Grateful and more grateful.

Customs Officers beware! OnE of these days I am going to be so glad to get back to the USA that I actually act on my impulse to hug you. Seeing the world is such a gift, but it is so good to be home!

A little early, actually. For some reason I never adjusted to the altitude in Azrou. But I got a full week of volunteering in, reconnected with old friends and saw rural Morocco. It was a good trip.

If you are going top invest in  up and coming property, look to Azrou, Morocco. They are poised to be a bedroom community to Ifrin, the lovely resort town just 30 minutes away. The king already has a palace there, and it is the new lace for moneyed middle easterners to get away from summer heat. AND - big news - they are putting in a golf course! Already have a landing strip.






Anyway Azrou is building like crazy - apartments and new streets. every roundabout has new sculptures and plantings.






I am glad I went and glad to be home. It is one of the places I could go back to - at sea level! Blessings and 1000 thanks to Bob who understands my off tour need to travel and is always waiting with a big hug at the airport.

observable change

Rarely do volunteers see the result to their work, but I was privileged to observe it today!

I have been in the 3 year old class and our first activity every day was to put all the backpacks on the tables and be seated in the tiny floor space. We do some activities that needs more movement there and then go to tables for paper work. Today the room was arranged by the teacher with the tables pushed back and an open space for floor time! And as soon as I came in they all threw their backpacks on the tables an sat down on The floor!

Yippee!

Did I mention laundry? The pictures say it all: wash/rinse, dry, enjoy view.

 

Weekends are for planning

Which is pretty much what we did. I am majoring in 3 year olds and determined to only used locally sourced material. Coffee filters, pipe cleaners, paper plates and bags, cotton balls, TP rolls, magazine cut outs plus crayons, glue and markers. OK I did find some google eyes and stickers donated earlier, but not glitter! I know the creative among
you are already fashioning elaborate crafts. I’ll post pictures if anything comes out.

Speaking of pictures, the policy here is strictly enforced that we do not take pictures of the children until way at the end of our teaching, if at all. Or locals unless backs are turned. Makes me wonder which of the gazillion “selfies with a tween” that were taken of me in China have fallen into the wrong hands.

The high school French is way more useful than I ever expected. Morocco has always used French beside Arabic, and have just recently devised a written alphabet and now have signs in Berber as well. There was a time under the new king when English gained popularity, but the old ways are coming back strong. And of course “how much” is understood everywhere.








Calls to prayer - of course now there is down loadable PDF, but the ancients has solar triggers:
1 Dawn covers full width of the sky
2 Sun casts on shadows a man standing outside
3 Shadow is same length as man is tall
4 Sun completely set below horizon
5 All red gone from western sky

Friday!

Volunteer time is when I notice and appreciate the weekends. For clergy, the energy and excitement ramps up for Sat and Sun, but in the rest of the world, Friday is the start of time off.so here it is.

Apparently that sentiment was shared by some of our local teens (I assume that is the age range) because a trap set has been going for about 3 hours now. maybe  metal garbage cans.  Either that or the local Mosque is very Praise-y. Anyway it is quiet now. Very peaceful, just a few crickets.

The roof of the school is a big open courtyard with high walls. We have had all the classes up there this week (with the exception of the Truly Unruly 5s) for some space to do head-shoulders-knees and toes without bump in yum rinse on the desk. It has gone pretty well, although there is a large grate suitable to swallow any of the 3s and a cord/wire of some kind that is always in the way. Still the sun is up and it is only 27 stairs from our floor to the roof. After the 27 from the street to the classroom. I am eschewing my stair master workout for a while.





To celebrate the end of the week (and our apparent survival) we ventured uptown for fun shopping like postage stamps and bandaids. I got very excited to find a “librarie” but it as a photo copy store.  We had a pastry and coffee. apparently Azrou is not big enough for a Dairy Queen - sort of like Gilman, IA.






We are the only 2 western women. Just about everyone over high school wears a headscarf and long dress, but you do see the fancy shoes peek out sometimes. However we are not hassled and free to be the only women in the coffee shop - as long as we stay out of the way of the TV when soccer comes on. Just like home.

Into the kitchen

We made tea and pancakes today at the Homebase and had a chance to chat a little about women’s things. I asked what percent of the day was sent in meal preparation.

 “All of it.”

Sometime there is a short break after lunch and before dinner unless you make pancakes or something special. Add a baby or a job and...

“you have to figure it out.”

A few rural families still have a mother living in the house to help. But most are on their own. Men have time to sit in the cafe and or go to the mosque.

Women “just figure it out.”


It was mint tea, however and quite good. Here are the steps.

Scoops of tea in pot
Add hot water
Pout 1 glass without swirling
Add more hot water
Swirl
Pour out 2nd glass
Return glass #1 to pot
Throw away glass #2
Put in sugar (lots)
Add hot water to below brim
Heat on stove to boiling
Add mint to pot
Pour into glasses and put back 4 times
Allow to cool
Tea poured from a great height is far better than tea just tipped from pot

Want seconds?

Afternoon in Azrou

Our guide estimated 1 hour to do the town. He failed to consider that we would ask questions and shop!





Azrou means rock and sure enough there in the center of town is a huge nondescript but unavoidable rock. Wearing a crown al la Royal Jewels we just saw in London. The cultural center had a lot about rocks and plants and clothings of the area which is basically Berber. There are a few ruins although it seems the Romans stayed by the coast in Rabat. The nomadic tents don’t leave a trace.




The median is the old central shopping area, but the real action was at the used clothing mart in the middle of an open field. We went to a rug shop, one selling polished rocks, a couple of wood stores and some artisan shops.

Weaving both on vertical and horizontal looms is a big industry with some lovely tightly woven rugs of wool and silk. The interesting ones however are the family rugs of the less wealthy. They are all made of the scrips of clothing - sort of like a patchwork quilt of family handoffs. My suitcase won’t hold any of the really pretty ones, but I did find a scarf.

The 5s today heard the Three Little Rabbits (because most kids here have only seen pigs in pictures) and the Big and Wolf. Huff and puff and all that stuff. And the Three goats crossed over bridge with a wolf under it because troll is untranslatable  and I was drawing this on the white board as I went.

The 3 year olds added Green so I think we will move on to “hands” tomorrow.

Clear skies and the cook makes even carrots delicious!

Oh my age 5!

Individually they are adorable, but 36 of them pounding on desks just to hear the noise is almost scary.  All the verses we knew Of  Quiet Down songs did not make a dent. (The regular teacher has a large stick she slams on the desk. At which they look up and go back to what they were doing.) So that was a clear signal that class was over. They actually quieted down for the Good Bye song - out of Shock?

Tomorrow we will use Glue! (On the paper craft - what did you think I meant?)

I had the 3 year olds and after 10 minutes to collect backpacks and gather them on the floor, we got through red AND blue! And got the “head” part of “head, shoulders, knees and toes.”







We did walk up for coffee which luckily we had just learned in Arabic class that to order 1/2 milk, we ask for cafe nes-nes. We learned to conjugate verbs, too, but that was not nearly as useful.




Warmer weather. Amazing food.

The littles!

Children ages 3-4-5 are the same! Some have more or less stuff. Some have more or fewer experiences. But the desire to wiggle and explore and be praised is the same.

The school here is tiny. Colorful and clean but furnished with the idea that preschoolers are just tiny  school students who need desks and chairs and workbooks. The children sit 2/desk with 2/3;of the desks against The wall so having a child come up to the board is a major teeny body negotiation. They just have started school themselves so frankly standing on the desks and hopping over each other seems like a better use of time and resources. Still we soldier on with ”Head,shoulders, knees and toes.” And an attempt to teach colors. Today we worked with the 3s on red, yellow, blue and green. Tomorrow I am dropping yellow. Maybe by a Friday I’ll be down to blue. 

The last few days have been warm in the morning but in the afternoon a very cool rain comes through so blankets are wonderful at night. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week it will be warmer and sunny. 

Today was our lecture on Islam. It will take a while to process the similarities and differences. But always fascinating to sort out media fiction from actual teaching, 

Food continues to be amazing! 

History is so complicated!

We spent the morning going over the political position and history of Morocco, which like all places is loaded with turning points and personalities. The original question was, “Does Morocco identify more with Africa or the Arab states or Europe?” The answer has changed since I was here in 2012!

At that time Morocco was trying hard to related to Europe, even to hope of one day joining the EU. But last year they joined the African Union, seeing their current position more like the countries to the south.

Of course the country directly to the south is a South Sudan with whom they have a long standing conflict over independence and  borders, complicated by the Saudi oil transport via Sudanese lands and old battles between French and Spanish territories. St the moment they are waiting for the Sudanese  to vote on being part of Morocco or independent only no one can decide who can vote: those born in certain areas, those whose families date there but have been displaced, or those living there now.


In the meantime the number of refugees (true ones fleeing war and enslavement )via Morocco to a Spain is higher now that the number going from a turkey to Greece. It seems when Spain left the colony they held on to 2 cities on the north coast. Those are still technically in Spain even as they sit on this side of the Mediterranean. So anyone who sneaks into this heavily walled, barb wired and defended cities is in Spain and has to prosecuted to send back. Many desperate women get pregnant because the treatment of pregnant women or those with new babies is  much better. The children born here Will never be citizens so they end up in orphanages eventually as the women moves on, stuck in abject poverty and only hoping for somewhat better treatment with the next pregnancy. Adoption is not permitted in Islam.

If you think that paragraph was long it is just one of the age old problems we discussed that have observable outcomes but no solution. Some issues are stuck waiting for UN decisions. some are unresolved borders from colonialism of the 1930 or the Cold War. Areas prospered under Soviet support but collapsed when the USSR did. And of course oil interests and prices create the problems or too much or too little money.

It’s complicated.

Azrou itself is somewhat isolated from all this except in the areas of  education and employment. The highest unemployment rates - statistically - are among the educated educated which results in  little  motivation to stay in school. Private schools are growing for those able to pay leaving a gap in education. We are here to help with w small number of teachers of the littlest ones.

Way too much politics! The weather is sunny in the morning and rainy/cooler in the afternoon. Children play in the playground behind us, and lunch was delicious. Tomorrow we start teaching and move from the global to the personal.

Three countries - same time zone

London to Lisbon to Fez in 8 hours,  but the watch did not need updating, Apparently I am on a vertical grid. And there is no jet lag!

Landed in Fez at a truly magnificent airport  - newly renovated. I wondered why since this is a pretty remote area.

Once you drive up in the mountains toward Azrou the air is cooler and there are forests of pine trees,  only to find out the town about 20 from where we are is one of the kings palaces and a new resort area for getting away from the heat for the People With Money. Referred to as the Little Switzerland of Morocco. Maybe the king will find a good Reason to stop by!



Fez is 1350 ft - Azrou is 3950 ft. It was an ear popping ride up.

This month!

After Bob and I travel to Normandy, he will head home and I'll be off for 3 weeks in Azrou, Morocco, to volunteer with Cross Cultural Solutions.

I was in Rabat, Morocco, before but that was a city volunteer site on the coast. The staff and program has now moved to a new location back in the Atlas mountains.

More rural opportunities and challenges.

Staying warm

How to stay warm in sub zero Chicago? Register for next September in Azrou, Morocco back in the Atlas mountains! Done!