Blogs from Morocco, Africa - page 241

L-Eide Adha is every vegetarian's favorite Islamic holiday. -Sarcastic Peace Corps Volunteer L-Eide Adha is the most important holiday in the Islamic calandar, and a very big deal in Morocco. It is the reason we drove across Morocco to visit family. It is why we spent the week before baking cookies and making all sorts of mouthwatering little pastries with honey and peanuts and such. It is why I got to meet Hichem and Maryam's extended families and stay in the center of Errachidia at Hichem's mother's house. It is why I drank unnumerable glasses of tea and sat around for days making polite conversation with people I had never met before. It is why the roads were crowded with travelers, the trains raised their prices and buses were booked. It is also why I watched ... read more

Optimism Clearing blue sky, A promise in bare branches. In winter, there are sunny days. In adulthood, childhood can return. - 365 Tao: Daily Meditations We left Kelaat Sraghna at the crack of 1pm in the rain. Hichem had suggested the night before that I get everything ready so we could leave by 9am. But this is Morocco and time is fluid. Actually, the real reason we left much later than we had planned was that Maryam & Hichem's poor little '85 Golf had been waiting to see the mechanic for quite some time, and the mechanic apparently wasn't able to get to it any sooner. Perhaps his time is more fluid than ours, or more likely, with everybody travelling for the big holiday of l-eide, he was busy. Either way, we got out on the ... read more

Most experiences have their ups and downs. Morocco (especially Ouaouizarth) has mountains and valleys. My last two blogs were kind of depressing because, frankly, I was a little down. As I've probably told many of you, most of my favorite albums are the ones I hated the first time I listened to them. The more you listen, though, the more you hear, and sometimes you have to listen to something at the right time or after the right experience before it means something to you. Living in a new home, particularly an economically depressed one, can be pretty hard, especially if it's a long way from all your old homes. It's like breaking in a new pair of shoes that seem too small, or, in this case, trying to fill some olds ones that seem too ... read more

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. -Agnes Repplier One thing I have really come to love here is seeing the older men riding their bikes in jellabas. It seems like a very impractical thing to ride a bike in, with the hood blowing in the wind and the bottom of the robe flapping dangerously close to the chain and pedals, but they do it all the time. Another typically Arabic occurrence is the call to prayer, which I hear five times a day. When I lived with my first host family here in Kelaa I was right next to a mosque and not only heard the call loud and clear, but could also hear the men praying inside the mosque. At Maryam’s house ... read more

Dear Friends and Family, It came to my attention just before Christmas that Michael Cleary, a member of my graduating class at Hamilton (2003) was killed in action in Iraq last week. Michael was a First Lt. in the Army with a pending promotion to the rank of Captain. In addition to many friends and admirers in the Hamilton community he also had a fianceé whom he was planning to marry this coming February. Although I did not know Mike well I remember him as a kind and intelligent young man with high ideals and strength of character; the type of person I was proud to have graduated with. His death comes as a reminder to me of what I and my fellow volunteers are trying to achieve: A world where men and women my age ... read more