Development and Education

Aqaba and The Red Sea

(A family on the Jordan side. Across the bay is Israel. Jordan and Israeli ships enter/exit their two adjacent ports and Jordan constantly has a battleship anchored on the sea border. Egypt-bound ferries leave this port frequently).

I visited Aqaba and the Red Sea this past weekend in the south. Jordan only has 24 km of coastal land (it once was only 8) and Aqaba is its only seaport. It was a friendly, developing place that should be booming in 10-15 years, but was rather lacking in night life when we visited for the weekend. I'm sure it picks up during national holidays. Or maybe the party was somewhere else. I did see Levant and Gulf tourists and several U.S. Iraqi contractors on R&L, but their was no mass weekend influx like I was expecting.

On snorkeling. We rented equipment from the ritzy Royal Diving Institute and spent several hours exploring their great reefs. As advertised, the flora and fauna in the Red Sea is beautiful and this itself deserves a repeat trip to the area if I have time. All colors and sizes of fish and coral. It was breathtaking at times and if I had another month here and was $400 richer, I would happily spend the 3 days it takes to get scuba certified. But maybe next time. Or maybe in the better known Sharm el Sheikh that everyone talks about.

Reem's Cafeteria: The Best Shawarma in Town

This is advertised as the best shawarma in Amman (even in the Times) and this is no joke. Reem's doesn't play around or even offer the staple chicken shawarma, just lamb. And although of course the BBC tells me it has only 140% of my daily saturated fat content, I talked the experience up at work the next day and we made a repeat trip for lunch.

Quote of the Week

"The women have been a very dominant factor in Iran throughout the ages. It sounds counterintuitive because in some instances, in the court of law, no matter what law we’re talking about – criminal, divorce, inheritance, child custody, etc. – women count for only half of a man. But in society women have been very strong, and women have had a much more vibrant, participatory role in Iran than in any other of the countries around that region, including so many of the countries the United States calls friends and allies. And ever since the beginning, 30 years ago during the revolution, women were out on the streets en masse. Because it then became an Islamic society, traditional men could not keep the women out of the public sphere anymore, couldn’t keep their girls from going to school, because now it was an Islamic society and there was no reason to do that. So now 65 percent of university students are women. Women are in all sorts of spheres of professional endeavor. Women drive, they vote, they can hold a public position. Now, 34 million women are in Iran right now, out of a population of 70 million."

This from reporter Christiane Amanpour in a great interview. The green shoots of a revolution in Iran have been captivating from Amman (although developments, public rallies, and the international reporting on such events has subsided in the last week) and the reports of women leading street protests in many instances have been moving, although few are talking about the situation here. One explanation "The Palestinian issue takes up all our time."

Summer Travel Plans

My weekend travel and short vacation schedule for the rest of the summer are now materializing as I've made plans with some new friends and agreed upon dates with others. June went by so fast, but I found time to hike the Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve for 7 hours with a group, which is adjacent to and whose river flows into the Dead Sea. The hike was literally 1 hour marching over an arid landscape and 6 hours navigating the river and repelling down a waterfall. Highly recommended. Here the tentative schedule for the coming months with dates marking Fri-Sat weekends.

July

2 Aqaba (Jordan’s only port, acclaimed for its coral reefs)

9 Petra (UNESCO site, Ancient city carved into rock)

16 Damascus (historical capital city, rich culture)

23 Damascus (meeting friends)

August

1-5 Beirut (beach, friends, and Mediterranean life)

13 Ramallah (capital city, rich culture, friends)

21 Depart for France

September

7 Return to New York

Missing Gafait

About Work: The JCEF

Here's a short, locally produced video that encapsulates the organization I'm working for this summer. The same video can be viewed here. This seems to be an excellent organization that is combating a difficult problem in the Middle East and North Africa- youth unemployment, which is the highest of any region in the world at around 25% (Jordan's 21%) with 2/3 of the overall population being under 24 years of age.

Ambivalent Activism

The Dead Sea

The Flashlight as the Ultimate Amenity

Recently reunited with my cellphone from Morocco, I instantly fell back on old habits: playing "snake" on the bus (yes, it's a Nokia default game), programming my alarm, and using my flashlight at every turn.

For service, I'm using the well-named, but dead-zone champion Umniah. After 2 days recently of being able to take calls, but unable to be heard, I was ready to switch over to the more expensive Zain network, but alas found the problem was with my phone's mic. Now the solution is to 'pack' it on the palm of my hand like one would cigarettes before every call to get a good connection.

And no Mom, I'm not smoking here. The coffee culture- an espresso and a smoke is just not what it is in francophone countries. However, the sheesha (aka hookah, arghila) fills that void.

From the Window of my Apt

Arriving in Amman

I just arrived last night in the city and found a nice, cheap hotel room downtown near this mosque, Jmea Hussein. I find the green glow sticks on the minaret in the evening a nice touch. From shuffling by taxi around the city a bit today, I think I'll end up preferential to this area. It's the authentic heart of the city with all the good shops and is where the working class congregates.

After a 10 PM arrival yesterday, it took me an hour to find the office at the Jordan National Employment Center, but the reception was very nice and the staff and environment I'll be working in this summer seems to be great.

UPDATE: Days later, I saw this same mosque and a reporter roaming the surrounding streets on Al-Jazeera TV as they ran a report on Iraqi refugees not able to find work in Jordan (500k people), Syria (1.5 mill), and other neighboring countries. What a sad situation.

Hmm..Places That Deserve An Extended Stay: Istanbul

Or any stay at all. Unfortunately, I only saw the city from the air and my terminal (which is probably negligible) as Istanbul was a transfer for me between Paris and Amman, but the view flying in looked oh so nice and the sea ever so tempting last Sunday afternoon. Perhaps I should have stayed a week before continuing to Amman (I seriously thought about it after leaving behind a week on the French coast, but Turkey is a country that most likely deserves several months to explore.

Quote of the Week

"..this is why I value that little phrase 'I don't know' so highly. It's small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended."

Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel Lecture 1996

I'd like to think I could live off that idea- "I don't know" for the rest of my days. I find it immeasurably motivating and a better ailment (if you want to call it that) to obsess over then vanity, power, material wealth, etc. Hedging, pacing, and second guessing is one thing, but an overly generous level of curiosity, humility, and dialectical thought is one way by which to achieve a life well lived.

Symborska is not the first to talk about the idea of not knowing. Socrates, Kierkegaard, and others have discussed it in the context of strengthening an argument.

Summer Begins in Les Sables

Rasheed at the Louvre

Rasheed, passed on by Sumona in Morocco, survived several trips, but was finally put to rest somewhere outside the Louvre last December.

Catching Up on the Last Year

Peace Corps Redux I: School Tree Planting & Country/World Mural

Peace Corps Redux II: Gary the Clown

Peace Corps Redux III: Vetiver Project

Peace Corps Redux IV: Fruit Tree Planting Project

Remembering Last Summer

New York, New York

Overlooking Washington Square Park from the NYU Bobst Library.

Looking upon my apartment building (far left) on Union Square West.

Marie, Rosalie, and Les Sables d'Olonne

Ramadan's Over and Winter Begins

Ramadan has passed without a post, so apologize for that. I promise more in a couple weeks when things begin to slow down as the cold sets in and life relaxes. Above is a photo showcasing the bounty of Ramadan food at a neighbors, moments before fast was broken.

Quote of the Week

"Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle."
-Mahatma Gandhi

Rasheed in Saidia

Rasheed on Saidia beach midsummer while Josh looks on in jealously. Don't hate Josh, don't hate! Yet, I can understand. It's hard not to be green-eyed towards a man like Rasheed.

The End of the Tourist Season

The tourist season in Gafait officially ended last week, although the largest and nicest café will stay open during Ramadan to house entertainment and late night coffee socialites. Store owners began closing their shops, taking away shop materials and food items.

Yaheah, my good friend and barber, moved his shop back to its permanent location in the Taznight area. Out-of-town owners from Jerada, Mrija, and elsewhere returned to their respective communities.

Below is a photo of the Cascades d’Ouzoud near Marrakesh taken by PCV Connie Genger earlier this summer. It looks like fair competition for Gafait with the bridge, rafts and assortment of people.

Parliamentary Elections

In the recent parliamentary elections held last Friday, 37% of eligible Moroccan voters went to the ballots. In all, there are 31 political parties in the country and 27 were accounted for in nearby Jerada.

The secular Istiqlal party of the ruling coalition won 52 of the 325 seats, while the Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party (PJD) won 47 seats. The PJD was expected to win as many as 80 seats, running on an anti-corruption platform, but fell short of those predictions.

For a short synopsis of the elections, look here.

Peace Corps in Real Time

I talked with my family; brothers, mother, father, sister-in-laws, and nieces for the first time via video last Monday on Labor Day. A time for picnics and golf tournaments in the states, I did not celebrate the holiday here. However, setting your own daily itinerary most days probably offsets that.

I had problems with managing the sound, I could be heard but could not hear, so had to talk by phone for most of our conversation.

Great Lightining and Blue Skies

PCV Andrew Cyr took this photo, one of my favorites. I just love the natural lighting here, particularly in the evenings. And Lindsey used to say that the sky is bluer in Morocco, which I always thought was funny. Then yesterday, justifiable by no obvious climatic or weather related phenomenon to someone who knows nothing about the previous, I walked out of the house, looked up at royal blue sky, and happily ate crow.

Quote of the Week

Nothing can happen to any human being outside the experience which is natural to humans -- an ox too experiences nothing foreign to the nature of oxen, a vine nothing foreign to the nature of vines, a stone nothing outside the property of a stone. So if each thing experiences what is usual and natural for it, why should you complain? Universal nature has brought you nothing you can't endure.
-from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations

(Stone writings at Volubilis)

Wedding Snapshots

A friend Mohammed taking a photo of his cousin and groom Hafil arriving on horse. Prior to attending the wedding, I was debating rather to take both my camera and camcorder, after I was told that maybe no one was going to bring a camcorder. I decided against it, wisely, and as Hafil approached the ceremony at dusk, half a dozen camcorders and many cameras and camera phones came out from an ebullient paparazzi of friends and family members.

Wedding Bells

I attended a wedding of a friend, Hafil, on the West side of town in the old district of Harrash two weeks ago. With the surname Hamzaoui, Hafil has an extended family of maybe 250 in Gafait. I like to joke sometimes and say that everyone in Gafait is Hamzaoui.

The wedding ceremony that I attended along with other men included dancing, eating, fundraising for the newly married (isn't this just a given at all weddings), and general socializing. The women had their night together the previous evening. Friends and family started prepping for the ceremony in mid afternoon, the ceremony began at dusk with a caravan of cars returning from the mausoleum of Sidi Hamza near the Kaid's office. I left at approximately 11 PM and the festivities probably continued till 2 AM.

(Note: there are two mausoleums in Gafait, the other one being named after Ben Abdelrahman. In general, mausoleums in Morocco are small shrines housing the remains of important local Islamic leaders from the past. And in many cases, although I have not validated this statement with these two particular men, these were Islamic missionaries, spreading Islam through N. Africa centuries before and combating or replacing the indigenous Berber's paganism).

The groom arriving by horse at the wedding reception.


Members of the band (includes percussion and a wood instrument resembling a clarinet), the wedding czar (who solicited money for the couple later in the night), and the wedding singer.


Line dancing with canes, drums, and some men that really know how to dance, which is mostly in the shoulders and hips. Sometimes in large groups of 6-10 like that pictured, but more often in smaller groups, men stand in front of the audience and entertain their friends. I always deftly avoid dancing at weddings. I do enough already to embarrass and bring attention to myself.

Rasheed in Volubilis

Rasheed in front of some Roman columns outside of Meknes dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. My Lonely Planet guide states that the site was settled even earlier by Carthaginian traders. At it's peak, the city housed 20,000 people.

Quote of the Week

“One of the most harrowing moments in the whole history of the harrowing of the heart in Northern Ireland came when a minibus full of workers being driven home one January evening in 1976 was held up by armed and masked men and the occupants of the van ordered at gunpoint to line up at the side of the road. Then one of the masked executioners said to them, "Any Catholics among you, step out here". As it happened, this particular group, with one exception, were all Protestants, so the presumption must have been that the masked men were Protestant paramilitaries about to carry out a tit-for-tat sectarian killing of the Catholic as the odd man out, the one who would have been presumed to be in sympathy with the IRA and all its actions. It was a terrible moment for him, caught between dread and witness, but he did make a motion to step forward. Then, the story goes, in that split second of decision, and in the relative cover of the winter evening darkness, he felt the hand of the Protestant worker next to him take his hand and squeeze it in a signal that said no, don't move, we'll not betray you, nobody need know what faith or party you belong to. All in vain, however, for the man stepped out of the line; but instead of finding a gun at his temple, he was thrown backward and away as the gunmen opened fire on those remaining in the line, for these were not Protestant terrorists, but members, presumably, of the Provisional IRA.”
-from the 1995 Nobel Lecture of poet Seamus Heaney, found here.

Heaney ends the next paragraph with the following salient words, which seem timely in the current zeitgeist of fear and moat building.

“The birth of the future we desire is surely in the contraction which that terrified Catholic felt on the roadside when another hand gripped his hand, not in the gunfire that followed, so absolute and so desolate, if also so much a part of the music of what happens.”

Wizard of Oz in Oujda

Several months ago I stayed with my neighbor Meddi and his family in Oujda, where he’s a school teacher for most of the year. On a satellite TVwith more than 200 channels, less than 10 of which are in English, we found the original “Wizard of Oz” being shown with Arabic subtitles. I then took the following photo, showing Oumayma watching this classic.

A month later, I met my parents in London for a few days before traveling back to Morocco, where we spent more than a week traveling around. In London, we saw “Wicked,” an excellent play adapted from the Oz storyline.

Rasheed in Gafait

Upon ending her service and leaving Morocco in June, Sumona gave me some tea and a priceless gift, a Rasheed Wallace bobbing head doll. Mr. Wallace is one of her favorites on her home state team, da Pistons, and after learning this fact last year, it became a talking point from time to time. As one of the NBA’s most emotional players and recipient of the most technical fouls, he provides constant fodder.

I told Sumona I would take a series of candid photos of Rasheed while traveling around Morocco, to be later collected into a coffee table book. Well, here’s photo #1 of Rasheed taking several months ago. Several more photos have been taken since then and will be posted in the coming weeks.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

(Sumona and Lindsey outside Lindsey's village near Taza.)

My friends keep leaving me. My best friend in Morocco and site mate Graham left many months ago for greener fields in England. Two close friends Sumona and Lindsey finished their service in June and have returned to the states. Jessie, a good friend and cheerleader for our region, left in July.

I miss these friends. Others fill in but can’t replace. I have fewer people to text message with Sumona and Lindsey gone. Little messages like “Grandma told me the best joke about a cow and a donkey giving birth to a hunting dog this morning over tea. tc” can have real meaning in the dead of winter. Or my favorite “What do you do..” always prefaces candid and often humorous lines.

I’ve had many moments that you want to talk with someone about and it’s nice to have someone close in proximity and friendship to talk with them about. So here’s to departed friends. We'll see each other again.

Caterpillars in the Cemetery

Two photos of caterpillars on the march, several meters from their birthplace on several bushes in the Gafait cemetery, representing the life cycle of death and birth and our reliance on each other. I don't know where they were marching to; I took the first photo, then returned several hours later to take the second, but lost them several hours later in the camouflage of nature.

Quote of the Week

"Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more
uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what
is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals,
has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral
values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to
enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and
tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am
not too sure.'"
-Early 20th century critic H. L. Mencken.

Figuig Palms

An overview of palm trees in Figuig, where dates will start to be harvested next month. Of note, those hills, approximately 2 kilometers away, mark the Algerian border.

Swimming in Figuig

A place estimated to be several hundred years old in the desert town of Figuig, where I taught for 2 weeks at a English language camp. Built around an underground spring, the water flows into this walled pool, where local men come to bathe and relax, then is directed into fields in the area through a complex irrigation system.

Daily Routines: My Swimming Spot

Here's my swimming spot at the nearby river. This watering hole is probably 6 ft deep in an area of probably 10 ft squared next to the ledge, which makes it great for diving. Otherwise much of the river is as shallow as a bathtub.

This area has become a little busy this summer and I like a tranquil place to swim, so I've changed my hours, swimming more in the morning or at dusk, as pictured below and upstream, where I can stretch out more and swim for 25 meters.

Scorpions and Rational Thought

The scorpions have come back in greater abundance this summer. Last year, I found two in my house, while last week in one evening, I found three; one in the bathroom sink, another in the bedroom, and the last in the kitchen. It probably makes for a good excuse to sleep on the terrace. Or also because the interior of the house is like an oven at night after a hot day.

In the households of most of my neighbors, some family member has been stung this summer by a scorpion, with most similar to the one pictured above. My neighbor Bachere was stung a couple weeks ago and said he was up all night screaming. Although not deadly except sometimes with the young and old, they are the formidable opponent of man in my site. Near Marrakesh last month, a man was killed by a more deadly type of scorpion that simply looks vicious. The headlines in the national papers in the days that followed included complaints from residents about inadequate health facilities.

Tourist Season in Gafait

Quote of the Week

“Once in a while [in opera], when everything is just right, there is a moment of magic. People can live on moments of magic.”

-Opera director Sarah Caldwell, who also once said “If you can sell green toothpaste in this country, you can sell opera.”

King James VI

This is recent mail I received from Ryan, another volunteer in country. I'm a little surprised I didn't hear about it from my postmaster or someone in the government. Although not intended to be a slight on the King, I can see how it could be misinterpreted. Anyways, I thought it was quite funny and so did my neighbors.

Lazy Summer Days Intensified

I’m in the midst of the busiest time of my service. Here's my current schedule.

Environmental Education Programming
-Summer Booth: make sure there’s enough handouts, etc
-Club: advertise
-Mural: no funding yet, delay project till spring

Vetiver Wastewater Management Project
-Approval to lay 6-8 rows of vetiver/rock barriers through mile long polluted stream.
-Concerned about vetiver runoff in flood, no soil to grow in. Not a big issue
-Secure rocks with chain link, vetiver in barrels

Tree Planting
-Fall at school (small #), Spring in community (5000)
-Need to map houses, allot tree amounts (work with Hamada)
-Wanting olive, almond, and fruit trees

Rosemary and Cheese Co-ops
-Talk with Kareem about cheese factory products marketing, design, and advertising
-Holland NGO Human Force has begun marketing, Talk with them.
-Rosemary- 20k hectares up for sale and no buyer. Need interest from someone locally- then will start project
-Get Paula info and photos of new rosemary building and schedule tentative date for her visit.

Ecotourism
-Create potential plan and itinerary for Summer 08
-Give to Mo to revise, translate to French
-Give to association to act on

Artisans
-Found artisans in town; talk to them about assisting and connect with Kareem.

Toilet project
-Plans drawn for mosque toilet, need to implement
-Push septic design, but probably settle for raised latrine
-Stress seriousness of shallow water table

GPS Training Followup
-Give new MapInfo to EF tech's and answer ?s.

Zimbabwe Hut
-Write grant, gather materials, and start project with Hassan after Ramadan.

SIBE EE posters
-Gather gazelle materials and discuss with Justin.

Plant survey of Gafait
-Photos gathered, consolidate into book with FileMaker, and present to EF.

The Dogs Bark...

Whew... I’ve been away from this blog for some time. Regular posting ended in mid April. I have a list of excuses I think I could make; work, no computer until recently, several visits from parents and friends, etc but overall, I’ve just felt apathy towards writing of late. Indolence is my real reason, mixed with a desire to do something else. Take a walk, cook, clean (hard to believe, yes!) drink tea, read, or swim. Mostly anything but sitting in front of a computer and typing, or watching movies, or wondering how three Journey songs arrived in my iTunes playlist “25 most played.”

In the time between nice, cool Spring to scorched earth Summer, life has been busy and full. Fulfilling now belies a heat induced slow August.

An old Arabic proverb says “The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on." Well, life continues to be a series of forward motions. And to live each day new, not returning to the past or obsessing over the future is a life lived well. And to hear similar words echoed recently by the great radio host Diane Rehm on a broadcast and by my Grandma Ocie in a phone conversation can lead me to fall in love with those two women all over again.

(Photo is of the straight road to Figuig).

Quote of the Week

"As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth.They go back to the Neolithic: the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe."
-poet Gary Snider

Snider has an interesting story. He started out as one of the Beat writers of the 1950s in San Fransico, then left in '56 and went to Japan where he spent the next twelve years in a monastery, studying Buddhism.

I've haven't posted anything for over a month. Sorry, I've been extremely busy, maybe becoming a little schizophrenic from work. For the most part, I enjoy the energy that comes from multitasking in the states; doing several jobs at once and getting more work done. Resources and materials are more readily available, transportation is easy, and a protestant work ethic means people better understand a busy face. Multitasking does not transfer to Morocco as easily, but maybe its better. We work too much and don't allow ourselves to enjoy life daily. I believe it was Heinrich Heine who said that he thought a blaspheming Frenchman was a more pleasant object to God than a praying Englishman.

People here do a good job of living in the moment, this coming in most part from a fatalistic paradigm. I need to absorb more of the latter. I'll post more shortly.