Marrakech and Mountains
Hey All,
How's the weather back home? Snowed yet? I realize that some of you that read this have probably never even seen snow but I have to start the conversation someplace so forgive me. I'm interested in learing what's new the world over and that starts with you guys. You can e-mail me or write me back from time to time. I'll allow that.
Anyway, the month of November for me has been a bit crazy so I'll try to remember all the interesting things that happened in some kind of order so that it can be followed. Of course I'm prone to rambling these days so who knows where I'll end up with things.
The month actually started with the end of Ramadan, which I covered in detail in my last e-mail so I won't go back that far. For the purposes of this letter we'll start on the day after that, November 5th when Mark and I tried to get transit down to town to pick up our November living allowance. PC's version of a paycheck... about 260 bucks which covers rent and food for the month and any transportation that's not work related. Our problems began when we discovered that there wasn't any transit since most of the usual drivers had not yet returned from their families where they had spent the holiday. This poses a problem for us because we only get the weekends off, regardless of what's happening so we had to go while it was still the weekend or risk having no time to do anything in the city which for many reasons, was unacceptable. Its a long way to go simply to turn around and come back.
Eventually we did find some tranzit. A family had hired a private van to take them back down the mountains and we begged and pleaded and looked miserable until the driver relented and agreed to take us too. This actually worked out for the best as we had time to sleep a little extra and had given up hope all together only to have it restored in spades. Plus there was time for breakfast. Apple pancakes... my new specialty. Hey.. I have to do something with the 25 kilograms of flour I had to buy since it doesn't come in smaller sizes. It also turned out to be one of the fastest trips down the mountain that I've yet had since we didn't stop to pick up anyone extra along the way and since they were going all the way to Marrakech....
Mark and I jumped ship at Agouim and made our way to OZ only to discover that there was no money there. For me this was a bit of a dangerous situation because PC had not yet given me rent money so I had been paying that out of my food money. This normally doesn't matter because food only costs me about 5 bucks a week in site but when you consider that this is the 4th month that I haven't gotten the extra money then I started to get a little concerned. We called PC and discovered that this was a problem for many of the volunteers and they hoped the money would arrive the next week. This normally would be a problem since it would mean several more trips up and down the mountains, which are always difficult but this time I had to come through in a little while anyway for a meeting in Marrakech with my actual employers (at least in name) the Moroccan Ministry of Water and Forests. So, we did our usual weekend business and went back. 3 days later on Friday I turned around and headed down the hill to Marrakech. The plan was to pick Mark up on the way and we would spend a couple of nights with a friend from training on the outskirts of the city and then head into the city proper for the meeting on Monday.
Mark missed the transit and since there is only one I couldn't get out and go get him. The driver refused to wait so I kept on down the hill without him and worried about where he might have gotten to. I hoped that he had just slept in. The rest of the trip was long and expensive. About 11 hours and 200 dirhams to get to Chris's house. It was great to see him though! He's got power in his house and a TV with a DVD player and he buys bootlegs in the city so I got to see a couple of movies that I had been wanting to back home. The quality (not to mention the legality) was dubious but it was worth it after 11 hours on the road just to sit and relax. Plus he used some ingredients that he got from home to make chili and it was delicious. The night passed quickly.
Saturday was beautiful and we did the breakfast bit then got some snack food and tuna for lunch and headed out to one of his primary project sites. It is a combined Gazelle and Mufalon (think big horn sheep... a giant mountain goat with long beards and boots) reserve where he is helping his local association build visitor facilities to help generate tourist income. For me this was the first of several experiences this month that helped me find the environment I came here to help in the first place. This was the kind of thing that I had signed up to do. Admittedly he is not helping very much and is having many of the same problems that I'm (and the rest of the PCV's) are having with the beauocracy and such. Still... to be able to do hands on projects directly affecting the park and surrounding land is awesome. The reason for my jealousy was that we managed to have a wonderful picnic lunch inside the reserve (illegal for most people and we were actually bugged by foresters until we produced some ID) and got to watch a heard of more than 50 sheep the whole time. It was amazing. Chris tells me that he's never seen so many in one place before.
We finished lunch and hiked back to meet his tutor a little concerned that we hadn't yet heard from Mark since he should have reached pavement and therefore cell phone reception about lunch time. Still, we didn't worry too much and we couldn't have done anything even if we had. His tutor was cool and spoke good english... which one upped me... Ohh well. We spent the afternoon back at Chris's place playing chess and I was delighted to discover that we play at the same level. That is to say we play very badly, and we split evenly on the number of games we each won. This kept things interesting.
The next morning we went into the city. This was the first time I've been to Marrakech and actually had some time to look around and do things. First things first however and we hit up Pizza hut. The Medina (market) was HUGE and full of interesting things that I couldn't afford at the time and the main market square was packed with snake charmers, tamed monkeys, acrobats and other oddities. We spent quite a while enjoying these things and also the International Film Festival which happened to be in town at that time. Most of the movies were in french and we didn't end up actually watching anything but there was an unusual number of famous people meandering about. The only thing that didn't cooperate was the weather. It was rainy and cool all that first day. I picked up a wooden chessboard in the market for dirt cheap and we continued our games indoors when things turned really nasty. Eventually we went to the big wal-mart type store and purchased a few things I can't otherwise get (Peanut butter).
The day of the meeting dawned and we discovered first thing that there was no meeting. It had been moved to Tuesday which meant that I would have another night in the City. Monday was a work day though and I spent a lot of time on the computer doing paperwork for the Trees project and managed to arrange a meeting in French to meet with the owner of several nurseries in the area and determine prices and secure a Devis... a french document guaranteeing a fixed price for a certain quantity of goods. With this document I could finish my grant paperwork and all I would need to submit it on the first of december was a couple of signatures from back in the village. Arranging all this took most of the day but I did manage to meet up with a few other volunteers in town to help local artisans market their products to the people at the film festival. I acquired a berber wool coat from a man I had met before on this side of the mountains free of charge as I had helped him spin and weave the wool the last time I had been here and because he has a really good relationship with the volunteer that lives in his village. Still no word from mark... I called PC to let them know that I thought he was sick and hadn't managed to make it to the meeting. Right after I called we heard from him. He had made it to Ouarzazate but wasn't going to make it to the meeting. I would see him there in a few days.
Tuesday came and we had the meeting. This consisted of mostly us meeting the guy that is supposed to be in charge of us. (keep in mind its 9 months in now) and outlining for him what we have been up to. The guy had no idea that we were coming and only ended up staying for one of the presentations and took off. I left with no clearer idea how this organization was going to help me and in a big rush to get back to Ouarzazate and my paycheck because by now I was dangerously low on funds. The drive back was my second "back to the environment" experience of the month. It had just snowed in the upper part of the pass and I went through it with the late afternoon sun reflecting off these peaks beautifully. It was a great ride except the driver was a bit crazy and insisted on being called fred flinstone the whole time because it was only fair that he get an "American" name if i had a berber one. Thankfully I survived in one piece. But my money wasn't there....
For the next 6 days and 7 nights I waited in Ouarzazate because I had arrived just in time for the Post office to close for the Moroccan independence day holiday. Normally it would have only been closed on friday but since this was the 50th anniversary edition the parliament decided that they would extend it to 3 days starting wednesday. This was a surprise to pretty much everyone since it happened at the close of business on Tuesday... I was now stuck in Oz with 52 dirhams to my name... roughly 5 dollars, until monday when the office re-opened. Luckily Mark had been there to get his and I borrowed money to last me through the week. He took off for a 3 day beach vacation and I settled in. On the up side I did get bunches of work done. I finished all my grant paperwork and submitted it minus a couple of signatures. When I did this I was told by my program manager that more people had applied for grants in the first quarter from U.S. Aid's small project program then they had money for the whole year.... This is bad news but not the end of the world. I can do nothing at this point but wait and see what happens.
My money did come on monday and I went back up the hill Tuesday. I was happy except that the mix up had ruined any chance of my spending Thanksgiving with another american. Mark was vacationing still and so there I was... alone. I resolved to spend the holiday the most interesting way I knew how and went exploring. I ended up climbing a mountain and having a revealing and special experience. I'll save you the details here but if you're curious I decided that some other of my elite circle could benefit from my mental breakthroughs and so I wrote an essay for publication in our in country volunteer published magazine. You can read it if you're curious here... http://atibbs.blogspot.com/2005/11/thanksgiving.html and if you go to the regular journal you can see a couple of pictures... http://atibbs.blogspot.com . More pictures soon!
I spent a lot of time that week revisiting places I hadn't been much and working on trying to integrate myself some more into my village with some success. I even had tea with some people that weren't members of my host family, though in a cafe and not their homes. The women have also been braving conversations with me from the roof tops, through the windows of my house, behind trees, or any other time I can't see them and directly converse. Hey.. its a start. I got the signatures I needed and prepared for yet another trip down the mountains to deliver. Mark visited me on Monday when he returned and I went back with him on Tuesday to his village which is much less protected and much colder than mine.... It was about 40 degrees INSIDE his house. It snowed overnight right above his village and the mountains were gorgeous in the morning. On the 30th I made it back to town and officially completed my first grant proposal for my first project. Its a good feeling... now I just have to hope that it works out. EeallahAlowm... only god knows.
Other things of note this month.... Mark's got a moroccan girlfriend he picked up at the post office. Actually it sounds like she may have picked him up. I ate at their house with him once this week. It was an interesting experience. I'll fill you in with details of all that as I get them. The whole process still is a barrel of laughs for me as I have no interest in attempting it. I'm also doing my best to follow in my moms footsteps as a great minimalist cook. Successful dishes this month include several moroccan favorites, some mexican rice and homemade tortillas, rice pilaf (notice a rice theme here) and potatoes and cheese. I've also done some easier stuff like mac and cheese with pre-packaged cheese wedges and various salads with olive oil and vinegar.
Plans for the immediate future include a week long conference in Agadir. Its an "after six months in your village now what?" training session and for me the best part is that I get to see all the friends that I met during training and have now been separated from for half a year. I still get shivers thinking that its been that long already. Time really is flying for me... such a strange element. Also my plans for Christmas include a vacation of a few days with friends down to the Dunes of the Sahara in a town called Merzuga. Should be fun if I can pull it off. I'll let you know all about it as close to the first of the new year as I can. I should also be around to at least check e-mail until the 12th of december so this is a good time to get an immediate response from me.
Alright... I guess that's about it for now and believe it or not that's the short version... If you have any questions about any of this, or about life in morocco in general then ASK THEM... and I'll be happy to answer them if I know or try and find out. I'm always up for new challenges. Many of you that I have addresses for have letters in the mail... They aren't christmas letters per say but are the best that I can do for gifts at the moment so bear with me.
I love you all and I hope you are all well...
Love and luck in Everything
-Andy
How's the weather back home? Snowed yet? I realize that some of you that read this have probably never even seen snow but I have to start the conversation someplace so forgive me. I'm interested in learing what's new the world over and that starts with you guys. You can e-mail me or write me back from time to time. I'll allow that.
Anyway, the month of November for me has been a bit crazy so I'll try to remember all the interesting things that happened in some kind of order so that it can be followed. Of course I'm prone to rambling these days so who knows where I'll end up with things.
The month actually started with the end of Ramadan, which I covered in detail in my last e-mail so I won't go back that far. For the purposes of this letter we'll start on the day after that, November 5th when Mark and I tried to get transit down to town to pick up our November living allowance. PC's version of a paycheck... about 260 bucks which covers rent and food for the month and any transportation that's not work related. Our problems began when we discovered that there wasn't any transit since most of the usual drivers had not yet returned from their families where they had spent the holiday. This poses a problem for us because we only get the weekends off, regardless of what's happening so we had to go while it was still the weekend or risk having no time to do anything in the city which for many reasons, was unacceptable. Its a long way to go simply to turn around and come back.
Eventually we did find some tranzit. A family had hired a private van to take them back down the mountains and we begged and pleaded and looked miserable until the driver relented and agreed to take us too. This actually worked out for the best as we had time to sleep a little extra and had given up hope all together only to have it restored in spades. Plus there was time for breakfast. Apple pancakes... my new specialty. Hey.. I have to do something with the 25 kilograms of flour I had to buy since it doesn't come in smaller sizes. It also turned out to be one of the fastest trips down the mountain that I've yet had since we didn't stop to pick up anyone extra along the way and since they were going all the way to Marrakech....
Mark and I jumped ship at Agouim and made our way to OZ only to discover that there was no money there. For me this was a bit of a dangerous situation because PC had not yet given me rent money so I had been paying that out of my food money. This normally doesn't matter because food only costs me about 5 bucks a week in site but when you consider that this is the 4th month that I haven't gotten the extra money then I started to get a little concerned. We called PC and discovered that this was a problem for many of the volunteers and they hoped the money would arrive the next week. This normally would be a problem since it would mean several more trips up and down the mountains, which are always difficult but this time I had to come through in a little while anyway for a meeting in Marrakech with my actual employers (at least in name) the Moroccan Ministry of Water and Forests. So, we did our usual weekend business and went back. 3 days later on Friday I turned around and headed down the hill to Marrakech. The plan was to pick Mark up on the way and we would spend a couple of nights with a friend from training on the outskirts of the city and then head into the city proper for the meeting on Monday.
Mark missed the transit and since there is only one I couldn't get out and go get him. The driver refused to wait so I kept on down the hill without him and worried about where he might have gotten to. I hoped that he had just slept in. The rest of the trip was long and expensive. About 11 hours and 200 dirhams to get to Chris's house. It was great to see him though! He's got power in his house and a TV with a DVD player and he buys bootlegs in the city so I got to see a couple of movies that I had been wanting to back home. The quality (not to mention the legality) was dubious but it was worth it after 11 hours on the road just to sit and relax. Plus he used some ingredients that he got from home to make chili and it was delicious. The night passed quickly.
Saturday was beautiful and we did the breakfast bit then got some snack food and tuna for lunch and headed out to one of his primary project sites. It is a combined Gazelle and Mufalon (think big horn sheep... a giant mountain goat with long beards and boots) reserve where he is helping his local association build visitor facilities to help generate tourist income. For me this was the first of several experiences this month that helped me find the environment I came here to help in the first place. This was the kind of thing that I had signed up to do. Admittedly he is not helping very much and is having many of the same problems that I'm (and the rest of the PCV's) are having with the beauocracy and such. Still... to be able to do hands on projects directly affecting the park and surrounding land is awesome. The reason for my jealousy was that we managed to have a wonderful picnic lunch inside the reserve (illegal for most people and we were actually bugged by foresters until we produced some ID) and got to watch a heard of more than 50 sheep the whole time. It was amazing. Chris tells me that he's never seen so many in one place before.
We finished lunch and hiked back to meet his tutor a little concerned that we hadn't yet heard from Mark since he should have reached pavement and therefore cell phone reception about lunch time. Still, we didn't worry too much and we couldn't have done anything even if we had. His tutor was cool and spoke good english... which one upped me... Ohh well. We spent the afternoon back at Chris's place playing chess and I was delighted to discover that we play at the same level. That is to say we play very badly, and we split evenly on the number of games we each won. This kept things interesting.
The next morning we went into the city. This was the first time I've been to Marrakech and actually had some time to look around and do things. First things first however and we hit up Pizza hut. The Medina (market) was HUGE and full of interesting things that I couldn't afford at the time and the main market square was packed with snake charmers, tamed monkeys, acrobats and other oddities. We spent quite a while enjoying these things and also the International Film Festival which happened to be in town at that time. Most of the movies were in french and we didn't end up actually watching anything but there was an unusual number of famous people meandering about. The only thing that didn't cooperate was the weather. It was rainy and cool all that first day. I picked up a wooden chessboard in the market for dirt cheap and we continued our games indoors when things turned really nasty. Eventually we went to the big wal-mart type store and purchased a few things I can't otherwise get (Peanut butter).
The day of the meeting dawned and we discovered first thing that there was no meeting. It had been moved to Tuesday which meant that I would have another night in the City. Monday was a work day though and I spent a lot of time on the computer doing paperwork for the Trees project and managed to arrange a meeting in French to meet with the owner of several nurseries in the area and determine prices and secure a Devis... a french document guaranteeing a fixed price for a certain quantity of goods. With this document I could finish my grant paperwork and all I would need to submit it on the first of december was a couple of signatures from back in the village. Arranging all this took most of the day but I did manage to meet up with a few other volunteers in town to help local artisans market their products to the people at the film festival. I acquired a berber wool coat from a man I had met before on this side of the mountains free of charge as I had helped him spin and weave the wool the last time I had been here and because he has a really good relationship with the volunteer that lives in his village. Still no word from mark... I called PC to let them know that I thought he was sick and hadn't managed to make it to the meeting. Right after I called we heard from him. He had made it to Ouarzazate but wasn't going to make it to the meeting. I would see him there in a few days.
Tuesday came and we had the meeting. This consisted of mostly us meeting the guy that is supposed to be in charge of us. (keep in mind its 9 months in now) and outlining for him what we have been up to. The guy had no idea that we were coming and only ended up staying for one of the presentations and took off. I left with no clearer idea how this organization was going to help me and in a big rush to get back to Ouarzazate and my paycheck because by now I was dangerously low on funds. The drive back was my second "back to the environment" experience of the month. It had just snowed in the upper part of the pass and I went through it with the late afternoon sun reflecting off these peaks beautifully. It was a great ride except the driver was a bit crazy and insisted on being called fred flinstone the whole time because it was only fair that he get an "American" name if i had a berber one. Thankfully I survived in one piece. But my money wasn't there....
For the next 6 days and 7 nights I waited in Ouarzazate because I had arrived just in time for the Post office to close for the Moroccan independence day holiday. Normally it would have only been closed on friday but since this was the 50th anniversary edition the parliament decided that they would extend it to 3 days starting wednesday. This was a surprise to pretty much everyone since it happened at the close of business on Tuesday... I was now stuck in Oz with 52 dirhams to my name... roughly 5 dollars, until monday when the office re-opened. Luckily Mark had been there to get his and I borrowed money to last me through the week. He took off for a 3 day beach vacation and I settled in. On the up side I did get bunches of work done. I finished all my grant paperwork and submitted it minus a couple of signatures. When I did this I was told by my program manager that more people had applied for grants in the first quarter from U.S. Aid's small project program then they had money for the whole year.... This is bad news but not the end of the world. I can do nothing at this point but wait and see what happens.
My money did come on monday and I went back up the hill Tuesday. I was happy except that the mix up had ruined any chance of my spending Thanksgiving with another american. Mark was vacationing still and so there I was... alone. I resolved to spend the holiday the most interesting way I knew how and went exploring. I ended up climbing a mountain and having a revealing and special experience. I'll save you the details here but if you're curious I decided that some other of my elite circle could benefit from my mental breakthroughs and so I wrote an essay for publication in our in country volunteer published magazine. You can read it if you're curious here... http://atibbs.blogspot.com/2005/11/thanksgiving.html and if you go to the regular journal you can see a couple of pictures... http://atibbs.blogspot.com . More pictures soon!
I spent a lot of time that week revisiting places I hadn't been much and working on trying to integrate myself some more into my village with some success. I even had tea with some people that weren't members of my host family, though in a cafe and not their homes. The women have also been braving conversations with me from the roof tops, through the windows of my house, behind trees, or any other time I can't see them and directly converse. Hey.. its a start. I got the signatures I needed and prepared for yet another trip down the mountains to deliver. Mark visited me on Monday when he returned and I went back with him on Tuesday to his village which is much less protected and much colder than mine.... It was about 40 degrees INSIDE his house. It snowed overnight right above his village and the mountains were gorgeous in the morning. On the 30th I made it back to town and officially completed my first grant proposal for my first project. Its a good feeling... now I just have to hope that it works out. EeallahAlowm... only god knows.
Other things of note this month.... Mark's got a moroccan girlfriend he picked up at the post office. Actually it sounds like she may have picked him up. I ate at their house with him once this week. It was an interesting experience. I'll fill you in with details of all that as I get them. The whole process still is a barrel of laughs for me as I have no interest in attempting it. I'm also doing my best to follow in my moms footsteps as a great minimalist cook. Successful dishes this month include several moroccan favorites, some mexican rice and homemade tortillas, rice pilaf (notice a rice theme here) and potatoes and cheese. I've also done some easier stuff like mac and cheese with pre-packaged cheese wedges and various salads with olive oil and vinegar.
Plans for the immediate future include a week long conference in Agadir. Its an "after six months in your village now what?" training session and for me the best part is that I get to see all the friends that I met during training and have now been separated from for half a year. I still get shivers thinking that its been that long already. Time really is flying for me... such a strange element. Also my plans for Christmas include a vacation of a few days with friends down to the Dunes of the Sahara in a town called Merzuga. Should be fun if I can pull it off. I'll let you know all about it as close to the first of the new year as I can. I should also be around to at least check e-mail until the 12th of december so this is a good time to get an immediate response from me.
Alright... I guess that's about it for now and believe it or not that's the short version... If you have any questions about any of this, or about life in morocco in general then ASK THEM... and I'll be happy to answer them if I know or try and find out. I'm always up for new challenges. Many of you that I have addresses for have letters in the mail... They aren't christmas letters per say but are the best that I can do for gifts at the moment so bear with me.
I love you all and I hope you are all well...
Love and luck in Everything
-Andy
posted by Andy & Erin | 11:32 PM
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