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Magical Marrakech and a wild reunion
It has long been said, that Peace Corps would be the toughest job you will ever love. Little did we know six months ago, before we began our journey/adventure, that we would be sent, for ten days, to one of the top ten destinations in the world, to hang out with the like-minded souls. They are people that we have come to know and love. They are also the 96 friends who swore in with us on March 26. And, unlike many groups preceding ours, not one volunteer has “early terminated” or “ET’d.” Our band of ragamuffins remains completely intact, even if we are in various stages of happiness. Our group’s situation says much for the support and closeness which has developed within it, which is aptly named “the stag of love” on Facebook. We are blessed to be a part of this wonderful and talented group of volunteers. For us, the skin prickling moment of this past ten days was the singing of the National Anthem, followed by the Moroccan anthem, sung after the pool “Summer Olympics” in which Americans and Moroccans alike competed in fun and friendship. (See pictures)
We were
happy to see some of our former language and cultural trainers, the first Moroccan national friends we made in this country and whom we met in Rabat in January. Admittedly, Peace Corps provided a really great setting and some very useful sessions for our “in-service” training (IST). It is truly hard to believe that we have been here for five full months.
In Marrakech, we were put in groups of ten for language training, and our trainer was awesome. We had many sessions on various technical topics, and a representative from the Ministry of Youth and Sports came and talked about the agency’s hopes for us in Morocco. But, most of our best memories were made by seeing our friends, pool Olympics and even improvised Karaoke (yes, we sang “It’s Your Love” by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and received a standing ovation). We also have unbelievably, wonderful food memories. For those of you who know us well, you certainly understand the importance we place upon that particular topic… FOOD!!! Marrakesh is a popular area for French retirees, and indeed, we dined on sumptuous French food on numerous occasions while we were there. For us, there may be nothing
better ingested in the world than fois gras with petite toasts and a bottle of French wine. Although as a side note, Clay is developing quite the taste for grilled liver of various animals here – Ann, not so much. (See photos for some amazing dishes.)
The highlight of our trip into town was visiting the old medina and the absolutely world famous market of Jamaa el Fna or ساحة جامع الفناء, if you prefer. This market is where the snake charmers, leather workers and vendors of everything you can possibly imagine, congregate. They start early in the day and by night-fall, the square is a madhouse of hawkers, charmers, beggars, story tellers, mystics, and of course… fresh orange juice squeezers. If you come, there are a few simple rules you must follow: be polite, be prepared to spend hours doing what should take minutes otherwise, and guard your valuables!!! J Also, you had better hone your bargaining skills prior to your arrival, as it is expected that you whittle down the price. Haggling is a part of Moroccan life… period, end of story. It can be very daunting if you are not used to it, but it happens
every day, almost everywhere; from fruits and vegetables to wrenches and even blankets. Perhaps the reason we enjoyed our experience in Jemaa el Fna so much, was because our blossoming language skills allowed us to take locals completely off guard - - “What?!?!?! You speak Darija?!?!?! WOW!” We were ultra-successful in bargaining down clothes prices, which we desperately needed to do, because we consciously decided not to bring but more than a couple of days’ worth of clothes on our ten day adventure. Clay got a good price on some t-shirts because Ann let the guy hug her. It must be noted here, that the young salesman offered Clay 2000 camels for Ann… and actually upped the ante to 3000 camels, but Clay hung in there and said, “NO WAY… 5000 or nothing!” J LOL! Ann is still here, you can figure it out.
Before we left for Marrakesh, we had both dreaded leaving our site for ten days, worried about leaving our new home site so frequently for so much time. We worried about our re-acclimation with the folks in our new site and how we would re-generate excitement about our mission when we returned after being gone
for this lengthy period. We also dreaded the eight and a half hour, each-way, train ride and lugging our stuff, attending potentially excruciatingly boring training sessions, as well as the lack of sufficient internet to keep in contact with those back home. But, even though the negative impacts we had pre-supposed did indeed all happen, the rewards tipped the scale. It is so easy to dwell on the possible negatives of any course of action and let those thoughts cloud the present. But, we often think, had we never boarded that plane and crossed the Atlantic to Morocco, we would not have been blessed with the unbelievable life experiences of the last five months. Hamdullah! Camel burgers, grilled goat liver and a lamb’s head on top of cous-cous and the pizza oven turk … just say’n!
As a final note, on the dreaded eight and a half hour train ride back to Ksar el Kebir, we met a wonderful American couple and their eleven year old, unbelievably well-behaved, son. The couple had moved to Thailand when their son was 2 years old, for consulting work. They are consultants for a big NGO (non-governmental organization – international). Their son speaks
Thai and perfect English and has been to more countries than most people will ever see. The conversation was wonderful and intriguing. We talked about the world and potential places to visit. Again, had we not boarded that very train, at that time, and by the way, ended up sitting in the wrong compartment and refused to leave our seats (which is another story), we would have missed this adventure and the chance to spend time with these remarkable people.
We will be in Ksar all summer and hope to engage the community with our planned programs and we will share our successes and failures in future blogs. For now, we hope that you enjoy the photos from our Marrakesh trip. To our friends and family, we wish you were here to share our experiences and can’t wait for you to visit (and so excited that some of you are really coming!). To our fellow volunteers, quite simply, you rock! To all the rest of our fans and followers… thank you for all of your love and support!!! We are very blessed to have all of you along for the ride!!!
There is a lot more to see
It was tough finding food in Marrakech, but we managed... :)
Duck breast, caramelized onions and potato puree... YUMMO!!! and do... Yala! (Let’s go!)
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Sandra
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Enjoyed the post - more please!