Craft Fair Frenzy

The final two Marche Maroc's (Peace Corps sponsored craft fairs) took place over the past month and our coop attended both with much success.

The first was in late April and took place in Fes. I let Rabha know in advance that I wouldn't be riding the bus with her to Fes ( I normally accompany her to all the fairs) as I wanted to encourage her independence as much as possible. The grant for this fair provided transportation and hotel costs for two women from the coop, so she wasn't exactly traveling solo. The other lady that went with Rabha is also called Rabha. Rabha and Rabha both made it to Fes and I was there to greet them and show them the way to the hotel. 

Volunteer travel and hotel isn't covered by the grant and so to save a bit of money, I stayed in Sefrou at Jo's house. Sefrou is 30 mintues outside of Fes and only a 10 dirham cab ride away. In the past, I have always been at the fair in the morning to help set up our display, but seeing as the ladies will be doing this without me soon, I kept my presence to a minimum as I wanted to make sure they could do it with no hiccups, while I'm still here to help if there were any. They were fine and did an excellent job each day.

I was house cook in Sefrou...Shepherd's Pie for 8

Damage Done

Just a short hike from Sefrou 

Our sales were below average, but not too bad. More importantly, we secured a very exciting display are in Cafe Clock for the future. Jo organized this fair and managed to get the support of Mike, the owner of famed restaurant, Cafe Clock. Cafe Clock is in the Fes medina and is a must-go-to for tourists. It's listed in every guide book and on every travel website. Clever girl that Jo is, she managed to get Mike to donate a room in Cafe Clock for a showroom of samples of the craft fair products. This opened a few days before the fair and was manned by Peace Corps Volunteers who sold the samples and gave directions/marketing material to tourists who entered the restaurant. 

On the final day of the craft fair, I went by the showroom to collect the products we hadn't sold. My timing was lucky as Mike was in the showroom when I got there. After introducing myself, I asked if he would be interested in displaying a few of our carpets. Excitingly, he offered up an entire room in the restaurant for the coop to display its carpets. We agreed that he would sell them on commission and that I would create a storyboard about the women and their work in Tounfite. Seeing as we were headed to Rabat for the final fair, I asked if it would be okay for us to come back by after Rabat with our display. He agreed and that was that. 

Both Rabha's were very excited with the news and personally I was ecstatic :) This is exactly the collaboration we needed, an in-country sales outlet that Rabha can manage herself. 

Flyering for the fair Moroccan style...

Dinner in Fes

Our new messenger bags!

Ruth (who is a Brit too!) modeling our new bags

Rabha & Rabha 

Rabha at breakfast

Tariq (SBD program manager), Rabha, Yanyi & Jo (pcv fair organizers) 

Artisan Certificate Time

Crowded beach in Rabat

With big smiles, we headed on to the Rabat fair. I had Rabha travel alone to this fair, which was a step more complicated as I didn't greet her at the station. I told her to take a petit taxi to the hotel, which she did with no problems. Not all artisans are as capable as Rabha. In fact, I had to go to the bus station the next morning to pick up Marisa's ladies (Marisa was seeing her sisters off in Casablanca). They were so timid, they literally stepped of the bus and didn't know what to do next so they stayed put next to bus for an hour and a half while I searched the waiting area of the bus station, unable to find them! Shwiya b shwiya (Little by little).

This fair was a little different as it was held at the American Club. The American Club  is a US passport secure restaurant and garden area for Americans in Morocco. Most attendees were Embassy workers headed home for a visit and in the market for gifts. This was the best fair ever for us. We sold ALL of our stock! Incredible. 

Incredible, but with one small problem...no stock to bring to Cafe Clock on our way back! Mike was gracious and agreed to hold our display room and I've promised him a delivery in the beginning of June. He was just as pleased as we were that we sold all the stock, as it proves we will be good business for him in the future. 

The ladies are hard at work resupplying our stock and Rabha and I will be making a trip to Fes in the near future. I've already told her she will be doing all the talking (Mike is British, but his employees will translate for us) as this is her coop and her responsibility. I can tell she is nervous, but I will be there to work out any issues so it will be just fine, en challa (God-willing). 

Closing/Certificate Ceremony at the American Club

Ambassador Kaplan, his wife and our Country Director Peggy, with Marisa's artisan

Ambassador Kaplan, his wife and Rabha

Until next time,

Miriam x

The Incredible Edible Cheesecake

Mmmmmm...Cheesecake. If you know me, you know that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I'd much rather do dinner all over again, or a big stinky cheese board.  I guess that is one of the ways in which the great Kingdom of Morocco has changed me.

I’m pretty sure that it all boils down to (no pun intended) the five million cups of sweet green tea I’ve consumed over the past nineteen months. Thanks to those five million glasses of sugary goodness, I now get random cravings for something sweet. And crunchy, the lack of texture to food here (everything is pressure cooked to the consistency of baby food here) leaves me pining for some kind of crunch when I eat. And salads, and broccoli…mmm yes, there is lots of eating to be done when I depart this country.

Back to the cheesecake, some time before the day camp we put on, I stopped by my host family’s house for tea. While sipping on that sweet green tea, Baha produced a magazine turned to the page of a picture of a giant pumpkin cheesecake. And as the culture is here, she didn’t come straight out and ask me to make the cheesecake, instead she asked me to translate the recipe (the magazine was an old issue of Country Living or something like that, left behind from a previous volunteer, for Yassmine to enjoy the pictures) knowing full well that I would offer to make the cheesecake with them.

And so on my next trip to the (not so really) big city of Midelt, I purchased the items necessary to make the cheesecake. I made an executive decision though. If I was to make a cheesecake, it would be much filthier than pumpkin flavored. Chocolate-cookie-crust with a coffee-cream-filling. Yep, that ought to do the trick.

The afternoon before the day camp, I returned to my host family’s to make the cheesecake. Before the kitchen action took place, I explained the condition of making the cheesecake. We would bake it that afternoon, but it wasn’t to be eaten until the following afternoon, when I returned from the day camp. 

Jokester that she is, Mamksu giggled her way through telling me, “mashi mushkilinu mish shan agadar addiddu jaj n tellaja d additsh shwiya” which translates to, “it’s not my problem if a mouse goes in the refrigerator and eats a little.” To which I playfully responded, “mish shan agadar additsh l’helwa qbl adaydugh nk adbbi affuss n agadar taxatar” which made us both laugh even harder. I told her that “if a mouse eats some of the cake before I return, I will cut the hands off of this big mouse.”

Alas, the cheesecake was fully intact upon return. Max and Patrick joined me that evening and together with my host family we celebrated the day camp’s success by devouring that chocolate-cookie-crust cheesecake with a coffee-cream-filling in its entirety.

Mmmm Mmmm Good. 

Electric Sunset Leaving Mamaksu's

Miriam x


P.S. There were lots of pictures to accompany this post, but my computer crashed as I was writing this entry and all of my pictures were lost. :( BooHoo. 

The Hoax Wedding

Every year a group student nurses come from Canada, with their professor to expand their studies, volunteer and get a taste of Morocco. They stay in Midelt, which is just a couple hours from me, for two weeks. This year the group consisted of four young women and every year as part of the experience, a Moroccan wedding takes place. Seeing as there were no male prospects for the role of the groom this year, Bill the Peace Corps volunteer in Midelt was asked to be the groom.

I was on FaceBook when he was asked and so I was the first person to know that he would be taking part in this staged wedding. When he told me he was getting married, I typed a message to another volunteer, Jo, who was also on Facebook at the time. I started by saying, "Bill is getting married" and had full intentions of expanding and explaining the situation, but when she assumed it was a real wedding, I let the fun begin.

Bill knew that Jo thought is was going to be a real wedding and together we decided that we would see just how far the rumor would fly. It was shortly before April Fools Day and I thought we would hold it up until then, but Bill suggested we that we wait until Marche Maroc in Fes at the end of the month, to tell everyone the truth.

I attended the "wedding" which took place at the new weaving school in Boumia, which Bill helped to set up. All the students at the school came to the "wedding" along with a few of Bill's friends from Midelt.   It was pretty entertaining watching the whole thing and a real effort was made to show the Canadians every aspect of a Moroccan wedding.

Bill and the Bride emerged from one of the classrooms in full costume. Bill in a jellaba and cape, the bride in a fancy kaftan (fancy jellaba). As they emerged, the drums and singing began and for about an hour they were stood in the center of a crowd as we all sang, clapped and danced around them. When they were finally seated a plate covered in henna leaves topped with four dates and three candles appeared. The dates were a representation of how many sons they would have and the candles, girls.

Next a platter of dates and warm milk arrived and they linked arms to feed each other the dates and to take sips of the warm milk. We were all served lots of tea and cookies and henna was put on the hands of any ladies who wanted it.

Once word got out to other volunteers that I had attended Bill's wedding to his Canadian sweetheart, I received many calls and messages from inquiring minds who were surprised to hear that Bill had been wed...and did Peace Corps know about it.

The truth came out in Fes that the wedding was a hoax...I guess I got them pretty good!

Miriam x

Me and the Bride & Groom

Wedding Guests

Henna Hands

World's Cutest Baby. Ever.

Rabha, Me, Hayat, Bill and the Canadians

Spring Camp and Snow...that's right MORE snow

Um, first things first, I would like to rescind my precious claim that Spring is finally here...this is what I woke up to yesterday. 

Ugh. Puuuhhlease. Goaway. Thankyou.

Luckily, the weather was decent enough last Tuesday and the Spring Break Day Camp we had planned for Agoudim that day was able to take place. You may recall that Agoudim is 40 kilometers or so up the mountain from me and is Moses' site. He finishes his service next week, boohoo for me and congratulations to him. 

He wanted to give the children in his village an opportunity to attend a camp as there is no youth club in his remote little village and so the kids are not given many (if any) opportunities to attend camps, like the kids in the larger towns are. Even Toon Town's youth are deprived of this opportunity as while there is a youth center, the mudir (person in charge) came from Rabat and lasted all of a week in her new role as mudir, before deciding she didn't like Toon Town and returned to Rabat. She still collects a nice cushy paycheck from the comfort of her zwin (fancy) home in Rabat, but the door to the Dar Chebab (literal translation: House of Youth) remains locked and the youth hang out in the street instead. Shame. 

Back to the day camp. Max and Patrick also came from their sites to help out for the day. They spent the night at my place the evening before and then we all took a transit van up the mountain in the morning. When we got to Agoudim, we picked up Moses and the first lot of kids. Moses created a permission slip which had to be signed and turned in the week before in order to allocate a place in the camp for the kids. Some kids, never got their slip signed and due to funding and chaperone restrictions we had to drive off leaving some kids behind, crocodile tears streaming down their cheeks. It was sad, but had to be done. Meskin (poor things). 

Our second stop was a neighboring duar (village), where more crocodile tears were shed, whilst the children who had signed permission slips climbed aboard. And by climbed aboard, I mean climbed aboard...only in Morocco would kids transport to Spring Camp look like this...

Would you sign the permission slip?

Once we had all 43 children, we headed a few kilometers back down the mountain to a small field which neighbors a natural spring and was the designated Spring Camp location. The local muqquadem (sheriff of the small duars) stopped by to reinforce that the children were not allowed to swim in the spring. Apparently a few children die each year, thinking that they know how to swim, but really don't know how. 

We started the day out by dividing the children into four groups. I was in charge of marking their hands with a permanent marker so that we could easily identify which team they belonged to. 'Flowers', 'smiley face', 'hearts' and 'team X' were the categories. I was assigned to team 'hearts'. 

Once marked, we began the games. First up, the egg and spoon race, which we won. I may have accidentally told them to use their thumbs to make sure the egg didn't fall off...yeah, yeah, cheater, cheater...hey we won, didn't we?

Egg & Spoon

Next up, the sack race. This resulted in a lot of children falling over and was pretty entertaining. As many times as we demonstrated 'hopping' rather than trying to run in the sack, there were still a few who tried to run...hence a lot of falling over.

Getting in their sacks 

Fall #1 Patrick to the rescue

Cheering Squad

More games followed...

 Three-Legged Race

 Red Light-Green Light

Duck Duck Goose

Lunch was a stew of chicken, potatoes, onions, peppers and carrots and was eaten from a communal plate using bread. Moses' host mom, Mina and her friend prepared the food and cooked it over an open fire...we fed the children in rotation, on two small round tables. 

 Kitchen

 Mina & Hussa 

Mina's Friend 

Chef's taking a tea break

Mina's Chicken Surprise 

While the children took turns having lunch, Max and I supervised the natural spring. There were some "big kids" from the nearby duar who were swimming (the water was arctic and I'm sure they must have been freezing) and of course all the campers wanted to watch. 

Taking an Arctic dip in the natural spring

Campers 

A few members of team 'Hearts' 

After lunch we headed back to the field, to find the water level of the river had risen and we had to find logs to make a makeshift bridge. As you can see, the children just kicked their socks and shoes off and walked through the water...but I didn't want icy cold wet feet and waited for the guys to make a bridge.

 Moses building a bridge

Children crossing the river

Afternoon activities were educational games. We started with a lesson on toothbrushing. Followed by a toothbrushing 'competition'. Each team chose one child to compete and then we ranked them out of ten on how well they did. I chose the smallest girl in my group...she was adorable and deserved nothing but a ten out of ten! Our team cheered her on as she brushed away and she was so excited to win the competition. 

Moses demonstrating the correct way to brush your teeth 

Little Miss Sunshine 

 Brushing Away

Her team cheering her on

We also played a game called 'Secret' also known as 'Telephone' where the children sit in a circle and we whisper a secret into one child's ear and they pass the message along by whispering it into the next person's ear, until it gets back to the original child. The goal is to have the same message by the end. 

We whispered things like 'brush your teeth three times a day' 'wash your hands after you use the toilet and before you eat' and other good health related practices. Mind you, the children don't speak English so the secrets actually sounded like this, "sird tuggamas shrad n tkkal kuyyas" "sird uffasin dart l'bitlma awd kabul tuchit l'makla"...it should also be noted that all day long, every time I spoke to another volunteer in English, a surround sound echo of "mrach ksla shba" or some other jibberish sounding noises came from the mouths of all children in ear's reach as they mimicked me and then fell into a fit of giggles!

We finished up by handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste to all the campers along with a pack of coloring pencils and a coloring book. The kids had a fantastic time and I hope it was a day they will remember for a long time. I know I will. 

Much Love,

Miriam x

Two straight weeks of Rain Rain Rain...

Me, Raja and Mama

After a long wait, Spring is finally here. The house has already warmed up a tiny bit inside, which means a small fire early in the evening is all that is necessary to keep my room warm for the rest of the night. But, while warmer weather slowly arrives, the rain does too, which means it is more like mud season. My morning runs are impossible for the moment, with the paths full of mud and street full of puddles.

I'm the only one here disturbed by the rain though. Everyone else has been praying for it...across the whole of Morocco. A long drought has hurt the agricultural produce and the farmers (which Morocco depends upon) are hurting. Their prayers have been answered, but damage has still been done. And rain isn't the only thing falling from the sky, it hailed practically every afternoon this past week. Ugh!

My landlady recently invited me to spend the night at her house. While I prefer to sleep in my own bed and on my own schedule, I just couldn't say no. She explained that her husband, MBarsh and her son, Omar would be going on an overnight trip to Fes to sell all their animal hides (they are our local butchers) to the tanneries in Fes. And since it would be just her and her daughter, Raja she insisted that I join them for the evening.

She told me to come over around 9pm and that we would have dinner, play cards and then sleep. Dinner was interesting...not in a 'guess what organ you're eating' kind of way, but more, 'is this really dinner' kind of way. Cold corn cous-cous with fresh buttermilk and equal measurements of sugar to cous-cous. Hmmmm...I don't really care for buttermilk, especially since it is homemade and unpasteurized which means you risk getting tuberculosis, but buttermilk with cous-cous and heaps and heaps of sugar was all a bit much, especially before bed. I was polite as always and ate all that was put in front of me, but I hope I don't ever have to eat that again...I'd much rather play 'guess the organ your eating'!

After a few card games, which is always a good time, mainly because my landlady is a ruthless cheater and isn't very good at hiding it and it was time for bed. I was told I would sleep next to the wall, with Raja next to me and then my landlady on the the other side of Raja. A million blankets were brought out and stacked up as a makeshift bed on the floor and we all crawled somewhere into the middle of them. A couple minutes after the lights had been out, I heard this squeaking near my head...it got louder and louder and I finally couldn't deny it any longer, I was sure a mouse was about to crawl into my hair! I woke Mama and Raja and asked them to turn the lights on. I told them I could hear something near my head and was pretty surprised that they had not woken from the noise too.

Mama and I pulled the blankets back and low and behold three inches from my head, there was a rather large hole in the corner of the wall. Mama laughed her head off and so did Raja, they told me not to be scared, to which I replied that I wasn't scared, but I wouldn't be able to sleep there knowing that a mouse might run out of it's house and directly onto me.

Mama then thought she would solve the issue by stuffing the hole with a plastic bag. I tried to explain that the mouse would either move the bag or eat its way through it, but Mama wasn't having any of it, she was sure that the mouse was now stuck in its hole. I apologized and explained that I wasn't going to be able to sleep with my head next to the hole and too be honest I was pretty embarrassed as I think they thought I was terrified of the mouse, which to be clear, I am not scared of mice. I just don't like the thought of knowing that it might crawl on me while I am sleeping, plus it was making an awful lot of noise and I'd never have been able to fall asleep with all the racket it was making.

Mama laughed at me...a lot. Then she helped me move places to the other side of the room. Right, time for bed. The lights went out for the second time and off we went to sleep...that is until I then realised that I was now lying in the exact spot where Bahalu (grandfather) had passed away, just a month or so before...

I finally fell asleep after counting backwards from one hundred a million times, trying to not to think about the mouse or Bahalu. And then the mouse found the plastic barrier inserted in its door and began to eat its way through the barrier. I still don't know how Mama and Raja slept through that. It seriously woke me up from the other side of the room.

Needless to say, it wasn't exactly a good nights rest, but I guess it made a pretty good story!

Waiting for the cows to come home...

The cows...coming home

I've accompanied my landlady, Mama, a few times now on her daily trip to the foothills to collect her cows. Basically, she goes to the foothills (five minute walk from our homes) around 5pm everyday and waits for the cows to come out of the mountains. There are 200 cows in Toon Town and each family pays the same lady 50 dirhams a month to accompany the cows into the mountains each morning and bring them back every evening. Sometimes we wait five minutes for the cows to appear and other times it takes over an hour. It's kind of funny watching 200 cows come tumbling over the mountain and even funnier as we herd them back to the house. The cows know where they live, but the occasional, "How How How" is necessary to keep them moving.

Temporary restaurants on souk (market) day in Toon Town 

Toon Town

Cafe Owner, Dris and Me 

Preschool in Toon Town (that is the Tifinagh (Berber) Alphabet)

Souk (Market) Day in Toon Town