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
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
