Nomad No More
Hey All,
How are things going. Thanks to everyone who got back to me on my latest, semi-frantic e-mail. I'm happy to report that things have definitely taken a turn for the better in the weeks since I dashed that one off. If the experience reminded me of anything meaningful, its that I still have great friends who care about me and I definitely, definitely appreciate that. Of course, that being said, really things couldn't't go anywhere BUT up either.
So, I've got a new place to live now. Same national park but this time on the north side of the mountains instead of the south side where I was before. As the crow flies its really only about 20 kilometres or so over the big hills to where I lived before. Of course that 20 kilometers is a 9 hour hike and generally takes two days. Definitely have plans to do that in the future if I can arrange for people to go with me. There seems to be no shortage of people on this side of the mountains who are interested in doing so. Sounds great to me! The name of my new village is Tassa Ouergaine and I'll get into it in more detail in a bit. First though, let me chit chat for a bit about the month of August.
If I had to choose a word to describe my life this August it would be NOMADIC. This begins as something of a novelty but by the end of the month I was definitely ready to have someplace to settle down. Thankfully, the month was broken up in the middle by a vacation that I already had planned to take to the north before trouble struck. Before that I also got to attend a few meetings in Marrakesh with the ministry officials, which turned out to be a good thing because now I still work for them. Unfortunately this meant that I had to spend a couple of nights in Marrakesh during the very hottest part of the summer. I passed them on the roof of our usual PC hangout and, as usual, met up with a bunch of other PCV's that were swinging through. Its times like this in life that you really come to appreciate that built in support network. I got lots of sympathy and offers of help. To be completely honest though there was also some second guessing and people that wondered why I had acted the way I did instead of just ignoring the threat as the probably harmless scribble that it was? Well... lots of reasons and I still don't regret them.
Anyway... the meetings were with the BIG boss of the ministry for this region. Which means that I've now met absolutely everyone at the office in Marrakech EXCEPT the person with whom I'm supposed to be working with most closely. Go figure. The meeting itself was pretty worthless. Lots of posturing and promises of support that were pretty much exactly the same as they were last year at this time. I'll be impressed when it actually starts to manifest itself. At the time of the meeting I figured that I probably wouldn't even be in the park anymore so I was only interested in stealing project ideas from the other volunteers that were presenting their progress and plans. I'm still not sure the best method to do the Environmental Education that has become our focus. I got to see a few of the new group of Environment people that I helped teach during training and offer them advice on the progress of their first few months. The group for Toubkal park seems to be pretty motivated and now I'm excited to be close enough to work with them on making their plans a reality, since working with my own plans will be, at best, a difficult propisition in the time remaining. At the end of the meetings our assistant program manager from PC went with people up into the hills to visit their sites, meet with associations and generally iron out any difficulties that popped up in their first few months at site. I broke off from the group and started my vacation 3 days early just so that I would have someplace to go that wasn't quite as hot and wouldn't require a trip back up the mountains, only to come down again within the week. I was also excited to see my friend Carly, who had offered me a place to stay for a bit and a number of other people that were converging on her house for parts of the week. I had a plan to do some work while I was there and earn back some vacation time as well.
The bus ride was long but uneventful, though I had to scramble to find a bus that wasn't full. (next time I'm buying tickets in advance during tourist season, though its generally not a problem!) and I arrived tired but unscathed. The first week was a good time, meeting up with other PCV's from the north and other travellers like myself, cooking some good food (awesome carrot cake!) and working out still more details of the bird survey project that we're still trying to get off the ground. I'm sorry to say that after this latest session we decided that its simply not worth our while to continue the project because PC isn't able to keep its promises to us. Despite their constant assurances that its the best proposal they have ever seen they seem unable to actually admit that its good enough to submit for consideration, suddenly they don't have money to pay for travel that we've asked for all along, and they want us to get a local organization they won't even let us meet with to take complete ownership of the project. Sometimes I think that I will never understand. Another good project to the PC graveyard... At least I know that I'm an OK grant writer! The other work that we managed was an environmental education hike with several young boys from Carly's village. It was awesome. Where all my (and her) previous efforts with young boys have been nothing but trouble we discovered that with a small group and less materials to fight over they are much better. We also had the advantage of having one very well behaved older boy to ride herd on the younger more troublesome ones so that we didn't have to spend as much time doing discipline. Language was still something of a problem and the hike might have been a tad bit too long for the age group but I think that everyone still had fun and it made me feel like it really was possible to do EE here. The best part of course was that between these two projects I got some vacation time returned... Mission Accomplished.
For the second week of vacation we departed for the village of Chefchouen in the north. Notorious for its Kif (marijuana) crops which produce 2/3rds of Europe's supply and a third of the worlds total, its located in the Rif mountains south of Tangier. No worries though, we went for the scenery and the hiking -- which were also spectacular -- and avoided the chemical based fun. All the buildings in the Chefchouen Medina are "bluewashed," or painted blue with a kind of dye that runs when its wet so its not really like paint. We were unsure of why they did this exactly since it seems to be a lot of work (it rained a couple of the days that we were there and we saw lots of people re-applying the dye) but speculated that someone started it and it got mentioned in a guidebook so now they keep it going for tourism. It could also have some historical cause because the region has a different history than much of the rest of the country. It was controlled by the Spanish instead of the French so the main European language spoken there is Spanish (and just when I was getting back into French!) and the Berbers and Arabs of the region (its debatable whether its a Berber or Arab town but the main language spoken in it is Arabic. Since I only speak Berber and French I was pretty much useless but I was impressed by my companion's language abilities!) maintained a near constant rebellion against the Spanish occupation, whereas the rest of the country mounted a more passive resistance against the French. Still, the Spanish did manage to leave some influences behind, despite the hatred for them, namely language and architecture (there is lots of Spanish tile roofs... many of which were merely facades on regular Moroccan buildings. Also for tourists??). I found it all quite interesting and would love to learn more. Maybe someday. For now I have to make do with what I gleaned from the rather low budget museum displays inside the local kasbah in the former Spanish prison building. (who's art wing was the most interesting aspect actually, though the art had nothing to do with Morocco or Spain but rather Hindu religion and Tarot cards...) The town has a lot of potential to be truly amazing and I think that they are on their way to realizing it but there are still a lot of Moroccanesque annoyances... namely a complete lack of understanding of customer service and VERY pushy marketing of restaurants and shops. The food was OK for standard Moroccan fare. Its a shame that tourists like the stuff so much because I'm sure sick of it and wouldn't have minding a cheeseburger or a real pizza a couple of nights. The shopping was excellent though, the main product being light woven blankets in a lot of colors, and it was a great time going from shop to shop looking for the best ones and the best bargains. They were so cheap that even I could afford a few. We did a day hike looking for pot fields to take pictures that would shock the parents and actually found some, had a good picnic lunch and great conversation. Perhaps the best part was that my hotel room was only big enough for my bed. J
After the Chefchouen experience I returned to Ouarzazate where I learned that I was getting placed in a small town called Aguerzega about an hour outside of town. As you know from my last e-mail I was excited by this placement because it meant the easing of my transportation and communications difficulties without any major changes in my group of friends and acquaintances, my contacts in OZ or my post office arrangements. Unfortunately, I couldn't move in immediately because my landlord/the president of the village association that I was going to be working with was out of town for the week. Despite this I had a very positive meeting with the project team that the regional volunteers are working with and started making contacts. I spent the intervening week living at another volunteer, Adam's, site which was only a few kilometers from where I would be moving to. During the week we went for hikes in the region, explored my new suq town I brought some of my stuff with me there because moving to that town was such a sure thing. We visited the house that would be mine (full of several tons of drying almonds at that time) and met my neighbors. When the week finished I returned to OZ for a few days to wait for my Program Manager to contact the president. In the interim I waited and sweltered and was thankful for nightly thundershowers, which are a rarity in the south. Apparently, I was thankful a bit too early. Mother nature threw a wrench into my plans with those storms. Augerzega was severely damaged by the weather and the villagers asked that I not be moved in until they had rebuilt some. It didn't matter anyway because in that state it no longer met the safety and security criteria of PC. (no one mentioned what would have happened if my landlord had been around when I was SUPPOSED to move in)... So... back into limbo I went and out went my distressed e-mail...
Within a few days though I had a new home and a new plan. Aicha (the assistant to my boss) was going to be doing visits in the region the first week of September and Mark would be one of the people she was visiting. At that time we would retrieve my stuff from my house and she wouldn't leave me until I was moved in on THIS side of the mountains. Sweet... now I could bring my bed and my oven and not have to worry about paying an arm and a leg. A few more days in OZ and we were on our way. Had some interesting conversations about religion and terrorism with her on the way up and back and over the next few days that we were together. It turns out that the police that had been assigned to the region specifically to protect Mark now that I had had this incident had discovered two members of the terrorist cell that they just busted (a group with ties to Iraq supposedly) hiding disguised as camping tourists at the lake by my village. Perhaps I did have some reason to worry after all? I'll never know I suppose. The move went off without a hitch.
Now I've been here for about a week. Yet to make any significant contacts in the new place, though I keep trying to put myself out there. I e-mailed the last volunteer to live there. She finished at the beginning of June. I have power and phone reception and I can definitely get to Marrakesh and back in a long day of traveling. Pretty nice compared to where I was before. The market town is named Asni (south of Marrakesh on the maps). Its huge compared to what I'm used to and I can use the computers here (but don't tell PC). Have a new Post office box that I urge you all to write to! I will write back I promise! The address is as follows, though I'm going to send it in a separate e-mail as well so no one has any excuse to miss it! My town is beautiful, right next to a nature reserve for Barbary sheep that consists of a near vertical cliff face. There is a river and lots of apple trees. My house is a bit smaller than before (which I didn't think was possible) but I've settled in well there. I have a bedroom and a nice kitchen and bathroom all based around a central courtyard that is the roof of the house of the family down below me. No running water but the tap isn't far... I'm excited and scared to be starting over. Hopefully I'll be able to at least participate in regional projects
OK... well... getting long winded so I'll wrap it up, since I'm into September's news anyway. I'm interested, as always, in hearing whats up with you all at home. Please, send letters or e-mails! Also, there seems to be some problem with the post office not shipping packages to morocco anymore so I'll let you know more info on that when I can. If someone wants to ask around at the post office over there I would really appreciate it. Letters though, still get through fine so keep-em comin'!
Here is my new Address
Andrew Tibbs
B.P. 196
Asni, 42150
Al Haouz
Maroc (Morocco)
Till next time, Stay well...
Love and luck in everything!
CHEERS!
-Andy
How are things going. Thanks to everyone who got back to me on my latest, semi-frantic e-mail. I'm happy to report that things have definitely taken a turn for the better in the weeks since I dashed that one off. If the experience reminded me of anything meaningful, its that I still have great friends who care about me and I definitely, definitely appreciate that. Of course, that being said, really things couldn't't go anywhere BUT up either.
So, I've got a new place to live now. Same national park but this time on the north side of the mountains instead of the south side where I was before. As the crow flies its really only about 20 kilometres or so over the big hills to where I lived before. Of course that 20 kilometers is a 9 hour hike and generally takes two days. Definitely have plans to do that in the future if I can arrange for people to go with me. There seems to be no shortage of people on this side of the mountains who are interested in doing so. Sounds great to me! The name of my new village is Tassa Ouergaine and I'll get into it in more detail in a bit. First though, let me chit chat for a bit about the month of August.
If I had to choose a word to describe my life this August it would be NOMADIC. This begins as something of a novelty but by the end of the month I was definitely ready to have someplace to settle down. Thankfully, the month was broken up in the middle by a vacation that I already had planned to take to the north before trouble struck. Before that I also got to attend a few meetings in Marrakesh with the ministry officials, which turned out to be a good thing because now I still work for them. Unfortunately this meant that I had to spend a couple of nights in Marrakesh during the very hottest part of the summer. I passed them on the roof of our usual PC hangout and, as usual, met up with a bunch of other PCV's that were swinging through. Its times like this in life that you really come to appreciate that built in support network. I got lots of sympathy and offers of help. To be completely honest though there was also some second guessing and people that wondered why I had acted the way I did instead of just ignoring the threat as the probably harmless scribble that it was? Well... lots of reasons and I still don't regret them.
Anyway... the meetings were with the BIG boss of the ministry for this region. Which means that I've now met absolutely everyone at the office in Marrakech EXCEPT the person with whom I'm supposed to be working with most closely. Go figure. The meeting itself was pretty worthless. Lots of posturing and promises of support that were pretty much exactly the same as they were last year at this time. I'll be impressed when it actually starts to manifest itself. At the time of the meeting I figured that I probably wouldn't even be in the park anymore so I was only interested in stealing project ideas from the other volunteers that were presenting their progress and plans. I'm still not sure the best method to do the Environmental Education that has become our focus. I got to see a few of the new group of Environment people that I helped teach during training and offer them advice on the progress of their first few months. The group for Toubkal park seems to be pretty motivated and now I'm excited to be close enough to work with them on making their plans a reality, since working with my own plans will be, at best, a difficult propisition in the time remaining. At the end of the meetings our assistant program manager from PC went with people up into the hills to visit their sites, meet with associations and generally iron out any difficulties that popped up in their first few months at site. I broke off from the group and started my vacation 3 days early just so that I would have someplace to go that wasn't quite as hot and wouldn't require a trip back up the mountains, only to come down again within the week. I was also excited to see my friend Carly, who had offered me a place to stay for a bit and a number of other people that were converging on her house for parts of the week. I had a plan to do some work while I was there and earn back some vacation time as well.
The bus ride was long but uneventful, though I had to scramble to find a bus that wasn't full. (next time I'm buying tickets in advance during tourist season, though its generally not a problem!) and I arrived tired but unscathed. The first week was a good time, meeting up with other PCV's from the north and other travellers like myself, cooking some good food (awesome carrot cake!) and working out still more details of the bird survey project that we're still trying to get off the ground. I'm sorry to say that after this latest session we decided that its simply not worth our while to continue the project because PC isn't able to keep its promises to us. Despite their constant assurances that its the best proposal they have ever seen they seem unable to actually admit that its good enough to submit for consideration, suddenly they don't have money to pay for travel that we've asked for all along, and they want us to get a local organization they won't even let us meet with to take complete ownership of the project. Sometimes I think that I will never understand. Another good project to the PC graveyard... At least I know that I'm an OK grant writer! The other work that we managed was an environmental education hike with several young boys from Carly's village. It was awesome. Where all my (and her) previous efforts with young boys have been nothing but trouble we discovered that with a small group and less materials to fight over they are much better. We also had the advantage of having one very well behaved older boy to ride herd on the younger more troublesome ones so that we didn't have to spend as much time doing discipline. Language was still something of a problem and the hike might have been a tad bit too long for the age group but I think that everyone still had fun and it made me feel like it really was possible to do EE here. The best part of course was that between these two projects I got some vacation time returned... Mission Accomplished.
For the second week of vacation we departed for the village of Chefchouen in the north. Notorious for its Kif (marijuana) crops which produce 2/3rds of Europe's supply and a third of the worlds total, its located in the Rif mountains south of Tangier. No worries though, we went for the scenery and the hiking -- which were also spectacular -- and avoided the chemical based fun. All the buildings in the Chefchouen Medina are "bluewashed," or painted blue with a kind of dye that runs when its wet so its not really like paint. We were unsure of why they did this exactly since it seems to be a lot of work (it rained a couple of the days that we were there and we saw lots of people re-applying the dye) but speculated that someone started it and it got mentioned in a guidebook so now they keep it going for tourism. It could also have some historical cause because the region has a different history than much of the rest of the country. It was controlled by the Spanish instead of the French so the main European language spoken there is Spanish (and just when I was getting back into French!) and the Berbers and Arabs of the region (its debatable whether its a Berber or Arab town but the main language spoken in it is Arabic. Since I only speak Berber and French I was pretty much useless but I was impressed by my companion's language abilities!) maintained a near constant rebellion against the Spanish occupation, whereas the rest of the country mounted a more passive resistance against the French. Still, the Spanish did manage to leave some influences behind, despite the hatred for them, namely language and architecture (there is lots of Spanish tile roofs... many of which were merely facades on regular Moroccan buildings. Also for tourists??). I found it all quite interesting and would love to learn more. Maybe someday. For now I have to make do with what I gleaned from the rather low budget museum displays inside the local kasbah in the former Spanish prison building. (who's art wing was the most interesting aspect actually, though the art had nothing to do with Morocco or Spain but rather Hindu religion and Tarot cards...) The town has a lot of potential to be truly amazing and I think that they are on their way to realizing it but there are still a lot of Moroccanesque annoyances... namely a complete lack of understanding of customer service and VERY pushy marketing of restaurants and shops. The food was OK for standard Moroccan fare. Its a shame that tourists like the stuff so much because I'm sure sick of it and wouldn't have minding a cheeseburger or a real pizza a couple of nights. The shopping was excellent though, the main product being light woven blankets in a lot of colors, and it was a great time going from shop to shop looking for the best ones and the best bargains. They were so cheap that even I could afford a few. We did a day hike looking for pot fields to take pictures that would shock the parents and actually found some, had a good picnic lunch and great conversation. Perhaps the best part was that my hotel room was only big enough for my bed. J
After the Chefchouen experience I returned to Ouarzazate where I learned that I was getting placed in a small town called Aguerzega about an hour outside of town. As you know from my last e-mail I was excited by this placement because it meant the easing of my transportation and communications difficulties without any major changes in my group of friends and acquaintances, my contacts in OZ or my post office arrangements. Unfortunately, I couldn't move in immediately because my landlord/the president of the village association that I was going to be working with was out of town for the week. Despite this I had a very positive meeting with the project team that the regional volunteers are working with and started making contacts. I spent the intervening week living at another volunteer, Adam's, site which was only a few kilometers from where I would be moving to. During the week we went for hikes in the region, explored my new suq town I brought some of my stuff with me there because moving to that town was such a sure thing. We visited the house that would be mine (full of several tons of drying almonds at that time) and met my neighbors. When the week finished I returned to OZ for a few days to wait for my Program Manager to contact the president. In the interim I waited and sweltered and was thankful for nightly thundershowers, which are a rarity in the south. Apparently, I was thankful a bit too early. Mother nature threw a wrench into my plans with those storms. Augerzega was severely damaged by the weather and the villagers asked that I not be moved in until they had rebuilt some. It didn't matter anyway because in that state it no longer met the safety and security criteria of PC. (no one mentioned what would have happened if my landlord had been around when I was SUPPOSED to move in)... So... back into limbo I went and out went my distressed e-mail...
Within a few days though I had a new home and a new plan. Aicha (the assistant to my boss) was going to be doing visits in the region the first week of September and Mark would be one of the people she was visiting. At that time we would retrieve my stuff from my house and she wouldn't leave me until I was moved in on THIS side of the mountains. Sweet... now I could bring my bed and my oven and not have to worry about paying an arm and a leg. A few more days in OZ and we were on our way. Had some interesting conversations about religion and terrorism with her on the way up and back and over the next few days that we were together. It turns out that the police that had been assigned to the region specifically to protect Mark now that I had had this incident had discovered two members of the terrorist cell that they just busted (a group with ties to Iraq supposedly) hiding disguised as camping tourists at the lake by my village. Perhaps I did have some reason to worry after all? I'll never know I suppose. The move went off without a hitch.
Now I've been here for about a week. Yet to make any significant contacts in the new place, though I keep trying to put myself out there. I e-mailed the last volunteer to live there. She finished at the beginning of June. I have power and phone reception and I can definitely get to Marrakesh and back in a long day of traveling. Pretty nice compared to where I was before. The market town is named Asni (south of Marrakesh on the maps). Its huge compared to what I'm used to and I can use the computers here (but don't tell PC). Have a new Post office box that I urge you all to write to! I will write back I promise! The address is as follows, though I'm going to send it in a separate e-mail as well so no one has any excuse to miss it! My town is beautiful, right next to a nature reserve for Barbary sheep that consists of a near vertical cliff face. There is a river and lots of apple trees. My house is a bit smaller than before (which I didn't think was possible) but I've settled in well there. I have a bedroom and a nice kitchen and bathroom all based around a central courtyard that is the roof of the house of the family down below me. No running water but the tap isn't far... I'm excited and scared to be starting over. Hopefully I'll be able to at least participate in regional projects
OK... well... getting long winded so I'll wrap it up, since I'm into September's news anyway. I'm interested, as always, in hearing whats up with you all at home. Please, send letters or e-mails! Also, there seems to be some problem with the post office not shipping packages to morocco anymore so I'll let you know more info on that when I can. If someone wants to ask around at the post office over there I would really appreciate it. Letters though, still get through fine so keep-em comin'!
Here is my new Address
Andrew Tibbs
B.P. 196
Asni, 42150
Al Haouz
Maroc (Morocco)
Till next time, Stay well...
Love and luck in everything!
CHEERS!
-Andy
posted by Andy & Erin | 4:04 PM
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