Spring has finally Sprung!

Here are just a few pictures I took while on my morning walk...Hooray for Sunshine!

Also, a couple pics of the fab Henna I had done before I went to England. Such a quick trip, but so happy to see everyone-Thank you all for spoiling me xXx

Also, I have created an album on FaceBook showcasing my Cooperatives carpets.

Please view the album here: Cooperative Charouk

I would really really appreciate any and all feedback you may have regarding the carpets. 

The Rose Festival

Rebha, Me and the Ladies of Hdida's Association
View from the Association building

On Thursday, Rebha and I headed down South to Kelaat Mgouna for the Rose Festival. It was a 10 hour bus ride from Tounfite and another hour up into the mountains to Hdida, which is Marisa's site and where we stayed. I stayed with Marisa and Rebha stayed with Marisa's host family. Hdida is absolutely gorgeous, I kid you not when I say Marisa hit the jackpot with her site placement. She is one lucky girl...

The village itself is situated in the red sandy/rocky mountains and overlooks a small lush green valley and river. The lush green valley is actually fields where the women work everyday. It was like stepping into a fairytale walking through those fields. As you walk through the narrow winding paths of the fields, all you can do is gawk at the sights, smells and noise around you. Wheat grows in each of the small fields and rose bushes (hundreds and hundreds of them) make the borders between the different family's fields. Along with fig, pomegranate, almond and walnut trees over your head, oh and grapes everywhere too. All you can hear is the babble of the brooks as they flow into the river, song birds singing and frogs croaking. It's such an amazing place, words don't do it justice, neither do the pictures for that matter. 

Most of the homes in the village are family compounds, so one door opens into a courtyard and family and extended family all live in the same compound. Every home smells of roses as the women go into the fields to pick roses twice a day, leaving them out in the courtyard to dry. They make rose water, lotion, and perfume along with potpourri from the roses. 

Unlike my co-op, the association Marisa works with have a physical building. It's practical for them to have one as they are on a tourist road so on occasion tourists make there way into the association and buy the Rose products and carpets/bags that the women weave. The day Rebha and I visited the association there were about ten french tourists having a look around. Rebha, business lady that she is, pulled out some of our older products that she happened to have on her (coin purses) and ended up selling one to them. 

Each day, we made our way down the mountain and into Kelaat Mgouna to the festival. We were given a large tent to display our carpets, so each morning we set our display up. We sold three of our smaller carpets and one large carpet, which was about half of our normal sales. This was not a Peace Corps sponsored event though, so we were happy with the results. There was a Peace Corps sponsored Marche Maroc Craft Fair in Rabat that weekend too, but we intentionally went to the Rose Festival for sustainability purposes. That being said, Rebha made me so proud the second day-she is a pretty timid person and doesn't talk to many strangers, but with a little encouragement, she networked with the president's of a few different co-op's and ended up with an invitation to another non-Peace Corps sponsored fair in Tinghir in July. Yeah! Go Rebha!! I couldn't have been happier!

Sustainability is my main focus with the Co-op, seeing as the Small Business Development program in Morocco has been cancelled for the future. Knowing they will be all on their own after I leave, I want to get them up and selling, and enshalla, exporting all on their own before I finish my service. 

We enjoyed Hdida so much that we ended up staying an extra day, which was nice after a hectic craft fair filled weekend. Rebha has made friends with the women of Hdida and can't wait to return...hopefully we will go back in July for Marisa's host sisters wedding. The weddings in Hdida are pretty famous around Morocco, and so Kabira, Marisa's host mom, dressed Rebha up in a wedding outfit and we took pictures (as they do for the real weddings) amongst the rose bushes and around Hdida. You couldn't have wiped the ear to ear grin off of Rebha's face! After the photo session, one of the lady's from the association Henna'd Rebha and Marisa's hands. I really wanted to have Henna as well, but forced myself not to as I want fresh Henna for London :) 

The women wouldn't let us leave empty handed and gave us two bags stuffed with rose water, potpouri, fresh almonds, dried figs and spices all from the fields. I'm telling you, it was an amazing trip! 

After and exhausting eleven hour bus ride yesterday, we arrived back in site where it was drizzling with rain and has continued to do so all day today! Seriously, it must be monsoon season here. 

I'm off to London for a verrry quick visit in few days and am very very excited about it :) 

There are a few pictures from the Rose Festival on here, but for the full ShaBang head to my FaceBook page!

Much Love xXx

Oh Hdida!

Fig/Pomegranate/Almond/Walnut Trees
Rose Bushes and Wheat

Field & Mountains of Hdida

Kabira (Marisa's mom) and Rebha (in traditional wedding attire) 

Quick Update

Hi there!

Just a few quick updates...

Khenifra
Rebha (my counterpart) and I traveled to Khenifra recently for a double meeting. The first meeting was with the Delegate from the Ministry of Artisana to discuss the financial matters of the Co-op. I'd heard of other new Co-op's getting money from the Ministry and wondered what this was all about..So with some translation, I was able to find out we can write a grant proposal to the Delegate requesting some initial start-up funds. So that's on the 'to-do' list...The second meeting was with Marcia's artisans who are officially an Association and are looking into becoming a Cooperative, so Rebha went to talk to them about the Pro's of becoming a Cooperative. It was a good experience for her, acting as a leader and giving a little speech.

While in Khenifra (the same town I was in for Spring Camp), I stayed with some friends of Rebha's. Turns out they are her new friends that she made a couple months ago, when she began being a distributor for Forever Living Products (an American initiated Pyramid Scheme of a company selling Vitamin C and Aloe Vera products along with various other bath and beauty products). I am not such a big fan of her involvement with FLP and wasn't ecstatic to spend 36 hours with 6 of the higher up's in the Company. I not only had to sample the products (which are overpriced and marketed as medicine, even though they are far from it-in fact they even try to claim that the Vitamin C products cure cancer!) but I also had to do a lot of polite smiling and declining as they continuously tried to get me to convert to Islam again and again and again. Rebha was actually really cute when she chimed into the attempted converions, she sweetly let me know that 'not all Muslims are terrorists, they don't all blow themselves up'...ah bless. I was also verbally harassed about why I wasn't married yet and they tried to get me to marry one of the Moroccan men in the room...sigh, all in a days work.


Goodbye's & Hello's
Dan and Eric both completed their service on April 27th, so I'm all by myself here in site for the next month. It's kind of quiet without them around...

Only Dan is getting replaced, so on the 28th of this month Emma, the new health volunteer, will arrive. Yay! She came for a site visit last week so I've already met her. She is 23 and from Long Island, NY. Hopefully we will get along well as we will be spending the next 18 months together!

Royal Wedding Celebration
Oh my Goodness!!! :) How beautiful was the Royal Wedding??!! I had a little celebration here at my house for the occasion.

We watched the Wedding and I made all kinds of British food:
Bubble & Squeak, Steak and Gravy
Raisin and Orange Scones
Cucumber & Cheese Sandwiches
Honey Dew Melon Fruit Salad
Pumpkin Cake
Shepherd's Pie
Lemon Bars

I pretty much spent the whole day in the kitchen, but there was a computer set up in there with the Wedding on...

It was so funny when Moses showed up on the day with two British guys he'd met in his village. Moses' site is further up into the mountain, very small and never has tourists. These two (father and son) were from Bristol, England, but living in Spain and were traveling around Morocco. They just happened to stop in Moses' site to take their bicycles out the back of their truck and go for a ride. They ended up with an entourage of children whom they let some of ride their bikes. Well, the kids took off with the bikes, but luckily the people in the village knocked on Moses door to translate and the bikes were found. Moses brought them down the mountain for the Royal Wedding celebration and they had scones and a cuppa tea and went on their merry way.

Marrakesh Bombing and Osamas' Death
We have all been told not to comment on our blogs or FaceBook about Osama's death, so I'm not going to say anything here...

The bombing in Marrakesh was awful and is unnerving for all of us here, nobody wants to be evacuated and sent home...

As for security, we are constantly receiving updates from our Country Director, Peggy and are mainly being told to keep a low profile, not to gather in large groups, or go to bigger cities, etc...

Work
Rebha and I are heading down to Kelaat Mgouna this weekend for the Rose Festival. Enshalla, we will sell some carpets while there! I'm staying with Marisa and Rebha is staying with Marisa's counterpart, should be a good time had by all.

and Rain...
Two weeks ago, I was getting lots of nice sun while reading on my roof...but that didn't last long and apparently it's monsoon season here! One day last week it was raining and snowing at the same time for 3 hours.

It's been raining for 5 days straight now and my site is an absolute mud chute!! I couldn't take being in the house any longer and went for my power walk in the rain today...ah well, at least it will be nice hot summer weather while I'm down South this weekend!

That's it for now xXx

Raining & Snowing 

Stepping out of my front door...into a muddy river!