Monday, August 25, 2008






In TashelHit, Agadir means wall. The city of Agadir doesn’t have a wall, it fell down along with everything else in a huge earthquake in 1960. Although it doesn’t have a wall, Agadir is a great city that we visited last weekend along with about 10 other PCVs. The temperature is beautiful, the beach is fun, and it has all the comforts of a big a city, such as big supermarkets, McDonalds, a skate park, and an English pub (good shepherd’s pie but pitiful beer selection – an unfortunate ailment of the entire country it seems).
Today, Carrie completed our first activity in the community. In order to spread awareness of the importance of hand washing and dental hygiene, she recruited several young girls to help paint pictures on the wall of the local clinic. These pictures are colorful, simple, and have a clear message that literate and illiterate people alike can understand. Nshalla, this is just the beginning.
So what has Ben been doing? Aside from salmonella, things

are pretty slow. I spend a lot of time sitting at one of the local hardware stores talking about anything from chameleons (which are NOT poisonous despite what the taxi driver says) to rich American women (lots of people want them, but how to get them to come here?).
Yesterday, a nearby town hosted a moussem (basically a small fair with some commerce and music). Lots of men, women, and children showed up to see some traditional Berber musical performers. I was impressed at the instrumental skill although I couldn’t understand the words. This town has something unique: year round surface water that flows from a series of springs which have been modified into an irrigation system called a qatara. In a qatara, water is diverted via underground canals

to several exurgences where the water is used for a swimming hole, a watering hole, a tap to get drinking water, and irrigation canals for olive trees. There was also an abundance of hydrobiid snails (undescribed species perhaps?) in the cool water. This water was especially unusual because it emerged on the top of a big, arid plateau.

No comments: