Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubilis and Fes in a weekend

This weekend we left on our first group excursion inland to the foothills of the Middle Atlas to see what remains of the four ancient kingdoms that at one point in time ruled Morocco. All 40 of us experienced the “Tour Bus” way to see a country. Not my favorite but it was a good introduction to these places that i'll revisit with the family when they are here in December. The drive to Meknes was uneventful on main highway through dry rolling farmland. Rural morocco in this region doesn’t seem too harsh as the farming infrastructure seems relatively modern and planned.

I wasn’t too impressed with Meknes, although to give it some credit I was only there for half a day. We visited the old granary, which was huge and empty. It was kind of eerie, but cool walking through the columns of it. The rest of our tour around Meknes was briefly rushed over (a mosque, and craft shop), so I didn’t take it in very much, but still interesting to see where the country was ruled from at one point in time. The only thing that really struck me was how big the palace walls were; most of time we were driving it seems to be along some kind of wall.





Next, we moved on to Moulay Idriss a beautiful ancient city that sits picturesquely on a hill overlooking a vast rolling plane of farmland. We parked the van and walked through the narrow streets to a guesthouse where we had a delicious four course lunch and tea and cookies on the rooftop terrace overlooking the city and valley and mountainsides.





After lunch, we drove down the hill to Volubilis where the largest Roman ruins in Morocco are found. We walked through the thousands of blocks strew everywhere. Columns, arches, temples and a reconstructed olive press where some of the remaining sites we could see. It was hot, open and the sun was high so getting back on the bus was nice.



The drive from Volubilis to Fes was absolutely beautiful with the late afternoon sun. Gorgeous reds, yellows, blues from lakes and Utah-ish terrain surrounded the bus, as it drove the windy hilly roads. I was falling in and out of sleep listening to Ratatat, and felt as if I was in a lucid dream. It was a beautiful drive.



Fes is home to one of the biggest medinas in the world, if not the biggest. We started off Sunday by driving up to a restored fort that over looks the medina and most of the city. It’s a massive expanse of monochrome tan square homes with satellite dishes like earrings; two or more hanging to a house. The streets lay secrectly inbetween the building but you cant see them from the hill. The medina has over 9,000 streets summing to about 60 miles in length if put all together. The streets vary in width from two lane roads to 20 inches where only one person can pass at a time or else there is an uncomfortable traffic jam. Donkeys carrying loads creep out of nowhere and almost run you over because they wear rubber shoes for grip on the slippery streets instead of horseshoes. You cannot hear them coming.







We wondered through markets where we saw butchers selling camel meat advertised with a head of a dead camel waiting to be sold. We made our way to the colorful tanneries and then through tightly packed souk streets where dust, donkeys and hundreds of people made the experience claustrophobic at times. Walking through the streets waves of varying smells overwhelm you ranging from shit to sweet dates stacked beautifully in a bowl waiting to be sold. And when you’ve finally made your way out to one of the gates and left the medina you feel like your leaving some world and entering another one less intimate and (I cant think of the word now but its just a sense of being removed from others)







I think of how easy it would be to be growing up in the medina and never leave it. I am sure it has that effect on people living there. There is everything you need there, and I bet once a kid leaves the medina for the first time to travel to say Rabat or tangier they also feel as if they are traveling to a different world.

praise in chant

tonight i left my house to run an errand stepping out ,y front door into our alleyway street. I heard a rhythmic chanting coming from the main street in front of our house and turned the corner to see noone but a couple moraccans walking home, or to a cafe. i was confused and looked at the building nextdoor to where the chanting now seemed to be coming from. all the windows and doors where open and i could see the beatiful blues of the intricate tile work. I guess i live next door to a mosque. i glanced in the door as i passed only to see cubbies filled with shoes of the devote. Their chant of "ALLAH!" over and over and over again was the only sign of life in the building yet i couldnt see anyone.

I finished my errand and was walking back 20 minutes later and they were still chanting the same word "god".

ill leave it at that. dont really know what i am writing specifically but it was an interestingly beautiful moment where a building which normally is closed up and looks like every other building was protruding light.....chant....and this spirituality and i couldnt see a soul.

i didnt have the thought at the tiume but ten minutes later now its beautiful to think about. hmm

Ramadan Fasting

On Thursday night the Imams and religious authority of Morocco saw the moon and proclaimed that Ramadan would start the next day. Ramadan is a religious festival that lasts 30 days and starts in mid September. It is one of the five pillars of the Islamic religion to fast during Ramadan. The rules are fairly easy to follow; from sun up to sun down you cannot eat or drink. People are not permitted to swim because they might swallow water and it can be absorbed through the skin. Of course there are some amendments to the obligation to fast. If one is sick, to young or traveling, they are not required to fast. If it endangers your health in anyway, you are not required to fast.

I decided I wanted to see what millions of Muslims around the world experience every year by strictly following these rules for a weekend. My fast started off rough. On Thursday night I ate dinner at 9 pm. And didn’t drink enough water half forgetting what I was getting myself into. My family didn’t know I was fasting so of course they didn’t give me any tips. So, I woke up on Friday, the first day of Ramadan, and went to Arabic class. Everything was good until I walked back to the center where Ibrahim had prepared an amazing looking lunch. I was hungry and thirsty so I went out side to write some emails on the terrace. The rest of the day passed slow, walked to the cliffs on the coast and watched the sun slowly fall. Walked home for the breaking of the fast with a headache because of nonexistent blood sugar and dehydration.

The hardest part of the fast is the hour at lunch (knowing your passing up a delicious meal) and the last five minutes leading to 6:35pm, but the moment the call to break the fast comes we dig in. The meal is already on the table in the salon and the tv is on. The meal consists of eggs (hardboiled/fried) plates of eggplant, fried tomatoes/bell peppers, a bean/lentil soup, bread, fried potatoes, these English muffin with cheese and chicken in them, perhaps some pastries with meat and an assortment of sweets. There are these sweets that look like fried octopus, but in fact its sesame and honey ground up…..they are amazing.

To make the day easier families usually wake up at about 4 in the morning on weekends to eat and drink for the coming day. I found that to be the hardest part. I woke up ate these pancakes things with melted butter and sugar and loads of tee and water. And then you go straight back to bed. Talk about a killer for your health/metabolism.

Sunday night, after breaking the fast (for the last time), I went to the hamman for the first time. Hamman is the word for bath. There are male and female hammans and you walk in strip to your boxers and walk it the room. Its three long tiled rooms split by a hallway, the first room being the coolest and the farthest room being the hottest. You sit on the floor and relax for awhile let the humidity loosen you up and then you go and start scrubbing with this exfoliating glove. Its amazing how much dirt you have on your body without realizing it. Basically because of the humidity and the glove you rub an entire layer of dead skin and dirt off your body! Its amazing. And they you soap up and scrub again, rinse off and your down. The process takes about an hour and is relaxing.

Because of the dehydrated/malnourished stated I had been in for the past three days the moment I exited the hamman I became seriously faint and stumbled my way to a stall to buy some water. Crouched on the side of the street and just drank. Almost fainting was not a nice ending to the weekend, but made me realize that fasting and then going into a steam room for an hour wasn’t the smartest choice. I was just trying to do what the Moroccans do and do it how they do it. Its amazing they do this for 30 days. Its Monday today and I just had an amazing lunch!

Some thoughts on the fast: horrible for your health and metabolism. Eating fatty/sugary food and then going back to sleep! Crazy. The things they eat do not replenish the body the way it needs to be and they consume SO much sugar in their diet. My dad is a diabetic and almost every other American student knows a diabetic in his or her family.

first email to home

well the first week has passed relatively quickly. i wont say flew by, but it came and went with ease and i am settleing into my new life here in the old medina of rabat. i live on the bottom floor of an old house with my father, mother, two sister and brother. my moraccan father is a journalist that seems to be well liked and respected in the community. my mother is a private practice doctor that deals with bones mainly. My brother mohammad works the night shift as a security guard for a bank and is very quiet. i feel like other than my american friends i will have the closest relationship with my father. this saturday we spent the day watching soccer; witnessing ghana crush morocco 2-0 in a friendly and france sadly tie italy in a very high press euro 2008 qualifier match. I found it only fitting that erica's team beat mine. of course the moraccan team worked the best and hardest throughout the match but could just not finish and the two times ghana, who played with such a sloppy lazy african style, shot on goal they were flawless, effortless strikes that found the back of the net. typical. Erica 1 Aidan 0.





the first week of the program which thankfully is much more of a program than the senegal one ever could hope to be was spent trying to get through the long drawn out orientation seminars with spurts of adventure like finding a 40 foot cliff on the coast and going cliff jumping with local kids and waking up early in the morning to surf with Alex a fellow student. so i have been cliff jumping twice already. surfing twice and my cut up feet to show for it. did catch a wave though! its coming back slowley. its not the north shore of maui but its surfing in north africa right? cant complain.





i am happy to be starting week two even though at some points i go through spells wishing the semester was almost over and i will be skiing at tamarck or watching a movie in my cave or having a big french meal with close friends/family in Dax soon, but that time will come faster than i think and the time spent up till then will make it sweeter when it finally arrives, so for now i am trying to focus on smelling the spices of the old medina as i stroll along the tight enclosed streets, at the lazy pace of the islamic life, of rabat