Blogs from Erfoud, Meknès-Tafilalet, Morocco, Africa - page 2

SAHARA Day 23 I arrived in Rissani at 7am and was picked up by the land rover to drive me out to the hostel in the desert. The sun was rising and it was beautiful to see it through the palm trees. I arrived at the hostel, Les Hommes Bleus, and it was really amazing. It was exactly how I had pictured Morocco. My room was huge with its own sofa. The whole building was made out of clay and hay. They made me some breakfast, which was something between a pancake and a naan. It tasted like a pancake but it looked like and had the texture of a naan. It came with honey and jam and was really good. I also had some freshly squeezed orange juice. After breakfast I went for a ... read more

"Id like to sleep with you in the desert tonight, a million stars all around " Eagles Fez was a busy city that was both metropolitain and 3rd world at the same time. The medina , a labrythith of streets with donkeys sharing the path was an amazing array of sights and sounds. The new part of the city or ville nouve had a pedestrian mall and a promenade along the main blvd we spent 2 nights here exploring, people watching and enjoyiing finger lickin good meals. After Fez we drove into the dessrt to an Auberge in Midelt , it was like an oasis rising from the sand dusted with green and spotted with yellow wildflowers. Our home for the night was a sprawling complex of rooms with long couches encircling the walls, fireplces and ... read more

So what does one say about today? Well today we went back out to Hanaboo Kasbah and mom worked with Hadisha and I went out to the high school to hand out 200 more toothbrushes. Yet again, we did not have enough, we were 34 short and I will have get more and go back tomorrow. Going to the school was much more organized than when we went to the other Kasbah, Aziz says that the kids are afraid of the director, but it seemed to work in my favor! Being in the school was difficult for me because I got to see more needs that I didn't come prepared for. Some of the children come from 6 or 7km away and have no form of transport, so they walk. The kids who attend afternoon classes ... read more

The relaxing atmosphere of Erfoud and the Dadani's Cafe/appartment caught up with us last night and we slept so good! We may have even slept in a little... We went to one of the Kasbah's today and we were overwhelmed by the children. We brought 80 toothbrushes with toothpaste and we didn't have enough for them all. We did what we could to do some teaching about oral hiegene but the kids were so excited that I don't know how much they will have soaked in. I did one on one teaching with Aziz's niece and hopefully she will teach the other kids. Some of the older children have the worse cavities that I have seen, but in the few mouths I looked in, I didn't notice any infections or abscessess. Some of the children's gums ... read more

March 15, 2008 After waking up this morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel. They had a lot of pastries and fresh orange juice. They were very good! We had a change of plans, and stayed in Fès for awhile. We went to the Royal Palace to see the walls outside, the gardens, and the guards. We drove a little more to a market area called la medina de Fès. There were a lot of little streets with people walking around selling things or at their stores. It is so different than anything I have seen before. It shows how lucky we are in the US. Our local tour guide took us to three unique and very cool stores. The first place was a rug store. It used to be a mansion, and now women make ... read more