Medina Excursion

Today after tea I went back to the Medina with 3 other wonderful girls, Erin from New Orleans, Alex from Connecticut, and Kimberly from Austin. They're all really fun, sweet people so when I heard they were going I thought...should I stay in for the rest of the night or go venture out again. And of course, I decided to join them at the Medina. I was the only one that had been before so I was sort of the tour guide. Of course this isn't always the best idea, especially since I've only been here one day. So we got on the bus and I made us get off like 2 stops early and we walked an extra half mile but no biggie...they didn't complain.

So I took more pictures of the Medina and we wandered a bit off the main path which was really nice because it was nice and quiet as we walked through the narrow, deserted streets. The pictures of the water are outside the Medina where I took pictures yesterday, but again we did a bit more exploring. We walked along the water and boys were doing cannon balls of the deck, just having fun. We then ate at a restaurant on the water and we each got pizza only 5 dollars each and so big that we could only eat half. We of course couldn't resist getting some gelato and then hailed 2 cabs. You can only have 3 in a cab at most as they are teeny tiny....

Now I don't know if you know this but apparently Morocco/Rabat (I'm not sure which exactly) has the 2nd highest car accident rate in the world. Ha. No surprise. While there are lane lines on the roads there may as well not be as ALL of the drivers disregard them. It's similar to Italy. But our driver kind of crossed the line from "crazy cab driver" to a "this is how you're going to die death cab driver". (And I forgot to mention that there are no seatbelts in these cars....that's right no seatbelts in the death cabs). While approaching a long line of cars at a red light, he decided to switch lanes into the oncoming traffic and drive to the front of the line, which by the time he got there the light turned green. Erin and I were in the back holding on for dear life with our eyes closed in absolute disbelief/fear. Luckily, we made it home in one piece, not a scratch on the death cab.

Below are some pictures from this second excursion to the Medina :)

salaamu xalaykum

Salaamu xalaykum literally means "peace be with you" but is the Arabic way of saying "Hello". One of the many words I learned in my language lesson yesterday afternoon. Arabic is such a fascinating language!

Today was my first day in the Children's Hospital. There are four volunteers including myself at the hospital but we split into twos. I was with David, Sarah and Katie were in the play center in the ward. David and I were in a play center in the new wing which was built by the foundation that works with CCS a few years ago. It was a very nice facility and the nurses were very kind.

We started out with two boys, Abdulhamid and Yunis (those are my own spellings). Then Mohammed entered...Mohammed was awesome! He was only there for 10 minutes sadly but he spoke a little English so he helped teach me words. He liked to draw and play basketball...we were a perfect match, but alas he quickly left as he doesn't have to stay overnight in the hospital and came only for X-rays. But as the day went on a few more kids came, and at most we only had about 6. Some were very shy but others were quite outgoing. Abdulhamid and I did a Ratatouille puzzle and boy was he excited when he finished. No one was allowed to put it away, he was so impressed with himself.

Yunis was a crazy child! But so so kind. He spoke no English but taught me Arabic words like dog, lion, fork, donkey, etc. I wrote most of them down so I can study them later. We played some basketball, did a lot of coloring and puzzles, and Yunis and I created battles between giraffes, a lion, and a man barbie doll. He really enjoyed taking down my lion and barbie man with his giraffes. The nurses spoke no English but were very kind and helped discipline the children. However, one kept coming in yelling and cleaning insisting that the room was a mess. I wanted to tell her that I was of course going to clean when we were done but we had no way of communicating so I helped her every time she came in.

In all it was an incredibly rewarding experience and I really look forward to these next two weeks. It was definitely tiring and I only had 6 kids...the other room had around 20! Whew...

We're now waiting for lunch to be served. Everyday at one the wonderful ladies, Fatiha and Aisha prepare our meals. The Moroccan food is unbelievably delicious! I never know what I'm eating but I try everything (everything meatless that is) and am almost always pleasantly surprised. Yesterday we had the most delicious lentil soup! They usually prepare around 6 dishes, all vegetarian friendly with the exception of one, plus fruit and bread. My favorite thing so far was some kind of chickpea + potato dish that was covered with some kind of orange sauce. We have cooking lessons on Wednesday or Thursday so I hope we learn to make that, haha. All of the volunteers that have been here for a while have said that hands down the best Moroccan food in the area is what our wonderful house cooks make. How lucky is that!

At some point I'll try to take some pictures so you can see how wonderful the food is and hopefully see the beautiful children I play with. There are different children each day so I probably won't be able to develop many relationships with the children that allow a comfort level for them to welcome pictures. We'll see though.

Rossss Can...Sting Says So

That was a shout out to all you Friends fans.

It was definitely weird seeing Sting in concert my first night in Morocco. Sadly I missed Elton John, BB King, and Santana among various other artists. Sting performed with the Moroccan National Orchestra (I think that's what it was called). It was still a fun experience. I rode in my first Moroccan taxi which was tiny and blue.



And some pictures:

The Medina

This blog post is devoted solely to the Medina. This place was unbelievable. And I didn't get many photos as it took me a while to be brave enough to walk around with my camera out. But I finally bravened up and even took a short video:



This is one of the entrances to the Medina


This was a shop with all kinds of cool lamps, cups, mirrors, etc. all beautifully handmade.


Here are just some random shots...





We walked through the entire Medina which was LONG and HOT and CROWDED. There was a claustrophobia-inducing amount of people there and you could buy anything from shoes to lanterns, to boxers, to purses, to spices, etc. Mercifully, when we got to the end and walked out there was the ocean and a wonderful breeze.





I took a lot of photos with my film camera as well but those won't be developed until we get home. I will definitely be returning to the Medina. It was a new and unforgettable experience!!!

Homestay Shots

Here are some photos of my home for 2 weeks...

Below is the patio area in our backyard

A view of one of the living areas from upstairs

And a view of our balcony off my bedroom....that's right :)

This is a shot of the main room where we hang out, eat, etc.

Home For Now...

So I have arrived at the homestay in Rabat and boy is it incredible. While I have no pictures to upload yet, hold tight...they will come soon! I just wanted to record what little I had observed so far before I forget...which wouldn't take long.

The people here are wonderful. After a not so pleasant journey via aeroplane I arrived in Casablanca with 4 other fellow volunteers this morning. I haven't slept in over 24 hours and still going strong! I have found as I have traveled that jet-lag (luckily) doesn't affect me much, I think because I'm too psyched to be in a new place. So we drove 2 hours from Casablanca to Rabat. I snagged a window seat and tried to take mental notes while staring intently out the window the whole way.

My first impressions:

First of all, you know in pictures how you see these beautiful images of bright white or pink cement(?) houses with the blue sky and green grass and yellow flowers and the colors are so saturated that it doesn't seem real? Well, I discovered today that it is in fact real, not another photoshop enhancement (atleast not all the time). Literally we drove by these small neighborhoods of rows and rows of white homes with bright red laundry hanging across the roof, and the blue sky and ocean are in the background with yellow bushes surrounding it all. It was just beautiful.
Secondly, while much of the drive down here looked relatively similar to places you'd find in the states aside from the lack of green grass and the multitudes of people trekking along the highway, there were sections of the above mentioned color-coordinated homes/scenery and also there were the blocks of rundown makeshift homes that are all connected and seem to be made of tin roofing. (That had to be some sort of terrible run-on sentence, I apologize). Now, this was somewhat expected as much of the images we see today of Africa are images of these homes. What was the real kicker was.....that every single one of these little homes (there had to be atleast 200 in each grouping) had their own satellite dishes! BIZARRO! Sadly I didn't snap a picture because I was too busy staring awestruck at the sight. Just lines of tiny square homes made of scraps with satellite dishes.

The home is wonderful and the lunch today was delicious! All things I'd never eaten before and could not even begin to explain what they actually were. The cooks live in the house with us and provide us with every meal...all traditional Moroccan cuisine. And everyday at 4pm they serve tea and desserts. YUM...That's in about 30 minutes. I'll let you know how it is later!

I believe that's all for now. Just wanted to give you a brief update....much more will come.

On the schedule: Tonight Sting is playing at the Mawazine Music Festival...it's the last night of this 2 wk long festival of international artists including Elton John, Harry Connick Jr., BB King, and all sorts of local African music. And it's FREE!

Tomorrow we have "orientation" at 9:30am and then we can peruse the city at our leisure.

Next Stop, Casablanca.

Only 2 days left before I board a plane and begin the journey of a lifetime. I leave Friday and land in Casablanca, Morocco on Saturday morning. There I will be picked up and driven to Rabat, a two-hour drive. Sunday we will have our orientation and Monday my volunteering will begin.

I spoke with Sharon again today regarding my volunteer placement. She explained my job at the Children's Hospital in a bit more detail. I will be working in the Respiratory Ward of the hospital. I will be entertaining and cheering up children that are anywhere from 5 to 14 years old. She advised me that I may have different children everyday, hopefully a result of the kids getting well enough to go home. I may have a handful of children to entertain with crafts, card games, puzzles, etc. or perhaps 10 to 15. My placement in the Children's Hospital is not structured at all and she explained that I will be in complete charge of what we will do each day. While this freedom is very exciting, it is also quite a daunting task to take on. She suggested to have a few "tricks up my sleeve" for days where the kids end my planned projects or games early or for some reason things don't workout. So the next couple of days I will be brainstorming simple games and crafts for me to do with the children.

She also mentioned that some children may feel too poorly to participate in the games and crafts in which case I can visit them individually in their rooms. This is an opportunity to get to know the mothers and families of the ill children. The hospital also has play centers for me and the other volunteers to conduct our activities each day if not in the children's individual rooms.

So, this is probably my last post until I settle in at the Homestay in Rabat. Thank you to all that have made this volunteer trip possible. I plan on updating the blog daily over these next two weeks assuming the internet connection is consistent. If not, I will certainly write everyday and post them when I can.

Maxa s-salaama.

New Workspace.

So as I have no desk I decided to build one using a sheet of wood I snagged from the dumpster since it's bigger than a normal desk. My brother, awesome/engineer that he is, did it without me even asking. He did a spectacular job beautifully executing my original vision. I am so happy and excited with the new corner of my room I had to share it. If you saw it before you know it was a trash corner that had all of my artwork from high school through college so I organized and this is the result. It's not done yet, I have to hang a light and hang more art. But the finished product will soon come.

It's nice to finally have a space for my computer other than my bed!

One Week

I leave one week from today for Rabat and I have so much to do. I did get my typhoid vaccination today as well as some essentials (travel-size toothpaste, etc.) yet I'm not even close to prepared. My goal by next Friday is to be able to know key phrases in Arabic that I will need not only to get around the area but also when I'm working with the children. Wish me luck with that...

I did have a conference call yesterday with my fellow volunteers and the fabulous Sharon who works with CCS to prepare us volunteers for our arrival. It was very informative as she told us about our daily schedules, living situations, etc. I, and two others, will be leaving for the children's hospital around 9am and returning around 12pm. They will serve us lunch at the house and then provide cultural activities including: Arabic lessons, cooking lessons of Moroccan cuisine, and culture talks about the gender roles in Morocco, Islam, etc.

I was also fortunate enough to be able to hear from 8 of the other volunteers that will be Rabat with me. Everyone sounds friendly and eager to get there and get started. There will be 30 volunteers at the homestay including myself. There we will be put 3-5 in a bedroom, ladies upstairs (there are 24 of us girls) and men downstairs (only 6!).

On the weekends many volunteers take trips to the surrounding locations of Morocco. As I'll be there only one weekend, I want to make the most of it so I plan to take a trip out to the Sahara desert where we ride camels and sleep under the stars! What an experience. I was very excited to hear that many other volunteers plan to do the same trip so we can enter the unknown together. There will be a guide ofcourse and food provided, etc. No worries, I won't have to navigate the expansive Sahara. What a task that would be.

That's it for now. More updates will come before I leave!

Milo.

My sweet puppy sleeping. I couldn't resist a picture.

A New Life

My best friend, Jessie, and I found this old table in the dumpster outside my apartment and I couldn't resist taking it, fixing it, and repurposing it. Here are some before shots.

Milo would either stand directly in front of the bench or right behind it.

I thought it was at a weird height and would rather see it as a bench so I found some fabric, covered, and stuffed it. This is the finished product:



I feel like it needs a little something else...so I should probably call it a work in progress rather than a finished product. But, the main transformation from table to bench has been accomplished. Now to push it further...

And find somewhere to put it...

History's Holgaroid

My first holgaroid...scratch that, my first successful holgaroid. Taken in April in Philly. This is the cemetary in which the great Benjamin Franklin rests. In fact, I believe this photo was taken just beside his grave. One of those moments where you feel so close to the past.

International Voluneer

I am leaving for Morocco on May 28th for 2 weeks to volunteer. For those two weeks I will document my travels. I just received my assignment for my volunteer placement while in Rabat, Morocco. I'll be working in a Children's Hospital where I will be providing activities and distractions for the children (coloring, leading arts and crafts projects, and teaching Basic English words). I'm so excited to be able to use my creativity in a way that will benefit these children in need.

The program I am volunteering with, Cross-Cultural Solutions, has programs all over the world and they house and feed the volunteers in large homes where they also provide us with cooking lessons of the local cuisine, language lessons, culture talks, etc. It's a program that allows us not only to help the local people, but also to learn about their culture and lifestyle.

CCS has a relationship with an association called Association des Amis de l'Hopital des Enfants de Rabat, which was created by a group of Moroccan women to raise funds to provide moral and financial support to the families whose children are sick. Almost half of these children must stay in the hospital for more than 2 weeks and the mothers stay with their children. At times, the hospital has a shortage of medicine, and the association also provides funding for medical costs.

So, more details will come as my departure approaches and my volunteer experience begins.

A day to remember

Yesterday I graduated from Virginia Tech. What a surreal experience. I am so thankful to have the incredibly supportive parents that I have. They have not ceased to push me to do my best and love me through it all. They continue to support my goals and dreams as silly or impractical as they may seem. And all that doesn't just go for my parents, my entire family has always been there for me. And I wouldn't have made it to this point without each of them.

As the coming years will bring adventure, inspirations, and projects I decided to keep a blog documenting this next stage of my life. I'm excited and scared to see what it will bring.