April Vacation!
Hey All,
I sometimes feel as if these e-mails are getting old, though I only send them once a month. I hope that you're all still getting something out of them. Day to day life in the village has settled into something of a routine, though I realize that on some level nothing that I do is truly routine in the American sense of the word. Perhaps it means I'm getting more accustomed to my daily life here... I'm sure that's true. I'm also probably slightly jaded with the difficulties of Peace Corps as an organization and the stresses of living here. Not to worry though.. I'm tough and will press on. Besides... most of the time the benefits far outweigh any potential shortcomings. Anyway... I hope that you are all well as always and I look forward to hearing about you and what you've been up to in these fine spring days. *hint hint*
Speaking of spring... It finally sprung full force this April... though not without a few major setbacks. Winter was more mild than I would have suspected given my altitude but perhaps my latitude had some calming effects and it wasn't that bad. Still it seems reluctant to completely give up its grip. There was one major snowstorm just before my birthday that defiantly rivaled anything that winter managed and kept Mark from making it to his house with his visiting parents. Luckily I was on vacation of my own and managed to be someplace warm, if not sunny, and not stuck up the hill for the big event.
Before I talk about vacations though I should talk about projects so you don't all think I'm simply enjoying myself here without giving anything back. The pace of the work has dropped off significantly following the conclusion of the trees project. The trees themselves have, for the most part, budded out and joined the rest of the great green curtain that shades my house and give my village its quiet and peaceful feel. Ive been gathering data and collecting signatures to start on my next project, a drinking water tower for the 3/4ths of the village that doesn't currently have drinkable water on tap. The project itself is pretty straight forward. Its a big advantage for such things to have the major village industry be construction. All I need is the money. Its a bit more than I can easily obtain but I'm confident I'll be able to find it someplace.
For the birds project (bird census in all the parks and protected areas coupled with environmental education, for those of you that forgot) I finished the grant/project proposal in conjunction with my partners. Good to have it written, though we expect that it will come back to us again a few times before it finally gets posted on the Internet and I ask for donations! (just be prepared) Other than those things I've been helping out a few times at the latest training session down in the city. Good to get to talk to the new folks and their enthusiasm is good for recharging my own batteries some. Nice to remember the idealism that marked my first few months.
My first presentation was on Stress Management... don't know why they thought I would be an appropriate choice for this but it went pretty well. Right after the session I went for some stress management of my own and left to go on vacation with my friend Carly and her parents who were visiting down in the south and said that they wouldn't mind the company. It was a great trip. It took advantage of a holiday in the Moroccan calender (L'aid Milud the prophet Mohammed's birthday) and a few weekends to allow us to travel around for 9 days. Our first stop was in the town of Erfud where Carly and I stalked a Belgian birding expert who was in the country leading a tour and with whom we had corresponded regarding our own birding project. We caught up with him in the hotel late that night and briefly discussed the project with him. That was it for work for the week! So nice!
From there we traveled further south to Merzuga. I had been to this town on the edge of the Sahara one time before and done camel rides on Christmas Eve with a group of friends. This time was a little higher class, and though we did the camel rides at sunrise which was a bit early it was still a blast. We did hike out to the dunes at sunset the night previous though and were treated to one of the nicest sunsets I've seen yet. Hopefully I'll get some pictures out soon
Next we moved on to Tinrhir, home of Todra Gorge. This large canyon carved into the rock of the mountains is quite impressive. The walls are quite massive and there were many Europeans more adventuresome than we were perched in various poses climbing up the vertical faces. We took a more mild adventure and hiked a ways up a dry creek bed for lunch in the shadow of a giant boulder. From there we enjoyed watching the goat herds do the same thing the climbers had been struggling to do with seemingly no effort. We only managed to get harassed by one Berber woman and her donkey who wanted a dirham or candy in exchange for a picture. We gave her some candy but she apparently really only wanted the dirham because she left before we could take one.
We had some hotel trouble over the next couple of days because Moroccans have trouble with reservations and the tourist season was definitely picking up with the warm spring weather. We managed to find some nice places to stay though and visited another gorge the next day as well as my friend Tina's site. This was interesting as it meant deftly piloting a tiny Peugeot (silly french car) down 16 kilometers of rough and unpaved road. There was also some serious cliffs involved which had us all a little nervous and Tina, who has travelled the road many times under worse conditions, had to stifle her laughter :-) Her site was nice though. Very pretty with giant cliffs in the background in contrast to the green fields spreading out into the valley. We got mobbed by kids when we got out of the car, got a cook stove demonstration and saw some women weaving a rug out of scrap material and then were on our way back to town.
The next day was my birthday. My friend Braden called from the states which was excellent and then we went to visit Carly's host family from training in the village of Azlag on the road to Ouarzazate. This was a really fun visit. The people of Azlag make their living by forging and decorating daggers and we made some serious purchases from her family. Plus the fields were beautiful and there were many interesting birds there that I had fun watching while all the girls got dressed up in new headscarves and chit chatted about all the latest gossip. One of these days maybe I'll get a chance to visit my host family from training but I doubt it would have the same kind of feel as the kids that were there have all gone off to the city to work now and it would just be me and my host parents.
We moved on to Ouarzazate and I had a wonderful birthday dinner at a nice Italian resturaunt and some good wine. I checked my e-mail and had a few notes from friends. I really appreciate you all and I'm sorry that I've probably forgotten most of your birthdays at least once since I've been here. Since there isn't much to see in OZ we moved on to Ait Benhadu a bit down the road after a nice breakfast with Adam and his parents (I think we all went on vacation at the same time). Ait Benhadu is a giant castle Kasbah built into a small mountain. Its one of the largest remaining here and it was where they filmed the North African scenes of Gladiator, which ironically enough may be pretty close to historically accurate, though I don't think that the romans got as far south as Ouarzazate... maybe though. I'll have to look into it
The highlight of the trip for me was getting to spend a nice time relaxing in a very fancy resort on the outskirts of Marrakesh for the next three nights. (Its owned and operated by a distant relative of Carly's) There was three pools! And Carly's dad humored me with a game of tennis. Though I haven't uhh... ever... really played before and haven't even held a racket in 10 years or so probably I did pretty well and maybe it will become a hobby when I get home. Though pulling ourselves away from the resort was difficult we did get into the city so Carly's parents could experience the medina (old city market) and the public square where all the street performers gather in the evening. We met up with another volunteer for dinner at a nice place where we could get sushi!
Alas all good things must come to an end and this vacation was one of them. I went home via a 3 day HIV/AIDS training workshop outside the city which was informative and stalled having to go back to the grind a little longer. Peace Corps did some silly things involving my travel and made me angry but I've since gotten over it. I met up with Mark and we attempted to head back up the hill together but a number of factors prevented our getting home. We got stuck in town for several days due to poor road conditions and no drivers and PC pitched a fit about this as well and is now talking informally about the possibility of moving us "due to difficulties with transportation safety and security". I refuse to think about this until I get more concrete info either way. I'll keep you posted.
That's about it for interesting stuff in April. I've done a few things in May already but I'll save those for another time and place. In the future I've got Mid-Service Medicals where I get to see everyone from the environment crew again! Yay. Looking forward to that. Also a vacation to a music festival in June.... but I'm getting ahead of myself. May, for the most part, promises to be a quiet month. Ok... I'm done... Take care of yourselves all of you and stay well! I miss you all. Congrats to Leo on his gold medal! Keep the letters and e-mails coming.. I thrive on your correspondence!
Much love and luck in everything!
Cheers!
-Andy
I sometimes feel as if these e-mails are getting old, though I only send them once a month. I hope that you're all still getting something out of them. Day to day life in the village has settled into something of a routine, though I realize that on some level nothing that I do is truly routine in the American sense of the word. Perhaps it means I'm getting more accustomed to my daily life here... I'm sure that's true. I'm also probably slightly jaded with the difficulties of Peace Corps as an organization and the stresses of living here. Not to worry though.. I'm tough and will press on. Besides... most of the time the benefits far outweigh any potential shortcomings. Anyway... I hope that you are all well as always and I look forward to hearing about you and what you've been up to in these fine spring days. *hint hint*
Speaking of spring... It finally sprung full force this April... though not without a few major setbacks. Winter was more mild than I would have suspected given my altitude but perhaps my latitude had some calming effects and it wasn't that bad. Still it seems reluctant to completely give up its grip. There was one major snowstorm just before my birthday that defiantly rivaled anything that winter managed and kept Mark from making it to his house with his visiting parents. Luckily I was on vacation of my own and managed to be someplace warm, if not sunny, and not stuck up the hill for the big event.
Before I talk about vacations though I should talk about projects so you don't all think I'm simply enjoying myself here without giving anything back. The pace of the work has dropped off significantly following the conclusion of the trees project. The trees themselves have, for the most part, budded out and joined the rest of the great green curtain that shades my house and give my village its quiet and peaceful feel. Ive been gathering data and collecting signatures to start on my next project, a drinking water tower for the 3/4ths of the village that doesn't currently have drinkable water on tap. The project itself is pretty straight forward. Its a big advantage for such things to have the major village industry be construction. All I need is the money. Its a bit more than I can easily obtain but I'm confident I'll be able to find it someplace.
For the birds project (bird census in all the parks and protected areas coupled with environmental education, for those of you that forgot) I finished the grant/project proposal in conjunction with my partners. Good to have it written, though we expect that it will come back to us again a few times before it finally gets posted on the Internet and I ask for donations! (just be prepared) Other than those things I've been helping out a few times at the latest training session down in the city. Good to get to talk to the new folks and their enthusiasm is good for recharging my own batteries some. Nice to remember the idealism that marked my first few months.
My first presentation was on Stress Management... don't know why they thought I would be an appropriate choice for this but it went pretty well. Right after the session I went for some stress management of my own and left to go on vacation with my friend Carly and her parents who were visiting down in the south and said that they wouldn't mind the company. It was a great trip. It took advantage of a holiday in the Moroccan calender (L'aid Milud the prophet Mohammed's birthday) and a few weekends to allow us to travel around for 9 days. Our first stop was in the town of Erfud where Carly and I stalked a Belgian birding expert who was in the country leading a tour and with whom we had corresponded regarding our own birding project. We caught up with him in the hotel late that night and briefly discussed the project with him. That was it for work for the week! So nice!
From there we traveled further south to Merzuga. I had been to this town on the edge of the Sahara one time before and done camel rides on Christmas Eve with a group of friends. This time was a little higher class, and though we did the camel rides at sunrise which was a bit early it was still a blast. We did hike out to the dunes at sunset the night previous though and were treated to one of the nicest sunsets I've seen yet. Hopefully I'll get some pictures out soon
Next we moved on to Tinrhir, home of Todra Gorge. This large canyon carved into the rock of the mountains is quite impressive. The walls are quite massive and there were many Europeans more adventuresome than we were perched in various poses climbing up the vertical faces. We took a more mild adventure and hiked a ways up a dry creek bed for lunch in the shadow of a giant boulder. From there we enjoyed watching the goat herds do the same thing the climbers had been struggling to do with seemingly no effort. We only managed to get harassed by one Berber woman and her donkey who wanted a dirham or candy in exchange for a picture. We gave her some candy but she apparently really only wanted the dirham because she left before we could take one.
We had some hotel trouble over the next couple of days because Moroccans have trouble with reservations and the tourist season was definitely picking up with the warm spring weather. We managed to find some nice places to stay though and visited another gorge the next day as well as my friend Tina's site. This was interesting as it meant deftly piloting a tiny Peugeot (silly french car) down 16 kilometers of rough and unpaved road. There was also some serious cliffs involved which had us all a little nervous and Tina, who has travelled the road many times under worse conditions, had to stifle her laughter :-) Her site was nice though. Very pretty with giant cliffs in the background in contrast to the green fields spreading out into the valley. We got mobbed by kids when we got out of the car, got a cook stove demonstration and saw some women weaving a rug out of scrap material and then were on our way back to town.
The next day was my birthday. My friend Braden called from the states which was excellent and then we went to visit Carly's host family from training in the village of Azlag on the road to Ouarzazate. This was a really fun visit. The people of Azlag make their living by forging and decorating daggers and we made some serious purchases from her family. Plus the fields were beautiful and there were many interesting birds there that I had fun watching while all the girls got dressed up in new headscarves and chit chatted about all the latest gossip. One of these days maybe I'll get a chance to visit my host family from training but I doubt it would have the same kind of feel as the kids that were there have all gone off to the city to work now and it would just be me and my host parents.
We moved on to Ouarzazate and I had a wonderful birthday dinner at a nice Italian resturaunt and some good wine. I checked my e-mail and had a few notes from friends. I really appreciate you all and I'm sorry that I've probably forgotten most of your birthdays at least once since I've been here. Since there isn't much to see in OZ we moved on to Ait Benhadu a bit down the road after a nice breakfast with Adam and his parents (I think we all went on vacation at the same time). Ait Benhadu is a giant castle Kasbah built into a small mountain. Its one of the largest remaining here and it was where they filmed the North African scenes of Gladiator, which ironically enough may be pretty close to historically accurate, though I don't think that the romans got as far south as Ouarzazate... maybe though. I'll have to look into it
The highlight of the trip for me was getting to spend a nice time relaxing in a very fancy resort on the outskirts of Marrakesh for the next three nights. (Its owned and operated by a distant relative of Carly's) There was three pools! And Carly's dad humored me with a game of tennis. Though I haven't uhh... ever... really played before and haven't even held a racket in 10 years or so probably I did pretty well and maybe it will become a hobby when I get home. Though pulling ourselves away from the resort was difficult we did get into the city so Carly's parents could experience the medina (old city market) and the public square where all the street performers gather in the evening. We met up with another volunteer for dinner at a nice place where we could get sushi!
Alas all good things must come to an end and this vacation was one of them. I went home via a 3 day HIV/AIDS training workshop outside the city which was informative and stalled having to go back to the grind a little longer. Peace Corps did some silly things involving my travel and made me angry but I've since gotten over it. I met up with Mark and we attempted to head back up the hill together but a number of factors prevented our getting home. We got stuck in town for several days due to poor road conditions and no drivers and PC pitched a fit about this as well and is now talking informally about the possibility of moving us "due to difficulties with transportation safety and security". I refuse to think about this until I get more concrete info either way. I'll keep you posted.
That's about it for interesting stuff in April. I've done a few things in May already but I'll save those for another time and place. In the future I've got Mid-Service Medicals where I get to see everyone from the environment crew again! Yay. Looking forward to that. Also a vacation to a music festival in June.... but I'm getting ahead of myself. May, for the most part, promises to be a quiet month. Ok... I'm done... Take care of yourselves all of you and stay well! I miss you all. Congrats to Leo on his gold medal! Keep the letters and e-mails coming.. I thrive on your correspondence!
Much love and luck in everything!
Cheers!
-Andy
posted by Andy & Erin | 2:51 PM
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