Berber Village IminTanoute Morocco 10-22-08

We visited a BerBer village for an overnight stay. This is similar to a bed an breakfast with a cultural exerience. Mohamed manages this with his wife and many friends and neighbors from the village. Here is his email; berber_culture_ center@hotmail.com. The small village is near Imi-n-Tanoute on the maps we saw. There was a traveling carnival in town that week we drove through the town.

The bus wound through the narrow streets and snaked up the hill to the village. People from the village waited on the main highway with smiles and waves. The bus continued to drive slowlythrough the narrow rocky path where we all got out for our overnight sleepover with a Berber family.

We walked up a moderately steep rocky path, wide enough for a donkey cart, to the Berber Inn. It was built in 2003. There are 8 rooms with 2 community toilets next to a shower. Yes running water and western style toilets. Water is cold. There was a kitchen with an open wood burning oven and tables for preparation in the court yard just in front of the kitchen.

As you enter the sleeping rooms or community room you slip off your shoes. We gathered around tables in the community room as we sat on pillows cross-legged. Our host served green mint tea in small shot sized glasses and a big bowl of popcorn at each table. The tea is always heavy on the sugar for Moroccans.

Our rooms were modest with 2 beds on a platform with fresh bright pink sheets on a hard 6 inch mattress with a big heavy course blanket. We layered on most of the clothes we brought with us as the air was chilly.

We volunteered for groups to make chicken and vegatable Tanjine, bread or bring water from the well.

Stan and I chose water gathering. Down the rocky path we trod behind the donkey with water jugs, made from old tires, packed the his back. Up we went to the well enclosed with a concrete block wall. There were two buckets one on each end of a long rope that was hung over a pulley. One bucket was dropped into the well filled up and then pulled up with the sopping wet rope. We all took turns and finally the jugs were filled. Back to the center. Poor donkey. Some co-travelers took a ride on the donkey. I decided his burden was already heavy enough and skipped a ride.

A couple of water gatherers got off the path when they stopped for a photo of the valley. Barbara and Brenda found their way back after spending a hour or so in heavy afternoon showers. They saw people along the way, but speaking or understanding Arabic is a challenge. They kept back tracking on themselves as one cactus patch on a rocky path looks like the next. They were drenched and humbled by their experience.

We had a bed on platform. I should say hard beds with extra hard pillows. The people are gracious; funny and interesting.

Our Japanese co-traveling friends, Fumi and Katsuyo, opened a package of origami paper and we all sat at a table making cranes. Katsuyo told of the story in 1945 right after US had bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when people in Japan held vigil for the severely injured in hospitals by making 1000 cranes and stringing them up in a circle representing peace.

Here we were at the Berber center making cranes offering peace to each other.

That late afternoon we enjoyed the works of our labor in the commuity room. The chicken Tabjine was delicious and tender. It included potatoes, onions and squash. It had baked in the conical pot over coals. The yeast bread was flatten and baked in an open fired overn. The prepared dishes were placed in the middle of each table. You would tear off a peice of freashly baked bread and scoope up some veggies or chicken. No plates, napkins or silverware. Were in Morocco now. It was delicious and hit the spot. It was followed by with a friut salad of small pieces of bananas,greaps, seed from palmgranets and dolop of yogurt. Yes, a spoon this time.

I helped dry the dishes with a tea towel in the kitchen. It was chlly and this was one way to warm up next to the oven that was colling down from cooking the bread.

One women crouched on the floor making our afternno snack. It was a layer of sweeten yeast bread, pudding or custard, topped with swirls of dough rolled like snails filling the top. It was yummy perfectly browned.

We then had a tea making contest. We were teamed in groups of 3 to make mint/green tea with plenty of sugar. We didn't win, but laughed and decided bits of green tea chewed in their dry form tasted like charcoal. We have sense found out that the tea is poured out 3 times to help with the seeping.

Later that evening the host served thin asian type noodles mixed with a few raisins and sprinkled with cinnamon.

We slept mostly well bundled in our cloathes and the heavy blanket. The next morning a few of us did some taichi with our Japanize friends in the court yard. For breakfast we were served a kind of cream of wheat (yes with a large spoon), more yeast bread and crape type pancake. We drizzled thick honey on it and rolled it up like I did when I was a kid. My mom would save the last pancake, spread it with sugar, roll it up and offer it to me. It is still my favorite way to eat pancakes.

On our way down the hill after our visit we stopped to smile with some little children going to school. I gave them an A B C puzzle. It was cute to watch them hold it up for a photo. Hopefully, they will learn to make lots of words.

Essaouira Morocco 10-21-08

The men wear slip on slipper type shoes. Arabs have pointed toes. Berbers are round toed. Morocco has about 32.7 million people and is the 57th largest country in the world. 4th largest in Africa.

Can you believe Im really in Africa This is such a trip.

40 percent of the people work in argiculture. The country seems sparcely populated to me and large farms are not apparent. Mostly along the highways you see few herds of goats scattering away as the bus passes through with a lonely goat herder resting under a tree. A couple of times we saw, of all things, goats standing on their hind legs by trees reaching for leaves in trees. Other times we actually saw goats in the tree branches.

On Tuesday 10-21-08 we traveled from Marrakech to Essaouira. These names are a lot easier to say once you hear them roll off the tongue of a local.

The soil around Marrakech is red as is the color of most of their buildings. We drove about 3.5 hrs to the fishing village on the coast to Essaouira. The fields were flat and filled zith small fist sized rocks: You could rack them up over and over and still not have enough soil to farm. Twigs of trees, probably olive trees, were planted in rows with a berm around them to collect water in hopes that some day an orchard would grow. On this road the property lines marked in the Casablanca region by cactus were exchanged for neatly stacked rock fences about 4 feet high. The fields were cleared off as best as they could, except for the rocks.

Seeing a donkey pulling a cart was common place as donkeys are the Berber's taxis. Bicycles also dotted the landscape as we went through small towns or villages. Some towns had weekly markets going on. The market was called the day of the week for example, Monday Market. If a village had a market then the community was considered to be vibrant.

I noticed one guy unloading his duffle bag full of shoes onto a blanket. These were not new shoes. This gives you some idea that the market is not just fresh fruit and vegetables but also many flea market resalables.

On the way to Essaouira we stopped off at a women’s coop that turns the locally grown Argon tree seeds to oil. Women were seated on the floor cracking open the Argon nuts. Then another woman takes the nuts and roasts then in a large flat pan stirring constantly over an open fire. The fire uses the shells and wood to keep the fire burning.

Then onto another women who grinds the roasted nuts into a paste. Stan tried to grind a bit and his arm was sore moving the big stone with a stick in it over the grinding stone. Not easy work for sure. The paste is then pressed to extract the oil used for skin moisturizer and the like.

There must be an easier way. This place was out in the country in the middle of nowhere so I really don’t think an updated factory was hiding in the back yard.

Each day along the way we stopped off for a restroom break and for coffee, tea or soda. Pepsi is found infrequently. Coke, Diet Coke or Coke Zero, Sprint, Fanta we almost always available at room temperature for about 10 dirhams or $1.25. The key was to order what the locals drink. Nos Nos - half milk half coffee served in a glass a little bigger than shot size. Mint green tea was also available served piping hot in a small skinny glass. Hold the top or it will burn your fingers. No super sized starbucks out here in the middle of Morocco.

As soon as the bus doors opened to Essaouira the smell of fish permeated the air. SeaGalls were circling over the Marine Arch where they hold the fish auctions each day at 2. Town shop owners come to buy fish from the center. We saw moray and conga eels, spider crabs, red snapper, sardines and other such catches of the day layed out on tables and in tubs on the ground.

You could buy one or many then take them over to the fish cleaner. He would clean your selection for a few dirhams. The seagulls enjoyed the bounty.

In Essaouira we stayed in Ryad Mogocoor hotel just outside the city across the street from the beach. It was top drawer with thick orange / gold brocade bedspread that matched similar fabric in the drapes and side chairs. The whole bathroom was decorated in blue and white tile. It was a delight with manicured large court yard and a swimming pools with water as still as a cool evening night. The buffet offered scrumptious food like beef tips, tender chicken as well as vegetables, rice and many fresh salads. Choices of desserts were endless; flan, tiny chocolate cookies and tarts.

No time to ride the camel on the beach in the sunset as we were very tired from our city tour. We walked through the narrow streets of Essaouira. This was a much different walk from the souk in Marrakech. Still like a labyrinth, but no motorcycles and this was mixed use with shops and residences. Many doors were painted blue for good luck. I photographed a lot of them as we walked.

At the end of the walk we learned about wood carving and inlay work. Beautiful things, but too heavy to carry home. One person with our group bought the most interesting table that nested together in three parts like a puzzle. She had it shipped home. It was an art piece for sure.

Marrakech Morocco 10-20-08

Hi,
We are in Marrakech staying at the Imperial Holiday Hotel. Ali, our guide wears a jellaba (robes with a hood) each day. One day he wore olive green, next day sunny saffron yellow stripped with see through cream of silk and cotton.

Morocco has 32.7 million people. It is the 57th largest country in the world and the 4th largest country in Afric. It gets very hot in the summer at 45 degrees celsius or 115 degrees FH. In the winter the temperatures drop to -2 degrees C or 28 degree FH.

I rained most of the evening yesterday like cats and dogs coming down filling the gutters to overflowing. Maybe there are no storm system to collect the water, so it just piled up. The temperature ranged from 85 degrees FH to about 60 degrees or less on chilly evenings.

We ate lunch on the second floor of a restaurant across the street from the mosque. The tables were filled with Tajines, a local dish. Some with lamb and prunes, some with beef or chicken and vegetables such as eggplant, peppers, carrots, green beans then olives. Stan had meatball and egg. Curry flavors yellow color of saffron permeated the open air cafe. Tajines were baked in a terra cotta bowl with a conical lid. As the waiter took off the top, steam escaped and the wonderful aroma filled the air.

The guide gave us tips along the way like - Rosemary leaves boiled into a tea with sugar is good for your stomach. Cactus flower pods are peeled and used as Imodium of Morocco.

Along the road side as we road the bus from Casablanca to Marrakech we saw cactus (pear type) growing 5 feet tall and about 3 feet wide in strips around farm plots. This marked off the property lines. The soil is very rocky and it seemed nothing was grown in these plots. Other places had groves of olive trees. Groups of palms dotted some fields.

We stopped in one palm groove to look at some camels. Everything is about paying the guy with things for pictures. Well finally I have some local change so we can do just that.

Today we went through all the things we missed yesterday because of the afternoon’s rain. We went through the narrow streets of the souks. These are bazaar type market places are crowded with people and their wares in small shops. We walked in single file stopping not once in fear that we might get lost as people on motor cycles and walking crowded by. Cycles always have the right of way, so if you hear the honk better hug the side of the narrow walkway.



There were metal sinks hanging in doorways, carpets in another place, teapots on a chain, shoes and slippers in another. Very thin metal jewelry with all colors of beads for but a couple of dirhams - $2.40 US. Looked like things you find in a carnival.

At the end of a long walk through this labyrinth of narrow walkways we stopped at the Pharmacia. Is was air conditioned and we sat round on benches in a circle with the leader (pharmacist) in front. It was like the biggest Tupperware party I have ever been to. All kinds of concoctions were offered and spread on our hands to smell and rub in. At the end, plastic bags were handed to each person and then the list of items started again. Who wanted special cooking spices, hand cream, wrinkle remover, cholesterol blocker and on and on.

Some how I didn't bite and come out of there with nothing. Others in our group had heavy bags of things.

Back through the Souk market to have lunch at the same place as yesterday.

I'm exhausted but off to an open theater tonight to see a horse show and some belly dancing. The show was several miles out of the city. Bus loads of tourists moved through the pathway with men on horse back lining each side. The pageantry was interesting, cheesy and a bit over the top. We ate dinner served in bright red tents. A half of roasted lamb was laid before us on a big platter to rip off parts and find tasty morsels. Then a huge plate of coucous with 7 vegatables. Platters of fruit were then served as dessert. As a vegetarian, is it sometimes a challenge to find more than just bread to eat.

The horse show was held in a large arena. Our guide clued us in to the right seats to see well. Horses road around in some kind of order. Several keen horsemen did Roy Rodgers type of tricks by riding side saddle and other feats lickety split around the arena. A wobbly float over a vehicle came out as a stage for the belly dancer to entertained us for a while, maybe too long a while. A magic carpet suspended on a cable across the arena floated by with some guys on it. By the time the fireworks were on their last sparkle, we were already in the bus. No more comments on this one.

It's an adventure.

Joyce

Casablanca Morocco 10-19-08

Hi,
I found a small internet cafe in Marrekech. This the first one I have found in Morocco as most hotels do not have business centers anymore. They have WIFI or WEEFEE as the French pronounce it. You need your own computer to use WIFI. Maybe I'll have to start carrying one. In this internet cafe off a couple of blocks from our hotels down a dark alley of shops, little kids speaking French and Ababic are crowded all around me at small tables playing games on their internet stations in a very dark long skinny room. This is probably the most interesting place I have found to type.

The computer is set up for French and so is the key board. The owner changed it to English keyboard but you can't look at your fingers as you type as the letters are different. It is a challenge so I appolize ahead of time for misspellings.

After a lengthy flight from NY to Casablanca (6 1/2 hours) they skirted us off to start our visit. No hotel or bathroom visit. We stopped first at the largest Mosque in the area. The country side is filled with argriculture. Some primitive type square homes had haystacks in the fields covered with plastic. They were stacked with an oval top instead of square.

It is more humid than expected and still warm from summer. There are plam trees, eucalipus in groves dotting the highway. People selling wares sit on the side of the road along the frontage road on a chair with a small table and a cloth draped over their goods.

Highways are 4 lanes and compounds (farm houses) have arched gated enteries in this part of Morocco

Folage and climate is similar to California with bouganvilles and palms. Casablanca is expensive compared to other parts of Morocco. It is rich ecomonically and life too live their is also.

Starlings fly around the city and countryside. People here don't particularly like them, as they eat the olives during harvest. October is olives harvest season.

A phone, for example cost $50/cell phone with no contract. Free calls are available to families on the same plan. Everyone no matter their economic situation seems to have a cell phone.

We found we didn't need to wear scarfs in the Mosque unless you want to or if is is prayer time. This is the tallest mosqeue in the world. Third largest in the North African region. It is huge and filled with marble and inlaid tile with majestic designs in the ceilings. People come to the Mosque particularly on Fridays. Men on main floor. Women up to the second where there is ornate lattuce work so women can not be seen. It is impressive and expensive to imagine the construction of the place.

Last evening we went for a small bus ride around the city of Casablanca and stopped off in Oliveris - an ice cream parlor. It reminded me of the pastry shops in Boston where people line up for 1/2 a block to buy goodies. We did the same here. For 40 dirhams ($5 each) we had a chocolate and pistaccio. It was a cup of yummy delight wraped with a paper cone filled with fresh whipped cream.

Several of us took a walk about a block away to the ocean. Children were playing scoccer in the sand. The smaller children were playing behind a large rock to keep their ball from rolling into the sea.

Gas is 7 dirharm (their money or about $1/liter or $4/gal).

Now we ventured to Marrikech with our fellow travelers by bus. There are 33 of us from US, Japan and Canada. This is a Friendshop Force trip. We are looking forward to the homestay in a few days.

It's great fun.
Joyce

Morocco - Here we go 10-17-08

Stan and I are off to Morocco today. We will take a quick flight to New York, then off to Casablanca. We’ll probably be in the air 4 hours to NY and 6 ½ to Morocco. Morocco is that country in North Africa about the size of California right across the Straits of Gibraltar from Spain along the south western part of the Mediterranean Sea.

In 2000 we traveled to China with Friendship Force with a Cinda Clark, a tour coordinator from Fort Collins, Colorado. Cinda called us in the summer and asked if we wanted to join her and some others from all over the US for a couple of weeks to Morocco. Seemed like an interesting idea and certainly a place we had never been before so we signed up.

Our bags are packed, overloaded really, with enough to keep us cleaned up for a while. It is really hard to pack light when you don’t know the weather conditions or plans during our 2 day home stay with a host family. We learned just yesterday we are staying with a women(?), Hafida Lotfi, with 4 children ages 18 to 40. That’s about all we know so far. Her email is from France. Part of the exchange is giving a few gifts to the host family. Other Friendship Force trips we have dropped off quilts in Australia, New Zealand and India. This summer I made a quilt just for this occasion. One fabric has a background of beige paisley. The pattern is called Garden Path from designs from the 30’s. It reminded me of colors and patterns I’ve seen of Morocco in photos.

Most people in Morocco are Muslims, so we’ll have an opportunity to visit some mosques. They speak French and Arabic. I didn’t really take the time to learn either, but practiced a few basic phases in French. We’ll be in hotel mostly and stop off in a Berber village one night then cross the Atlas Mountains to our home stay.

It’s an adventure and I’ll keep you posted as I find internet cafes or business centers in the hotels.

Thanks for joining.
Joyce Kropewnicki