UPDATE---Finally!!!
So it's been awhile since our last update and things are quite a bit different since June. Ben and I came back to the states in July and are now living in Texas. Ben is a research tech and PhD student at Texas State and I am working as a SLP in a local school system. We are living in San Marcos (between San Antonio and Austin.) We just bought our first house and are working hard to get it just perfect. Our new address is 123 E Sierra Cir, San Marcos, TX 78666.

hiking pics

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before

Here are before and after pictures of school toilets.

Summer is here. We have lots of fresh fruits to eat and the sun is pounding. Really it’s not too hot yet, pretty pleasant. Although, we can tell summer is here by how dead things get in the middle of the day. School is finishing up now too. Ben and I both finished our English classes for the year. The market is full of watermelons, cantaloupes, honey dew, apricots, plums, grapes and bananas along with the year around oranges. We have been taking lots of walks/hikes the past few weeks around our site to enjoy the weather. So we have lots of new lizard/frog/turtle pictures. We are also keeping two cats for a few months that belonged to a volunteer that recently went home. They’ve been fun, but like to wake up way too early! The bathroom project at the school is wrapping up. We still have to teach the students how to properly use them and paint the walls. Well it’s not actually paint. They use white rocks and crush them, then mix them with water and not sure what else to make a white paste that is brushed onto the walls. We are heading to Rabat next week for medical checkups. We are looking forward to seeing other volunteers in our group and checking out the capitol city. We hear there’s ice skating, bowling and a TJI Fridays! So we should be completely broke by the time we get back but it should be fun.

Well it’s been a while since our last update. April flew by with work and travel. We went to a southern Moroccan town called Tata from April 20-23. Another volunteer lives there and set up a health day at his middle school with four teachers and six PC volunteers. We each taught a ten minute station (mine on water treatment and Ben’s on health and the environment) then the students rotated and we retaught our lessons. We did about 14 groups equaling about 150 students each. Tata was a neat experience for us, it’s about the farthest site south and very different from our site. Mostly sand with a few rocks and very few trees or plants except for the sporadic oasis.
After Tata we returned to our site and got packed for our trip to Madrid. We left on April 28 and met our Moms on the 29th. We explored Madrid, including Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor and Palacio Real. We also spent a fair amount of time eating lots of pork and ice cream. After Madrid we traveled by bus to Granada. Granada was beautiful with a very relaxed atmosphere after hectic Madrid. We spent our time walking around the winding streets and hanging out at street cafes. We also toured the Cathedral there. We tried to see the Alhambra but tickets sold out just as we were approaching the head of the line. A reason to go back, right? After Granada we took a beautifully scenic train ride through southern Spain to the port city of Algeciras. We had a few hang ups with the ferry but finally crossed the Straights of Gibraltar at about midnight. Our first few hours in Morocco were a bit stressful. We had planned to catch a train immediately out of Tangier but because of the ferry mishap ended up having to stay the night in a less than ideal place. By the next morning things were back on track and we hopped on the train to Marrakesh, an all day ride from Tangier. It was tiring and hot but we got to see a lot of Northern Morocco out the train windows. Once in Marrakesh we grabbed a taxi straight to Essaouira where we would spend the next three nights exploring and shopping. We also spent one day at our site where our host family fixed lunch. Overall, this was our Mom’s favorite day in Morocco, because of the slow pace and quietness of rural Morocco. For our last night we returned to Marrakesh and toured the souks, the Marrakesh museum, the Almoravid Koubba and the Ben Youssef Medersa. The next morning we put our Moms back on the plane and headed back to site for a long nights sleep.
This week we are back in site and hopefully beginning our toilet project in the primary school, refurbishing ten toilets. We are hoping to finish this part of the project by early June at which time harvest will be over and we can begin building toilets in homes. Fingers crossed the workers will be at the school tomorrow morning!
For more pictures check out our flicker site

From Thursday through Sunday, our village hosted a festival known as a mussim in honor of a local saint (a mirabout). The first two days were strictly market days where vegetables, meat, trinkets, a few rugs, and especially candy were sold. There was also a homemade Ferris wheel, a monkey or two, and some magicians. Saturday was a day of rest except for a couple of soccer games where our team played against one from a nearby village. Sunday was the biggest day by far. The vendors where in full force, several troubadour bands were present, and several thousand men, women, and children. Most had come to see what is known as fantasia. A group of men in white robes, traditional wear and carrying rifles rode into town on ornate horses. They marched through the center of town with the throng of people closely following and chanting. Behind souk, a young cow was slaughtered in the midst of a huge crowd and the eerie, high pitched wail of women (like that scene in Lawrence of Arabia) who were crowding the rooftops that commanded a good view. No one was hurt. After a few words by a local holy man, the horse riders moved to a different location where they could get their horses into a full run. For about half an hour, the horsemen would ride from one end of the clearing to the other occasionally firing their rifles.
We used the mussim as an opportunity to do some educational activities. The previous week, students from the middle school painting club and environmental club designed environmentally themed mural ideas on large pieces of construction paper. The teachers and a few volunteers then voted on their favorite paintings. The winning two ideas will soon be painted next to the door of the local market area. All of the classes in the middle school had a chance to view all of the drawings, affording an opportunity for the headmaster and myself to do a few short, environmental lessons. During the mussim, all of these designs were displayed on a prominent wall for several hours, offering more opportunity for environmental lessons. In addition, 5 other volunteers came to the festival to help with health education booths. On Thursday, we talked for several hours in front of approximately 500 people about how to treat water for drinking as well as the importance of drinking enough water. Free samples of water helped draw in a crowd. We also tried to get some hula-hoop competitions started amongst the kids, but most were too shy to give it a try. On Sunday, a booth was set up to educate about SIDA (French AIDS). The PC librarian created an audio CD which included educational talks about AIDS as well as songs and rhetorical questions to help education about AIDS prevention. This CD was played on repeat for several hours. Simultaneously, we handed out about 400 informational pamphlets as well as red ribbons. A bean bag toss in the shape of an AIDS ribbon was made, and kids had a lot of fun trying to get the bean bag in for a ribbon. Posters were also displayed throughout the mussim.

Gardening at Middle School

This past week was the Prophet’s birthday so we had a five day weekend. We took this chance to head north to the Rif mountains and to the city of Fes. We visited a town called Chefchaouen (described as the most beautiful small town in Morocco) in the mountains known for its blueness (many walls and walkways and doors are blue-washed.) The whole area was beautiful and green, a drastic difference to the south of Morocco. We stayed in a small pension called Hotel Mauritania, which was small and cozy and with good character. We spent our time there wandering the streets and taking lots of blue photos and hiking in the mountains nearby. The area is also known for it’s marijuana which is why no peace corps volunteers are in the Rif. There are quite a few farmers offering agro-tourism of their marijuana farms. There is also a very heavy Spanish influence there (makes sense, very close to Spain.) The textiles and even the music had a definite Spanish twist and Spanish is spoken before French which is used in most of Morocco. After exploring Chefchaouen for two nights we headed by bus to Fes, described as the most complete medieval city in the Arab world. It’s a big modern city with many ancient monuments hidden in its windy streets. Fes is known for its leather tanneries which we were able to visit and its old medersas or Islamic colleges. We spent our time there wandering the streets. We’ve been watching quite a bit of bizarre foods with Andy Zimmern, so we decided to try lots of street food. We had a chance to taste makootas (fried mashed potato cakes), pastilla (fried meat pie filled with chicken or beef or rice or noodles), camel burger, spleen sandwich, variety of fried fish and a variety of fresh baked breads. We didn’t try everything though, there were lots of unidentifiable organs and fish in lard that we chose to pass up.

It seems that spring is here. The weather has been warmer the past week and with plenty of sun. Our house is a good temp now and we don’t have to stay huddled in our sleeping bags to stay warm. Flowers are blooming and beetles are running around everywhere. This weekend we rode our bikes to the nearest volunteer’s house (about 30 km, a lot of which is downhill.) The way down is through lots of thuya forest. We took a bus back up and stowed our bikes under it instead of climbing the 30 km back up. This week we’re waiting to hear any news about our grant proposal and Ben is sending in another proposal for a school garden. We are also getting ready for our town’s big festival in the middle of March. I am planning an AIDS info booth and game and Ben is doing an environment mural contest. There is a big race in Rabat in a few weeks for ages 14-16. We are hoping to send, all expenses paid, a runner from our town who has already won some nearby races. It will be really cool to help give him an opportunity to compete nationally.
On a different note, we saw a funny scene a few weeks ago on a bus from Agadir to Essaouira. This type of bus is called a souk bus. It stops at numerous towns along the way and it is much older and cheaper than the regular buses. During this particular trip, we were driving through heavy rain the entire time. Oddly, it was also raining inside the bus (but only on the right side: we were on the left). The people that had umbrellas had them open but everyone else was using plastic bags or whatever they could find to try and cover themselves. I still don’t understand how the water could come in so many places. One particularly unlucky lady had a stream pour on her every time we would go around a curve. When her husband noticed the stream he would hold a plastic bag over her head, but by that time, it was too late. He would hold it there a few seconds, realize that it was too late, and would then lower it back down just in time for another curve at which point the process would begin again. Ahh the joys of public transportation.

It’s been raining for about a week. We hear that Morocco hasn’t seen rain like this since early 90’s. No one is prepared for so much rain. Roads are washing away and every house is leaking. Including ours… just in one room and it’s a slow leak so just wetness but no puddles. We loose electricity every day for a least a few hours, sometimes the whole day so we’re all around ready for spring and the rain to go. Everyone here is really excited about the rain since it means a good harvest season so we have to at least act pleased that we’re getting drenched. We are dog sitting for another volunteer this week. It’s a young doxen that has entirely too much energy. She wants to play all day long and then at night she sleeps inside my sleeping bag with me. It’s interesting to see everyone’s reactions in town when we go out with a dog on a leash. Most people laugh but then they’re scared that she might bite them (even though she’s tiny) and then some people want to pet her. I actually feel like it’s a good tool to use to teach people about treating animals humanely since throwing rocks at dogs is the usual interaction. We are making progress on the toilet project now. We gave them a deadline and it seems to be working. We plan to submit the paperwork early next week and then the funds should come through in the next 6 weeks. I’ve been baking lots lately since we’ve mostly stuck in the house. My new favorite is cinnamon rolls from scratch. We can clean a pan of those out pretty quick. I also tried a lasagna like dish this week which turned out OK. Ben finally saw a doctor and he has bronchitis. He has some pretty serious medicines and seems to be doing better but his cough isn’t gone yet.

This is a project another volunteer is doing if anyone is interested...

http://sendmedicalsupplies2morocco.blogspot.com/

So it’s been a rough past week. We’ve both been sick, Ben with the flu and a fever and me with a chest cold. I am headed to Tiznit in a few days to give a seminar on Down Syndrome and Language. I’m pretty excited about it and plan on spending a day or two in Tafrout afterwards where the almond trees are hopefully in full blossom. The highlight of the day was definitely the cinnamon rolls. They rose and they were fluffy and cinnamony and wonderful.

January 3, 2009
Christmas in the states was fun but too rushed. It was great to see everyone if only for a little while. Next time, you all will just have to come here. On the way back home and on the way back to Morocco we were able to spend a few days in London. Of course our first order of business was to visit a pub where we had some great burgers and a beer to wash it down. The hostel that we stayed at the first night (St. Christopher’s) was nice but really hot after being used to our 50 degree home in Morocco. On the way back, we stayed a night in the Meninger Hostel. A day pass on the subway allowed us to see several sights including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (although we didn’t go in to see Darwin’s grave), Big Ben (a clock), the Globe Theater, and an old church Of special interest we got to have a cask drawn ale at a Fuller’s ale house…mmm. After a nap, we headed back out to celebrate New Year’s near Covent Garden. The place was really crowded for the fireworks display so we ended up settling down at a pub a little farther away although we still had a good view. Then we woke bright and early for an uneventful (thankfully) flight back.