Winter Wonderland

Hey All!


Winter has finally arrived with full force here in Morocco. I’ve dug out my warm clothes and am currently wearing most of them all at the same time. My room has thus far stayed above freezing and I have a heater if it gets too bad but for the most part I just tough it out. I hope that wherever you are you are staying warm and well as the holiday season progresses. Know that I’m thinking about all of you and sending best wishes from my mud house in the middle of nowhere!


My holidays have been quite wonderful thus far and I’ll tell you about them but I am, as always, getting ahead of myself.


My post-Thanksgiving November was pretty uneventful. I made it home from Carly’s house and picked up my daily routine as if I had never left. This is pretty much because it’s the same thing every day. Wake up… read… write…cook… clean… or some minor variation thereof. I’ve had the added benefit of being able to talk to my host family a bit more of late. I enjoy being much more connected here than in my last village. I might not be treated that much differently day to day but I’ve already visited more places and met more people here and I know for a fact who is in my family and who I’m allowed to talk to consequence free. This makes a significant difference in the feel of the place.


Things picked up in the first week of December. My Program Manager visited the region to pack up the house of a volunteer who had been medically evacuated (and who’s projects I am now responsible for) and dropped off my new bicycle. It’s a beautiful Trek 820 and I’m very excited about it. At first I feared that I would have to wait until spring to ride it around but after much debate I decided that I would bundle up and brave the cold air and ride it to my market town, about 16 kilometers from my house. The ride went extremely well on the way there, despite being more than half uphill and the last 10 kilometers without a break! Needless to say I was extremely proud of myself and extremely sore for the ride back home (and the next day). It was worth it though, if for no other reason than for the sense of accomplishment that accompanied the ride. I plan on doing the ride by bike for as long as the weather continues to permit it and as long as I don’t have too much to carry there or back.


Almost immediately after that I went WAY into the mountains for the farewell/project completion party of another volunteer who had just finished after extending his service for six months. (brining his total to 33 months.) He stayed because PC could not place another volunteer in the same site due to new safety and security regulations and it was the only way he could finish his project. The project was well worth it in my opinion, but the prevailing opinion is that he is completely crazy for staying here longer than he had to! The project itself consisted of a two floor community center. The top floor was for meetings of the men’s association. The bottom floor was a neddie, or women’s center, where they set up machines for spinning, weaving and other arts and crafts projects. The building made use of appropriate technology to heat itself in the winter. It did this by means of a solar wall, or a large section of a southern facing wall that is painted black and then covered with plexi-glass to hold in the heat. Its actually remarkably efficient. Even installed incorrectly (ahhh… Berbers!) it was nearly a comfortable room temperature in the room that employed this technical innovation.

A shot of the complete association building with the solar wall.

A close up of the solar wall at sunrise. The pannels were all supposed to be the same, the wood slats are a berber addition.


The party itself was a new experience for me. The volunteer, Chris, was much better integrated than me, perhaps because he is something of a language genius (he learned Berber, French and Arabic fluently during his stay, all from scratch), or perhaps he is more social, or perhaps he simply got a more social village situation. It was a two day party, with the villagers gathering together to prepare food the day before the actual celebration and eating copious quantities of goat head. It was the first time I had sampled this delicacy and except for the rather overpowering smell of burning hair (the skin and hair are seared off the head before it is smashed into pieces with a hatchet and boiled for a few hours) I didn’t really find the taste all that bad. I even tried an eyeball, which didn’t really have any taste at all but which I still don’t think that I will try again if I can at all avoid it. Its just a texture thing I think. Still, there is something rather disturbing about eating dinner out of a plate with an empty eye socket looking up at you and the man next to you is noisily sucking the marrow out of piece of jawbone with yellowing teeth sticking out of it still.


The next day was a flurry of activity preparing for the honored guests. These included our technical bosses at the ministry of water and forest, despite the fact that they didn’t help at all with the project and hindered it more often than not. At lunchtime there was the largest meal that I think I’ve ever had, with 4 courses including dessert. It was protein overload for me, since I’ve become essentially a vegetarian when I cook for myself, but thankfully I didn’t get sick. I just couldn’t really move very fast for a few hours afterward. I spent the evening of that night helping Chris pack and say goodbye to all the people that had been his friends and family for the last 2.5 years. It made me sad to think about how few people I’ll have to say goodbye to when I’m finished.

Part of the welcome for the dignitaries, all the guys are on the other side of the line.

Just a fun art picture I took because I thought the water glasses were funny... given the circumstances


One morning the next week I rolled out of bed late after sleeping in and opened my door to find the village blanketed in white and snow still falling heavily enough that I couldn’t see the mountains on the other side of the valley at all… Actually, I couldn’t see much of the village in the valley bottom either. What I could see was almost unspeakably beautiful. I dug out my camera and did my best to capture all of it but didn’t do very well. I did get some nice shots of the mountains after the snow stopped and it cleared a bit. (I’ll attempt to post an example on my journal page at the earliest possible moment so make sure you keep checking back! ) While I was out there recording the event for posterity one of my host sisters came up to clear the snow off the satellite dish. I ambushed her with a snowball from the other side of the courtyard. At first she seemed utterly at a loss for what to do about this and for a moment I felt bad about it. She figured it out soon enough though and before long her brother and sister had come up to offer her reinforcements against my superior snowball fighting skills. We blasted each other until our hands got too cold to continue and then I amused them by lobbing snowballs from my roof into the courtyards of the surrounding houses. My house is ideally placed for such a bombardment because it is highest in the village and yet still close enough to the others that with an able assist from gravity I can hit a large number of courtyards. Unfortunately, some of the neighbors lacked a sense of humor and we retreated and built snowmen for a while instead.

The mosque tower through the trees by my roof. I enhanced this a bit so that you could see everything

Whats wrong with this picture... Yes, that is a cactus.

My host dad clearing the snow of the dish

My Oldest Host sister Hadija and my host brother Ayou. For some reason they always have to be holidng something, though this time I bet they wish they weren't!

My other host sister, Azeel

The kids and thier first snowman


To my amazement my host siblings had no idea how to play in the snow. As far as I could determine it was their very first serious snowball fight (certainly for the girls and I’m pretty sure for the boys as well) and most definitely their first snowman. I also made some snow candy with maple syrup (a rather precious commodity I might add) which was a hit once they got past the fact that they had never put anything so cold in their mouths before and it was quite shocking to them, as evidenced by some rather hilarious facial expressions and some snorting of snow out of noses. (they don’t really brush their teeth and so I imagine they are quite sensitive). I made up for it by giving them their first taste of hot chocolate and letting them warm their hands on my heater. It was a great time and I got some good pictures of them for the first time. It really made me feel closer! Next up, we will attempt to conquer the game of UNO.


Me in the Snow... bad picture but I had to use a stool as a tripod

My siblings again

Gettin Warm

My Host brothers Ayou and Hussein

Cool Picture of mountains with some clouds



The snowstorm did keep me from getting to town early in the week but I managed to convince PC to let me go to the city a day early for my weekend so I could do some work on the computer and do some Christmas shopping. Carly was coming to visit for Christmas and I spent my extra time at home cleaning the place up and preparing to have guests.


I met her in Marrakech and we bummed around for the weekend before heading back to my house, where we spent a few relaxing days, cooking excellent food, including baked ziti and chicken, macaroni and cheese from a box and Oatmeal butterscotch chocolate chip cookies. After a few days we left for Oukaimeden, the ski resort mountain in the next valley over from mine. We left my house early in the morning and 6 different transits later we reached the mountain around 3 in the afternoon, despite the fact that, as the crow flies, its less than 20 kilometers from my house and in your own car would certainly take you much less than 2 hours to drive. Still, we had some adventures with it. We didn’t really know the names of any of the intermediate towns where were would have to pick up taxis. Also, we were dressed and provisioned like proper tourists which means that we had to constantly fend of people who wanted to “help” us. Thankfully, (or not, depending on your perspective) we were “rescued” by an older Berber man dressed in the shabbiest Jelaba (Berber hooded robe… think Jedi in Star Wars) I’ve seen in quite some time. He rode the first few legs of the trip with us and then realized that we were going to the ski mountain like he was. He offered to show us the rest of the way. We had lunch with him in a café that Carly swore smelled like baby diapers and he proceeded to explain in a rough mixture of Berber and French that he was a ski instructor. He did manage to successfully guess my ski-boot size, but I never tested out his credentials past that. We went our separate ways when we reached the mountain. One of those encounters that you will always remember and yet never quite belive.


Oukaimeden the town was a mixture of Berber Bled and European-alps timeshare. The former looked as it always does, if a bit more snow covered, the later looked rather neglected. The ski season hadn’t really gotten going yet (and probably wouldn’t have been going at all except for the previous weeks snow storm) and most places were still closed up for the off season. We stayed in what once must have been a nice hotel but had fallen on some hard times relatively recently. It was huge and built in an “A” frame style. Each room had a nice sunroom and a glass wall that heated it up during the day. However, the bricks were falling off the side of the hotel and sliding down the bottom in heaps and the roof of the much touted indoor heated pool (our own reason for trying the place) had been caved in by heavy snowfall in the last winter and was now filled only with broken glass, snowdrifts and dead birds. The décor was nice with a large central fireplace centerpiece that they were too cheap to run in the off season. We bought our own food and ate oatmeal cookies instead of partaking in the overpriced menu, though when they realized that we were staying only one night they mysteriously included breakfast for free with the room.


After we settled in the room we went out to hit the slopes. We rented modern but slightly abused skis from a Berber outfit on the side of the road. The proprietor of the place knew a few other volunteers, (This prompted a theory that they must think all the best skiers at the mountain must speak Berber, or conversely, if you know how to ski you must know Berber since there are a bunch of us that have been and it no longer seems to surprise them) and gave us a pretty good rate on stuff. We skied for a few hours. Only a couple of small hills were open with enough snow to ski on. Carly, who is a champion skier, compared it to skiing on the bunny hill in the alps, with gorgeous mountain views all around but a slope that even I could handle with relative ease having skied about 4 times my whole life. The harassment wasn’t as bad as I had feared but there were plenty of sleazy guys around who would “monitor” you and help you with the lift or to ski if you needed it. This would have been equivalent of paying some random unwashed, unshaven guy you’ve never met, wearing a bright pink one-piece snowsuit to straddle you, which in the women’s case they probably would have happily done for free anywhere else in the country. I seriously will never understand French tourists obvious attraction to this kind of treatment.


We called it quits at sunset, returned the skis and relaxed. The next morning we elected not to do any skiing but instead rode the chairlift to the very top of the mountain to take in the views. It was absolutely spectacular. I can’t really do it justice but the it was moderately clear and the views of Mt. Toubkal were amazing. There is something about snowcapped jagged peaks that will always have the ability to take my breath away. Plus, someone had done a really neat map table at the top and I got the names for many of the mountains that I hadn’t known before. We rode back down and returned to the city without serious incident.
Carly on the Ski Lift

Part of the view

More of the view

Jebel Toubkal... highest mountain in North Africa


We spent the next couple of nights at a resort on the outside of Marrakech that happens to be owned and operated by a relative of Carly’s. It’s a completely comfortable place with awesome decoration and really cool atmosphere that caters to the jetsetters of Europe who have some free cash lying around. The owners make a really interesting couple. The wife runs the hotel while the husband runs an NGO designed to protect culture of local peoples, the environment and do development projects. He also glob-trots, teaching courses in anthropology and doing/overseeing projects in several countries. We had dinner with their family several nights and the conversations were some of the only times in Morocco where I felt intellectually stimulated and totally interested. Their children are multi-lingual and equally comfortable in French and English and had to do their best to remember to speak in English for those of us less well rounded. We also met some of the husbands colleagues from university in Sweden. They are a couple only a bit older than me who seem super nice and who are driving home to Sweden from Marrakech in a 1976 Saab. They are planning to visit me in the mountains when they return in March when I hope to get the story of the trip.


We also got to help decorate the Christmas tree! Yay for finally getting some yuletide feeling to this season!


On Christmas eve we returned to Marrakech proper to meet up with some other Volunteers for the holiday. Despite having some serious trouble with the hotel that almost ruined the mood we had very nice dinners in new restaurants on both Christmas Eve and Christmas (Italian on Christmas Eve and Lebanese on Christmas Day) and the company was much appreciated. We also did some good shopping (though I didn’t really buy anything) and some exploring of new places in the city. All in all it was a great holiday, though I do definitely miss my family and friends. Thanks for the e-mails, those of you that sent them!
Our Christmas Crew


I’ll be spending New Years here in the village because it happens to coincide this year with the biggest holiday in the Islamic world, (cleverly named “the big holiday”) and because so many people are on the roads now we are forbidden to travel for two weeks. So while you are all drinking champagne to ring in the new year I’ll be eating copious amounts of freshly slaughtered sheep (everyone is required to sacrifice a sheep) including parts that you would rather not know about. Interestingly, another part of the holiday is for some lucky young man to get dressed up in the still bloody skins (including a mask made of the facial skin) and run around town beating children with a stick. Nothing like a little animal sacrifice and some beatings to welcome in 2007!


The upside is that it IS 2007! You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned work at all in this e-mail and that’s because there hasn’t really been any developments in that area that have been noteworthy. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows despite the wonderful holiday. I’ve been suffering from bouts of depression brought on by boredom and shattered illusions and am having trouble finding the motivation to do even the things that have previously brought me the most happiness, like writing letters, keeping my journal and reading. Hopefully, this too shall pass, but I’m definitely ready to finish up this experience and move on to the next part of my life. I’ve also been experiencing almost daily headaches that I’ve finally broken down and called the doctor about but thankfully they are quite mild thus far.


I’ve got some great stuff coming up though! As soon as the travel restriction lifts I’m meeting up with two of my best friends from school, Leo and Jess, who are the first (and only) people to visit me from the states. We have a great Atlantic coast trip planned. Then in February I’ll be using the last of my vacation time to visit southern Spain. (if you haven’t gotten me a Christmas present yet its not too late! Monetary contributions to my travel fund are always appreciated! ) Any recommendations on cheap places to stay in Seville or thereabouts, as well as what to see or do, would be welcome. Things are a bit hard to plan from here.


Whew… so this is quite long enough and I’ll let it go here. As always e-mails and letters are all welcome. In fact, I think that you should all resolve to send me something in the first few months of the new year! Also, come back soon to check out the illustrated version of this letter on my journal page, http://atibbs.blogspot.com . Until next time my friends, stay well.

Much love and luck to everyone!

Cheers!

-Andy