found it eventually and spent a few minutes in my room drying off and trying to figure out what to do next.

I found out about a cheap walking tour of Montmartre and had a few hours to kill beforehand, so I decided to just start walking around. I'm not sure exactly when I figured it out - could have been the Sexodrome or the Erotic Supermarket - but I somehow stumbled directly into the Red Light District. There was some pretty funny stuff, including several gigantic signs that simply say "SEX." I always appreciate directness. I also saw a street vendor who had ASS-KEBAB on their menu, but I'm not sure if that was an erotic menu item or just a typo.

Oh yes, street vendors will make you an awesome fresh crepe for only a few bucks! They have a hot, flat stone that they place the crepe batter on, then they thin it out evenly with something that looks like a flat wooden rake. On the recommendation of my friends Ryan and Mary, I got one made for myself and had them add Nutella. I must say that that was the most amazing dessert item I think I've ever consumed. Warm liquid chocolate on a warm, fresh, thin crepe - DUDE!!! It was amazing.

By the way, Michael Jackson is very much alive in Paris. His music was blasting out of many of the shops and restaurants in Montmartre, including the Bistrot Chat Noir where I had my very first French meal (it was absolutely DELICIOUS!).

As I wandered around I happened upon the most beautiful cemetery - it was incredibly peaceful and ethereal. I think some famous people are buried there, but I was just captivated by the monuments and crypts.

My walking tour began in front of the Moulin Rouge (back in the Red Light District) and included plenty of funny commentary by our tour guide. We got to see Van Gogh's house, the Basilica de Sacre Coeur, lots of working artists in the squares, restaurants and homes where Picasso, Van Gogh, and Toulouse Lautrec all worked. AWESOME!!!!

Here is something that cracked me up. An artist named Misstic was angry when her boyfriend broke up with her, so she painted pictures all around Montmartre of herself having sex with various people in an attempt to make the boyfriend jealous. I don't know if it was effective, but it's rather shocking to walk around the corner of a cozy Parisian street and see stuff like this on the side of a building. :-) That's art, people.

One last photo - this is a huge piece of art in one of the public gardens/parks. It says "I love you" in every known language in the world. Pretty cool, huh?

My plans for tomorrow are the Musee du Louvre (wooooo hooooo!!!!!) and another walking tour of all the "big stuff" in Paris - you know, the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Latin Quarter.

Right now, it's time to catch up on some much needed beauty rest.

2010-05-27T07:47:00.001-05:00

Made it to Paris

On my way

2010-05-26T13:53:00.000-05:00

I'm writing to you from the Chicago O'Hare airport with very bloodshot eyes - I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night, but I'm trying to stay awake until I board my flight to Paris in a few hours. I arrive in Paris around 8:45 AM, so sleeping on the plane will be ideal for warding off jet lag. As long as I don't pass out in the terminal, I think I'm good to go! :-)

I am super excited about this trip!!!! I will be spending 2 days in Paris, then three weeks in Morocco, then 9 days in Egypt before heading back to Paris and the U.S. What an amazing life I have!

Not sure if I will be able to charge my laptop while in France because I don't have the correct power adapter. But in Morocco I will have wireless access for at least the first two weeks and I'll be sure to update my blog often with pictures and stories.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support - especially my dear husband who is staying home with our "kids." I love you, Buddy!

I'll be talking to you from across the pond....