Sahara Desert Trek

We are nearing the end of our time in Morocco.  We are currently in the small village of Merzouga.  It's about an 8-9 hour trip from Rabat.  I was expecting the drive here to be much longer and more difficult than it was.  We started off on a train from Rabat to Meknes and from Meknes we took a Bus.  The bus ride was long, but absolutely beautiful.  Morocco really has some amazing scenery.  We passed through quite a bit of snow on the Atlas mountains.  I was briefly reminded that it's December.

We are staying at Riad Mamouche  It is absolutely lovely!  They are setting up the entire camel trek for us making everything very easy. We have a pool - which is way too cold to use right now, but I imagine it's amazing for those who stay here during the summer months.  There is a beautiful terrace with a view of the entire village and the food is safe and seriously good.  We even were able to take a steamy hot shower...that is somewhat of a luxury around here it seems.  It's a good thing, because as far as Merzouga goes, there really isn't much of anything to do.  I haven't seen any restaurants - definitely no alcohol and only a select number of tourist shops.  The tourist shops in Merzouga are much more expensive than anything at the Medina in Rabat.  I'm glad we made most of our purchases there.  

We arrived to Merzouga at 5am.  A taxi picked us up and brought us to the Riad where we took a 3 hour nap before enjoying breakfast on the terrace.  We then walked around the town - noting there was absolutely nothing to do.  However, I did stop and take tons of pictures of camels.  I'm totally fascinated with them.  They seem so kind and gentle, not to mention smart!

At 3:30pm, we met the guide outside by the camels.  Their names were Bob Marley and Led Zepplin.  I wonder how many other camels have the exact same name.  It's clear the camels are very well cared for which makes me very happy.  I was pretty nervous that wouldn't be the case.  The camels listen to the guide really well.  They lay down when he tells them to, and they stand up when he tells them too.  I thought that was pretty cool.

We headed out into the Sahara to our camp.  It was about a 1.5 hour camel ride - which was plenty.  Any longer and I'm sure I would have been very sore.   We stopped to take pictures during the sunset which was absolutely breathtaking.

Our camp was pretty nice.  It was powered by solar panels, so we had light in our sleeping tent in addition to the dining tent.  Our guide started making us dinner and we ran up a sand dune - it's not as easy as it sounds!  We stargazed for an hour or so and discussed the Muslim religion.  It was very fascinating and I learned a ton. 

For dinner we had a wheat berry soup and a chicken tangine.  I wasn't feeling the best, so I only had the soup.  Aaron and Mohamed enjoyed the tangine.

After dinner we had a small fire with  a little drum circle.  It was amazing to be underneath the stars in the Sahara desert listening to the drums next to the fire.  Firewood is a very limited resource for them, so it was a small fire, but very hot and lovely.

We slept with 7 very heavy blankets on us.  We couldn't help but laugh because they were so heavy it was difficult to move while we were under them.  Aaron fell asleep right away.  Of course I couldn't sleep and had to get up to go to the bathroom at like 1am.  I was not excited about getting up from under the covers to go outside in the freezing cold to go to the bathroom.  On top of that, I was very afraid of the Sahara desert monster that might try to get me.

 I woke up alive.  We trekked back to the Riad for breakfast and a day of rest before heading to Fez.

5 AM Prayer and Clean Underwear

We woke up at 5am to the call to prayer.  It was actually quite beautiful even though we couldn't understand any of it.  I imagine once we adjust to the time and it wakes us up from a dead sleep, we won't find it nearly as beautiful as we did this morning.  Since we were up already, we decided to just get up and make ourselves some tea. 

For breakfast we had baguette, cheese, jam, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and bananas.  We also had hot spiced milk- my personal favorite!  Although I later found out that it isn't typical that the milk is spiced- it's usually the coffee that they spice.  It was a lovely mistake and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

At 9am Mohamed led us through orientation.  Such a nice man. He's really great at grabbing everyone's attention. 

We headed to Casablanca at 12:30 pm by train.  Stating the time makes me think of something else.  Why are we one of the only countries that doesn't use a 24 hour clock (military time?)  It seems like it makes way more sense!   Anyway, the train ride took about 1 hour.  It was a pretty nice train and there was plenty of room.   We walked from the train station to the mosque- which is the 3rd largest in the world.  Beautiful!  It's mind blowing for many reasons, but one of the things I noticed right away was the fact that it cost 500 million dollars to build, and if you walk 3 blocks from it, you find extreme poverty.    I know the solution isn't as simple as saying "don't build the mosque, give the poor the money instead," although I wish it was!  As far as I'm concerned, the only thing interesting in Casablanca was the mosque.  I was only temporarily entertained when we got lost within the tiny, twisting and turning back streets.  I'm thankful I wasn't alone.

If you look at the people, you'll get a better idea of the actual size. AMAZING.

Although, I have to say that this was the first time I have traveled to a such a place with a man, and it is a much different experience.  Normally I'm traveling alone.  We tested the waters today in Casablanca.  Aaron and Kevin walked behind me quite a ways and all of a sudden my world changed.  Men were whistling and cat calling at me.  It was quite unnerving.  

By the time we walked back to the train station ( after eating at a little fast food Moroccan place) we were exhausted!  It was a long day of walking and we knew we'd still have to deal with our luggage issue once we got home...I was excited at the thought of a hot shower and changing out of the clothes I had on for over 3 days.

Good news!?  We got our luggage! Oh clean undergarments how I love you so!

In English Please

Had a great day at our volunteer placement.  There are a couple of kids that love stealing things, but I've figured out that it's entirely an attention seeking behavior.  Aaron mentioned how terrible he felt for one if the boys that is in a wheelchair.  His chair doesn't have tires on the wheels and his seat doesn't have a cushion.  It's definitely difficult to see and is a reminder of just one of the reasons we are so fortunate.  The fact is, it's much more typical to have a chair like that vs the wheelchairs we see in the states. Our country makes up such a small percentage of the world population and we take so much for granted.  Let this be another reminder why we should be thankful.

After our volunteer placement, we headed home for lunch. We had a bean soup, noodles and an amazing fried fish.  The fish was served whole and I had fun picking all of the meat off the fish bones.  It's not often I get the chance to eat a whole fish.

In the afternoon we enjoyed an Arabic lesson.  It's such a beautiful language and  I'd love to be able to read it, but I'm gonna be honest with myself.  That probably will never happen.  I mentioned to Aaron how bad I feel sometimes about being an American.   In my travels, I have met people around the world.  More often than not, the people I have met have been able to speak at least 2 languages.  I've even met people who speak 5 languages.  Americans talk so often about wanting to "save" people who live in "third world" countries.  (If we weren't talking about languages, I'd go off right now about the statement "third world" but I'll save that for another post.)  The majority of us only speak one language.  We expect everyone else to learn English because for some reason we think we are so much better than everyone else.  Our school systems may be better in many ways, but the fact is, many schoosl are requiring children to learn multiple languages from an early age.  In america our kids have study hour and no longer have gym, music or art.  We have stripped our schools down to the bare minimum and we wonder why kids are dropping out.   In other countries, students come from all over even when it isn't required, simply because they want to learn.  On that note, tomorrow I will attempt to write my name in Arabic.

After our lesson, we headed to the Medina for some shopping.  I had so much fun!  Morocco is an amazing place to shop.  Beautiful shoes, scarves, pottery, lights, blankets.  I spent about one hundred dollars and we got most all of our Christmas shopping done.  It was awesome!

Here is a picture with all of the goods.

After the market, we walked to a restaurant.  It was a boat built specifically as a restaurant and it was beautiful!  It was probably the most beautiful and unique restaurant that I have ever been to.  I had two glasses of a French wine and Aaron enjoyed a martini and a beer.  Finding Alcohol in Morocco is rare, so we thoroughly enjoyed our drinks.

We headed home for dinner.

I was in bed by 10pm and awake at 2am.  It was the first night I woke up sweating instead of freezing.  I lay awake for an hour or two before falling back asleep.   I told myself it would be my last full night sleep in a bed, tomorrow would be spent on a bus..and the next in the desert...and the next on another bus.

Weather Permitting

We had about 15 kids at our volunteer placement.  We colored and lifted one kid after the next onto the plastic slide.  So many things about today reminded me of my childhood.  They sell the plastic purple and green blow up bunnies that we used to get at fairs and carnivals in the 80's at the hospital entrance and other various locations throughout the hospital.   I haven't seen any like that since my childhood.    Another reminder of my childhood,  playdough.  We used a plastic toy that looks like a garlic press to push the playdough through.  It comes out the other end looking like pasta, but I think when I was a kid I associated it more with snakes.  The kids love it!  I remember loving it as a child as well.

Here is what the play room looks like, minus the children.  It is actually a really great area as long as the weather permits.  there is a large hole in the ceiling, so if it rains, it isn't available to the volunteers.  The only time it is available to the children is when the volunteers are there.  It's a great area for children to pass the day in between appointments with the doctors.  It also gives the parents a break from having to sit in their childs room all day. 

Most of the toys are broken, but the kids don't care.   Adults have a lot to learn from children....We don't need brand new things to have fun.  Old, broken things can also serve a purpose.

After lunch, we had a history lesson.  We learned a lot about the Moroccan culture. It was lovely. 
Following the history lesson, I went to a Moroccan Hamman.  It was an experience that I will never forget.  All of the Hammans that you see online are beautiful.  They usually have a large pool in the middle and a bench all the way around where the woman (and men during the evenings) sit and clean themselves.  The typical Hamman is nothing like that.  The one that I visited was like an old stark white locker/steam room all in one.  I walked in and immediately, found myself amongst many naked woman.  I was expecting an entry room at least, but the entry room is actually the changing room.  Many of the workers (the woman that scrub other woman) don't dress until they go home...which I imagine could be all day.   After I changed - or took off everything other than my underwear-I headed into the steam area.  I noted right away that everyone sits on either a small plastic foot stool type thing, or a mat on the tile floor.  You steam first and cover yourself in Henna (non staining) After that, a woman puts black soap all over you.    The black soap is olive oil and who knows what else.  It's the consistency of crisco.  I had imagined a bar of soap, but that is the furthest from what it actually looks like. 

After sitting with the soap on for a bit, a larger topless woman, that I imagine was in her late sixties came over and brought me into the adjoining room (it was slightly cooler than the first room)  I sat down and she scrubbed me with a loofah type thing (which I purchased upon arrival and am happy to report my dead skin is the only skin that had ever touched the thing)  She scrubbed me almost everywhere - minus my most private of private areas.  However, she did pull down my bottoms to scrub my backside at one point.  It was a very interesting cultural experience to say the least.  My skin was probably the softest it's ever been though.   The entire 1.5 hour experience cost about 7 bucks.  It would be a good place for Mike Rowe to visit.  It would be a very dirty job.

After my scrub down, I headed to the salon which was upstairs from the Hamman.    I was a little nervous because there were really old brushes everywhere and the cosmetologist (which I believe they called "beautician" had scary hair. She was also using a plain old hair dryer that didn't look capable of much.  It was only 5 bucks to have my hair straightened, so I couldn't pass it up.  Risking the chance that I may be leaving with a huge Afro and frizzy mess was worth the risk.  I was shocked that she actually gave me soft, frizz free, straight hair.  And the best part?  It didn't require any hair goo.  She was awesome and it proves that you can't judge a book by it's cover.  I had luscious straight hair for 3 full days.

That evening Aaron, Kevin and I headed to the mall.  We needed to get a few things - cough syrup and electrolytes.  We were a site for sore eyes.  I did buy some argon oil which was much more exciting than medicine.   It comes from a town here in Morocco and it is the only place in the world that has it.  It's the same thing that the brand Moroccan hair oil uses.  However, it is in it's natural form so it doesn't smell nearly as wonderful.  I've learned that Moroccan hair oil is only like 20-30% argon oil (roughly) so the 100% obviously is much better.

Good day in Rabat.

Marlboro Reds and Lattes

Internet down for 24 hours...Aaron seemed pretty annoyed, but I welcomed it.  I love being cut off from the world for a bit.   Kevin is still very sick and every day that goes by I feel worse and worse.  It's most definitely salmonella.  I had the luxury of experiencing that in Peru and let me tell you, I can think of a million other sicknesses I'd rather have. 

We started our volunteer placement at the children's hospital, but there weren't any children today.   Later we found out it's because of the play room - it has to be open to get children out of their rooms.  It was a little too wet and needed to be cleaned before it was opened, but we will be sure to have that done tomorrow.  We still managed to have an exciting day of cultural immersion!

We spent some time in the hospital cafe where there were many doctors- many of which were chain  smoking Marlboro reds.  We had a latte (aka shot of coffee) and sat back to people watch.

Afterwards we walked around the hospital exploring.  It's a very simple children's hospital with bare minimum supplies/furniture.  The walls are stark white with chipping plaster.  There is huge artwork on the walls dispersed throughout the hospital that is absolutely beautiful.  It makes it feel more like a children's hospital should feel I suppose...although I'm not really sure what it should feel like.   Playful, comforting, homey?

Most of the children come from poor areas in Morocco.  The government pays for their health care as long as they can supply a signed paper from their community officer stating they live in poverty...I'm certain the definition for poverty is much different here than it is at home.

After our time in the cafe we sat outside in the courtyard people watching again.  It's a very intriguing culture.  Women walk with women.  We watched as two small children played on a hose.  They put the hose between their legs and pretended that they were riding it.  It was hilarious!  I managed to sneak a photo.

 Men walk hand and hand - but only showing their friendship.  Being gay is completely unacceptable.  I do admire the fact that men are taught from a young age to show affection for one another.  It seems in most countries we do the opposite- men are supposed to be strong and hide their emotional side. Why?

We watched as a huge spider walked through the grass.  It was very ugly and brought out the arachnophobia in me.

After lunch, we headed out for a city tout of Rabat.  It is such a beautiful city.  One minute I'd feel like I was in Spain and the next like I was in Santorini, Greece.  There are certain areas that could even pass for Beverly Hills.  It's incredibly clean.

Come to find out, the reason it is so clean at the moment, is because the prime minister was visiting recently, so they had a huge town clean up.  Although, I wouldn't be surprised if this town was super clean on the time.  It's on the higher end of cities in Morocco.

Slept like a baby!!  Aaron did too - we didn't budge until our alarm went off at 7:30 am...I even slept through the 5am call to prayer!  

Morocco Arrival

What a long day and a half!  Our flight left at 1:30 for Salt Lake City.  We had a two hour delay there and passed the time at a little wine/beer bar.  It was a comfy little spot!  Thankfully we were able to talk the gate agent into giving us seats together - we were originally booked in middle seats one aisle in front of the other.  Can you imagine 9 hours of being in a middle seat next to strangers while on your honeymoon?!

It was a VERY long 9 hours.  Aaron managed to sleep almost the entire way- I tried to sleep, but it just wasn't happening!

Before our delay in SLC, we had already been set up on a tight layover in Paris - only one hour to make our connection to Rabat. With our two hour delay I was certain we'd miss the connection.  By some miracle, we actually made it...barely!  To no surprise, our luggage did not.

Our luggage will arrive late tomorrow.  I've already spent 30 hours in my clothes, what's 30 more!?

The Rabat airport is much smaller than I had anticipated.  It reminded me of a courthouse.

One of the first things I noted while driving into Rabat was how clean it is.  The streets are spotless!  Not at all what I expected!

We took an afternoon walk with two other volunteers down to the local market.  We needed toothbrushes at least!

For dinner we had chicken, French fries, soup, salad and these amazing peaches with a cinnamon and sugar glaze.  Delicious!

Hawaii