To begin with, I had just the most wonderful vacation with Casey, my good friend from APU who is currently finishing up his Fulbright Grant in Turkey. Given the long distance between Casablanca and Istanbul, I decided to greet my friend at the airport, which meant that I had to leave site a day early in order to be in Casa by the time his flight landed. Accordingly, I made arrangements with my fellow volunteers Tysen and Amber, a lovely married couple in my staj, to spend the night with them in their historic site in the Fez-Meknes region. I arrived from down south fairly exhausted, but my two friends really took good care of me by showing me around their town a little bit as well as cooking me some good ol' 'merikan food! We spent a large amount of time visiting one another and I really got to learn a lot about who they are as people and thoroughly enjoyed their company. I hope to do so again in my town next time!
The following day, I made my way from Meknes to Casablanca via train and one quick transfer from within Casa got me to the airport there. I remember nervously waiting for Casey to arrive for over an hour and got a little bit worried as I had no laptop/smartphone and hoped there hadn't been an issue in the airport until I saw my friend walking straight at me with bags in hand and a big smile on his face.
Once we got settled into our youth hostel for that evening, the both of us decided to head over to a recently opened Chili's Restaurant in Casablanca. I know it probably sounds strange to you all to read that we chose to eat at Chili's of all places (seeing as I never eat there in America, anyways), but you have to remember that two Americans who have been living abroad for long periods of time will take what they can get in terms of a taste of home. We enjoyed just a wonderful dinner involving Americanized versions of Chinese and Mexican food and then walked around Casa for a bit after (we even walked onto the rocky coast to take in an epic view of the Atlantic).
The following morning, we boarded the train for a long ride over to Tangier. Seeing as our train compartment was almost entirely empty, we actually enjoyed just sitting together and catching up with what's been going on in our lives for most of the time. Once we finally arrived in Tangier, we caught a taxi to the old medina, where our hostel was located. After arriving in that part of the city, more rain pounded on us than I had seen all year and by the time we finally found the place and got checked into our rooms, we were both drenched.
A nice picture of me with the medina in the backdrop that Casey snapped atop the roof of a cool antique home decor/furniture store
The following day in Tangier was spent visiting the city's historic Anglican Church, Jewish cemetery and attending Catholic Mass. We filled up the afternoon with a trip to the beach where we took in the "Cave of Hercules," which I was skeptical of until I experienced (a must see in Tangier! Looks like something straight from Pirates of the Caribbean) and played in the ocean a little bit. Once we returned to the city, we ate a very fancy and class-A dinner at Restaurante Populaire.
A cool picture of the entrance to the 'Cave of Hercules' that Casey captured.
Day three in Tangier was spent sleeping in, enjoying a nice large breakfast in our hostel and then catching a noon bus to Chefchaouen, the "blue city." That first day was spent exploring the medina a bit in the late afternoon/evening, which proved to be quite a fun little adventure as we discovered a medieval castle while the sun was still shinning and then later a music festival in the evening.
Unique and beautiful home that Casey photographed. As you can see, he is quite a gifted photographer.
The following day, the two of us decided to do a bit of exploring up in the mountains overlooking the city where we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit in the forest and catching in some amazing sites of one of the most beautiful places either of us has ever seen.
A nice picture of us on our hike!
We headed back to Casablanca the following day to prepare for departure to our new homes and had not much of an idea of what to do when we arrived there. Initially, I found that I had no cash and needed to withdraw from the ATM machine and discovered that my card was being rejected by every one we stopped at in the city. The two of us then found a branch of El-Barid Bank and so Casey got to see the more personal nature of Moroccan bureaucracy in that I walked in with a problem, was immediately escorted to talk with the manager and was assured that the issue was most likely technical and that my card would function after the passing hour (and it did!) After this brief scare, we walked around a bit downtown and grew a bit bored of it and so about-faced and headed for the Starbucks in the local train station because I, now a small-town guy, had an urge for some globalization in the form of a frappuccino. For the evening, Casey decided that we should try Turkish food so that he could share a little bit of his new country's culture with me as I had done with him. By coincidence, when he suggested the idea that morning, we happened to bump right into the best Turkish restaurant in town (actually owned by a Turkish man). We returned to that same street and I found the food to be delicious and quite similar to something I would eat in the U.S. when going out for a bite.
The following day, Casey headed off to Turkey and I returned down south. The ride took a bit out of me with the intense heat and I was very grateful that I had arranged to spend the night at the home of my good friend Nina, a fellow PCV. The following days passed quickly and Ramadan arrived before I knew it.
These past few weeks have been crazy as can be and Islam's holiest month is set to end next week. Due to the intense heat down here in the south, there is not much happening in my town in the morning and afternoon, but things really get popping in the evening after the l-ftur (breakfast). My youth center doesn't even open until 10 in the evening now and so I have been working really late at night this month (honestly not my favorite schedule...very much looking forward to returning to 'normal' time). I did not choose to fast this Ramadan because I wanted to try and be an example to the local community of the majority of the world's population who do not observe Ramadan. There are no sizable religious minorities left in Morocco (the Jews are immeasurably small due to emigration and Christians and Atheists, if not foreign, are usually very low-key about their faith). For me, it was important to do this because part of Peace Corps is exchanging cultures and I'm not really representing American culture if I leave it at the door of my house so to speak. The community actually responded really well to me not fasting (of course, I did not eat in public in front of fasters) and it provided a lot of great opportunities for me to explain what the season of Lent is in Christianity, which many people found very interesting and respected. There were a very small number of community members (mostly small children or adults who were uneducated) who were shocked to learn I am not fasting because I am not Muslim, but it is for their sakes that I fasted because it's important for them to have open-friendships with people of other religions.
The cool thing was that I have always been invited to eat l-ftur with families and friends in the community. I love that tradition of Ramadan as it provides a good opportunity to spend time with loved ones as well as eat a great deal of sweets and drink fresh juices. I am very excited for Ramadan to end next week because people celebrate with Aid l-ftur and eat a lot the following day! Last year, I really enjoyed going from house to house and celebrating with people.
Work during Ramadan has been much more active than I expected. Some friends of mine in the community and myself put on an American culture week in the Dar Chebab where we learned about American history, the idea of citizenship, played basketball and ate guacamole with hallal fruit cocktails (thanks for the recipe help, Nina!) In particular, I should thank my friends Mustapha and Youssef, who helped me translate American history plays I had written in Darija into correct standard Arabic, Manar for helping lead the basketball session, Mustapha once more for teaching the session of citizenship and Moulay Said for helping me prepare the meal. Later today, I'll start with a week-long program at a local association where a team of local volunteers and myself will do a number of activities that will hopefully give the neighborhood kids something fun to do in the evening as well as promote our new library.
After this program, I have no idea of what I will do in July. Participation in community activities dies down in summer and so there are a couple of side projects I would like to work on. I will also begin working on some applications for post-Peace Corps life, which should keep me busy. Late July, I will head off to Marrakech on vacation to meet up with Andrew, Nick and Vu (three of my best friends from high school) where we will enjoy our time together greatly over there and in Essaouira. I can't wait to see them again! Following their visit, my parents will come and we will also visit Marrakech, train up to Tangier and then boat over to Spain. I am beyond excited to spend time with them as well! Following this trip, I will be volunteering at an English immersion camp in El Jadida, which was a really rewarding experience last year that I am excited to repeat one last time. By the time I return to Goulmima, it will be about a month to the day that I left to go on vacation.
Consequently, I am not sure if I will find the time to blog or not due to my being on the road for quite some time. I'll try and do my best to keep you all updated and if I can't, I'll make sure and continue blogging in the fall.
Peace friends!
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