After nearly three fun-filled months in Morocco, we have made our way to Spain. After a great stay in Chefchaouen, we made our way further north to Tangier. Tangier´s history as an international zone is full of intrigue and interesting stories. We visited the American Legation Museum where we read letters to and from George Washington and the Sultan of Morocco, discussing the establishment of a relationship between the two countries. We also explored the kasbah and a museum with photos of Tangier´s fascinating past. Lexi and I were also able to take in a film on the life of Ben Barka, one of Morocco´s most prominent political players post-independence.

From Tangier, we hopped on the ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltor and ventured on to Cordoba. The Arab influence in Andalucia provides a striking contrast between the European and Moroccan cultures. Churches that were once turned into mosques are now returned to churches, but the cultural and architectural impact of an Arab past lives on.

Enjoy the photos!

Ciao,

Katie

Enjoying fresh juice in Rabat at Top Batido.

Katie, Katie, and Lexi have their tv debut in a Colombian soap opera filming in Fes

Lexi and Lindsay surrounded by Chefchaouen blue

Lexi grinding the beans in preparation for a Bisara-making lesson in Chefchaouen.

Lindsay at the Chefchaouen Kasbah

Exploring the Tangier Kasbah with a view of the Med in the background

The grand finale for the group in Tangier. A fantastic dinner at one of Tangier´s finest restaurants.

Cave of Hercules in Tangier

Lexi and Ben Naimonides--a famous theologian, philosopher, and Doctor

Exploring the Fortress of the Christian Kings in Cordoba

Addie & Lexi diving into a delectible chocolate cake in Granada

Lexi, Katie, and Addie exploring the wonderful city of Granda

The morning was fun, we woke up, had a 'light' breakfast then I helped the women cook as we turned up the music and had a kitchen dance party. Then the men announced it was time and I walked up the stairs to the roof with all the kids shouting 'howlie howlie howlie' which means sheep in darija. My host mom, set up a charcoal fire on which they later grilled the hoofs and heads. The men hosed down a secluded section, which the other sheep couldn't see. Then they held the sheep down and my host father said a few words before cutting its throat with a special gigantic knife. The whole family had made sure that I had a clear view of the blood and gore. I have to say as gross as it was to see an animal be killed and then know I would later be eating it, it was extremely humane. No sheep is as cleanly killed and thoroughly eaten as a sheep on Eid Kbir. I know I am glossing over a lot of details, but it was such an experience that thoroughly defines 'you had to be there to understand'.

Lexi learning how to repair/make jewelry in the Fes medina

Katie and Lindsay made a lot of malawi during one of their cooking ISPs. It was delicious!

We are enjoying our final moments at Villa Nora in the sleepy seaside town of Moulay Bousselham along Morocco's North Atlanic coast (south of Tanger and Asilah). This concludes the student-led portion of the semester, in which the students chose the destination and then arranged for lodging, transportation, meals and activities (all the while staying within a set budget). As I listen to the waves crashing against the shore just outside and feel the warmth from the fireplace, I must say the students picked a wonderful spot. We've had three days here enjoying the ocean, sunsets, nice meals and a cozy house. Yesterday we went on a bird-watching boat tour through the lagoon and even spotted some flamingos. Not only have these three days been relaxing because of the location, but it was also really great for Katie S and I to sit back and let the students take charge. They did a great job treating us all to a little retreat before we return to Fez and fly through our remaining 13 days in Morocco.

Lindsay, Lexi and Katie G, shokran & bravo alikom!

-Addie

P.S. Photos to come soon!

Whew! We just left Rabat after a whirlwind couple of days in the city. Personally, I LOVED it, and not just because it's considered the "Washington, D.C." of Morocco! (I'm from D.C., so it did feel sort of comfortable to me....) Since Rabat is the political capital of Morocco, it's the locale for all things governmental--embassies, NGOs, and (as anyone who's been to D.C. will know), political demonstrations galore.

The multitude of foreign residents lends the city a very cosmopolitan feel, and also allowed us to meet with several individuals who work for the U.S. government in Morocco. On Friday, we sat down with two members of the Foreign Service. (By the way, the forum for our meetings was the "American Club," which offered such homey delicacies as grilled cheese, burgers, and fajitas.) The first of these people was the Public Affairs Officer, whose (HUGE) job encompassed everything from organizing a functional library system to forming youth-based initiatives to help young Moroccans understand the U.S. The hope for these programs, she told us, was that they would provide the next generation of Moroccan leaders with a better understanding of the United States--that they would, in a sense, "de-mythisize" the country--and, in doing so, prevent future acts of terrorism.

We also met with the Cultural Affairs Offier, whose role was, in his words, all about "culture with a capital C." He's in charge of bringing musicians and artists into Morocco and organizing exchange programs between Morocco and the United States. Each year, the U.S. government provides funding for a certain number of Moroccans to study in America--something none of us knew before! After the meetings at the American Club, we had the chance to meet with the head of Global Rights, an organization geared toward the promotion of female emancipation. We had actually heard this woman give a lecture to a group of Moroccan students when we were in Ifrane, but this time, we were able to sit down alone with her and ask all the questions that had been builidng in our minds since we'd last heard her speak.

--Alex

We finally reached the mouth of the caves where we hired a guide to take us through the dark, mysterious caverns. We strapped on our head lamps and headed in. At first, it was just lots and lots of stairs with railings heading down and deeper into the mouth of the cave. Then the lights stopped, the railing stopped and the real adventure started. With headlamps illuminating the way, we literally squeezed and slithered ourselves through a little opening, which brought us to the interior of the cave. We explored around the caves on various "paths" with the guide leading the way with his two flashlights. It was completely dark down there, so you needed your headlamp to see as well as free hands to balance yourself and grab rocks as handholds durin steep parts. It felt kind of like an obstacle course in the dark with a gymnastic influence from when we crossed along some suspended wooden boards or what we called balance beams.   

Lexi marveling at the size of the squash being grown in the Dar Taliba garden in the Ourika Valley

The beautiful Ourika Valley!

Addie helps the girls at the Dar Taliba pick olives

Katie and Lindsay help to plant aromatic plants at the Dar Taliba

Katie and a new friend measure to see if the hole they dug is deep enough for their fruit tree

Addie uses the pickaxe to help dig a hole for one of the fruit trees

Dressed up in our kaftans for our wonderful evening of dancing and music at the Dar Taliba

Modeling our new t-shirts after learning screenprinting at Association Ighrir

Playing in the Saharan sand

Katie attempting to stay on the camel as he stood up

Camel trek through the Sahara

Our second lecture was early the next morning, it really felt like school getting up with an alarm and rushing off to a lecture. But this lesson was completely unlike anything we had ever experienced in high school, even though the professor was from Billings, Montana. He played the progression of Rai music for us as he carefully explained how it evolved to become the music we hear today. Rai is basically the blues of Morocco and Algeria. It began as a way for those who are down and out on their luck and on the receiving end of bad politics to let some emotion loose. It used to be all amatuer musicians and singers. It was actually generally women who wrote and sung, women with a very bad reputation because they often worked where the down-and-out nursed their drinks daily. But, as all things do, as times changed Rai changed. People began to really listen to it, and it became such a tool for those wanting to lash out at bad government policies that the conservative Algerian President banned it for many years. Of course he could not have had teenagers or he would have known that forbidding something would just increase the popularity and make everyone want to listen to it. So he inadvertantly pushed forward the Rai movement. It became country-wide, not just those on the fringes of society, but those in the heart of it, who were not yet willing themselves to speak out against bad governmental policies. So it grew and grew and grew, eventually topping the BBCs top hits charts and expanding world-wide to recording studios in France and Los Angeles. Today Rai has many 'pop' beats but it is still used as a tool for speaking about that which is often swept under the rug.

The group is really looking forward to diving into their second ISPs and discovering more of the mysteries Fes has to offer. Here are a few more images of our trek in the High Atlas and our camel adventure in the Sahara. We'll have more photos for all of you very soon!

Cheers,
Katie

Taking refuge from the rain and hail in a cave on the way up to the Toubkal refuge. Tea and some singing perked everyone up.

Taking a break to enjoy the scenery on the way down from the Toubkal refuge

Proof that the first Global LAB summit of Toubkal did occur!

Katie, Lindsay, and Lexi in the Sahara sand dunes

Watching the sunset from atop the Merzouga dunes

Writing the blog post is kind of a surreal experience; I'm using a new iMac computer in the library of the Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. To better explain why this feels so weird to me, I'll tell you a little about the history of the university. It was built by King Hassan II, the previous king of Morocco, using money given to the country by the king of Saudi Arabia. Hassan II's goal was to build an American-style university in Morocco; that is, to adopt the same credit-based class system, with student organizations/clubs, and a functional library. We toured the university today, and, I have to say, it really felt like we were walking around an American college campus. The university has its own gymnasium, which is gorgeous by U.S. standards; it had an Olympic-sized swimming pool, fully equipped weight and cardio rooms, and a dance salon. Also, all the classes here are taught in English (except the foreign language classes), and, therefore, everyone on campus speaks the language fluently. When you consider all this in light of the fact that, just this morning, we were in a tiny, rural village where absolutely no English was spoken at all, the transition is pretty jarring.

Which isn't to say that we're not enjoying Ifrane! The town is gorgeous; it was modeled on a village in the Swiss alps, and, as far as I can tell, the plan worked pretty effectively. Unlike the square, concrete structures that typify the Moroccan town, Ifrane is all western-looking yellow houses with sloping terra cotta rooves (which come in handy here, because Ifrane receives the largest annual snowfall of any town in Morocco).

Anyway, that "tiny, rural village" I referred to before was El Khoukhate, where we spent the day yesterday. Working with a Peace Corps volunteer in the village and the women's association she's involved with, we learned to make...couscous! The experience was enlightening for me, because I had always pictured couscous growing in the ground, alongside its fellow grains like wheat and barley. I was completely wrong. There is no such thing as a couscous grain--who knew?! The tiny little balls you get on your plate are hand-made from a mixture of flour (or, actually, any grain you can grind into a floury substance) and water. The actual process of making the couscous was time-consuming, but, as we discovered, the finished product was SO worth the effort. It was DELICIOUS. There's nothing like eating a piping-hot dish that you've--literally--made with your own two hands.

This morning, we left our homestay families in Tinerhir and headed for the Todra Gorge. We'd heard that the area is renowned among rock climbers, and you can certainly see why--the small valley that houses our hotel is situated in the middle of two sheer rock faces that extend skyward as far as the eye can see. It's pretty breathtaking to glance up from reading your book on the hotel's rooftop terrace, and see these gigantic cliffs right above you.

Our big activity today was an art lesson with the owner of a small gallery in town. He does work in both oil paints and safran paints, and we elected to try out safran painting, because none of us had ever seen it done before, it's endemic to this region. First, we watched as he demonstrated how he produced the colors he used in his painting, and then we got to do some painting of our own (which we got to keep!). Safran painting is done using just two colors: yellow, which is made from an infusion of tea leaves and safran, and black, which was made by dropping a special kind of rock into boiling water. Somehow, the water reacts with the rock and MELTS it--I never knew rock could actually melt. Anyway, the result is a clear liquid, that, when applied to paper, gradually turns black. It was a really cool process to watch, and the paintings ended up looking pretty good!