Feb 19

Today I woke up from a great sleep and did some research for our bus presentation- did you know that as of 2004, 82% of the Moroccan population had access to an improved water source, and almost 60% of that population had a source tap inside their house? Only 13% of the wastewater goes under treatment, which does not sound like a lot but Morocco has substantially less wastewater that Western countries- thanks to bucket baths, and Turkish toilets. That was essentially my entire presentation… it was good though. Then we had a BREAKFAST fit for a queen: croissants, bread, crêpe-like things that I forget the name of, orange juice, coffee, butter, cheese and jelly. My breakfast was somewhat rushed, and I took some food to go. Alexa took two hard boiled eggs to bring on the bus which was very funny- nobody (herself included) knew what she was thinking. We laughed a lot, so I guess in the end it was a goood thing. We have been hearing terrible things about how cold the Sahara is, so I wore double leggings (black) and a black long sleeve. My friends made fun of me because of my “catsuit”, but it was warm and comfortable. Abdelhay (our Academic Director) also announced on the bus that women in the north/Atlas mountains tend to wear all black, so I was actually very much en vogue. We stopped at the Ziz Valley, which is similar to what I would think the Grand Canyon would look like. I have never had the desire to go there, and now I have satisfied my gorges quota for a while. It was really BEAUTIFUL, and we stayed for about 15 mins admiring it. Back in the bus and onward to Rissani.

On the bus I was thinking about the difference between the bigger cities and the smaller ones/villages. There is a very visible difference between the places that we have traveled on this excursion so far, and Fez/Rabat/Casa. At first these cities did not really seem like cities to me, but after seeing more of the country I am giving these cities my seal of approval. The clothing choices between the cities and more rural areas vary greatly. The women are MUCH more covered up and the men were almost all wearing jelabas. Some women were completely covered up except for one eyeball. I also found it interesting that there is a difference of skin tones here vs. Rabat etc. People here are darker/tanner. We learned in class that Moroccans do not really think about skin color when classifying people, which is great, but I am interested to find out how they differentiate between ethnicities. There is definitely not as must outward emphasis on where people are from and their background as there is in the States.

We get some snacks in between rest stops and someone passed me a bag of what I thought was wasabi peas. They were dried chickpeas instead, and they were SO hard to chew. Again, my dentist is not going to be happy with me come May. If they were wasabi peas I would have had to find some and bring them back for Nick G to replace the entire container that Rachel and I ate one night last semester at the Ridge… There were a lot of animals on the side of the road- particularly donkeys. Although these places that we are visiting are considered cities, there is a very significant difference between these cities, and Rabat. Simo told me to buy things in Risanni because it was cheaper, and will really support the Rissanis, so I was ready to shop. We had lunch first. We ate these pizza-like things (kinda like calzones I think?? Or just stuffed pizza). I sat at a table and everyone was talking about the vegetarian options at their school. I participated and told them about the Freeman (vegetarian) dining hall with soup & bread, and stirfry on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The conversation was weirdly in depth/personal. Somehow I eventually realized that I was sitting at the VEGITARIAN table of the restaurant. I got up rather abruptly and moved my seat. Funny. Anyway the lunch was good (not my favorite, but definitely good). Fruit for dessert (duh) but there were STRAWBERRIES on our dessert tray. They were so beautifully red and delicious. I was a very happy girl. I got some good gifts in Risanni, and I bought myself a (purple) scarf. There was a lot of raw meat in the medina and it smelt REALLY terrible. Here is a picture of the Rissani medina. (Much different from that in Rabat)

After lunch we switched to 4-wheel drives, and I noticed that my camera started to die, which scared me because we were scheduled to ride camels today. I forgot my charger in my other bag under the bus, but I managed to sneak in underneath and grab it before we got in the 4WDs for the day. Not only was I able to grab my camera, I also miraculously got shotgun in a great car with my ladiessss. Usually I would have chatted with the driver, but I was too busy looking out the window. I DID ask him if he was a good driver, and he said yes of course. I obviously buckled my seatbelt, but I was still a bit nervous. We were only on actual road for a short amount of time and then we went “off road”- VERY scary for me, but I kept it cool. We had races with the other FWDs and were blastin Berber music- not too loud though. We did like loop-de-loops and donuts. The view was UNREAL. We could see the dunes, which were a beautiful pinkish/coral color, and our driver pointed out the Algerian boarder (we were the closest to Algeria that we could be without planning to travel there), I later joked- emphasis on the JOKE- that we could make a run for it…

Before we went to our hotel, we stopped at the Hassilabied Association. They help women, particularly divorced or widowed, to become self supporting. They teach them how to read, write, and sew. They also organize a system of microfinance, where they give women one sheep and she keeps it for a year or two, until it reproduces and she can have a sheep of her own. The man said that the organization was initially unpopular in the village, but as more women became interested and started to attend the workshops (often secretly), more women became interested, and now they have about 60 women learning. He also said that some women went to simply learn to sew as a hobby, so they started to charge the women 10 dirham (~1 USD) to join the classes, and weed out the women who might not necessarily use the skills. I was able to charge my camera for a minute at the association, and then we got back in the 4WDs for 35 seconds to look at the irrigation systems in the desert villages.

The system is very ancient, but seems to work. I thought back to Jamie Lieberman’s world history class and the Roman/Persian empire irrigation systems. Certain families have water access on certain days and when it is not their day thy block the water path to their house with mud. This is a PICTURE of the water path/irrigation system. Then we got back into our 4WD and drove to the hotel. It was a MINI CASTLE in the middle of the Sahara. We got off of our 4WDs and got straight onto our camels that were waiting for us across the way.

The camels were very big and dirty. I got a little scared and waited until all of my friends got on them before I got on mine. The men who owned the camels showed us which camels to get on (I assume based on size). The camels sit down (cute) in order for you to get on and when they stand up it’s scary, but then you’up! Daisy’s camel came VERY close to my leg to say hello at one point. Camel riding is not like horseback riding. Your legs have to spread out wider and they are less graceful than horses. Some fun facts about camels are that there are no feral (wild) camels in Africa and all of the men who offer us thousands of camels are liars because there are not even thousands of camels on the entire continent. The camel ride was BEAUTIFUL. We just rode into the desert at magic hour, and then got off and played around. The sand was SO beautiful, but I forgot a container of some sort to capture it. I definitely still have some sand in my shoes, so I guess its okay. We watched the sun set, and our camel leaders made a fire. It was a really great experience.

The way back to the hotel was not as enjoyable for me personally. I tried not to complain, but riding the camels back was much harder than riding them there. It was getting darker (colder), and my camel and I were both tired. I considered getting off the camel at one point and walking, but I am not a quitter!!!! My peers were either having a much easier time for whatever reason, or are much better at hiding their emotions. I loved the camel ride, but I was happy when we got back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we got our new roommate assignments. I was with Ari (from Brandeis in my Arabic class—VERY good at Arabic) and Beth… We had tea and biscotti and then had a half hour until dinner/the Gnawa music presentation. Dinner was INCREDIBLE. Two people at my table said that it was the best chicken that they had ever had. I am reluctant to say that but it was pretttttttty delicious. It also had preserved lemons in it, which I hadn’t had yet- beneen bizeff (very delicious). The GANAWA music was playing during dinner, which made it hard to talk, but it was good music. After dinner we had more tea, delicious cookies, and more music. After that a bunch of us went to the terrace to look at the stars. It was too hard to get a picture, but I don’t mind. I have never seen as many stars as I did in the Sahara, and I will definitely have the image in my head for the rest of my life- you all will just have to believe me. It was really phenomenal and put a lot of things into perspective- I am a very lucky girl. We went to bed kind of early (I think) because we decided that we would walk out to the desert early in the morning to watch the sunrise. One of my roommates (the one who is not in my Arabic class) and I talked a little before going to bed, and it seems that she is having a very hard time removing herself from her life at home in order to appreciate this amazing opportunity. It was kind of a frustrating conversation, especially because I don’t know her well enough to say what I wanted to (GET OVER IT). Again, I felt even more blessed and aware of the fact that I am SO lucky to be here- and that I should live every moment here to the fullest. On that note, I went to bed.