Hello Friends and Family! Happy almost end of the summer! THANK GOD! ;) So far I have been proud of surviving my first Moroccan Sun filled summer. The work was nearly none existent but it made time for even more fun. The main work I did was a basketball camp that I did in Floyds site with some other volunteers. As I know nothing about basketball, I was a little worried about the week long camp in 112 weather. After kinda giving up on trying to play due to lack of skills I started to focus more on helping with the logistics of meal time etc. Then in the afternoons we had swim time for the girls, which was definitely the highlight. In the beginning of the week there were about 10 girls who didn’t know how to swim and who were really scared of the water. Within just a few days the girls turned into little fishes with the help of some other swim teachers that came in. Also one girls mom came to see her swim for the first time in her life and she was 17 years old! These are the little things I focus on when I feel like my work is intangible. While there were some stressful parts of the week cause I was ill for a bit and the weather took a toll on all of us, it was a huge success and it even landed me and the other volunteers on the nightly Moroccan news! Then just 2 WEEKS later the MOST exciting thing to happen to me in all of my service occurred ;) I got my very FIRST AMERICAN VISITOR! Not just a visitor but my best friend Reena! On a hot Moroccan Wednesday I started my 14 hour trek to the airport in absolute excitement! It had been over 10 months since I had seen a familiar face or anyone I had known pre-peace corps… as I waited in the airport for her, I watched Moroccan families reunite for a little too long, lol I started to cry thinking about what that moment would be for me in just a few months when I go home for Christmas. One woman grabbed her grown son and they both hugged and sobbed, it took everything I had not to go over and join in just to enjoy the sincere, pure love of a mother and while I write this I am tearing up waiting for that same moment with my own beautiful family, but when it happens it will feel even better after the wait! Anyway back to Reena, so she came out of the terminal and after a good long hug we both just stood for a minute waiting for reality to soak in. Then we were off and our Moroccan adventure began! The first thing we did was get on a train headed to Rabat where we went to the American Embassy’s Restaurant for lunch. We immediately fell back into the friendship I left 10 months ago and my level of joy shot through the roof. After a few drinks we did some sight seeing and went to a really pretty garden and souk, found our hotel and then headed to the T.G.I.Fridays….can you believe it? It opened only a week ago and it is STRAIGHT out of America and I will have you know it is the ONLY place in Morocco with free refills of fountain diet coke! It was amazing! And it was definitely the start of a week of constant eating. J After a short stay in Rabat we were headed onto our true Moroccan experience! As all of you know my best friend in country is Loubana and she lives in Bouarfa with her extended family, so I have never met her immediate family. We set off to her home town near Rabat and we had no idea how great it would be! The train stopped, mind you in the middle of nowhere, not a station in sight but my Moroccan train companions assured me it was my stop. So we jumped off and a minute later were greeted by Lubs and her sister. We started off on a trek to Loubna’s house and after lugging our bags through a field, we waited for a while for a horse carriage on the main road. I suggested we start walking so we could not just stand, wasting time, ofcourse a horse carriage would come by any minute…Well 10 more minutes into the walk, there was no horse in sight and the heat seemed to worsen with every step. I can assure you, this 20 minute walk was undoubtedly the hottest I have ever been in my life. The sun felt like it was shining through my soul and out the other end. About 10 minutes in we were all exhausted and our only options were stopping for a popsicle or dying on the side of the road. We chose the first of the two and then walked the rest of the way in complete angst. And for the rest of the day the topic of disscusion was how ‘kristin said we should walk instead of getting a horse’ lol. We were greeted by anxious family members, and 2 new pairs of Moroccan pajamas (as it was simply too hot for real clothes.) Minutes later we were eating Reena’s very first cous cous! And it was my very favorite kind…onions, raisins, chicken, sugar and cinnamon. It was absolutely delicious! It was followed by too much watermelon and cactus fruit! After a rest and some more family visitors, we were all packed up and ready to go camping! Because of the extreme heat, we went up to the mountains to stay in Loubna’s uncle’s house. This journey included a horse carriage and a bus and a small feat, hiked up several steep areas up a mountain to the house. As it turns out this was just the first house they owned, and this wasn’t even the HIGH house! We spent a night there with about 15 family members and we didn’t eat dinner until 2am! (Side note this was the day my sister called me to tell me she was pregnant and I screamed in the middle of the market!) After sleeping on the roof for a few hours, we were woken early to avoid the sun for the rest of our hike up the mountain. Much to our surprise, there were two donkeys waiting in the living room to assist our trek. We hiked our little hearts out and I felt like a wimp compared to the 70 year old uncle who was running past me. Finally we made it and through all the olive trees, almond trees and other brush only to make it to a quant little house complete with a tree swing and lots of kittens! We laid under a tree in the shade on a blanket and napped on and off for hours. Loubna’s mom personally fanned the flies off of us. We were awoken for a snack and hot tea and then a giant picnic lunch. After a personal tour of the farm lands, we started our descent and our return to Loubna’s real house. We spent the evening braiding hair, painting our nails and getting Henna. It was a great way to integrate Reena in such a short amount of time. The next morning we set off to our next destination which was a 9 hour train ride away and our good bye was complete with Loubna’s grandma crying and begging us to come back one day. Side note: The family was so touched by our visit, Uncle Hamid said ‘If only we had more time we would slaughter a sheep for you gals.’ (Which would normally only happen if we had just been born lol) well you can imagine Reena’s face when I translated this for her, she has been a vegetarian for about 15 years and she quickly responded ‘A cup of mint tea will do just fine’ We laughed for days about this little cultural experience. We arrived in our next town Oujda just in time to grab a small hotel for a badly needed night of sleep. They next day we ‘upgraded’ to a really nice hotel in attempts to spoil ourselves but it turned out to be dirty and poorly run so the next day we returned to our cheap clean hotel. To fully enjoy the tourist end of Morocco our favorite past time became Hotel Lobby Hopping, we went in the lobby of every nice hotel in that town. Sat, sucked up the air conditioning and I even got my hands on an English newspaper! Then much to our surprise we got a personal tour of a brand new 5 star hotel! Im not sure if they thought we were some one important or what but it was fabulous, we even got to see a suite that costs 5000 Dirhams a night which is more than 2 months living allowance for me. The next day we returned for MESSAGES! We were the first customers ever to use the spa and it was the best 30 minutes of my Moroccan life ;) The rest of our time spent in Oujda was just souvenir shopping and relaxing. Finally we got on ANOTHER bus and headed to the dirty south to go to my house! I was very excited for Reena to see what my real life was like, as I don’t usually stay in nice hotels or get messaged. We sat around sweating, watching bad tv on my new computer (thank you sooo much Donald!) and Reena cooked all my favorite Trini foods I was missing from our days in college. It was quite relaxing and we were even lucky enough to go to part of a wedding and visit two of my closest families. After I packed up for camp and closed up my house for the month I would be missing, we got on a bus (Surprise surprise) and went to Floyd’s site where we spent most of our time swimming and having a get together with some fellow volunteers. Then we got on a night bus to head to Casablanca where it all began. We had plans for an actual nice hotel this time so we could end our trip in style. We ate lots of delicious food (Pizza hut! Omg), visited a famous Mosque and just visited for what would be our last night. L One more bottle of wine and my best friend would be on her way back to the mother land. While I was very sad, I knew the next day I would be at camp with other Americans to distract me for a while. I took Reena to the airport and sent her on her way. I can barely explain how amazing it was to see Morocco through the eyes of a new American again, she brought me back to where I was months ago and she questioned all the things I have come to accept as ‘normal’. I felt very good about my Arabic and it was really fun to show off my new ‘home’, Morocco.
I love you all sooo much and I hope your summers are winding down nicely! I hope to talk to you soon! I will let you know the exacts date of my American return soon.
Miss you!!!!!!!!
xoxo
k
soon!LOVE YOU! XOXO KRIS
soon!LOVE YOU! XOXO KRIS
