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.

Quote of the Week

"I remember when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic." (From the latest Rolling Stone interview with Sacha Baron Cohen).

(UPDATE: After reflection, I'd say the best movie about the Holocaust is the Italian comedy "Life is Beautiful.")

Reason #2 Rabat

Downtown in the capital city of Rabat.

Ahh, I heard last week that my mother didn't win Kansas Teacher of the Year at a Saturday banquet. She's still honored as District 1 Elementary Teacher of the Year. Mom, I'm happy for you. The light of recognition doesn't always shine on the righteous, so I'm glad you've been rightly honored. I thought of you recently when reading a line from the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska, in which she says "you're small, but you fly with mighty wings." Happy Thanksgiving!

Above is a photo outside the preschool in my site. I enjoy how the photo captured the hug and eyes closed.

Reason #1 Toubkal National Park

I'll give you 10 reasons over the next couple weeks as to why you should visit me. And it's not because the weather is becoming bleak and I'm beginning to suffer from sensory deprivation. That's not the case; the weathers chilly, but nice and my site is green.

This is Toubkal Nat'l Park, located in the Atlas Mountains, which is in the South between Marrakech and Ouarazate. Thousands of Berbers live within its boundaries.

Photo courtesy of Nate St. Amand.

Three Girls

Berber girls in the Atlas Mts down South. Photo taken by PCV Andy Tibbs.

Visiting Me

For those who may visit me next year, here’s a itinerary that we might follow. Morocco has recently been brought into European air space, allowing travelers to find cheap budget flights from airlines like EasyJet or JetBlue. I heard one person found a round trip ticket from NY-Mellila for $500. That’s more likely a one way price.

*Mellila- Fly into this Spanish provence on the Mediterranean coast.
*My Site- Drop off 30 lbs of peanut butter, oatmeal, and ranch dressing, 40 books, and spend 3-4 days in my community.
*Taza- home to some of the largest caves in Africa
*Fes- a UNESCO world heritage site and the cultural capital.
*Sefrou- Jewish community
*Azrou/Ifrane- beautiful hiking and waterfalls
*Volubilis- ancient Roman ruins
*Rabat- the capital
*Tangiers- international city. Europe is visible across the Strait of Gibraltar.
*Chefchaouen -- a small, old city in the Rif Mountains.
*Essaouria- best beach city with white sand.
*Marrakech- most well known tourist destination; diverges all of Morocco’s cultures.
*Merzouga- one of the doors into the Sahara. Home to large sand dunes. Camel riding
*London/Madrid- If you take a return flight from either city, I hope you’ll let me bum along, paying for my hotel room and my $4 cup of coffee.

Most of the traveling can be done via train, which is nice and safe. Otherwise, there are nice buses available to all of these destinations. One of the attributes that I like about Graham is that he likes to travel but he doesn’t like to travel. While Josh could spend all day climbing rocks and camping in trees, Graham and I are in agreement about taking it a little easier. Hiking is nice when you can look forward to a hotel room at the end of the day. So if you want to visit and put me up in hotels with mints on the pillows for most of the trip, I won’t complain.

Q and A: Safety

“Do you continue to make smart choices with your safety in mind?”

Yes, I think I’m safe. I’ll answer this in three parts- the role of my parent org Peace Corps, what I’ve done and do to protect myself and how I feel others decisions have affected me. I’ll veer off course too.

First, I play it smart when it comes to my safety, but even if I didn’t, PC Morocco has many safety policies via Washington lawyers to keep us in check. “Safety and security” is the slogan here, and the preferential treatment it receives I believe often overshadows the IGOs role as a development agency. I disagree with this, but can understand the reasoning.

I think the safety restrictions are overkill, but I’m also not responsible for the lives of other volunteers. There are a few countries, Morocco included, that I feel PC is in for diplomatic reasons first, development second. Jordan and China are two others. To clarify, Morocco is a 2nd world country, 3rd world in some areas. It has real needs, but I consider these infrastructure improvements, not like in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa. This diplomatic role pleases me and I think development and good will are synonymous.

In my site, I feel completely safe. I’m someone’s neighbor, friend, or brother and I know I now have people looking out for me, much less watching me with curiosity. I’m more afraid of mentally unstable dogs. In my market town of Jerada, I am fairly safe, although I’ve got some hard looks. It is a tough place, a burned out mining town. However, the best defense I’ve found is well timed eye contact and a smile. Beyond that, being male helps.

The biggest safety risk here is transportation. Thailand has tuk-tuks and Vietnam has riskshaws. New York has yellow taxis and London has black ones. Morocco has the white 1985 Mercedes Benz 240 SL, or “death on wheels.” It’s not the vehicle, but the drivers ambitions and a lack of law enforcement on the highways that make for a fast, reckless ride on the highway. Seven people die of automobile fatalities everyday in Morocco. My Grandpa Collins once said that when riding a motorcycle, you should sing “Near My God to Thee.” Maybe that applies to my taxi rides.

Finally, I want to reflect on how international politics effects on my life here. But I want more time with this and will return to the question later. I’ve been boning up on Arab and Islamic history as well as reading “idea” books on global politics that are applicable. I’d like to do as as W.B. Yeats said, "to hold in a single thought reality and justice."

Hope Springs Eternal

For my two parents and my third reader, I apologize that I haven't written much in the last month. Stuffed from Ramadan and in a funk after an Ayn Rand novel, I have taken some time off to continue my english teaching, start up squash and chess with Graham, and shuffle back and forth to the Parks dept 40 km away. It's mid November, but I'm still swimming in the river at my site, which is currently flooded from heavy rains. It's as green now as it was in May. The temperature at midday is probably 70 F, with it dropping down to maybe 50 in the evenings. Anyways, I promise to post more next Tues.

End of Ramadan

Ramadan is coming to a close with the holiday Aid Al Fitr tommorrow and Wednesday capping off the month long festives. It has been difficult, if not chaotic at times. Hunger and thirst, shops closed, expectations of respecting faith sometimes tangling with assumptions of the faithless. But overall, a great experience that I wouldn't trade. I didn't fast all the time; not when traveling, hiking, or for several days after the first week when I became ill. But I found when I did, it made the evening meal, lftar more enjoyable. It makes you more thankful and it can teach you that the sweet isn't as sweet without the sour.