This was the biggest trip I have yet to take around Morocco. My dear friend Jesselyn brought Liz, another Peace Corps Volunteer, with her from Togo. The arrived in Casablanca and took the train down to Ben Guerir and from there came to see my town, Kelaat Sraghna. After a few days in Kelaa and several giant meals with Maryam and my various hospitable neighbors, we went on to Marrakech. I knew they would love Marrakech and we had a blast. By now I know the city well enough to be able to touch on the highlights and find my way around with a minimal amount of being lost. We had a couple chilly nights (sleeping on the roof terrace of a hotel to save money) and it was quite a shock to Jess and Liz ... read more

The day after spring camp ended, and I got more than five hours of sleep for the first time in over a week, two of my uncles and a cousin arrived in Marrakech. I had just enough time to catch the train down from Rabat and arrived at the hotel less than a half hour before they did. My mother’s brother Charlie and her younger sister’s husband David had brought with them Isaac, David’s son. I’ve gotten used to explaining familial relations since there is no word in Arabic for “cousin”. It’s too generic. All relations have specific words. I can’t call David my uncle. He’s my ‘mother’s sister’s husband’. Isaac is my ‘mother’s sister’s son’. It seems more complicated but is also much more precise. We started out our week in Marrakech. It is by ... read more

I recently was lucky to recieve a phone call from a classroom I have been corresponding with in Wisconsin. Peace Corps' World Wise Schools program matched me with Mrs. Burge's 2nd grade class in Holmen and we have been corresponding for several months. Last month in celebration of Peace Corps Week and the 46th anniversay of Kennedy's creation, Peace Corps paid for an hour long call between me, some of my English speaking students, and the students at Viking Elementary in Holmen. I promised during the call that I would put my friend Maryam's recipe for couscous on my blog since nobody managed to write it down as fast as she explained it over the phone. Bs-hha u rahha! Maryam’s Couscous serves 7 1 kilo of dry couscous (not instant stuff, real couscous) water olive ... read more

This hasn’t been the best year for snow, but last week we got the rain the farmers have been praying for and I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to go find the ski area called Oukaimden. I hadn’t heard much about it, though one woman from my gym said she had been there. It’s on the map and with that knowledge I figured it had to exist. Skiing isn’t a very popular sport in Morocco. Most of the people I asked about Oukaimden enthusiastically told me it is beautiful and there is snow, though when pressed about chairlifts and ski rental the conversation got markedly vague. Two other volunteers had expressed interest in a ski trip: Brian from Montana and Bart form Illinios. We spent the night at Brian’s and I was so excited that ... read more

While many of my fellow volunteers here in Morocco when home to the US for Christmas I had lunch in Marrakech with the other volunteer in my region who stayed behind. It was a sunny day and we ate on the upstairs terrace at Kozy Bar, one of my favorite places in Marrakech. The next day the real adventure began. I went to Casablanca and took a plane to Lomé, Togo. My friend Jesselyn, who I went to high school with in Boise, is a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo and has been there as long as I have been in Morocco. Thankfully, she met me at the airport, since I was not only tired (I got in at about 2am) but in a bit of shock at the change of scenery. Togo is warm. Much ... read more