Strong Women

Part of my job here is to lead through example and tonight I took that opportunity to do just that. After driving home from the youth center my Moroccan father, Moroccan sister and, I were getting out of the car when I asked them to talk to a man in a store nearby about some Moroccan sofas for me. I had visited the man earlier that day and was pretty sure that he wanted 250 Dh for them but I wanted to be sure. We spoke with the man and my father was able to talk the man down 50 Dh so I ended up getting 2 for 450 Dh. I was very excited about this find because I was anticipating paying twice that amount.

The man agreed to let me take the sofas right then and return the next day with the cash. He was going to have one of his shop workers take them to my house which was only about 40 feet away. My father suggested I tip the man for his services, but he also insisted he would tip him since he had the money on him. I wasn’t convinced that I needed the shop owner to help us get these small couches home. There were 4 of us standing there, my father, brother, sister, and myself and I didn’t see why we couldn’t carry them. 

At this point I began insisting that I could do it. My father and the men in the store said “no, no, they are very heavy.” Well it was obvious I couldn’t do it alone and no one else was stepping up instantly to help me. I looked at my sister Rababe and said “you can help me right?” With a big smile she told me of course she could. I gave her a fist bump and said “girl power” and we were off. My father reminded me how heavy it was and at that point there was no turning back.

We got it to the front door of the apartment then we stared down the 3 flights of stairs we had to go up. Rababe didn’t hesitate for one second. Little by little we got the sofas up the stairs, all the while the lights went on and off due to the heavy wind we were experiencing.

I could have backed up and let the man carry the sofa, on his own, with no struggle, up the stairs, in about a minute flat. But since coming to Morocco my stubbornness has increased 10 fold and I refuse to let people tell me what I should do. Sometimes I have little or no control over what is going on, so when I see the opportunity to control a situation I run with it.

When we were finally finished I hugged Rababe tight, thanked her, and told her women can do anything and we don’t need men’s help. I could tell she was proud of herself and she agreed whole heartedly with what I told her. I couldn't let this opportunity go by to show both her and the men involved that women are strong and independent.

Read more

Meknes Trip

A large full floor mosaic in one of the buildings.

Nudity in Morocco, how refreshing.
\ Me at the top of the hill, over looking the whole city

A view of the Arc of Triomph

Team Meknes: Linda, Donna, Alex, Henry, Emily, Sean, and Ed

After my 2 week post pre-service training in Azrou I had to head home though a city called Meknes. Some of my fellow volunteers were traveling there to sightsee so I thought I would join them seeing as Meknes was on my list of Moroccan destinations.
We stopped off at a hotel that someone had found in the Lonely Planet travel guide which cost 90 Dh (12 dollars) for a night, each person. You know you are in Peace Corps (and that you’re cheap) when you cringe at having to spend 90 Dh per night on a less than perfect hotel. I wasn’t going to put up a fight because I just wanted to have a safe place to leave my luggage.

We were in search of a way to get to the Roman ruins that Meknes is famous for. Between Ed’s Lonely Planet guide and the receptionist at the desk speaking Darija/French we found out how to get to the taxi stand where we would find a ride to the ruins. Well we walked away with somewhat of an idea, the rest we just figured out on the way. That’s the trend here in Morocco, don’t ever expect to understand things completely.

We found a taxi driver that agreed to drive us out to the ruins (30k north), wait for us for 2 hours, then drive us back. The small problem was, our group was seven people strong and taxis, by law, are only allowed six passengers. Two too many if you ask me, but hey no one really ever asks me!

If he wouldn’t take all seven of us we would have had to split up into two taxis and it would have cost us each a lot more money. Three of the members of my travel group had learned Berber languages in training, so they were not able to communicate with the taxi driver. Me, being forced into a leadership role, out of sheer necessity, took the challenge without even thinking twice. I tried my best to negotiate a good price with the man and explained that we were volunteers who just really wanted to see these ruins. After a few minor miscommunications and a few minutes of sweet talking I had secured us seven spots crammed in a taxi.

The seventh person sitting on the laps of everyone in the backseat agreed to duck when we passed police checkpoints. There were at least 3 both ways. The seventh person just looked like a piece of baggage on someone’s lap so we got past without a hitch.

The drive to the ruins was a beautiful one. The countryside was so lush and green and Donna, a native of England, claimed the landscape reminded her of home. We drove up into the mountains a small bit and arrived at the ruins about 30 minutes later.

Volubilis was an ancient Roman city dating back to the 3rd century BC. It was an essential Roman administrative city in North Africa, responsible for grain production and exports to Rome. It also was responsible for communication between the Romans and the Berber tribes of Morocco.

Volubilis survived after Rome lost it’s grip on this part of North Africa in 3rd century AD. The Latin language survived too, until the domination of the Arabs in 7th century AD.

People continued to live there for 1000 years until the city was demolished to use the materials to build the Islamic city of Moulay Idriss 4 kilometers away. If not for this demolition Volubilis could have become one of the best preserved Roman cites in the world. Some of the best treasures gained from excavations have been moved to a museum near the royal palace in Rabat.

But there is lots left to see including strong sturdy columns and mosaics still standing in their original spots.

Source: http://www.absoluteaxarquia.com/travel/volubilis.html

Read more

Weekend in Fes

During our training we were lucky enough to get the weekend off. About 14 of us decided to go to Fes, which is considered the cultural capitol of Morocco and was the national capitol in the past. It is a perfect picture of Morocco, in my eyes, and being there I got the best taste of culture I had gotten so far. The architecture in the old city was so raw, intriguing, and different.
We arrived and found an inexpensive hotel where we dropped our backpacks off. We were lucky to get a very good price of only 50 Dh each person which is about 6 dollars. After this we made a trip over to Marjane, Morocco’s Wal-Mart, to get some snacks for the night. And of course pick up some things to drink, seeing as we were no longer in our training site. We walked around the old city for quite some time, getting lost in a narrow labyrinth of Moroccan rugs, lamps, and beautiful jewelry to buy. Moroccan made things are very fine quality and they are so beautiful I wanted to take everything home.
Fes is full of tourists from all over the world. This was the highest concentration of tourists I had ever seen in Morocco and despite what I thought I would feel, I felt different. I was expecting to be happy seeing a lot of people who look like me but I actually couldn’t stand it. The reason is that the Moroccan shop owners try to take advantage of tourists unaware of the culture and who can not understand the language. Even though I am not a tourist in this country they see me as just another American who has deep pockets. I didn’t like the feeling. The shop owners try to lour you into their stores and the moment you show the slightest interest in an item they eye you like a hawk. They tell you how wonderful their product is and how they have it in 3 other colors. The best way to combat this is start talking in Arabic and surprise them with your knowledge of their language.
Going to Fes was like walking into a fantasy. It really helped remind me that I am living in another culture and country. Morocco’s culture is such a rich one and I enjoyed being immersed in the medieval atmosphere and hearing music so different from what I hear at home. The colors are so vivid, as well as the smells, both good and bad!
It was great to take the opportunity to go to Fes with my friends and have an enjoyable cultural weekend.

Read more

The 12 Hour Tour

I had my first time traveling alone a long distance. I have traveled alone many times before but it was only a half hour here and an hour there. This time I had to go across country by bus, by myself.
I went from my site to Casablanca, Morocco’s biggest city, in order to go to the CTM station there to catch a bus. CTM is Morocco’s national bus line and is the safest and most reliable. No problems what so ever getting into Casablanca and getting to the bus station. I figured if I were to meet resistance it would be here. With everything set I boarded the bus on the way to Azrou. Azrou is on the same longitude with my site but I wasn’t sure what route the bus would take to get there. I was expecting about 5.5 hours in the bus.
We were on the road for not more than 10 minutes when we side swiped a tree and it made a pretty loud noise. It startled me and I thought to myself that this guy should really watch where he’s going. After about 5 more minutes, the bus stopped. We sat there for 30-40 minutes, the whole time me being clueless to what was actually going on. This is pretty much the state I am in about 75 percent of my time here in Morocco. After waiting around for a while everyone began getting off the bus. Luckily a man took the time to explain to me that we had to change buses because the window was broken. I looked to the back of the bus and sure enough hitting the tree broke the back window and another bus had come to take us the rest of the way.
After changing the bus we headed up to Rabat a city north of Casablanca. We picked up more passengers there. After about 40 minutes on the road, as I was trying to nap, I began to hear a ding, ding, ding sound. I tried to ignore it and hoped someone would shut it up soon. A few minutes later I heard the bus stop. The girl, sitting next to me who we picked up in Rabat, looked at me and asked if I needed an explanation. At this point I realized she spoke good English and I was happy. Turns out the bus had broken down and we had to stop again to wait for a THIRD bus to come pick us up. We were about 40 minutes outside of Rabat but there was not a bus free there so we had to wait for one to come from Casablanca, 1.5 hours away. So we waited there on the side of the road for the bus to come. Luckily the sites were beautiful to behold but I was very eager to get to my friends.
Turns out the girl who sat next to me on the bus was a student at an American university in a city near my destination. All classes are conducted in English so her English skills were superb and she was a wonderful person to talk to. She told me that she loves to write and receive letters so we exchanged addresses and I hope to correspond with her.
The bus had to stop in 3 more cites before it got to my destination. I hadn’t eaten very much the entire day so I was weak, tired, and had to use the bathroom. When I finally arrived in Azrou it was 7pm while I expected to arrive at 3:30. When I finally got there I grabbed a taxi and went straight to our hotel. I was so happy to see my friends and relax.
These next two weeks will be training with my entire group that will focus more on the job we will be doing as youth development volunteers. It is also wonderful to be with all my peers to swap stories and get advice for my work. The hotel that we stay in is very homey with 2 fireplaces that keep us warm during these winter months. Azrou is a great city that is beautiful and has lots of coffeeshops to hang out and even a few bars!

Read more