Reason #7 Cape de Touches

Visited the edge of this penisula on the Mediterranean called Cape de Touches twice, where one has to check in and give their passport to military guards at a lighthouse, then is free to camp on the beach or in the grass. We go spearfishing here. This photo is looking at a small settlement of houses on the waters edge.

Quote of the Week

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.
-Garrison Keillor

To each his own holiday

Happy Holidays! Hope it’s a joyous one. While Christmas lights, last minute shopping and midnight mass are the landscape in the states today, Morocco prepares for its own holiday. With the Islamic holiday L’eid Kabir approaching on Jan. 1, its only major indicator (visible to me) of its arrival is the caravans of rams on the side of the roads outside of major cities like Oujda.

L’eid Kabir celebrates Abraham’s sacrificing of a lamb instead of his son. On the morning of L’eid, each family commences in slaughtering a ram. In my village, most families bought a ram months ago, using the intervening months to fatten it up, However, in major cities where people live in close quarters and don’t have room to shepherd a ram, they buy theirs from dealers outside of town.

This will be my first L’eid Kabir. I expect it to be somewhat like Ramadan minus the fasting and over a shorter time span, but with those essential, successful ingredients of any holiday; family, food, and celebration.

Xmas gifts

Surprise! Here’s my Christmas gifts for the women in my family (Clockwise from top right- Elizabeth and Ava, Grandmas (silk tablecloths), Mom, and Anna and Jenni). Tucked away in my bedroom because I’m too cheap to pay the shipping charges, they’ll hopefully be delivered to you after my parent’s visit. I bought these in August at an artisan fair sponsored by some peace corps volunteers, a place where I knew I wouldn’t get tarred and feathered haggling over 10 dhms. Note, often the best I hope for when buying non-essentials from a tourist medina in Fes, Marrakech, etc is that both of us, the seller and me the buyer will leave the deal resentful. He’ll be angry that he didn’t fleece me more and I’ll be upset because I’m not a tourist, but I didn’t get the local rate.

For whatever reason, I didn’t get gifts yet for the men. And I don’t have gifts for extended family and friends, although you all are not forgotten. I’ll have something for you in the end.

Reason #6 Agadir

Quote of the Week

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

-poet T.S. Elliot

Reason #5 Sibe Chekar

Sibe Chekar in Jerada, 1 of the 2 national reserves that I work in. Maybe it would only be of interest to people that visit me, but the pollution released from the power plant in nearby Jerada makes for beautiful sunsets.

I'm still currently in Agadir at training, right next to a beach on the Atlantic Ocean. It's turned out to be a nice vacation wrapped into a finals week nestled into a class reunion- so its a little chaotic and tiring. Sessions from 8-6 and then a nightly football game on the beach till 9 PM. We'll be done on Sunday. Maybe we'll have to time to go surfing again. We surfed last Sunday for four hours; my first experience on a surf board. Lots of fun, very difficult. I'll have photos later.

Vacation in Agadir

I'm headed down southwest tomorrow to the coastal city of Agadir for a week of inservice training. It takes 3 days to get there, 3 to get back so I look forward to a nice vacation. I hope to get some guidance on several projects I'm working, instructions on a new environmental education curriculum, and get a medical checkup.

I will also find the time to socialize. Above is a photo of Graham at the disco in Ouarazate in May, below is me in a too tight wet suit, a gift from Josh, who just traded up for the full body outfit. If not in Agadir, we're planning on surfing in Essouaria on Saturday. I'll try to fill everyone in on the details. Not much to report in the last months, but a lot on my mind.

Reason #4 Taza National Park

The 3rd largest cave in Africa, largest in North Africa is located outside of Taza.

Quote of the Week

“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

From “The Sheltering Sky” by Paul Bowles

Reason #3 The King's Parades

Parades for the visiting King Mohammed VI are like a Macy's Parade, minus the inflatable commercialism. Crowds lineup for miles in each city he visits; the governement even buses people in sometimes. I've seen the setup twice in Oujda. They started cleaning up the streets, fixing potholes, planting new palm trees, and laying guardrails a week before he came. And the Moroccan national flag was draped everywhere. This is a photo taken by PCV Lindsey Ludwig from a Fes hotel room.