Emily & Jon in Morocco

Learning Moroccan Embroidery

2011-04-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Please note that this post was originally published on my new site, zween.wordpress.com. For more news about what I've been up to post Peace Corps, please visit me there. Enjoy!

This May I will be teaching an embroidery class at Crafty Goodness. In the class, I will introduce a very unique and traditional style of embroidery known in Morocco as "Fesi," after the well-know city of Fez (or Fes, as it is spelled in Morocco). One of the things that makes Fesi so unique is that it is completely reversible! So, as part of the class, we will be making greeting cards, thus accentuating this wonderful aspect of the embroidery. To sign up for the class click here. (more details to follow at end of post).

Now for a little background as to how I came to learn this technique. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco (2008-2010), I was assigned to work with a women's handicraft cooperative and though the women are very talented, they needed some help with product development and marketing.

At first, I mostly concentrated on helping them with their crochet work, since crochet was a technique I was already familiar with. However, I desperately wanted to work with developing products with the Fesi embroidery that would be more marketable for them.

Traditionally, this type of embroidery is done on a grand scale. Women embroider large table cloths, densely covered in stitching, and make napkins to match. These tableware sets can take months to finish. The end result is that, though beautiful, the products are either so expensive hardy anyone can afford them, or more commonly, they are priced at an amount which severely undervalues the maker's time and craftsmanship.

Below, Lisa Payne, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, worked with Fatima (right), who is one of the most skillful fesi embroiderers I've ever seen. Here they are with a table-cloth that Lisa commissioned Fatima to make for her parents. Photo courtesy of Lisa Payne.

And this is another beautiful custom piece made by Fatima for Lisa's friends. Look at the detail! Now that's a lot of work! (Photos by Lisa Payne).

Now you get an idea of what I'm talking about when I say that these pieces take months to make. To counteract this, some volunteers who work with embroiders try to help them come up with new products that showcase the lovely technique, yet are smaller, take less time, cost less to buy and make, and therefore are generally more attractive to the growing tourist market. Some groups have started making small items such as handkerchiefs and coin purses.

In the case of Al Falah (the cooperative that I worked with), I taught the women how to embroider on paper so that they could make greeting cards and bookmarks. They even learned how to make handmade paper (out of egg cartons and toilet paper rolls) to do so, since thick, good quality paper is hard to come by in Morocco. Below are greeting cards made by the women of the cooperative using their own handmade paper.

When coming up with new products for the co-op to try (such as the cards), I quickly learned that actual, finished prototypes were the best way to communicate my ideas. That meant I would need to learn the "right way" of making this embroidery.

You see, what makes Fesi embroidery so unique isn't just the intricate, beautiful, traditional designs that originated in the region near Fez. It's the fact that it is completely reversible. When done correctly, there is practically no difference between the front and the back of the work. Below are a pair of handkerchiefs made by a woman who worked with another Peace Corps Volunteer. The two handkerchiefs are identical but the one on the left shows the front of the handkerchief while the one on the right shows the back.

So in December of 2009, about one year into my Peace Corps service, I started to learn the Fesi technique. I learned it the same way that generations of women have learned before me, by apprenticing under a master (in this case, the principal embroidered of the cooperative, Hafida) and made a sampler. Below is my sampler along with detail photos.

The sampler starts at the bottom with the most simple, rudimentary stitch and works its way to the more complicated designs at the top. After about the fifth row I no longer needed Hefida to get me started on each design and could figure out how to do the designs on my own just from looking at other samplers at the co-op or a pattern book. On days that we didn't have other workshops or activities planned, I would bring in my sampler and Hefida would check over my work. The 9 1/2 x 19 inch sampler wasn't completed until April, 2010 and most of the work was done while I was sick with pneumonia for about three weeks and could do little else.

Being an American, learning Fesi embroidery had a very similar effect as learning Moroccan Arabic had, that is to say, it endeared me to Moroccan women. Not only was Hafida and the rest of the co-op proud that I had made the effort to learn the technique, but Fatima (the co-op's most talented crocheter but didn't know how to do Fesi embroidery) soon wanted to learn as well. This was important because at the time the co-op had a t-shirt order to fill with an American company called Mushmina. I had introduced the co-op to Mushmina after meeting the owners, Heather and Katie O'Neill, in a nearby town. The sisters had just started their company and were looking for co-ops to work with and, since Heather was a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Morocco, they were led to the area where I was working at the time. Below (top photo) Oumaima, an apprentice, works on a black t-shirt for Mushmina while cooperative member Fatima (bottom photo, left) and apprentice Fatima (right) work on two sleeves of the same purple shirt.

As the co-op worked at a feverish pace to finish their last t-shirts order in the summer of 2010, I decided to show my support by doing a Fesi embroidered t-shirt myself. I did this partly because I wanted to see for how difficult it is to do this type of embroidery on t-shirt material and to apprieciate the amount of time that goes into making just one shirt. It was clear when they first received the order, along with the gorgeous t-shirts sent by Mushmina, that this was going to be a challenging project. The t-shirts were oh so soft and stretchy, which made doing the embroidery incredibly difficult. Sometimes just getting the shirts into the embroidery hoops would tear the delicate fabric. Below are detail photos of the t-shirt that I embroidered. The embroidery runs the entire lower edge of the shirt, about 37 inches total and took about 2 weeks to complete (it would take the co-op about 7-10 days for a similar amount of embroidery). In order to have a grid in which to embroider, a mesh material is placed on the top of the fabric and then unraveled to reveal the design after it is completely done.

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to work with such a great group of women and learn this amazing embroidery technique in the process. I hope that the women continue making and selling small items (in addition to their larger ones), so as to keep the technique alive for generations to come. By writing this post and teaching Fesi embroidery here in the US, I hope to make Americans aware of and interested in this beautiful and unique art from Morocco.

If you are in the Cleveland area and enjoy embroidery or at least admire this technique, I hope that you will join me on Sunday, May 22, 2011 from 2-4 pm at Crafty Goodness. The cost of the class is just $25 and will hold up to 6 people, so we will have a nice intimate atmosphere in which to work. To sign up for the class click here. The class is listed by date and under the title Fesi (Moroccan Embroidery). I hope to see you there!

Make sure to like zween on Facebook if you liked this post and want to be updated on future posts about classes, crafty news, stories, and much more!

Below and top of post: Fesi embroidered greeting cards on high-quality art paper by zween.

A Crochet Tale...

2011-03-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Please note that this post was originally published on my new blog, zween. To read more about what I've been up to since finishing Peace Corps, please visit me there. You may want to read this post on my new blog, as the right side of my photos were cut off when I transferred the post to this blog. Enjoy!

This is a story about how crochet not only influenced my work with the Al Falah Woman's Cooperative in Oulmes, Morocco, but how it became the driving force behind it.

First, a little background. When I arrived in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer in the fall of 2008, I thought I knew the basics of crochet. I knew how to crochet in the round and back and forth, and I could do so in single crochet (not double, half double, or triple; just single crochet). I knew how to increase and decrease (incorrectly). I had made hats, fingerless mittens, and a granny square blanket in yarn, market bags from plastic bags, and a giant copper wire installation that was my thesis project for graduating college.

I took up crocheting in Morocco near the end of our three-month Peace Corps volunteer training period (where we learned about Moroccan culture and customs, as well as how to speak Moroccan Arabic). Other volunteers started to take an interest in what I was doing and ask me to lead an introductory crochet class. It was my first time teaching crochet and when I look back on it today I laugh because it was truly the blind leading the blind.

Soon afterwords, in November of 2008, we swore in as volunteers. Next, it was time to get settled into our permanent sites where we lived for the next two years.

When I first arrived in Oulmes the women of the cooperative that I was assigned to work with weren't even coming to work. Eventually a couple of girls did show up (usually one or two) and I'd sit with them for however long they stayed at the Artisana, usually just a couple of hours. Sitting there was uncomfortable. It was cold and damp (it rained nearly every day and there is no indoor heating) and the silence was deafening. I wasn't very confident in my speaking abilities yet and it was so difficult to communicate anything.

The first few months were the hardest. I had received almost no background information about this woman's group from Peace Corps, so it was up to me to try to figure out what was going on. It wasn't easy. Mostly I asked very simple questions and relied on my observation skills.

The products the cooperative had on display were so different it was striking. They had rugs woven long ago from people who were no longer involved with the co-op; ugly, heavy macromé "decor" monstrosities; large, intricately embroidered table cloths; and crochet doilies and water bottle cozies. And the projects that they would usually bring with them to work on were hand knit gloves made with the most awful acrylic yarn. Yicks! I didn't know much, but I knew that they were in desperate need of some product development.

It didn't take me long to start bringing crochet projects with me to work on while I sat with the girls, and it quickly became my best mode of communication with them. I started with something familiar, a granny square blanket. It was an easy project that took a long time, about 2 months. Finding materials was interesting. I used this terrible wool yarn, usually used for weaving carpets. It was itchy and the colors bled, but it was also a conversation starter at the co-op, mostly because of my strange yarn choice I'm sure.

Soon I decided that I needed to expand my knowledge of crochet, so I burrowed a book on needle craft (circa 1984) from the Peace Corps library. I learned three very important things from that book;

How to make all of the crochet stitches

How to read a pattern (and thus make motifs that were featured in the book)

How to do tapestry crochet

The crochet flower motifs were a big hit. Fatima, the woman in the cooperative best at crochet, wanted to learn how to make each motif as fast as I could explain them. By this time it was spring and the three co-op members (Hafida, Fatima, and Achora) had recruited several girls (ages 16-22) to come to the Artisana to apprentice under them for a year, at which time they would receive their diplomas and become members themselves if they wished. After I taught Fatima how to make a motif she would then teach the younger girls. The Peace Corps calls this "Training of Trainers" (TOT) and it made me feel like I was finally doing something useful, though small as it was.

When I brought my first tapestry crochet piece to work, a round coin purse made with the same yucky acrylic yarn they use to make gloves, the ladies became very interested in what I was doing, especially Fatima. Below is Fatima's very first coin purse.

News about my tapestry crochet teaching abilities spread to other volunteers. In July, 2009, I was invited to go to Ain Chaib, down in Southern Morocco where my friend and fellow volunteer, Joy Chen, lived and worked with another woman's cooperative. There I taught two woman the technique. I also found a different type of acrylic yarn that was more suitable for making coin purses. It was a smoother and with more of a luster. When I returned, I was delighted to learn that the same yarn was available right in Oulmes!

I really wanted the women to make more of the coin purses for the upcoming Marché Maroc Craft Fair (a craft fair organized by Peace Corps volunteers) in October, 2009. This was the first craft fair that the women participated in since I came to Oulmes. However, the women only made a few coin purses, and brought mostly the hodge podge of stuff that they had since before I arrived, nearly one year prior.

Sales-wise, The craft fair was a huge disappointment. Though their prices were well below other vendors at the fair, they hardly sold a thing. But sales aren't everything, and it wasn't a total loss. As single women from a small town, Fatima and Hafida (the ones attending the fair) had the opportunity to visit a big city on their own for the first time and network with other Artisans from across Morocco, most of whom where women. As part of the event, the volunteers who organized the show brought in Moroccan consultants to talk with the Artisans about their products and teach them how to better manage their cooperatives. Below, Fatima watches over the co-op's booth at that first Marché Maroc in Fes.

Another good thing about the women participating in the event was that they were able to see for themselves which co-ops were doing well. They realized that for them, smaller, more transportable products were the way to go. They learned that a cohesive booth was much more attractive, and about the importance of having products that appealed to tourists as well as Moroccans.

After the fair I encouraged them to make some purses for me to test out with volunteers and Peace Corps staff in the capital (Rabat) during our mid-service medical exams in December. My fellow Small Business Development volunteers critiqued the products and I was able to sell several of the purses for the co-op. A week later when I returned I gave them the feedback from the other volunteers as well as their money. It was almost twice as much as they had made at the two-day craft fair in Fes! Below are a few change purses that the women made with the nicer yarns.

Now that the ladies had a product that was small and marketable, they went to work making more for the next Marché Maroc in April, this time in Marrakesh. In addition to making the round change purses, I introduced the idea of making rectangular ones for cell phones, but it was their idea to incorporate the Amazigh letter "Z." Not only are they visually interesting, but they have an extra layer of cultural meaning.

The women were always so excited about new ideas and they liked being introduced to new techniques. Whenever I suggested new products, like the i-pod Nano and i-pod Touch pouches they were always willing to give them a try. Though I would make prototypes for all of the products I introduced to them, they always took ownership of what they made, coming up with their own unique color patterns and color combinations. Below are some of the Nano and Touch cases that the women made.

When I came up with a prototype for earrings that looked like blga (pointy Moroccan shoes), I knew that it was time to start teaching the girls how to read crochet patterns so that they wouldn't forget how to make all of these new designs [prototype for shoe at top of post]. For patterns such as the shoes and flower motifs, I drew them out in diagram form, then taught Fatima and Achora (the two main crocheters) what each symbol meant. The women didn't have names for slip stitch and half double crochet, so we decided on what we would call them, then I made a key so that they would remember what the symbols stood for. Luckily, all the coop members are literate. Below, Achora studies a diagram for a textured coin purse.

Once I developed a way for them to record their tapestry crochet designs, using mainly Roman letters in conjunction with numbers, I compiled several designs, along with samples, in a book for them. Knowing how empowered I felt after learning how to write in Arabic script well enough to get by if I needed to jot something down for the girls (which came in handy in several instances), teaching them to be crochet literate was pretty cool.

In April, 2010 they participated in the Marrakesh Marché Maroc craft fair and did very well. Again, the best part of the experience was leaving town and visiting with their growing network of crafty friends, but this time the benefits were also monetary.

Shortly following the Marrakesh craft fair was yet another Marché Maroc in Rabat (May, 2010). Now the women were starting to pick up momentum in a major way. I could see how much they enjoyed getting out of town to meet up with their new friends, who they kept in contact with between fairs via phone. They also liked the idea of being successful and finacialy independent.

In July, 2010, I had another opportunity to teach tapestry crochet to another group of women in southern Morocco. This time I traveled to the very remote village of Oulad L'Arbia and the site of fellow volunteer and friend, April Koury. This time I taught two sisters over the course of three highly intensive days. Though the days were long and hot, the woman were determand to learn the tapestry crochet technique.

This area of Morocco is much more conserve than Oulmes. Here, woman and girls don't even go to the weekly market, let alone travel alone to the major urban areas where craft fairs take place. The education of girls in Oulad L'Arbia is also not what it is in Oulmes. One of the sisters didn't even know how to count. I'm really proud of the progress they both made over those three days. Not only did they learn the technique (which involves counting), but they learned how to read and write tapestry crochet patterns (like the ones shown above) as well!

There was another Marché Maroc scheduled for October, 2010 again in Fes, but unfortunately the event was cancelled. Luckily, the Oulmes ladies would be able to go to the second Marrakesh Marché in early December, 2010, shortly after I finished my Peace Corps Service. I was helping them prepare for the fair right up until I left the country.

Though crochet was just one of many projects that occupied my time as a volunteer, it was probably the most important because it was what helped me to feel accepted and respected among this amazing group of women.

Believe it or not, there are some people who actually think that knowing how to do traditional crafts such as crochet, knitting, embroidery, etc. is a waste of time and a step in the wrong direction for the female sex. But to all those nay sayers I say that you can't judge a woman until you've crocheted a mile of yarn with her hook.

Above three; prototypes and motif samples by Emily Lindberg

Starting The Next Chapter

2010-11-20T12:01:00.000-08:00

About one week ago, on November 12, 2010, Jon and I went from being PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) to RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers). The following are some photos from that day.

Our Small Business Development group together for one last picture.

Our community based training group.

Angie and Terra.

"Stamping Out"

After November 12th we returned back to our site for a couple of days to pack up our stuff and clean out our house. On November 16, the day before 3id Kabir, we traveled to our friend Lisa's site. We left our town shortly after dawn and the drive was one of the most beautiful we've ever had.

Lisa suggested that we go to souk one last time to get some photos. Being the day before the most major holiday in Morocco, we knew that it would be crazy, and sure enough, it was. Most of these pictures were taken while my camera hung at waist level around my neck so as to draw less attention to myself and not make people uncomfortable.

Lisa and Jon standing in front of the horse-draw carriage we took to get to the souk.

The Next day was a full day of sheep slaughtering and eating in celebration of 3id kabir. The following are some of my favorite photos from that day. *Warning, some pictures may not be for all audiences.

Yesterday Jon and I left Morocco and are now doing some traveling in Europe before embarking on a transatlantic cruise and then finally returning home. It is just the beginning of the next chapter of our lives.

Saying Goodbye

2010-11-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, our replacement, Kathy, came for her site visit this week. It was also our last full week of being Peace Corps volunteers in our site. And so, it was a busy week of introductions and saying goodbye.

On Tuesday, Hefida, the President of the cooperative, invited me to her home in the nearby bled (country) town for dinner and to spend the night. It was wonderful to finally meet her family and see where she lives.

Hefida has nine siblings. All are grown and most have moved to other areas of Morocco and even France, so now it's just her, one of her brothers, and her parents living at home. But with plenty of aunts, uncles and cousins as neighbors, they still have plenty of family nearby.

Below is Hefida holding her two-year-old cousin Marwa. As you can see, she's super cute. Just think, she was just born when we got here!

The weather has been beautiful all week (a big difference from when we had our site visit two years ago), so on Wednesday morning Hefida took me on a short walk trough the fields that surround her home. We saw sheep, turkeys, and plenty of olive trees.

We were supposed to return to town after breakfast, so of course I ended up staying for lunch (cous cous, even though it was Wednesday), and in the afternoon the ladies showed Kathy how they make paper.

Yesterday morning I was pleasantly surprised to find them already working on their next batch of handmade paper when I came in. I brought two old bed sheets and one of our gray blankets to be cut down so that they could make more paper at a time. Hafida helped me with cutting down the sheets while Fatima and Achora worked on forming the paper. By the end of the morning they had made 32 more sheets of paper!

Then in the afternoon the girls threw a goodbye party for me. At first, there was some concern over the fact that no one brought a CD player, but that was quickly remedied by them singing the songs themselves. They were songs that I recognized from my time here but still didn't know the meanings of so a couple of times I asked. One song was about an Arab man wanting to marry a Berber woman, but not understanding the customs of his in-laws.

And of course there was plenty of tea, sweets, coffee, and dancing.

Here's a picture of all of us on the steps of the Artisana taken yesterday after the party. I'm really going to miss this group!

A Warm Welcome + Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T00:30:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to give a warm welcome to Kathleen, the Peace Corps Trainee who will swear in as a volunteer later this month and take over for us in our site. She just arrived yesterday afternoon and I hope that we didn't completely bombard her with too much information all at once.

It's just that there is a lot to talk about. The truth is, we didn't get a whole lot of information from the volunteer that we replaced two years ago and that is a very frustrating situation to be in.

Ever since our site visit two years ago I vowed that the volunteer(s) replacing us would be a lot more informed than we were.

Think about it, we've been here for two years and we know what's going on here. I want my work to continue and I want the new volunteer to take what I've done and build on it. We want her to stand on our shoulders, not have to start from scratch. And to do that she needs as much information as possible, even if it is a little overwhelming at first.

This is a very busy and emotional time for us. We're almost done, we're excited about going home, we'll miss the people we've become close to, we have to tie things up with the electric company, phone company and our landlord, but we can't think of this as being the end of our work. Filling Kathleen in on our site is one of the most important things I will do as a volunteer.

If you are currently a Peace Corps volunteer, think about how you felt when you first got to site and what you would have liked the volunteer you replaced to do. If you did replace another volunteer, did you feel that you were given an accurate description of your site? Do you feel that there were a lot of really simple things that you would have been a lot better off knowing from the begining, if only the volunteer would have shared that information? It's very important that the new volunteer learns things for themselves, but why make them start from square one if they don't have to?

On an unrelated note, Happy Halloween!!! Jon and I traveled to see our good friend Lisa on Saturday and as always it was a day full of cooking, eating and EATING! Though she hasn't updated her Peace Corps blog in a long while (to the dismay of my mother) she also has a wonderful food blog (recipes included) for your food ogling pleasure! Though I know that Halloween was just yesterday, you should still check out her pumpkin marshmallow post because the flavor has a very fall feel and could be easily adapted for a Thanksgiving treat.

A Week In Paper Making

2010-10-24T01:26:00.000-07:00

This past week was very eventful for the Al Falah cooperative. This is the week that we finally made paper in the Artisana.

I'm really grateful to all the volunteers who ordered large greeting cards and bookmarks from the coop. I'm afraid that without these orders the ladies would not have been motivated enough to make paper again before I left, mostly due to the fact that Fatima and Hefida (the two members that have made paper before) have been and will be traveling a lot recently.

They made twenty two sheets of paper on Tuesday all by themselves, meaning that I only supervised the operation and gave them little reminders when I saw that they had forgotten a step, but I did not form a single sheet of that paper.

I was very pleased to see Fatima and Hefida explain the process to the other girls present. They were visually proud that they knew this very unusual skill, and that they were already so proficient at it.

By Thursday morning the paper was already dry and they were ready to tear down the sheets to make cards and bookmarks and cut out envelopes from a pattern I had made.

Hefida worked on drawing out new designs for the cards and both Hefida and Ashora worked on embroidering them.

By Friday they had two cards complete with another on the way. They have orders for a total of ten cards and three or four bookmarks, which they wont have any trouble filling by their deadline of November 9th. They do very well filling orders using the color chart of embroidery threads I made for them back when they were working with Mushmina making t-shirts. (To see an Al Falah t-shirt for sale click here.)

I'm really hoping that they will stick with this project and that the next volunteer encourages them to expand their line of paper products. Because greeting cards are not really appealing to the Moroccan market (for the most part), it will be very important that they continue going to craft fairs that cater to a tourist market if they choose to continue with this product line.

Superlatives

2010-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

As promised earlier this month, here are the superlatives for our entire Small Business Development staj, 2008-2010. If you'd like to put faces with these superlatives, check out my earlier post here. Enjoy!

Anjie Bertramson- Most likely to be an advice columnist for the leading entomology journal "It's A Bug's Life".

April Koury- Most likely to mask her crippling sentimentality with sarcasm.

Colin Huerter- Most likely to sleep through grad school and still graduate summa cum laude.

Cortney Healy- Most likely to break the glass ceiling while giggling like a school girl.

Cynthia Berning- Most likely to put Moroccans to shame at their own customs, particularly after winning "So You Think You Can Shake It".

Dan Hudner- Most likely to use being a Berber Barbie Mogul as his cover for his real job as a CIA informant.

Dena Thomas- Most likely to unknowingly become bosom buddies with an ex-convict.

Emily Lindberg- Most likely to crochet her way out of any problem.

Jae Boyd- Most likely to keep in touch.

Jared Imse- Most likely to build a wooden arc, set sail on an existentialist trip one stormy night, and be mistaken as the second coming for Jesus Christ by everyone he meets.

Jonathan Lindberg- Most likely to be the quirky-humored electrician, who lives self-sufficiently off the grid.

Jonathan Santeliz- Most likely to outsell Rosetta Stone with his self-recorded, salsa-inspired language learning software.

Joy Chen- Most likely to copyright the word "Joy" following her sold-out, self-titled motivational speaking tour, and use the royalties to start a company called "Tough Love, Fair Trade".

Kristen Apa- Most likely to gain celebrity status as America's beloved Iron Chef critic.

Lisa Payne- Most likely to be arrested for aiding and abiding in the distribution of underaged food porn.

Lynn Dines- Most likely to be named America's Top 100 Most Influential People then make the tabloids shortly thereafter, caught in a compromising position in front of a fan.

Maggie Downey- Most likely to be misunderstood.

Michael Craig- Most likely to author "Where There Is No Other Male: A Guide To Integrating Into Your New Sorority", "Participatory Analysis for Consuming Alcohol", and "The Role of a Peanut Vendor in a Dive Bar".

Mike Lightman- Most likely to start the next green movement using altruistic yet coercive means.

Nathaniel Krause- Most likely to forgo being America's teenage heart throb and instead use his perfect six foot frame to measure the construction of eco-friendly buildings.

Randy Leisenring- Most likely to be the hostess of Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Rebecca Luhrs- Most likely to become a Peace Corps Director whose first initiative is the realization of an annual Peace Corps Pretty Pageant.

Sarah Young- Most likely to be the host mother of a PCV after achieving world fame as the modern dancer who breast feeds on set.

Steven Schnelle- Most likely to introduce fashion into the courtroom, win every case with his theatrical performances but lose his license after punching the judge.

Terra Fuller- Most likely to start her own nomadic, Berber weaving tribe and name it "Ichabod".

Tim Michetti- Most likely to attempt smooth talking his innocence over allegations of smuggling contraband over international waters.

The Sights of Souk

2010-10-20T04:28:00.001-07:00

Every Tuesday is Souk day in our town. The American equivalent of souk would probably be a farmer's market. But I'm not sure you'd be able to find a farmer's market quite like this.

Like most souks in Morocco, our souk is located on the edge of town, in a large walled off area, featuring grand arched entryways on three sides.

Jon wrote a very detailed account of what a typical souk day was like for him back in April, 2009. However, it's very difficult to describe the experience that is souk without visuals. So, I will now take you on a walking tour of our souk.

After you enter the archway you see tents lined up with people selling everything from used and new clothes, to housewares, to food. The vendors cluster around each other to sell similar items. All the produce is one area, while the used clothing is in another, which is next to the new clothing and across from the housewares, etc. It's actually very organized, though it might not seem like it at first.

These days I go to souk alone and very early, while most vendors are still setting out their wares and pitching their tents. This came about because I began to dislike going at 11 or 12 o'clock, when the sun is very hot and the souk is very crowded. For many people, souk is a time for socializing. It's almost the equivalent to a mall outing for American teenagers; it's a place to be seen. It's almost comical to see souk through the filter of my American eyes. I see girls dressed in their best (and wearing high heels) to wade their way through mud, trash, and excrement; but they look good doing it.

I, on the other hand, go to souk for different reasons. I mainly go there to buy produce for the entire week. Though there are a couple of places to buy produce throughout the week, the quality is usually sub-par. I like to go to souk early (about 8am) to beat the crowds, the heat, and to have the best selection of fruits and veggies.

Week after week I patronize the same vendors. They know me and I trust them to give me fair prices. Below is my "nut guy." He is my first stop every week and is the person I buy peanuts, almonds, raisins, and garlic from. He always gives me exactly three complementary dates which I eat while he fills my order. Below are pictures of him and his stall.

After getting my supply of nuts I go to my favorite veggie guy. His stall is big and he has a really great variety of veggies and some fruits, as you can see from the photos below. He has a deaf helper who is very insistent on putting my purchases in plastic bags, though I tell him over and over that I brought my own cloth bags and don't need their plastic ones. They were both very excited to see the pictures I was taking of the veggies...I think they thought I was very odd.

And as always, the noble donkeys know where to find the tastiest morsels from souk.

Morocco in Crochet

2010-10-17T04:56:00.001-07:00

For the last week or so I've been working on a fun project. It all started with the crochet Moroccan style shoes that I designed several months ago to be made into earrings.

Then, when some friends came over a couple of weeks ago to visit, the idea of using the shoes for dolls came up. That's when I had the idea to make dolls to go with the shoes...

But I didn't want to stop with just dolls. I wanted accessories! First the shoes needed to be slightly redesigned to fit over the feet. For the boy I made shoes in bright yellow, a traditional color for mens shoes. He also got two hats. One is a white skull style cap (traditionally made in crochet anyway) and the other is a straw hat, usually worn by men while working in the fields.

And for the girl, I made a purse with sequins to match her shoes.

Of course they also needed a tajine with some bread so they could have something to eat...

I also have a very colorful Moroccan rug in progress for them to sit on while they eat...

Oh the possibilities are endless with this! Now I want to make pillows, a sheep skin rug, an embroidered table cloth, and of course Jellabas for both girl and boy (maroon for the girl, white for the boy). Have any suggestions for other items I could make? Leave me a comment below.

I introduced this project to the girls last Tuesday and they absolutely loved it, especially the tajine! Fatima, the main crocheter of the group was in Rabat all last week, so I can't wait to see what she thinks of all this when I show her tomorrow.

Inspiration:

There are two or three cooperatives currently working with volunteers who make small dolls. I've always really liked the idea representing Moroccan culture in miniature, especially doll form because dolls are generally made for children and are a great way for young people to learn things, like about a different cultures for instance.

"This Would Not Fly in America" comix

2010-10-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!
http://cacamamiecritters.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-ink.html

10-10-10

2010-10-10T10:51:00.001-07:00

Ten newly finished objects

Ten UFOs (unfinished objects)

Ten different crochet coin purses featuring the same flower motif and four colors (also unfinished)

Haiku of the day

2010-10-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

need a crochet break
called my mom for her birthday
shepherd's pie tasty

Close of Service Conference

2010-10-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was our Close of Service Conference, which means that it's time to start saying good bye. It was really great to see everyone in our staj again. Out of the 29 Small Business Development volunteers that come to Morocco in 2008, 26 of us will finish our service this November. To commemorate the two years that we've spent together, Lisa Payne drew this lovely picture of our entire staj.

And here we are in the same configuration in photo form. As you can see, Lisa was pretty much spot on with her interpretation of us!

Top row (from left to right):
Jon Lindberg, Mike Lightman, Jonathan Santeliz, Joy Chen, Kristen Apa, Tim Michetti, Rebecca Luhrs

2nd row:
Emily Lindberg, Jennifer Jae Boyd, Steven Schnelle, Nathaniel Krause, Lynn Dines, April Koury, Courtney Healy (upper), Angie Bertramson (lower), Randy Leisenring (lower), Jared Imse (upper)

3rd row:
Lisa Payne, Maggie Downey, Colin Huerter, Michael Craig, Dena Thomas, Dan Hudner, Sarah Young, Terra Fuller, Cynthia Berning

In addition to the awesome drawing, each SBD volunteer received a superlative. Everyone pitched in with coming up with ones for our fellow stajmates, but I think it was Joy who was the mastermind. She was in charge of gathering them and making sure that everyone had a really good one. More on that later when I get the complete list from Joy.

Comfort Cookies

2010-09-27T11:34:00.001-07:00

A couple of hours ago Jon announced that he was in need of some comfort food and suggested that we make chocolate chip cookies with the M&Ms my Uncle Bob and Aunt Sandy sent us a short while ago (all the way from Alaska!). The weather is starting to get cool so it was the perfect time for some cookie making. As you'll see, the recipe makes quite a lot of cookies, so we'll be taking them along to Rabat for the COS conference this week to share. Speaking of which, since we'll be in Rabat we won't be posting any new blog posts for about a week. Enjoy the photos (and the recipe at the end of the post)!

Chocolate Chip (or M&M) Cookie Recipe

2 1/4 cups flour
1 t salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips or M&Ms (we used 1 cup and it was plenty!)
1 t baking soda (we used baking powder, because Lisa Payne said it was okay)
1 c butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a sm bowl. Beat butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a lg mixing bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 min or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 min; remove to cool completely.

To Eat Meat, or Not to Eat Meat

2010-09-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

That is the question.

-note- The photos that appear in this post are of the chicken pot pie that Jon lovingly made earlier this week. It feed the two of us for two meals and was delicious! See the bottom of this post to find the recipe he used for the crust (also great for other pies, like apple).

This blog post was inspired by a invitee couple who are both vegetarian/vegan. They asked, "Based on your experience, do you believe we will have options other than meat, including the time with host families? Just curious to see if you think this will be a great source of frustration for us."

As far as food in general is concerned, Morocco is probably one of the best Peace Corps countries to be sent. Unlike some other countries (like in Sub-Saharan Africa) we have a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. A wider variety than in Ohio in fact. And with the exception of cheese, which is available in larger urban areas, you can find almost everything else you could want in or near even the smallest sites; bread, milk, yogurt, butter, olive oil, eggs, meat, beans, lentils, rice, spaghetti, plenty of spices, dried fruit, nuts, etc.

So the short answer is, yes, there are many other options other than meat, and as a married couple you will probably be pressured to eat at other people's houses less often than a single volunteer would once you are living on your own. Though Jon and I are not vegetarians ourselves, we eat meat (usually chicken) rarely (maybe once a month or so) and instead get the majority of our protene from the before mentioned beans, lentils, nuts, eggs, and milk.

But lets talk about home stay. For about four months you will be living with two different families. Yes, you can have Peace Corps explain to the families that you are vegetarian/vegan and what you do and do not eat (because you probably wont be able to yourselves with your limited speaking abilities at first), but it might be difficult for the families to fully understand because vegetarians/vegans don't really exist in this culture.

There are many reasons why people are vegetarian/vegan and you might want to examine the reasons why you are. Is it because of animal cruelty, global warming, religion, you don't like the idea of eating something that was once alive? And also think about how long you've been a vegetarian/vegan. The reason you might want to do this is because you might want to consider eating meat while you are here, at least for those four months when you are in home stay and going through a lot of other stresses such as learning the language, living with strangers, living in another culture, being stared at, lack of privacy and anonymity, and no mater what, you will likely have an array of GI problems on top of all of this.

That said, Peace Corps tries to be as supportive and accomidating as possible to vegetarian/vegan volunteers. Eating meat every day wont be a requirment of your survice, but to fully exsperience the culture, and food is a large part of culture, you might want to at least try it, depending on how you feel about being vegetarian/vegan. If you do decide to "go for it" and eat meat while your here you might want to start getting your body used to it ahead of time so that it is less of a shock. If you decide that you just can't do it, for whatever reason, know that you're not alone, there are other vegetarian/vegan volunteers out there and that you will be supported as much as possible by Peace Corps staff. There is even an entire section in our Peace Corps cook book dedicated to vegetarian main dishes!

I hope that this post has been helpful in some way to anyone out there who is a vegetarian/vegan and considering joining Peace Corps. I recommend seeking out volunteers who are currently serving the the country that you have been invited to who are actually vegetarian/vegan, as they will probably be better resources. You can ask your recruter to put you in touch with either current or returned PCVs.

Now for that recipe
Picture Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

1 1/8 c flour
8 T cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 t sugar (optional, best for sweet pies but omit if using for a savory pie)
1/2 t salt
3 T cold water

Combine the flour, salt ,and sugar, then add the butter and blend using your hands until the butter is distributed throughout and the mixture looks like cornmeal. Add the cold water and form into a dough, if it is too dry add more water. Make the dough into a ball, wrap in a plastic bag and flatten it. Place the dough in the freezer for 10 mins to aid in rolling. Roll the dough into a large circle and about 10 inches in diameter, on a large surface, dusting liberally with flour to avoid sticking. Use any ragged edges to repair tears. When finished rolling, place the dough onto the pie plate, press it firmly to the bottom and prick it all over with a fork. If you want to pre-bake the dought, place for 15-20 mmins or until brown in a 350 F oven.

New Jewelry with Paper Beads

2010-09-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

Ever since the women at the Al Falah coop learned how to make paper beads out of recycled magazines earlier this month, they've been going bead crazy! I'm so happy (and surprised) how quickly this project has taken off with them, and with only a minimal amount of guidance from me.

If there's one thing you can say about these ladies it's that they work great under pressure. They've been working on finishing up all their UFOs (unfinished projects) and making necklaces and bracelets out of their new paper beads so that I can take them to Rabat and hopefully sell them to COSing volunteers.

This past week Fatima even traveled to Khemisset to seek out jewelry closures. Way to go Fatima!

The following pictures were taken yesterday as the ladies worked on putting the finishing touches on their beaded creations.

Related Posts:
Fun With Paper Beads!
Fun, Easy, and Cheap Jewelry Projects

Harvest Moon +1 day

2010-09-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

Look closely for Jupiter...

And one of his moons...

Fall Inventory Update

2010-09-24T00:19:00.001-07:00

Now that the Close of Service conference is just 4 days away, the cooperative women are putting the finishing touches on their new products for fall.

Embroidered Greeting Cards
These beautiful cards made of hand made paper are 8 x 8 cm and embroidered in the signature Fesi style that I've only seen here in Morocco. The cards have an insert of white paper (which is also recycled) for ease of writing and come with a hand made paper envelope.

iPod Nano Pouches
These fun pouches fit the Nano perfectly and are supper handy when you're on the move with the strap you wear around your neck. You can even tuck the pouch under your shirt for added security if wearing your iPod in public.

iPod Touch Pouches
This pouch fits the iPod touch perfectly, but can also double as a case for a small digital camera. It comes with a long strap that can be worn over the shoulder for convenience and security. Plus, it's way cooler-looking that those ugly camera cases you buy in the store.

Related Posts:
New Inventory for Fall, 2010 and More New Inventory for Fall, 2010

Get Organized

2010-09-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

This post is about organizing your workspace on a budget. In my experience, us Small Business Development volunteers often work with groups (cooperatives, associations, individuals) who's work spaces are often dirty, disorganized, and even moldy. Some volunteers are able to secure grants to renovate work and showrooms, like this beautifully redone showroom in Ain Leuh that Randy has been working on.

This is a great option for towns and villages, even small ones, who see a good amount of traffic from tourists or locals willing to buy their products. But for some groups this isn't the case. They still need to keep finished projects clean for future craft fairs and know where to find their tools, but making it look super nice is not that important. So why not use what you have to get organized?

For the last two years I've cringed at my coops' "method" of organization. Basically, they have a big heavy desk with 4 missing drawers out of six where they keep everything from paperwork (which they have tons of) to crochet hooks and knitting needles, to embroidery thread, to pens, and so on and so on. Finished projects get "displayed" on tables along one wall where they gather dust and get grimy, while some of the new tools and materials that I've introduced in the last two years (paper making supplies, magazines, craft fair displays, etc.) have no home at all.

So on Tuesday, I decided to do something about it. I first had the idea of making a sort of peg board where they could hang tools from nails and have easy access to them. But when I was cleaning my house this Tuesday I decided to go a different route and use just stuff that I already had.

We had a very ugly, kinda rickety, bamboo shelf from the previous volunteer that became completely moldy before we even moved out of home stay. Though we tried multiple times to scrub it with bleach, we just couldn't keep the mold at bay. So it ended up living on our roof, exposed to all elements for about a year and a half until I finally decided that it was "weathered" enough and brought it back inside to use.

With the shelf as my base for the "organization station" I took some scraps of vinyl from the Marché Maroc banner and made shelf liners. We had a few plastic baskets that we don't really use, so I put one on the top shelf and filled it with empty glass food jars that the women can use to separate their new paper beads. Finally, I cut the tops off of four plastic bottles and secured the bottom cup-like containers to the bamboo frame to store things like the for mentioned crochet hooks, knitting needles, pens, rulers, scissors, etc.

It was really easy to make and got a lot of laughs when I took it to the Artisana, but it does the job so I don't really care what it looks like.

I want to show the members of the coop that it doesn't take a lot of money to get organized and I'd really like to see them come up with stuff like this on their own, but that might be a bit in the future.

If you are a volunteer facing an organization problem I urge you to try to find creative and inexpensive solutions.

More New Inventory for Fall, 2010

2010-09-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share some more pictures of recently completed crochet coin purses from the Al Falah Cooperative. If you are a 2nd year YD or SBD volunteer you will have a chance to purchase these and other products from AL Falah at the COS conference next week.

Here's a coin purse in a really nice maroon and camel.

And here is a double pocket coin purses in the same color pallet. I just love the puffy quality of this style of crochet, it gives it some extra texture.

Here's a couple new purses with the Tifinakht letter "Z." These would be really great for the tween in your life.

And here is a stack of unfinished coin purses. I can't wait to see these completed!

Related posts:
New Inventory for Fall 2010

New Inventory For Fall 2010

2010-09-18T12:15:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the crochet coin purses that the Al-Falah Womens' Cooperative have been working on recently. I will bring them with me to our COS conference and medicals, and they will be available for sale at that time.

Cell phone purses, featuring a berber letter on one side and various geometric shapes on the other, are only 30 DH each.

Small round coin purses, featuring designs on both sides will also be sold for just 30 DH each.

And two-pocket round coin purses will be sold for 40 DH each.

*Please note that some of these photos feature purses that do not yet have zippers attached. All coin purses and cell phone purses will have a zippered closure.

Top ten memories of Morocco: Emily

2010-09-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jon posted his top ten memories of Morocco, and wanted me to do the same. I will say that we came up with our lists completely independently of each other and I haven't yet read what he's written, (which is killing me) and that's why I was so motivated to come up with my "top ten" as soon as possible. It was a little hard to narrow it down to ten, and most of my favorite memories happened over several days, weeks, or months. I've arranged my list in roughly chronological order.

Our first Eid Kabir
For our first Eid Kabir we were still in home stay. We had seen pictures of Eid kabirs from other volunteers, so we had an idea of what to expect...the sheep slaughter in particular. The morning of Eid felt very much like any big holiday back in the States. We got dressed up and went over to Rachida's mother's house to visit and eat sweets then went back home to prepare for the festivities. The sheep was brought to the roof were we had the chance to look it in the eye for a few hours, knowing it's fate. Our host mom, Rachida, started the mijmare (small grill) that we'd use to cook the organ meat right after the slaughter. The mijmare is fueled by charcoal and is quite tricky to get going. As luck would have it it started to rain, so we moved indoors; grill, sheep and all. Since a woman isn't allowed to kill the sheep and our host brother was either still too young or inexperienced or both, a man came over to do the job. The sheep was killed over the bathroom toilet, so that it's blood would flow down the drain. We all gathered around the doorway to watch, but I started to feel sick to my stomach so I turned away after a while. After the sheep was skinned and the organs removed, our brother started grilling them over the mijmar in the living room, filling the house with smoke and causing our smoke detector to go off. My eyes became so irritated from the smoke that I had to stand by an open window. The organ meat was wrapped in fat, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cumin, and eaten with bread. It's was one of the most delicious meals I've ever had here!

Trip to Merzouga and the Todra Gorge with fellow PCVs
This was a trip that happened fairly early on in our service, in March 2009. It was our first time in the southern region of Morocco, so the landscape alone was something completely foreign to us. It was a pretty typical trip I guess you can say and we did the same things that many other volunteers have done. We rode camels in Merzouga to a Berber camp site were we spent the night and climbed at least part way up the big dune and looked at the stars. In Todra we hiked up to the top of the gorge where we were rewarded with a beautiful view (and Jon was rewarded with a shoe shine, but that's a different story). It was a great opportunity to see the parts of Morocco that I tend to enjoy more...the smaller towns and rural areas. They beat Marrakesh and Fes any day. There was a core group of four volunteers that went, with others meeting up and leaving along the way, but always great company.

Spring Camp 2009
It was a crazy week of teaching English and art classes, playing unusual games, dancing, getting up early and going to bed WAY too late. Some highlights include;
One very intense game of ultimate Frisbee
Seeing one of the girls from my English class singing "The Hokie Pokie" to herself as she walked to lunch.
Singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the talent show with the other PCV counselors.
Learning circus tricks along with the kids
Attending one of the aerobics classes with all the teenage girls
Dressing up as a pirate for the costume party
Attending the awards ceremony the last night that lasted until 2 in the morning!

Paper making project
The paper making project has been an odyssey. From coming up with the idea, to constructing the mold and deckle, to gathering the materials, to teaching the women, to coming up with products to make out of it...it's been a long long process. To read more about the paper making project click here and here.

Learning to speak and write in a different language
Learning Darija was one of the hardest things I've ever done and something I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do. By the time I reached my mid 20s I thought I'd never have the chance to learn a second language, but here I am. I give all the credit of any language success to final tutor, Salima, who started teaching me in June, 2009. She was patient, persistent, and a great teacher. She taught me how to write in Arabic Script, and that really helped me with my pronunciation. Plus, it's really cool to be able to write things for my ladies and decipher signs. Though I feel self conscience about my language skills most of the time, it's nice when a complete stranger overhears me speaking to a shop keeper and strikes up a conversation with me because she can't believe how well I speak Arabic, which happened yesterday.

Day at the beach near Asilah
On a long holiday weekend during Ramadan in August 2009, Jon and I met up with several other volunteers, mostly from our staj, in Asilah, a coastal town in the north. On one of the days we took a trip to a place called Paradise Beach, just a few miles from town. We arrived early in the morning to find the most expansive, empty beach I've ever seen, and since it was the first or second day of Ramadan, it was practically empty. The tide was out and the sand was smooth and free of trash. We spent the day exploring the rocks, chasing seagulls, riding the waves on boogie boards, and lounging around under sun umbrellas reading.

Ain LeuH
This might be cheating, but I have three wonderful memories of Ain LeuH. The first was back in August, 2009 when we went there to participate in an Environment camp. The camp had many challenges but it was a great opportunity to meet with other volunteers and work with some really great kids. It was also when we first discovered Ain LeuH's treasure trove of blackberries and I made jam for the first time ever.

The Next time we went to Ain LeuH was for Christmas, 2009. It was pouring down rain on Christmas Eve as we made our way there from taxi to taxi. By the time we arrived we were soaked to the bone, but we were greatly rewarded. Randy's house (the volunteer who lives there) was warm, cozy and welcoming. Lisa and two of her friends from the US came as well and we spent the next two days making and eating delicious food, listening to Christmas music, and playing Scrabble. I made hand-knit Christmas gifts for everyone there and Santa even came and filled our stockings with treats. It was the most low-key, unstressfull Christmas I ever had, and although I missed my family back home, it was a wonderful experience. The picture below of Jon and Randy was taken the day after Christmas, as you can see, it ended up being a beautiful weekend.

Most recently we went back to Ain LeuH two more times in the last month for workshops and more blackberry picking. The site is beautiful and there is nothing better than getting up at 6 o'clock to pick some berries before anyone is out and the sun gets hot.

Marché Maroc
This again is a bit of a cheating response because there have been three Marché Maroc craft fairs, and I've enjoyed all of them. The best part of these craft fairs was seeing how much Fatima and Hefida grew and learned from their experiences attending them and how much fun they had each time. My work is a very important part of what I'm doing here (well, duh), but sometimes it's hard to pin point a specific time that was "memorable." It's the little things that happen on a daily basis that seem to add up, but the craft fairs gave me the chance to look back on my work here and see the bigger picture. For more on Marché Maroc, check out this post.

Learning Fesi embroidery
From early on in my service, I have been particularly interested in a specific style of embroidery made here in Morocco called "Fesi" Embroidery. Shortly before our Mid Service Medicals in December, 2009, I decided to ask the women at the cooperative to teach me how to do it. I do a lot of mini workshops with the women to teach them different crochet techniques, so it was nice to change roles and be the student for a while. Since my work primarily consists of product development and quality control, it was very helpful for me to learn the "right" way to do this embroidery and better understand the labor that's involved. Since I'm about the same age as the coop members I think it was good for them to see that I'm not afraid to try new things and therefore it's never too late for them to learn something new. In fact, after I started doing my embroidery sampler one of the coop members who didn't do fesi embroidery decided that she wanted to learn too! It took about four months, but I finally completed the sampler. For more on Fesi embroidery check out this and this.

Teaching crochet in the bled
This past July I had the opportunity to travel down south and teach a crochet workshop in the bled (small community in the countryside, in this case about 500 people strong). The site doesn't even have transportation all the way to it, so we had to walk in from the nearest town, which takes about an hour. Though most of the area is dry and desert-like, the town is in the middle of an oasis. It was an extremely quiet place with all mud-brick houses. It's basically what a lot of people think of when they think "Morocco." The two sisters that I taught were very excited to learn the two-color crochet technique that I went there to teach. The workshop was supposed to last two days, and be about 2-3 hours a day. It ended up spanning four days with our average day being 8 or 9 hours! It was a really intense time and we all learned a lot. I really enjoyed how welcome the sisters and the rest of their family made me feel. It was very easy to joke around and talk with them. On my last day I even learned how to make cannon bread, which is a specific type of bread that I've only seen made in that area.

Top Ten Memories of Morocco: Jon

2010-09-16T03:10:00.000-07:00

As per one particular response in Emily's previous post, "What do you want to see," I decided to recount my top ten memories of Morocco.

So, without further ado, I present to you (in no particular order of significance) my top ten memories:

-Our town's souk - Fresh, cheap vegetables, warm French greetings (eventaully arabic), fresh popcorn, hanging sides of sun-baked, fly-orbited meat, God-awfully synthesized Berber music, and made-to-order, seasoned-to-perfection ground beef sandwiches. What more can you ask for to quell your Tuesday blues out here in the stix? Just make sure to stand UPWIND of the cooking meat, otherwise you'll end up smelling like a campfire.

-English language camps - Let it be known that Moroccan teens' and pre-teens' hormone levels and rowdiness are JUST as off-the-charts as their American counterparts'!! The only difference is that the Moroccan youth can GET DOWN on the dance floor with the quickness! These rug-cutters are also eager to please in the classroom, as many an exhausted PCV "teacher" can attest.

-Traditional mid-morning meal of l3id Kbir - Lovers of meat as they are, Moroccans are quick to use up all the giblets, offal, and innards of any creature that they are so fortunate to slaughter and consume. In the sacrificial feast of l3id Kbir in Morocco, a sheep's organ meat (heart, lungs, liver, and others) and abdominal fat are pulled from its abdomen shortly after the animals death. Still steaming, these cherished bits are chopped to bite-sized pieces, wrapped in strips of the aforementioned fat, and grilled to mouth-watering perfection over an open flame! Sprinkle some salt and cumin on those babies, stuff 'em inbetween two pieces of bread, and you got yourself one heck of a taste celebration! Emily LOVES this meal, possibly more than me. Who knew?

-Vacation with stage-mates in AsilaH - Being spoken to in Spanish was refreshing and the secluded beach that we found was even more refreshing! Perhaps the single best ocean swimming experience I've ever had! That is, until the tide came in and brought with it piles and piles of garbage. Nonetheless, every stage should have a beach vacation together! One last word: a word of advice. Please, never mix alcohol and spinning rides. At least 2 other volunteers can attest that this is an incredibly bad combination.

-Stargazing on the roof with Emily - The unique house design in Morocco and the lack of "yards" as we Americans know them mandated us to spend alot of our "outside time" on the roof. We even slept up there when it was too hot to sleep indoors (above 90 degrees F). Of course, even with the nasty light pollution in our town, we still had an amazing stellar display almost every night of the summer. Equipped with binoculars and a tripod, we even took in magnified views of the moon and various deep sky objects (like nebulae and clusters) that are invisible to the naked eye. Of course, most of the time was spent just looking up at the heavens with our naked eyes. We liked spotting Iridium flares, the International Space Station when its brightness rivaled Venus, and other satellites as well. We will probably never have another opportunity to experience the night sky like this again, which is unfortunate. However, it will be a fond memory we will share together.

-Chrismas '09 spent with other Americans in 3in LeuH - After traveling for at least 4 or 5 hours through at least as many monsoons, we ended up in the warm embrace of one of our friend's, and fellow volunteer's, home. We decided that we simply could not take another depressing Christmas, and decided to make the trek, which we did not regret in the least bit! Stockings, presents, an amazing Christmas chicken dinner with all the trimmings, games, WARMTH, and happiness were all shared together.

-Arriving in Morocco and our first few days in Rabat - Wow. So long ago yet such a still-vivid memory. Our plane ride was our first exposure to Islamic culture: Arabic writing on the inside of the plane (khuruj - exit) which I didn't know then, but am all too familiar with now; breaking fast on the plane before the sunrise in the early morning, and the unsettling feeling of committing the next 2 years of our lives to an as-of-yet unknown job and life. Next was our 3 day stay at the Hotel Chellah, and our freedom to walk around the city of Rabat (albeit limitedly) during the few hours prior to sundown. We felt so vulnerable...wandering amongst people and a culture we didn't understand. Many of us came to dislike that first experience in Rabat, but since then, it's become one of my favorite cities in Morocco.

-Being pickpocketed on a town bus on our way to the Agadir airport - Who said that these memories all had to be good ones? Nevertheless, some good was to become of this jarring experience: not everything in my wallet was stolen. In fact, the only thing that was taken was the cash...only about 50 DH ($6.25) or so. All of our credit cards/debit cards and my cell phone were left in place, allowing us to embark on our vacation to Ireland and the UK without a hitch, but with the poignant lesson of paying extra attention to our surroundings and keeping our guard up. It could have ended up much, much worse.

-The smells and tastes of CBT - In the spring of 2009, I went back to our CBT site to visit a friend and fellow volunteer for a hiking trip. Of course, since I was there, I wanted to see our former host family as well. Entering their courtyard for the first time in about 9 months, the musky sheep aroma stimulated the part of my brain involved with memory to transport me back to September of 2008, when we did not understand hardly a word of darija, when our stomachs still hadn't adjusted to the particular flora which was then making itself comfy-cozy in our guts, and when life was still mostly ambiguous and unknown. Wow that was a long sentence (in the grammar sense, not the prison sense...haha) For some reason, we humans associate smells, tastes, and other senses with particular moments in time and particular feelings. I don't know if I'll ever get to smell that particular sheep odor or if I'll ever get to taste a stewed stomach tagine or experience the many other smells and tastes endemic to our first significant immersive experience in Morocco, but they will be remembered as best they can; and released whenever said molecules find themselves drifting too close to olfactory or gustatory receptors.

-Adult Camp(s) in 3in LeuH - Our first "Adult Camp" started out not as volunteers waxing vocally and in the culinary arts but as us aiding a Moroccan environment camp which was shoddily led, ill organized, and ripe with exploitative and thieving association members: sadly typical. Eventually, we realized, we could only do so much for them and with them. So we decided to pass the majority of our time by picking the locally-abundant blackberries, making preserves out of said berries, preparing delicious meals with each other, playing lots of Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Rummikub, and generally enjoying each others' company. Hence, "Adult Camp" was born. And it was so successful that it was repeated a second time, in the summer of 2010, sans "environment club" or any such corruption. When life gives you berries, make preserves!

So there you have it. Some good, some bad, and some just plain ugly. But all memorable. For all volunteers with Morocco blogs, try this challenge out...post your top ten in Morocco. It would be interesting to see the difference in responses!

Classic Toys; Observations

2010-09-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought that toys are getting more and more advanced these days? In the age of Play Stations, Nintendo DSes, and X Boxes, it's sometimes hard to find toys that don't light up or make some kind of annoying noise.

Not here in Morocco.

Here are some of the toys I saw actual kids playing with today;
wooden top with pull string
marbles
ball (used for playing soccer, but not a "soccer" ball)
paddle ball

When I saw this, I thought, "now that's pretty cool!"

Growing up, my brother and I always got a small, "classic" toy in our Christmas Stocking and Easter Basket. One year it was a yo-yo, the next a set of jacks. One time I got one of those paddles with a rubber ball attached to it with a piece of elastic and the paddle was in the shape of an ice cream cone. They were "simple" toys, but they did the trick.

It's not like these were the only toys I played with. I also remember my Easy-Bake-Oven, Barbie dolls, Play School Little People, Legos, and Cabbage Patch Kid. Sure, the Little People came from yard sales, my Barbies' clothes were almost all handmade by my mom and grandma (which I always liked better than the store-bought outfits), and my grandma made my Cabbage Patch doll, but my point is, is that the kids here have a fraction of the toys their counterparts in the US have. I know this because we lived with two different families when we first arrived in Morocco. Our first family had four children; ages 22, 19, 15 and 8 months. Our second family had three kids aged 18, 11, and 7.

Like most girls in our neighborhood, our seven-year-old host sister's favorite toy was a long piece of elastic tied into a large loop which she would then jump over and onto. The game is called "lastic."

I guess what I'm saying is that I like what I'm seeing here. Though I had many many more toys than the children I see on my way to work, I can see a connection between the type of play that they're engaging in and the type of play that I use to. Though I did grow up at the beginning of the Nintendo era, it was never something that interested me at all, and thus I found myself drawn to toys that I consider to be more "creative."

Also, a small bag of marbles, a couple of paddles, a simple ball, and a long piece of elastic might not sound like much, but I have seen these classic toys bring the neighborhood kids together to form strong friendships and a sense of community. It makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better off putting down the Wii and going back to the basics.

Becoming Beast

2010-09-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

To better pass the time, and in the spirit of having better health/being stronger, I started doing various exercises starting this past April (when I caught the bug from Mike Lightman).

Since then, I've done various workouts, mostly body-weight circuits that cover both the cardio AND weight-lifting spectrum. I wouldn't necessarily rely on them as solely weight-lifting routines, but they do their fair share to strengthen and tone. Really, during this entire time, I've been looking for the perfect "full body workout."

What I've gleaned from sources like Men's Health is that in a full-body workout, you generally need 4 components:

1) A "pull" exercise
2) A "push" exercise
3) An exercise that works glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps
4) An exercise that works the core (abs, lower back, and hip flexors)

I want to talk about one exercise routine in particular that I have done, the 300 Workout (I did it like I have done other routines...for about a month. After that point, I usually get bored and need to change the workout). Also, I want to talk about what I'm currently doing.

300 WORKOUT

This guy was WAY out of my league at first, so I devised a plan to make it a bit easier for myself but still be able to work the same muscle groups in the same way. You can also use a modified workout that they suggest on the link above. Any variation of this workout is great because it will get your heart going like CRAZY and it will exhaust your muscles with an added plyometric bonus: the box jumps. Of course, if this workout gets easy, you could always modify the pushups and squats to be more difficult by making them plyometric: jumping or pushing yourself airborne!

After 5 minutes of jumping jacks and 5-10 minutes of stretching, I sunk my fangs into this:

SET 1 and 3
15 bodyweight rows
30 bodyweight squats - hands straight out or behind your head, prisoner-style
25 pushups - or "knee pushups," so you're only pushing up half your body
30 box jumps - vary the height of the jump to make it easier or harder
20 pike-ups - lay flat and pull your upper torso and legs up as in the photo
15 close grip pushups - index fingers and thumbs forming a diamond shape
10 bodyweight rows

SET 2
15 bodyweight rows
30 bodyweight squats
25 pushups
40 box jumps
20 pike-ups
15 close grip pushups
15 bodyweight rows

And here's the time schedule for the above sets including the initial calisthenics/stretches. I tried to keep to this, but sometimes, it didn't go EXACTLY as planned. Even though I may have gone over my time limit, I made sure to finish the sets ASAP. As time went on, however, I was finishing the sets quicker and quicker. That's the idea, of course.

WARMUP JUMPING JACKS ~ 5 minutes
STRETCHES ~ 5 minutes
SET 1 - 165 reps ~ 8 minutes
REST ~ 3 minutes
SET 2 - 170 reps ~ 8 minutes
REST ~ 3 minutes
SET 3 - 165 reps ~ 8 minutes
REST ~ 3 minutes
STRETCHES ~ 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: ~48 minutes

I would do the above sets w/o a scheduled break during the course of the set. This was hard. Especially during/after doing the box jumps. Those kicked my ass. Literally.

I did this routine 3 or 4 times a week, usually with a day of rest in between, although I'm sure after you're acclimated to the strenuousness of it, you could do it every day. Since I was pretty out of shape when I started, I wanted to give my body the chance to heal itself and be able to build muscle. They say rest is equally as important as working out because your body needs time to heal and rebuild muscle. Without this healing, you won't reap the rewards of growth as quickly. At least that's once school of thought.

Different specific exercises can be substituted in for the ones above to fit your own personal preference. For example, if you don't like the pike-ups, you could do a bodyweight plank for 30 seconds or 60 seconds. Or, you could supplement the circuit by doing exercises for specific muscle groups, like triceps dips OR calf raises. The main thing is that you include exercises in your circuit that fall under the 4 categories that were listed above.

CURRENTLY

Currently, I'm doing an upper body workout that consists of only pushups and pullups. I'm trying to develop my stamina for doing both of them and I'm following two seperate workouts but combining them together. These two are One Hundred Pushups and the Armstrong Pullup Program.

I will skip the details of these two workouts and leave them to your research, if you are so inclined. I'm making good progress on both (started out being able to only do 1 pullup and I'm able to do 9 consecutive now). My goal is 25 pullups by November 8th.

What do you want to see?

2010-09-10T04:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you who've been keeping up on this blog, you might have noticed that I've been updating it a lot more often recently. I'm not always sure exactly who's looking at this thing, so I'd like to invite you to tell us a little about yourself (are you a friend or family member, fellow PCV, PC applicant, indie crafter, etc.?) and let us know which posts you found most interesting and helpful and what types of posts you'd like to see more of in our last two months of service. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you!

Blackberry Cookies

2010-09-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of Ramadan, which means that tomorrow is 3id Sagir. The holiday is generally celebrated by going to the homes of family and friends and eating specially made sweets at each stop. There's so much preparation that goes into it, the coop girls haven't been to work since Tuesday. So this afternoon I thought I'd get into the holiday spirit and make some cookies myself, so that we'd have some to share tomorrow.

I guess you can say these cookies have been in the making since we went to visit another volunteer a few weeks ago for a workshop. Her site is covered in blackberries and we'd go out early every morning and pick as many ripe berries as we could find. No one was ambitious about picking the berries as Lisa, Jon, and I.

We picked so many berries we made enough jam to fill over 20 jars of various sizes. Though we've given some of it away, we still have a lot left (plus, we're going back to said blackberry site this weekend for more picking!).

That's why I chose the recipe, "jelly-filled cookies" from the Peace Corps Morocco Cookbook. Here's the recipe as it appears in the cook book so that you can try it yourself:

Jelly-Filled Cookies
2 c flour
1/4 t salt
3/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c water
1 t baking powder
1/3 c butter or margarine
1 pkg vanilla sugar (I used 1 t of vanilla extract)
2 T orange juice
about 1 cup jam

Preheat oven to high heat. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in lg mixing bowl. In sm bowl, cream butter, vanilla and sugar. Add eggs. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture; stir in juice and water. Roll out dough to 1/8" to 1/4" thickness. Cut cookies with glass to make circles. Spoon 1/2 t jelly onto center; pinch 3 sides together to form triangle. Bake on greased baking sheet 10-12 min or until lightly browned.

That's the recipe, however, I found that by following it to the letter the dough was way too sticky to roll out. I let it sit for over an hour in the fridge, which helped but not enough, so I added more flour little by little until it was a nice sugar cookie-like consistency.

As you can see we had some spillage from the jam, but all-in-all they are great cookies! Light, soft, and chewy! Just before sundown we gave our neighbor a half dozen and she was very excited about trying them.

Give them a try with your own home-made jam this blackberry season (or grape or raspberry, etc) and tell me how they turn out!

Recursive response to "Serving as a couple; reflections"

2010-09-09T03:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I guess I haven't been pulling my weight these days, blog-ically speaking. I feel like unless I have something technical or expertise-related to contribute, it just becomes unnecessary word-vomit/literary masturbation (not usually a fan of censorship - pardon the language) and I don't really think my brand of such is particularly interesting, insightful or humorous. I feel like there are many people out there who are much better at this, and I would rather be reading theirs than projecting mine!

That aside, it's occurred to me that I could/should/might someday try to condense all of my thoughts about my singular situation here in Morocco in some written form for others to try to understand. I have a journal that I scratch stream-of-consciousness rants in once in a while, whenever I'm in the mood. But that only comes once or twice a month, if that. And most of these sessions end with no deep realization of anything significant; I get bored of bitching about my boredom into my boring journal and I stop writing, mid-sentence, and immediately move on to something else: doing pullups or filling up all of our water bottles or calculating the number of seconds until I can be employed legitimately or losing countless hours to pointless Facebook stalking or shopping online for random stuff I don't need. Or even staring at the interesting patterns of peeling paint on our bedroom ceiling! Believe me, the list goes on...

The crux of my problem here is summarized by that old phrase "Be careful what you wish for because it just might come true." One of my biggest reasons, initially, for wanting to become a Peace Corps Volunteer was to escape the career trap that I was in and segue myself (ourselves, really) into a new place, physically, career-wise, etc. Today, with 99 days left until we're back in America, I feel like I've put in the time to determine my career plans and how I will pursue them. Emily has done the same. We both have questions and uncertainties, but our directions are SOLID and more importantly, TRUE TO OURSELVES. We are so stoked about our future life it's not even funny. It's going to be so awesome. You're going to want to live our lives they're going to be just that good! And, I believe, we needed this 27-month experience to be able to change, grow, and "align" ourselves in this manner. Main mission accomplished. We got what we wished for.

The problem results from the fact that, theoretically, there is more to the Peace Corps experience than just the volunteer's personal growth. There's cross-cultural learning, and language learning, inspiration, socialization, cooperation, et al. Around the 9-month point (June of '09), I had gotten pretty much all I wanted to get via the Peace Corps "goals" and I had contributed all that I was able to contribute. Without getting into particulars and sounding too cliche and complainy, I was finished...as I still am. But I'm really not finished, because I'm still here in a place where I don't want to be. Problem.

(The lesson to be learned from this: make sure you're doing what you're doing for the right reasons. Think them through thoughtfully, because time-based commitments (especially 2 year ones) can dilate to seem like decades when you're constantly thinking about being somewhere else and doing something else.)

Getting back to the topic at hand will coast this prose to a close: "serving" as a couple (quotations because I don't really view my time here as service. I mean, who did I serve? Nobody really needs my service here! Moroccans get along just peachy in their context, in my opinion).

Despite our differences as PCVs, and my near-constant bitching and misery during the 6-to-16-month period in my service, I always respected Emily's wish to remain here and complete her service. I'd be so gone if it were not for her. This experience has proven to us that she's a stronger, more committed and dedicated person than I, and I would not be able to live with myself if I had caused her to end her experience prematurely. Period.

Thus, I will bite my lip, force my smile, and maintain until we are finished. I will try to be the best partner for her and support her the best way that I can, albeit as a vitamin D deficient agoraphobic. This is my current status; this is where I am mentally for all those curious folks out there. This is what my service has boiled down to. It's a strange mixture of emotions and random thoughts and I don't even think I'm explaining it very well. I don't really think I fully understand it even. It has to marinate a bit more, perhaps, before I'm able to grill it, chew on it, and glean from it the nuggets of wisdom that will tell me what it was all about.

But wait, there's more!!! If not for this difficult, trying, and LONG experience, perhaps I never would have been able to do all the aforementioned personal development...perhaps I never would have developed the great ideas, plans, and feelings about the hows and wherefores concerning my awesome future life (and it is going to be awesome, let me tell you).

So then it follows that all of my "misery" here was the price I paid to arrive mentally at this location...the staging point for the rest of my life.

It's about at this point in my journal writing where I realize that I have no reason to be complaining and thus no real reason to be writing. So this is where my writing usually trails off into...

Change The World With Your Money

2010-09-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading the Scoutie Girl website and the author, Tara, posses a very interesting question, "How will you change the world with your money?" Interesting question Tara, and one that I've thought of quite a bit.

Most of us know that it's very important to buy local and love the idea of buying handmade. But sometimes something as simple as these things can still be a dilemma. Local, handmade goods are widely available throughout Morocco, but for me, it's still hard to buy them if I don't see a direct connection between the money that I'm paying for the product and the Artisan who made it.

It's a tricky situation because as a maker myself and a volunteer who works with a struggling women's cooperative, I want to see as much of the product revenue as possible go to the person who made the item, not some middleman out to take advantage of them.

But middlemen have to make a living too, and these products are coming from places around Morocco, and from groups of people who might not otherwise be able to bring their products to the markets that will buy them. So I guess you might say I'm on the fence about the whole middlemen idea, though I always buy directly from an artisan when I have the chance.

Throughout this post are pictures of products that I've bought this last year in Morocco. They are examples of how I'm changing the world with my money. Most of them come from the last two Marché Maroc craft fairs this past spring. Some will be gifts for family, while others I will be keep and treasure for years to come.

In watching the cooperative that I work with grow and develop their product line and skills over the last year, I have seen first-hand the difference that buying handmade can make.

Serving as a couple; reflections

2010-09-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today is our third wedding anniversary. Tomorrow marks our second year of living in Morocco. Many people have asked us what it's like to be in Peace Corps as a married couple. We've been asked this by both fellow (single) volunteers, as well as people back home. Most people assume that our experience is in many ways "easier" than our single counterparts. I'm not going to say that our experience is any easier or harder than that of single volunteers. Everyone has their own unique and valid point of view, which is effected by many factors, such as; location of site, quality of work, acceptance by their community, race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, personal comfort level, etc. in addition to marital status.

Today I'm going to examine how being a married Peace Corps volunteer has effected me. So here it is; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good:

An Excellent built-in support system. Though I consider all my SBD (small business development) stagemates friends, there's nothing like having someone around who really knows and understands me. Plus, when I have a bad day at work, Jon always finds a way to make me feel better. On the other side of this, Jon is my biggest and loudest cheerleader. It's important to have someone in my corner rooting for me, especially when others don't seem to even understand what I'm trying to do.

Having someone around that speaks my language, literally. After two years of communicating in a language that I never spoke prior to September 2008, I can meet my basic needs, communicate effectively with my HCN (host country national) counterparts, and joke around with people on a basic level. But true understanding is hard to come by and deep conversations are almost non-existent in a language that is not my own.

Lack of harassment / unwanted attention. Our town is small enough that I don't have to be walking around next to Jon for people to know who I am and that I'm married. Because of this, I do not receive a lot of harassment in my site. The few times that I have experienced low levels of unwanted attention (men asking for my number or making kissing noises) it's never from someone I see on a regular basis or who knows that I'm married.

Community acceptance and respect. In some ways I feel that Moroccans (men and women) have a higher level of respect for me, because I am married, though it is hard to put my finger on why exactly this is. I think that it has to do with the culture. Marriage is seen as a more permanent and sacred union.

Sharing the work. Washing clothes, cooking, shopping, cleaning; it's all a lot easier (and more enjoyable) with an extra set of hands.

The Bad:

Always having someone to be compared to. This was an issue in the begining because I didn't pick up the language as quickly as Jon did and I didn't feel as confident in general while speaking. I heard a lot of "she doesn't know anything" when in fact I did just as well as Jon on our language test and was on pare with most of my stage, it's just that when there are two people right next to each other, it's easy to compare. Now I'm experiencing a different sort of comparison. Because Jon ran into issues with the men that he was assigned to work with and no longer goes to the Artisana on a regular basis, I'm constantly bombarded with questions about him, "where's Jon" "why doesn't he come?" "is he sleeping?" "you come every day and he never comes."

Community integration. Though I'm a shy person by nature, I often wonder if I would have stronger friendships with Moroccans if Jon wasn't here. Sometimes it becomes an excuse not to have tea with someone because Jon's expecting me to come back home at a certain time, when in fact, I know that he wouldn't mind if I came home later than expected. I also feel that we might not get as many invitations to come over for lunch or tea because we are a couple and people just assume that we want to be left alone, while a female (or even a male) volunteer living on their own would be perceived as being particularly miskina (a poor thing) and in need of company.

The ugly:

Dealing with the fact that Jon is having a very different experience here than I, and that his experience has been a particularly difficult one. The fact that he has been very depressed for a long time, and that he has wanted to go home over a year, makes me feel guilty, selfish, and responsible for his misery because I do not share most of his sentiments or want to return to the US before our service is complete.

There you have it, the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a married PCV. I can never tell who is reading this blog, but I know that before coming to Morocco I read the blogs of many volunteers that served before me to get a better idea of what to expect. That is really the biggest reason behind writing this particular post. Everyone will have a different experience, but to those of you that are married and are thinking about joining the Peace Corps I have one thing to say.

Keep in mind that at any particular point in your service you can be in very different places emotionally. Try to help and encourage your spouse along as much as possible and remember that no matter how things turn out with Peace Corps, whether you end up serving just one week or complete your service, you need to keep the bigger picture, your marriage, in mind.

About Marché Maroc

2010-09-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Marché Maroc is series of craft fairs and the brain child of one of our Stagemates, Lynn. If you've been following this blog, you've heard us talk about it in several posts, which include; Craft Fair Products for Marché Maroc in Marrakesh, A Paper Making Tale..., Embroidered t-shirts and new banner photo, Creating a Business Card, and most recently in the post, Fun with Paper Beads!

The purpose behind Marché Maroc is to create a venue and opportunity for Artisans (who work with Peace Corps Volunteers) to sell their products and participate in hands-on workshops to improve their businesses. The women of Al Falah have been fortunate enough to have participated in all three Marchés so far;

Fes-October, 2009

Marrakesh-April, 2010

Rabat-May, 2010.

They have come a long way in their product development, product display, book keeping, and general business practices since the first Marché Maroc last October. Without these craft fairs, the cooperative is severely limited as to where they can afford to sell their products. The only craft fair that they attend besides the Marchés is a craft fair that takes place in a nearby town every July. This year it was a 14-day-long affair and they sold a fraction of the amount that they did at either of the previous two Marché Marocs.

But sales figures aside, Marché Maroc has been a great opportunity for the women to network with other crafts people from around the country and to create friendships with people they otherwise would never have met.

It's for these reasons that I am so disappointed that the Marché Maroc, scheduled to be held in Fes again this October, was canceled.

Another unfortunate side effect of the cancellation of Marché Maroc Fes is that I am now unable to pass on important knowledge of how to prepare the marketing materials for future Marché Marocs to a first year volunteer who could take my place. These materials were extremely time-consuming to produce (especially the first time around), but on top of that, we (second year volunteers) had hoped that future Marché Marocs continue with the same brand identity that we have created, so as to maintains a cohesion from one Marché to the next. As the program continues through the years (we hope) it will gain recognition as a craft fair worth attending.

Below are examples of the marketing materials I designed and created in Adobe Illustrator:
Large banner (printed on vinyl)

11x17 Poster (printed in color)

1/4 sheet size flier (printed double sided in black and white)

Program, outside (printed as a full sheet, double sided and folded. Black and white)

Program, inside (opposite side of above image)

Name tags for artisans and volunteers (printed on a full sheet then cut. Names written out by hand. Black and white)

T-shirt design (silk-screened)

Take Your Chicken To Work Day

2010-09-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

One of the woodcarvers has a donkey that he "parks" in the yard of the artisan while he works. Sometimes a herd of sheep will pass through to graze on the grass. But for the last two days, this chicken has been hanging around inside the artisana and yesterday she came right into the work room. I will miss seeing these animals on a day-to-day basis when I return to the US.

Fun with Paper Beads!

2010-09-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 1st, was the first day back to work for (some of) the coop ladies. Unfortunately, I had to break the news to them that Marché Maroc, the craft fair in Fes, wasn't going to happen this year (I'm so totally bummed out about this for them, perhaps even more than they are). The fair was supposed to happen in October and now that they don't have that to look forward to, I figured why not introduce a fun little project and make some paper beads? It turned out to be a huge hit with the girls. They were so into what they were doing they weren't even talking! Now, that's saying something! Here's a few pictures that I shot of them yesterday.

For a how-to on how to make these beads check out one of my previous posts here. After posting that how-to I found another great video from a cooperative in Uganda who make amazing paper beads. Their stuff is really great! Check it out their video tutorial here.

And here's a little preview of a paper bead project that I've been working on...

The Burn Test; Is It Wool?

2010-08-31T00:29:00.000-07:00

If you are a Small Business volunteer who works with a group that does anything with fiber or textiles and had to deal with some aspect of quality control, chances are you've wondered what kind of materials your group is actually using. So, you ask your group, "what is this made of?"

Many times the reply would be "sufa" (wool).

For me, my response was, "Hmmm..." I'd think to myself, I don't think so...

In my case my cooperative was making mostly knit gloves for winter at the time. They were using a yarn that they'd have stranded together at the local yarn shop to make it as thick or thin as they wanted. It was a "fuzzy" yarn, and kind of scratchy, but it wasn't wool.

At first it was difficult because my language skills weren't as developed. Maybe they know it's not wool, they just don't have a word for synthetic. Or maybe they really thought it was wool.

So later on we had a little chat and I explained the difference between wool and acrylic. That was really all my cooperative needed. For the types of products the cooperative makes now, it isn't important that they use wool or even cotton for them to be appealing to a tourist or export market. In fact, using the acrylic yarns that they use work better for making their coin purses because they are easily washed, the colors don't bleed, and the yarn has a slight sheen to it.

But for some cooperatives, especially those who make carpets and want to export them, it's really important that they at least know the fiber content of their products.

About a year ago I was talking to a fellow volunteer (Lynn) who was having this problem with her group. That's when I remembered the Fiber Burn Chart that I had learned about in my Fibers class back in college. I showed her the chart, and since then she's been burning just about every yarn in sight wherever she goes! The link above explains the simple process of burning unknown fiber to see what it's made from. It's a great resource for volunteers working with textile-based cooperatives. I love to hear Lynn's stories about bringing her lighter to her cooperative and showing the women if a yarn is wool or not. It's been very enlightening for the women.

Fun, Easy, and Cheap Jewelry Projects

2010-08-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

If your a current Small Business Development or Youth Development Volunteer in Morocco you've probably heard of the Art Resource Manual (ARM) that two of my stagemates (Hillary and Lisa) are putting together. They're really trying to put together a great resource for future volunteers so that they don't have to recreate the wheel. I'm trying to help them out by putting together some of the projects that I've done here in country that I think other volunteers could benifit from.

In this post I will give a how to for making paper beads and will show examples of some finished jewelry pieces that I've made with the paper beads, as well as the felt beads from my last post; Felt Beads, How To. I got the idea for trying the paper bead project from a CraftSanity blog post. On Jennifer's blog she even has an awesome video of a TV segment where she demonstrates the process. But for the benifit of ARM, as well as all you volunteers that might not have a fast enough internet connection to view the video, I'm going to go through the process of making the beads step-by-step.

How To Make Paper Beads

Materials needed:
Old Magazines
Glue (I found mine at the hardware store)
Paint brush (small)
Something to form the bead around such as knitting needles, pens, etc. (I like beads with small holes so I use a very skinny knitting needle. They are widely available in Morocco)

Step one
cut up some magazine pages into long triangular pieces. Play around with the length and width of the pieces because they will make differently shaped beads. Try to keep the triangles uniform if you want your beads to be a similar size and shape (duh).

Step two
Paint the glue onto the wrong side of the magazine (the side you don't want to see). Start the glue about one inch from wide end. If your glue starts all the way at the wide end then you will glue it to whatever you are making your bead with (oops).

Step three
Starting at the wide end, tightly wrap the paper around the knitting needle/pen. Go slowly so that it looks pretty!

Add just a little more glue to the point and hold it in place for a second or two to secure it well.

Step four
Generously add a coat of glue to the entire bead and let dry in a way that the bead is not touching any surface

Now you know how to make a paper bead so make LOTS of them and you too can make beautiful jewelry! The following photos are some necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that I made this week using paper beads. The other materials that you'll see were also obtained in Morocco. The earring posts and necklace clasps were bought in the Rabat Medina. The seed beads were bought right in my own site (you buy them by weight. Two dirhims' worth of each color will go pretty far). And the "string" is actually unwaxed dental floss from our medical kit (because who uses unwaxed dental foss?). The only thing that I used that I did not get in Morocco was the skinny elastic inside the bracelets (the ones without the clasp). If you look around I think you can get it here, but I happened to have some that I brought from the US. Remember that you can make great necklaces even with just some string or thread, so if you can't make it to Rabat or find fasteners near you, you can still do this project. Use your imagination!

And as promised, here are a few new pieces using the felted beads:

Felt Beads; How To

2010-08-27T04:50:00.000-07:00

Making felted beads is a easy and fun project to do. Whether your working with a women's cooperative, a group of kids at Spring Camp or your just a little board over the weekend, this is the project for you. It's a very low tech process and the materials that you will need are easily available in Morocco.

Materials needed:
Wool fleece or wool yarn
Two buckets or bowls
Hot water
Cold water
Soap (such as Hammam soap, dish soap, or shampoo)
Carders (optional)

First you will need to find some wool. Clean fleece that hasn't yet been made into yarn is best. In my site I do not have fleece available so I'm using wool yarn. This is more work, as it needs to be unwound and carefully pulled apart. (If you do choose to use yarn, do make sure that it is actually wool and not some other fiber. If you do not use wool you will not be able to make felt.)

At this point it is best to card the wool, so as to further separate the fibers, making them nice a fluffy. If you have women who spin yarn in your community I encourage you to have them help you with this part. Otherwise, you can pick up some good pointers here.

You can also use the carders to mix two or more colors together.

Now it's time to felt! Fill one bucket with hot water and a little soap. The water should be as hot as you can stand to put your hands into it (so not boiling). Fill your other bucket with cold water. It should be as could as you can get it so if you have a refrigerator or a cold water spring nearby great. The soap will help to strip the natural oils from the wool and help it felt better while the hot and cold water will "shock" it into felting.

Take some of your newly carded wool and dip it into the hot soapy water.

Now take the wad of wool and roll it into a ball using your palms. After a few seconds of rolling, drop the ball into the cold water and repeat the process. Go back and forth between the hot and cold water until you have a tightly formed bead.

Wool is an inexpensive and plentiful resource here in Morocco, which makes this project especially easy to do with groups or individuals that might not have a lot of other resources at their disposal. String these beads on some yarn and you have a necklace! If you want to get "fancy" you can find some elastic and make some bracelets or some erring posts. I was able to find earring posts in Rabat and I know that they are also available in Ouarzazate, so keep your eyes open.

Felting; A Lesson in Workshop Preparedness

2010-08-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

Over the past two years I've had the opportunity to conduct a few workshops both with host country nationals as well as with Peace Corps volunteers. Each has been a uniquely different learning experience, mostly for myself.

About two weeks ago I agreed to facilitate a felting workshop at another volunteers' site. Felting is something that I do not consider myself an expert on. I learned the basics in my intro to fibers class back in college and felt confident that I had retained the important aspects of it, brushing up with a few YouTube videos just in case. I had about a week to prepare for the event so I worked on making samples of what is possible with felting. The group that I was going to be working with works mostly with knit wool, so I knitted two mostly identical swatches and proceeded to felt one of them so as to illustrate the difference in size and texture between the two fabrics. Next I felted a few beads, making two of them into a pair of earrings to show the ladies.

Finally, I wanted to create some felted...felt. I was able to find hand carders in my site, a tool I never actually used in college, but was unable to find the raw fleece itself. I tried ripping apart some wool yarn to use (which was good enough for making the beads), but it was clear that this was not going to work. I asked the volunteer that I was collaborating with if fleece was easily available in her site and if they would have it on hand for the workshop. This meant that I would have to go into the workshop with no example, no visual aid for this process which made me a little apprehensive about the workshop.

On the day of the workshop I arrived in the volunteers' site around 11:30am. After gathering the things I needed for the workshop and talking with the volunteer about what I would be showing the women, we headed over to their home. By this time it was 12 or 12:30 and after waiting on the doorstep for a few long moments under the hot August sun the door was opened. It was clear that we had interrupted the womans Ramadan sleep schedule. We then sat in her salon for several minutes while she obtained fleece from her "stash." The fleece she produced was dirty and matted and had been used as pillow fluff up until that moment.

At this point my Peace Corps college was apologizing and assuring me that she had indeed notified this woman about the workshop two days prior. These things, I have come to learn, happen and now I had to "make it work." The biggest obstacle in my opinion was the host country womans lack of motivation and excitement over learning this new process. Luckily, her sister was around and joined in on the workshop. At least she was interested and willing to participate.

I first showed the women the samples that I had brought and briefly explained how I made the beads and how I had felted the knitted swatch. I was met with blank stares and decided to just get some wool into their hands so that they could make something.

The first thing we made were the felted beads. To make the beads we took some of the matted fleece in our hands, loosened it up by separating the fibers then dunking the tuft of fluff into alternating bowls of hot soapy water and ice cold water. Each time we removed the piece of wool from the water we rolled it in our hands to create a tight ball, as tight as we could make it.

It was then time to try to make the felt. I tried to explain that we needed to card the wool first, but that I wasn't very good at carding. That was my hint to the women which was supposed to mean "hey here's your chance to actually do something! Why not just help me!?" The concept was lost until I actually started carding and it was clear that we'd be there all day if they didn't step in to help, that was when one of the women reluctantly took over carding.

I proceeded to arrange the carded wool in the way that I was taught many years ago. The result was a very thick piece of wool and tender hands from dipping them into the scolding hot water. Shortly after starting my felting presentation the other, more enthusiastic sister told me that she'd seen this on TV, but said that in fact you didn't have to shock the wool (as I was doing with the hot and cold water), just use room temperature water with lots of soap. Now, I'm all for experimentation, but I didn't enjoy being contradicted in the middle of the workshop. The problem was that with no physical examples of something finished that they could make with the felt they had no idea what I was really talking about. It also meant that I had no authority to tell them how to make felt.

I was about ready to throw in the towel and wrap up the workshop when the non-enthusiastic-about-felting-sister inquired about a couple of unfinished coin purses that were stuck in the bag with the rest of my supplies. At that moment I dreaded with every fiber of my being what I was sure would come next, the question, "will you show me how you did this?" As much as felting is not my forte at this juncture of my life, crocheting with two colors in the round is something that I've mostly mastered since coming to Morocco. I enjoy doing it, and just as importantly, I enjoy teaching Moroccan Women as well as fellow Peace Corps volunteers how to do it. Now everyone learns differently and at their own speed, but considering that it took me four days and over 30 hours to teach two ladies in a different volunteers' site recently (more on that later), I just knew I didn't have the energy to go down this road with this woman. As a compromise I sat down and crochet one small flower motif, explaining what I was doing as I went and showed her how what I did corresponded to the directions I had written out. Afterward I gave her the crochet sample along with a copy of the written directions.

The volunteer who's site this was is very enthusiastic about working with other girls in the community to make jewelry out of the felted beads, since there are many girls in her small town with nothing to do. I hope that this project works out for them, so that some good will come of this workshop. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, like so many other projects here in Morocco.

Creating a Business Card

2010-08-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a fellow volunteer asked me how I created "attractive, simple and inexpensive business cards" for my cooperative. I promptly emailed her an explanation of the process but then I thought, why not just make a blog post about it so everyone can see and know what I did? That's the great thing about blogs, they are such an easy way of sharing ideas with a large group of people!

There are many ways that you can go about creating a business card. The process that I used involves Adobe Illustrator, which I know not everyone has available to them. If you don't have Adobe Illustrator you can use any program that allows you to combine photos with text. The advantage to using Illustrator is that it is a vector based program, which leaves your text looking crisp and clear, not pixellated and fussy.

Before you get started you need to first come up with a plan for what you want your business card to look like. When working with cooperatives and associations, it is important that you ask the opinion of the people you are making the card for because even if they are unable to create the card themselves, they will feel that they have had input into the final results. In my case, the women initiated this business card project after they went to their first Marche Maroc in Fes. Many of the other artisan groups at the craft fair had business cards and they enjoyed going around collecting them from the other groups. These business cards widely varied in terms of quality and style. Some looked like a professional business cards, some were in color, and some were just small slips of paper printed with a photo copier. The ladies of Al-Falah could pick out the nicer ones right away and decided that they needed a good looking business card.

We talked about what they wanted the business card to include and it became clear that they didn't really understand what the purpose of a business card should be. They wanted a LOT of information on the card. In addition to the name of their cooperative, name of the town and contact information, they wanted to include a description of what they do. The issue with this is that this particular cooperative doesn't focus on just one type of thing like weaving or woodcarving, and to include a list of everything that they do would make the card cluttered and hard to read. They also wanted many photos on the card of the different types of products that they make. At this point I needed to explain the difference between a business card and a brochure. I also explained that people are going to realize immediately what they do because the business cards would be available at craft fairs where their products would be on display. With this new knowledge they decided to go with a more simplified version and only include the most pertinent information.

Since Jon had already gone through this process several months before with his cooperative, and since the two cooperatives work in the same Artisana, I thought it would be nice if the cards retained a similar look and feel. Below is the business card that Jon created.

I used this business card a template for the one I would make. I liked the idea of having the photo also serve as the background for the text and I used the same fonts. For the women's card I had the idea of doing a very close up detailed shot for the image so as to emphasis the detailed nature of their work. I also wanted there marketing materials to look cohesive. Before making the cards I suggested that they make themselves a table banner for upcoming fairs. The image on the business card is actually a close up of the border of this banner.

After taking many photos of embroidery I was ready to create the card. I measured an actual business card to get the dimensions then plugged in those numbers to create the size of the Illustrator file. I then imported, shrunk, and positioned the photo. Next I wrote the text on top of the photo using the type tool. That was about it.

To print the cards I went to a place that prints photos. The end result is that they essentially have business card-sized photos with their co-op name and info printed on them. The cost was 1/2 DH per card. Not supper cheap but half the cost as what we paid for our Peace Corps business cards. Below is the finished product complete with a crochet display stand!

Impromptu Henna Party

2010-06-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I arrived at the artisana the girls where preparing a bunch of henna. I asked what the occasion was, but Fatima simply told me that the girls just felt like doing it. That's one thing that I enjoy about my job here...I never really know what's going to happen on any given day.

I managed to take just a few pictures and do a little crochet before it was my turn. After I got hennaed I was totally useless of course and just sat there and chatted for the next two hours. Fatima took this picture of me right after Ayisha finished drawing it on my skin. She's a really great henna artist! I love all the delicate line weight that she was able to achieve!

When I got home I dabbed the dried henna with some olive oil before peeling it off. The girls told me to just use vegetable oil (probably because it's cheaper), but I opted for the good stuff. I think the oil is supposed to help the henna "set," but it also just feels nice on the skin because the dried henna doesn't feel that great. when the henna first comes off it's bright yellow, then darkens up over the next several hours. By today it was a nice brown color.

Making in Morocco; Refections

2010-06-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I subscribed to a podcast called CraftSanity, by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood. It's an interview show about "art, craft and creativity" and is produced by Jennifer "in the hope that it will help us all live long and crafty lives." It's a great podcast with an accompanying blog which features interesting tutorials and stories about Jennifer's crafty life and the crafty lives of the people she interviews. It has been a tremendous asset to me since I've been here in Morocco. Whenever I find myself working out a new product design at home I almost always have the iPod on listening to a podcast, and hers is by far my favorite because it's so inspirational to listen to other artists' stories while I'm trying to create something.

Jennifer's been pod casting for about four and a half years now, so I have a lot of pod casts to catch up on (which is awesome because I don't have to wait a week or two for her to publish a new one). I've been making my way backwards and the other day I listened to episode #59 with Anne Landre about her Mother's Day Project.

As Jennifer states at the begging of the interview, this podcast is heavier than her usual interviews. The purpose of the Mother's Day Project "is to draw attention to the human cost of the Iraq War."

About half way through the podcast Jennifer said something that struck me personally and made me reflect on my work here in a way that I haven't really done before. She said, "I wish we could figure out a better way to solve issues...if we got a lot of women together and chatted and sat around and just made things maybe we could solve some issues together...it sounds so trivial and ridicules but I'd rather see something like that then blowing things up."

In a lot of ways, I guess you can say that is what I do here. Morocco is a peaceful country. It is also a Muslim country. There have been a few instances where I felt that people I know in the States were apprehensive about the fact that I'm spending over two years of my life in a Muslim country. In a way I understand their apprehensions because they only have TV as a reference. I don't think that the American media does a good enough job in distinguishing between people who are doing bad things (like killing other people and themselves) and people who aren't. The media makes a lot of Americans think that the Muslim Religion is what's to blame by saying things like "the Muslim terrorist" or The Muslim extremist." The word "Muslim" is thrown around a lot, while the important words terrorist and extremist become secondary, to the point where Americans just associate those words with the Muslim Religion.

I have lived in Morocco for nearly two years at this point and can say with confidence that Moroccans don't hate Americans. They are warm, welcoming and patient people.

Jennifer's comment struck me because on a daily basis I am literally sitting in a circle of young women making things, listening, and talking. I believe that this has been the real reason to any success that I have had here. Verbal language has never been my strongest asset. Though my language has gotten to the point where I am comfortable in most situations, my best form of communication has been with my hands. Yes, I do provide technical training, like showing Fatima new crochet techniques and how to write her own patterns, or teaching Omima (below) how to master the chain stitch, but this is not what is really important.

What is important is that the women and I learn to put faces to the words "American" and "Muslim." We are all just people and we are good people. The girls are happy that I'm here and don't want me to go, which to me is the highest complement they could ever pay me.

Before coming to Morocco I didn't know what to expect. I knew that Peace Corps doesn't place volunteers in places that are dangerous. Of course, when you're so far away for such a long time your friends and family will always worry about you. I know this has been the case for me. I just hope that the work I've done to write about my experience here, both on my blog and in e-mails, has done a good job in showing the people who care about me back home that this is a place with good people.

Every volunteer wants to make some kind of a difference and fulfill one if not all three of the goals of Peace Corps (see side panel of this blog and read the "three goals of Peace Corps) and I am no different.

note: The pictures featured in this post where taken this past Friday.

Paper Making Tutorial Part 5

2010-06-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

At last, the moment you've all been waiting for, the last installment of my paper making tutorial!

In this post I will;
-teach you how to dry your paper

Once you've made all the paper you want for the day you will have a big stack of blankets, pressing cloths (bed sheets), and your newly formed paper, all of which will be soaking wet. Now you will use the board that all of this is stacked on to carry everything to where you want to dry your paper. Careful, it will be quite heavy and water will get all over you.

Like I mentioned in part 2 of this tutorial, you will need a very flat, smooth, and clean surface to dry your paper. You will also need a lot of space. I use my very smooth concrete floors. If you don't have floors like these, you could buy very large, thin boards from your carpenter and lacquer them well, but this will add quite a bit of extra cost to your venture.

Once you are in the space where you want to dry your paper, you will start deconstructing your stack of blankets and pressing cloths. Take each blanket and lay it flat on the floor to dry. Alternatively you could use a clothes line to dry your blankets, but since they will be very wet and heavy this isn't as good of an option. You don't want the clothes line to leave a crease in your blankets (this will effect future paper that you make) and you don't want to hang them by the very edge because these blankets fray very easily. So laying them flat is best.

Two sheets of newly formed paper will be sandwiched between two pressing cloths. Carefully lift the pressing cloths and lie them flat on the floor to dry. Make sure your paper is completely smooth. Smooth out the edges of the pressing cloths, trying to make them "stick" to the floor with there own moisture. This will help the paper dry flat.

That's it! your paper should be dry in 24-48 hours, depending on humidity. Your paper may still have buckled slightly while drying. You can remedy this by using an iron on them or just stacking them up, placing your board on top and weighting it down until you are ready to use the paper. Check out my post A Paper Making Tale... from earlier this month to read about the meandering journey me and the cooperative have gone through to get to the point we are now with this project and includes photos of what the women have made with the paper. Below is a painted and embroidered piece that I created for the Art4Peace show at Cafe Clock in Fes in December 2009. For the show, volunteers created and donated artwork. The proceeds later went to help fund the Marche Maroc Craft fair in Rabat this past May.

I hope that this tutorial has been helpful for you. If you use this tutorial I'd love to hear what your experience was so leave me a comment!

Paper Making Tutorial Part 4

2010-06-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

In this post I will;
-Teach you how to make paper with step-by-step instructions!

Ready?

Here we go!

Before you begin, you will need to prepare the surface where you will transfer your paper sheets. Take your wood board and place it on a flat surface near your tub. Place two or three blankets on top of the board to make a cushiony surface, then place a pressing cloth (bed sheet) on top of those. Line up all edges and smooth out any wrinkles. Your board, blankets, and pressing cloth should all be the same size.

Step 1:
Fill a large tub with water. Their should be enough water to comfortably submerge the mold and deckle. Note the amount of water that you use by measuring the water level with your ruler. The water to pulp ratio that you use will effect the thickness and quality of the paper. This you will have to experiment with to get the paper thickness that you want.

Step 2:
Add the pulp, making note of how much you use.

Step 3:
Gently mix the pulp in the water so that pulp is evenly distributed in water and not accumulated on the bottom of tub.

Step 4:
Hold the deckle firmly to the mold with both hands at a 90 degree angle to the water. Make sure that your thumbs are placed on the deckle and do not overlap onto the screen.

Step 5:
Bring the mold and deckle into the water at a 90 degree angle and in one smooth motion, swivel the mold and deckle so that they are parallel to tubs' bottom and completely submerged, then raise the mold and deckle out of the water, keeping them perfectly horizontal.

If you bring the mold and deckle out of the water and they are not parallel to the water your paper will be uneven. Also, the mold will create a little bit of suction right as you are bringing it out of the water, causing some resistance. Don't hesitate when this happens, just bring the mold and deckle straight up.

Step 6:
Hold the mold and deckle over the tub in the horizontal position while the pulp settles on the screen and most of the water drips out the bottom.

Step 7:
Set down the mold and deckle on a flat surface and carefully remove the deckle. Try not to let water drip onto your newly formed paper as this will leave irregular spots in the paper.

Step 8:
Hold the mold at a 90 degree angle to your pressing cloth and carefully roll the mold onto the cloth until it is resting face down on the bed sheet (this is called "couching").

Step 9:
Press on the back of the molds' screen firmly and evenly, making sure to make contact with the entire surface including corners. This will help the paper stick to the cloth and separate from the screen. The paper will still have LOTS of water in it which will seep out and get everything wet, this is normal.

Step 10:
Slowly and carefully roll off the mold, leaving the new paper on the cloth. If only some of the paper stayed on the cloth and the rest is still on the screen, don't fret! This pulp can be put back into the tub to be re-used. Couching paper is tricky and will take a few tries to get the hang of.

Step 11:
Before pulling your next sheet of paper, you will need to add more pulp. I add about 1-2 cups of pulp after each sheet, but it will depend on the size of your cup and how thick you want your sheets.

Step 12:
Check screen to see if there is any paper pulp stuck in it. I usually throughly rinse my screen after every second sheet that I pull.

Step 13:
Repeat steps 3-10 until you have 2 sheets of paper on your pressing cloth.

Step 14:
Place a new pressing cloth (bed sheet) on top of your two new paper sheets and carefully smooth out wrinkles in the pressing cloth. Then place a blanket on top of that, and another pressing cloth on top of the blanket. Always make sure that the blankets and pressing cloths are lined up along the edges and free of wrinkles.

Repeat steps 3-14 until you have as many sheets of paper you want, or have run out of pulp, or have run out of pressing cloths and blankets. I have enough pressing cloths to make 24 sheets of paper at one time. This usually takes about 1 and a half to two hours or so which is a good amount of time for me. Keep in mind that there is a lot of bending over involved so if you are prone to back pain you will want to make less amounts of paper at a time. Take frequent breaks to stretch.

Now you know how to form sheets of paper! There's just one more installment to this tutorial where I will tell you how to dry your paper.

Paper Making Tutorial Part 3

2010-06-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

In this post I will
-teach you how to make paper pulp out of your raw materials

Here we go!

Making paper pulp
Now that you have your raw materials gathered you will need to transform them into pulp. For this tutorial I will be speaking specifically about toilet paper rolls, egg cartons and Laughing Cow cheese boxes. The method for all of these is about the same, with a small exception for the cheese boxes.

First, partially fill two buckets with water. Use one of the buckets for soaking the raw materials. After the materials are throughly saturated with water you will then tear them into smaller pieces. Put the torn pieces (torn into about 1 inch squares) into the other bucket. Keep doing this until all your materials have been torn. For the Laughing cow boxes, make sure that you remove the glossy coating with the words. This will be very easy to do once it has soaked for a couple of minutes.

Now the fun part! Take a handful of the torn pieces and place them in your blender. Not too much! Fill the blender with water. You should have about 1 part paper and 2 parts water. Blend for a few seconds. Pour the pulp into a separate bucket. Repeat a few more times. If you have a lot of pulp to make, try to just blend 3 or 4 blenders full at a time, letting your blender motor rest inbetween to extend its' life.

CAUTION: if at any time you start to smell burning rubber or see smoke coming out of the blender, stop blending immediately and unplug from the wall! This should not happen if you are using a quality blender.

Now you have your pulp! Store in buckets until you are ready to make your paper. try to make your pulp no more than a week before you use it, as it will develop a sour smell if you leave it sitting for long periods of time. This does not mean that your pulp has gone bad, though it can be unpleasant to work with.

Come back soon and I'll show you how to turn this slurry of mush into beautiful handmade paper!

Paper Making Tutorial Part 2

2010-06-14T02:38:00.000-07:00

In this post I will:
-Tell you what conditions are necessary for making paper
-List supplies needed for making paper
-Suggest raw materials suitable for making paper which are easily found in Morocco

Time and Infrastructure
Depending on where you live, making paper year round may not be possible or at least, practical. Where I am living now, winters are very cold and we have a lot of rain. This is not conducive to paper making for two reasons. First, submerging your hands into cold water repeatedly for long periods of time is very painful and second, the paper will take much much longer to dry when there is a lot of moisture in the air. So please take this into consideration when you are planing out your project.

You will also need access to a lot of water. This will be more difficult for volunteers who do not have constant access to water like in places where you must carry water long distances or if water is available only at certain times of the day. It is best if the location where you are working is close to a water source. Also keep in mind that where you are working will become quite wet on the ground/floor, so you'll want to either work outside or in a place that can be easily moped/squeegeed. In my case I've been using my roof for now but plan to move the operation to the cooperatives' workspace so that the project will be sustainable.

Finally, you will need a large, flat, clean, and very smooth surface for drying the paper. For now I've been using an empty room in our ridiculously large house. The floors are very smooth, finished concrete with no creases. Fortunately, the workspace in the cooperative has the same flooring and an untraveled area in the corner.

Supplies needed
-mold and deckle (see my last post on how to construct these)
-One board measuring 62cm x 40cm x 1.5cm This you can have made from a local carpenter. It will need at least three coats of lacquer to protect it from warping.
-Blankets cut to 62cm x 40cm. One gray blanket yielded me 18 cut blankets
-Bed sheets cut to 62cm x 40cm. Two full size bed sheets yielded me 16 cut sheets
-One large wash tub big enough for mold and deckle to lie flat inside. Mine measures 61cm at the top, but buy this after making the mold and deckle to makes sure that yours fits.
-Several buckets to store paper pulp
-Blender. You may want to buy a blender just for paper making, as the paper will dull the blades. Make sure that it is of good quality however, as a cheep blender will break quickly and therefore will not save you money in the long run.
-Ruler
-small plastic cup or scoop

-Raw materials for making paper pulp
The following are items that I have found make very nice, cardstock-like paper and can be found easily here in Morocco.

-toilet paper rolls
-egg cartons
-Laughing Cow cheese boxes
-other cardboard packaging items

The egg cartons and cheese boxes can be acquired from any hanute for free. I've read that used photocopy paper can also be used, but have not personally tried it, as I do not have a lot of it lying around.

The following are items NOT to use when making paper

-newspaper
-magazines or anything glossy

That's all for today folks! The paper making tutorial will continue soon!

Paper Making Tutorial Part 1

2010-06-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

In this post I will:
-give a brief overview of who may and may not benefit from this tutorial
-give specific instructions and dimensions for constructing your own mold and deckle

Since starting to make paper here in Morocco almost one year ago, I've had many requests to teach fellow volunteers as well as host country nationals, and take my paper making operation on the road. This is a great medium for working with handicraft cooperatives, as well as children as part of an art/environment project. For this reason, this project has great potential for at least three of the four volunteer sectors in Morocco (small business development, environment, and youth development).

Unfortunately, beyond the Training Of Trainers (TOT) workshop I held in my home in September, 2009, and the recent TOT workshop for Fatima and Hafida, I haven't been able to do any trainings outside of my site due to a number of circumstances. Mostly the problem seems to be due to the amount of materials needed. I am more than happy to bring my mold and deckle around to other sites to share this activity, but it's just impractical to travel with all the other necessary equipment. Most volunteers underestimate the amount of work that goes into getting everything prepared to make handmade paper. This shouldn't be a project that a volunteer does on a whim or as a one time only event because of the amount of time and money investment that will need to go into it. Because the initial investment is kinda high, the longer the project continues the more worth while the investment becomes.

That said, I do not want to discourage volunteers or crafters seriously interested in paper making from pursuing this activity if it fits into a larger project that they are doing. That is in fact why I wanted to post this tutorial. I want it be replicated by others. I want people to realize that this can be a very viable project if you and your counterparts are motivated.

I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information, and will therefore split it up into separate posts.

Constructing the mold frame
Below is a diagram to illustrate how to construct the mold. It's made with four pieces of wood.

-cut two pieces of wood to 36cm x 5cm x 2cm
-cut two pieces of wood to 24cm x 5cm x 2cm
-assemble as shown in diagram below using wood screws and glue to secure the pieces instead of nails

Constructing the deckle frame

Below is a diagram to illustrate how to construct the deckle. It's made in two sections, each containing four pieces of wood which are then assembled together to make one structure of eight pieces of wood. The first structure is assembled the same way as the mold.

-cut two pieces of wood to 28cm x 3cm x 1cm
-cut two pieces of wood to 38.25 cm x 3cm x 1cm
-assemble these four pieces as shown in top of diagram below using wood screws and glue to secure the pieces instead of nails (same construction as mold)
-cut two pieces of wood to 32 cm x 1cm x 3cm
-cut two pieces of wood to 30.25 cm x 1cm x 3cm
-assemble these four pieces as shown in the middle portion of the diagram below using glue
-assemble the top section to the bottom section as seen in the bottom portion of the diagram using glue and screws or nails
*the diagram shows the deckle constructed upside down.

Lacquer the mold and deckle
Now that you have you mold and deckle constructed you must protect it with at least 3 coats of lacquer so that water will not warp and damage it. Make sure that you let it dry thoroughly between each coat. This step can take several days.

Attach the screens
After the mold and deckle have a few coats of lacquer and they are thoroughly dry it's time to put the screen on the mold. I used two different types of screen. The firs was a metal screen with fairly large openings, the second was a plastic screen with smaller openings. Both are common here in Morocco and can be found in any hardware store. I bought a staple gun to attach both screens to the mold. I started with the metal screen and then placed the plastic one on top. The metal screen only covers the top of the mold, where as the plastic one comes down on the sides. You don't want the screen to be too bulky on the sides of the mold or the deckle will not fit properly. However, a little space has been allotted for the screen in the dimensions and thus will make a nice snug fit.

Now you have a mold and deckle! You've just completed the first step to making paper! If any part of my directions are confusing to you, please let me know in the comments section. Or, if you use my tutorial to make a mold and deckle let me know! That's all for today, but don't despair, this tutorial will continue soon...

T-shirt Order Complete

2010-06-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a big week for t-shirt embroidering! Unfortunately, Heather from Mushmina was unable to make the trip up here to see us before she goes back to the U.S. in a couple of days (it is quite a trip, with the long, winding road, and she has been super busy since she came to Morocco, so I can't say I blame her), so she asked the ladies to send them by mail by Friday (yesterday).

By Thursday the girls still had quite a bit of work to do so they worked overtime to get the order completed. Here are some pictures from Thursday of the girls working on the last of the shirts.

As you can see from the picture of Fatima and Hannan (above) and Omima (below) they've been working two girls to a shirt at a time so that they could get the shirts done more efficiently (Hafida later joined Omima to work on the other hoop).

Mirrium (below) is very shy and I had a hard time getting her to stay still and stop giggling to take this picture.

The ladies have a lot of fun while they work and carry on long and lively conversations, but on this day they were mostly business.

And finally, below are a couple more photos of the finished t-shirts. To see more T-shirt photos and to learn more about the background of this project, check out my previous post Embroidered t-shirts and new banner photo.

Embroidered t-shirts and new banner photo

2010-06-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

So I figured it was high time to give our blog a little face lift. The current photo on our banner is a project that I've been working on for the last couple of weeks and just finished this morning! It's a hand embroidered t-shirt in the traditional Moroccan embroidery style called Fesi. The women of the cooperative are working super hard to finish their Mushmina t-shirt order for Heather to pick up next week. Below is a close up of a sleeve of one of their expertly embroidered shirts.

The relationship with Mushmina started way back in April 2009 when the owners of the company, Heather and Katie O'Neill were traveling around Morocco looking for groups who where making things that could fit into their high-end accessory line. At the time, my ladies where making table clothes, napkins and pillow cases, so of course I packed up some smaller pieces and met the sisters in a nearby city!

At this time Mushmina placed an order for strips of fabric embroidered in any style and colors the cooperative ladies wanted to make. Heather and Katie wanted as many strips as the women could produce by the time I went to Marrakesh for our in-service training in mid June. Below are just a few of the designs the coop ladies came up with.

When Heather picked up the fabric strips in June she gave me several t-shirts to have the women embroider on. She consulted with her sister about what colors and designs they wanted on which color t-shirts, drew up some sketches, and placed their order for embroidered t-shirts. Below is a picture of Hafida (center) with Katie (left) and Heather at the Marché Maroc Craft Fair in Fes in October 2009. These shirts are two of the first ones that they made.

The t-shirt fabric turned out to be quit a challenge to embroider on. Though absolutely beautiful in their own right, these t-shirts are particularly thin, soft, and stretchy. There was a bit of a learning curve, but the women did a great job! Below is a photo of Aicha working on one of the shirts this winter. Notice the gloved hand and thick coat...not even frigid cold temperatures can slow down these girls!

All other projects are on hold for the moment while they finish this current order, so I thought I'd show my support and embroider a shirt of my own! The following pictures shows the canvas mesh that is used to help stabilize the fabric, as well as provide the necessary grid format for doing the embroidery.

Afterward, the mesh is unraveled and only the stitches show!

A Paper Making Tale...

2010-06-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

This is a story (a very long one) about how I came to work with handmade paper and the women of the Al-Falah Women's Cooperative. It's a meandering tale of a Peace Corps project that started a year and a half ago and which in many ways is only just beginning. It's a story with many twists and turns (and pictures!) that reminds us that nothing is ever as easy as we think it will be, projects usually take much longer than we expect, and a small seed of an idea can turn into something much bigger than ever anticipated.

This story begins back in November 2008 when I was visiting a nearby volunteer. He was gathering products from cooperatives around the country to take to the capital for a holiday craft fair for expatriates. One of the product lines to be sold at the craft fair was a group of embroidered greeting cards.

At that time I had just sworn in as a volunteer and had been working with my cooperative for a mere week or two. I had only a rudimentary understanding of the kinds of skills that they had. I saw some examples of embroidery around the workroom of the coop. Mostly this consisted of large table cloths with matching napkins, such as this cross-stitched table cloth seen below.

The embroidery always looked well done, but finishing work seemed to be an issue when they used a sewing machine, such as with the Fesi embroidered pillow case below.

Since large embroidered items such as these take a long time to make and tend to cost more than the average tourist wants to spend, I thought that greeting cards might be a good product for them to pursue.

If the women of the Al-Falah cooperative were going to start making greeting cards it was important that they be in a different style than what was already on the market. Though the embroidery styles of the two groups are totally different, I wanted to take things a step further and have the embroidery directly on the card, instead of having a "window" or somehow pasting some embroidered fabric to the card.

Before I presented this idea to the women I made a prototype to see if it would work. The only cardstock that was available in my town was pink. This was not ideal, but for a prototype it would do. I developed a way to transfer the design onto the card without adding any pencil marks or extra holes. I wanted it to look very clean and have good craftsmanship.

To do this, I drew out my design on graph paper that was the same size as the front of the card. Then, using an empty cardboard box as a work surface, I placed the template over the card and secured it on all corners with straight pins. I used another straight pin to make the additional holes. After I remove the template I'm left with just the holes and I use the original template with the drawing to then embroider the card. I was happy with this system, but very unhappy with the pink cardstock. If the project was going to move forward we would have to find a suitable alternative.

I worked on this project both at home as well as at the cooperative and the women seemed to have minor interest in what I was doing, though they did think it was strange that I was embroidering on paper.

Soon it was springtime. Jon and I heard of an annual event going on in southern Morocco called the Rose Festival. It was late April and work was going very slowly with the cooperative. I needed to get out and do some product research and this was the perfect opportunity.

The Rose festival featured several tents with different cooperatives selling their various wares. While browsing around the fair I met a Japanese volunteer (like a Peace Corps volunteer except from Japan). To my delight and surprise, she was also working with her artisans to make embroidered greeting cards!(see photo below) And, she had taught them how to make the paper themselves! Then it struck me. Of course! Handmade paper! This is exactly what we need to be doing!

In college I actually took a whole class on the subject so I had a very good idea about the process, but I earnestly grilled this volunteer to see how she was able to do it here in Morocco. The women that this volunteer worked with were doing a similar style of embroidery that my coop does (a style called "Fesi"), but they were doing it on fabric and pasting it onto the cards, so I still felt like the idea was different enough. Plus, I loved the idea of using materials that were otherwise going to be thrown away. It was the perfect recycling project too! The more I thought about it the more I was convinced that this was the direction we needed to take.

Back in our town, Jon and I spent the next couple of months gathering materials that we would need. The most important thing of course was to make a mold and deckle. Luckily, Jon had taken a paper making course at his school as well, but unlike me, he actually had to make his own mold and deckle for the class and had a better idea of how to construct it. Together we came up with detailed plans.

With this information, we went to one of the many carpenters in town. We didn't need him to actually make it for us- we were planning on doing that ourselves- we just needed him to cut the wood down to very specific measurements. This was very complicated. We wrote all the measurements down in centimeters, knowing that this is of course the standard measurement here. The problem seemed to be with the fact that many of the pieces needed to be cut to a size that wasn't a whole number. Some measurements required the use of 1/2 of a centimeter and some required 1/4 (but nothing smaller or more complicated than that). We stood by and watched him painstakingly measure and mark each piece and cut them. We had the feeling that he wasn't measuring correctly, but didn't want to embarass him in front of his boss. We later found out that every single length of wood (12 in all) were the wrong size. Luckily, all but two were longer than they needed to be, so using a hand saw that belonged to the coop that Jon worked with, he was able to correct these. He also borrowed a drill to screw together all the pieces.

After Jon assembled the mold and deckle I lacquered the whole thing, using several coats and then stapled on two screens; the first one metal with large openings the second one plastic with much smaller holes.

Now that the hard part was over I started to gather the other necessary materials...an extra large tub, a wooden board big enough for two pieces of paper (which also needed to be lacquered), sheets and blankets cut down to the same size as the board, and a blender. Our roof provided the perfect workspace, complete with a conveniently located faucet and drain.

By now it was high summer and the cooperative was on vacation for the entire month of August. This was fine, as I needed time to work out all the bugs in the process. I started making paper myself, trying out different mixtures of materials. At first I was using milk cartons (an idea from the Japanese volunteer), but I soon realized that this wasn't going work very well because before they could be made into paper they had to be separated. To do that they needed to be boiled...it just took too long and too much energy, both my own and that of my buta gas tank. Toilet paper rolls seemed to make the strongest paper and also gave an nice warm color. I also mixed in plenty of egg cartons (free and abundant at every corner store) and Laughing Cow "cheese" boxes. The Laughing Cow boxes need to be soaked first and the labels peeled off, but this is not very difficult.

Now I was making paper! In early September I held a training of trainers for other volunteers who thought they might want to try their hands at making paper with their own cooperatives.

Soon it was Ramadan, and though the women were now back from vacation, their schedule and energy level had completely changed (understandably). At this time I was making as much paper as I could so that I could get it into the hands of the cooperative women and see if they'd even like working with it. For every batch I tried different ratios of pulps and water, trying to get the perfect blend. I made up some new samples (below) and trained them in the technique that I developed. To my relief they absolutely loved embroidering on the cards!

Shortly after my tutorial on how to embroider on the cards, Jon and I took a vacation back to the States for three weeks. By the time we got back it was mid November and getting cold. Since paper making uses so much water (which is very cold to work with when it's cold outside), and winter is a very rainy and wet season (bad for drying paper), training the women how to make the paper themselves was put on hold.

By this time I had lots of paper already made, so they used this to embroider about 30 cards to test market on Peace Corps volunteers and staff during mid service medicals in December.

These first cards were designed so that a flap of paper would fold over the back side of the front, thus hiding any "ugliness" of the "wrong side" of the embroidery. You can kind of see what I mean with the photo of Fatima (below). This was a consequence of the fact that I had not learned the proper way of embroidering Fesi designs. A true Fesi design looks just as good on the back as it does on the front.

Though I gave them a couple of templates to work from to get started (these were based on traditional Fesi designs, but modified slightly), I encouraged them to draw their own designs and use colors that they wanted to use. They took to this right away and came up with some really great stuff. Every couple of days we'd all look at the cards and talk about their craftsmanship. I was careful not to hurt their feelings, but I wanted to be honest with them when I saw something that wasn't up to standard, like if the design was crooked or if the card was all wrinkled. For things like color choices I told them what colors I liked (and possibly tourists as well), but stressed that my opinion on this wasn't the end-all-be-all and that we should see how they sell anyway.

We got so much great feedback from other volunteers and staff in December (see photo below). All but two of their cards sold! This was very encouraging for the ladies and they eagerly wanted to continue with the project and stressed that they'd like to learn how to make the paper themselves, though they understood that they'd have to wait until after the rainy season.

As luck would have it, we had one very sunny, warm, and dry week in January. I knew that this was a fluke and the weather couldn't possibly stay like this for long (and I was right). So I took out all my equipment and worked really hard to make another batch of 24 sheets of paper, this time trying to get really thick sheets.

I used this extra thick and strong paper to make some adjustments to the design. By this time Hafida had taught me how to embroider the proper way and I wanted to showcase the fact that this embroidery does look good from both sides. I also added an insert sheet of "regular" paper (made from recycled paper), which would be better suited for writing. The photos below is my prototype.

Again the women were very receptive to the new design and started embroidering a new batch of cards for the upcoming Marché Maroc Craft Fair in Marrakesh. The quality of each card was better and better and they came up with some really great designs! Below are just some of the 50 cards they made for the fair! (for another image of the cards from the fair see the previous post)

In addition to changing the structure of the card, we also changed the design of the envelope slightly by elongating the closing flap and adding a slit so that the flap would stay closed when inserted.

The women don't have a lot of opportunities to sell their products, especially something like this, which is geared specifically toward a non-Moroccan buyer, so the Marché Maroc Craft Fair in Marrakesh was going to be a very big deal for them. It was important that their products really stood out at the fair. I wanted them to have a really nice display so I started brainstorming some ideas settling, for now, with the display below.

In mid March the weather finally started to clear but as luck would have it, I suddenly developed pneumonia and was unable to work at all for more than two weeks. By the time I got back to work we only had about two weeks left before the Craft Fair (called Marché Maroc) and there wasn't enough time to teach the women paper making because they were busy making their other products. Plus I was in charge of designing all of the marketing materials for the fair which was also very time consuming. So I resigned myself to the fact that it would have to be put on hold yet again.

During the fair I was informed by the organizers of the next upcoming Marché Maroc Craft Fair (in Rabat) that my coop would be able to attend that one as well. This was great news but the craft fair in Rabat was only another two weeks after the one in Marrakesh, which meant that they would again be busy stocking up on other products (mostly crochet).

So, more waiting...

About a week after returning from the craft fair in Rabat I was FINALLY able to teach two women from the cooperative how to make paper! I set the date for Wednesday May 19 and was determined not to push it back any later than that. A couple days before the big day we had a change in the weather and a thunderstorm came through our town, which is very unusual.

Then the day before the workshop I started to see these nasty bugs around outside that look like what we call ear wigs in Ohio. But I didn't think much of it. Then on Wednesday I really started noticing them when I walked to the Artisana where I was meeting the women to lead them back to my house. Hafida was running late and we waited an hour before we could start the workshop. We started inside tearing paper and blending it up then moved to the roof. By this time these bugs where EVERYWHERE! They where landing on us, in the tub of pulp, in the buckets, on the wet paper...I couldn't believe it, of all days! We later heard from several sources that this was very unusual. I guess it was just the right circumstances due to weather. But seriously, it was like a plague of these ugly insects had descended on our town.

But we soldiered on and made some paper anyway. Since it was Fatima and Hafida's first time, and because we where competing with the bugs, we only made about 12 sheets of paper that day. I was very impressed at how quickly they picked up the process, even better than some of the volunteers who I taught back in September. This is really a commendation because with the volunteers there are zero language barriers. Hafida and Fatima acted like they'd been making paper for years! When they did make a mistake they had no problems redoing the process until they got a nice sheet. And besides the bugs and the heat (it was also a scorching hot day), they assured me that they really enjoyed the process!

We haven't done another paper making session since that day. Once the papers were dry I brought them to the Artisana where we ripped and cut them down to make 18 cards and envelopes. They haven't embroidered any of them yet, as they are currently working hard to finish an order (of embroidered t-shirts) for an American company, Mushmina.

This is the end of my paper making tale today, but as you can see we are far from finished. In my estimation, it will take at least a couple more sessions before they will be confident in their abilities and able to pass on their skills to the other members of the cooperative. I really want to see this project continue and be sustainable for them. I want them to completely own it. I want to believe that this project will be an activity that is enjoyable for them as well as one that they can take considerable pride in.

Craft Fair Products for Marché Maroc in Marrakesh

2010-04-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

Emily has worked tirelessly for the past several months helping the women of the Al Falah cooperative develop amazing, innovative products. Here are some pictures of products made mostly by the women (as of yet, Emily has made the hand-made paper by herself). I couldn't wait for her to post this, so I'm doing it myself!!!

Crocheted Change Purse

Crocheted Cell Phone Purse

Embroidered Greeting Card and Envelope with Hand Made Paper

Like snowflakes, they're all different!

A sample display, showing some signage and the crocheted Moroccan shoe earrings that the women are now making.

12 Messes

2010-04-11T02:42:00.000-07:00

This is why Emily will have her OWN studio room one day...

pneumonia

2010-03-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! As many of you know, I've been sick these last couple of weeks with pneumonia, but I'm in the recovery stage now and starting to feel much better. I'm still tired and slow, but shwiya b shwiya, I'm getting back to normal. For any of you who's had this, you know that it's just no fun at all and it takes everything out of you. Luckily, I was in the very capable and caring hands of not one, but TWO Peace Corps Doctors here in Morocco, not to mention doctors in Peace Corps Washington, who have been monitoring my case. I spent more than a week in the Capital being monitored and having treatments (anti-biotics) and now I'm finally back in my site.

I'm excited about going back to work tomorrow and seeing the ladies again. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the upcoming Marche Moroc, which is a craft fair taking place in Kesh soon. I know I haven't been writing about my work here and that Jon mentioned in his last work that I'd be posting something about that soon and I promise that I will. In fact, I've already started drafting the post, so keep your eyes out for it!

Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive since I've been sick, especially Jon, who has taken such good care of me these last couple of weeks, doing everything from shopping, to cooking, to laundry...all by himself! I will miss him greatly this week while he's away at Spring Camp.

That's all for now

Emily

Fresh New Title Image

2010-03-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Same old ratty Kaman's beanie. I'm really sick of wearing that thing, and Emily's probably even more sick of it's smell, but I'm scared to show the world what's grown underneath it. I'm holding out for the spring shear!

I've been nagging...umm, well, reminding Emily to do a post with some of the work that she's been doing with a local co-operative. Expect that soon!

Haha...now that I've said that, she HAS to do a post. Mwa ha ha ha.

Blogger Server Possessed

2010-02-23T05:08:00.000-08:00

All,

I've recently been informed that the link to my art blog was not linking correctly, so I've made the changes. Blogger's server is being a bit slow right now, so it hasn't updated the changes I made, but hopefully will sometime within the year! For all of those whose clicking on that link has come up fruitless, here is the link for your convenience:

http://www.cacamamiecritters.blogspot.com/

Enjoy,

Jon

5 Pictures from Chefchaouen

2010-02-02T07:03:00.001-08:00

Chefchaouen: a town steeped in a thick, dizzying atmosphere. Maybe this dizziness is from the heights of the breathtaking mountains, or maybe it comes from the kif (Arabic for MARIJUANA - pronounced "keef") that is pressured upon every non-native visitor to the region.

The kif industry is booming in northern Morocco (the regional economy depends on it), and the salesmen who deal it have to hear "no" at least a few times before they're dissuaded. If you include a little sass in your rejection of one of these fine, upstanding young gentlemen, they may even tell you to "go back to your f@#%ing country!"

Other than the kif salesmen, the townsfolk are generally nice, and tend to think tourists are Spaniards (it's very refreshing to have someone call you "amigo," instead of hearing "bonjour" or the ever-irritating "ca va").

The town is predominantly blue (literally), and is as picturesque as the local scenery. I've included a few amazing shots; some of the best views we've seen so far!

Here's a link to another volunteer's photo blog. The pictures are likely to be better because she has a digital SLR.

Thanksgiving reflections...

2009-11-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving in Morocco isn't really the same as it has been in the States alongside our families. Cut and dry: this culture isn't the same as American culture, and doesn't include the specific rules, behaviors, and tendencies of American holidays. Because of our culture's absence, we have to re-create Thanksgiving. However, for many reasons, it fell short of our expectations. Mainly, there wasn't the social chaos/flux that exists in most families' holiday get-togethers:

1) No dogs/cell phones/televisions/other non-human things barking/freaking out/demanding attention, etc.
2) No distracted conversations (half conversations, really), where people really can't take the time to pay 100% attention to you because there's so much else going on around them (this is unfortunate because I feel like most substantive conversations and communication requires most of our attention...if we can't give this level of attention, we're not even really making novel communication with others...just regurgitating memorized, routine pleasantries!).
3) No traveling on the road to a dozen different places to visit all of our family (because everyone lives far away, or people, for some reason, don't want to meet together, perhaps because family members are estranged from one another).

DIGRESSION ON CONVERSATIONAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AMERICANS AND MOROCCANS: Here in Morocco, it seems people are more concerned with your present condition. They ask you relentlessly how you are NOW, without much concern with the future. Unlike America, very few people here in Morocco ask us "What are you going to do after this or after that (for all of us who are trying to figure our futures out for ourselves, and don't readily have the answers to these pressing questions, the prospect of being in such an "inquisition" is very frustrating, to say the least! Maybe in response to these questions from Americans, I'll just say "I will be doing whatever God wills me to do"). I guess Americans seem to think they have more control over the future than they actually do, so maybe that leads them to dwell on it more than the average Moroccan. I know I'm always thinking of the future, possibly even more than the present. I guess for anyone who knows me, I can appear "spaced" sometimes. It's likely because I'm thinking about what I will be doing later that day/week/year/decade/etc...

In America, since the individual is given more importance, it seems like family is given less priority. We spread out, seeking our own individualistic fortunes in lands far away from our home (i.e. Peace Corps in Morocco). Also, in our egoistic manner, we have a tendency to get annoyed with the deeply rooted behaviors, beliefs, and characteristics of certain family members. This, of course, leads to us seeing our families much less often than Moroccans see their families. Sometimes, we see certain family members only at major holidays, and only out of a sense of obligation!

Gee, I haven't really painted a good picture for American familial social dynamics! More on this later, now we're on to the food!

For this Thanksgiving, we had chicken instead of turkey. This might be a major offense to some die-hard American traditionalists, but I found that this substitution was of minor consequence. Indeed, it had much of the same texture and flavor of turkey, and served it's purpose quite well. The mashed potatoes were great, as always, being lovingly whipped by Emily just prior to being served. I have to say, despite the fact that we didn't use celery or any other herbs, the home-made stuffing was excellent (and surprisingly easy)! Broth, butter, onion, garlic, salt and pepper was mixed with croutons and heated on the skillet...as I said, easier than I ever thought it could be. The cranberry sauce was probably the key ingredient that tied everything together for me (quite literally, I love mixing the sauce individually with potatoes, stuffing, and turkey...I love the sweet/tartness that it imparts upon the other foods). We brought it from the States, as I'm not sure you'd be able to find canned cranberry sauce/dressing here in Morocco. Emily slaved for 3 hours to make an AMAZING carrot cake with a creamcheese/lime zest frosting (delicious for breakfast in addition to an after-dinner dessert)! We'll still be enjoying that for at least 2 more meals!

As far as the food goes, I don't think we were off by that much. We didn't have turkey, or turkey gravy for that matter. We also were lacking pumpkin pie, but despite these deficiencies, I feel like we re-created the food experience to about 80-85% accuracy.

Sharing a holiday with people outside of your culture is a great way of letting people in on the culture of a group, however, it is no substitute for the authentic experience. The lack of our families - despite all of the difficulties we sometimes have with them - is what we truly miss. Family takes us back to our youth, when we were nurtured, guarded, when the world was a warmer, cozier, simpler place. We didn't have complex life situations then, and we were naive to many of the difficulties of adult life. We just knew that adults were in charge and could take care of anything. Holidays are a step backward to those better times, and it allows our memories of youth - and therefore our own youth - to live on.

I can't wait until next year's Thanksgiving when we'll be frustratingly trying to explain our future plans to our relatives, who won't be listening fully because of attention-diverting dogs/cellphones/televisions/people in the background! The flavors and smells of the food will take us back to simpler times with these people that we call family and we can be truly thankful of having them close in our lives.

(sappy, I know...but giving thanks can be that way sometimes...it kinda goes along with the holiday)

THANKSGIVING LEFTOVER UPDATE:

Emily enjoyed a mushy, conglomeration of leftovers just this past hour. In her own words, "Amalgulous (?) mound of marvelous deliciousness."

The Trials and Tribulations of Script

2009-07-03T05:07:00.001-07:00

Learning to read and write Arabic Script was not very high on my "to do" list when I came to Morocco. I admired my peers, including my husband, for taking on the challenge, especially the ones that had never studied Arabic before. However, there where many reasons that I didn't dive into this activity myself, and even discounted it completely as something I would ever do.

Upon arrival in country, the Peace Corps gave us trainees a book in which to help us learn Darija, the Moroccan dialect of Arabic. Although this resource contains Darija in the form of Arabic Script, the book, as well as the subsequent lessons taught by Moroccans during training, focused on transliteration. Transliteration translates the script into symbols that we are already familiar with; the English alphabet with a few extra embellishments. I can see why the Peace Corps sees this is the logical approach. After eleven weeks of training, they didn't expect us to be fluent in Darija. They didn't teach us every nuance of the language. Their goal, at the end of eleven weeks, was to give us enough language so that we could get our basic needs met, be conversational enough so that we didn't feel completely isolated, and have enough working knowledge of the subject so that we could continue our language learning in our new communities on our own. Communication was drilled into our heads. Above everything, the Peace Corps wanted us to be able to talk with Moroccans. This was strike one against learning Arabic Script. I felt that talking was a more important and useful skill than reading or writing.

Being able to write in Darija, even in the form of transliteration, has been very important to me from the onset. It gives me a chance to see the language laid out in front of me. It enables me to learn words without having to memorizes them after a first hearing. It gives me the opportunity to create in this language an alternative fashion, which in turn, helps my oral skills. With transliteration, who needs Script? Strike two.

For the most part, Darija is not a written language anyway. That's not to say that written and even printed Darija is nonexistent, it's just rare. When people write in script, they write in Fusha, which is basically a whole other language. Strike three. Who needs to learn how to read a language that isn't written?

On top of all of this, there is the fact that Arabic uses completely different characters than what we, as English speakers, are accustomed to. So not only is the language itself foreign, but the symbols that accompany it. Even the direction that script is read, from right to left, is the opposite of not only English, but other languages that Americans are typically exposed to, such as Spanish, French, and German. (The symbols used in Spanish, French and German also greatly resemble those of English). This, over everything else, was probably the biggest road block in my mind. It didn't occur to me that I could ever makes sense of all those strange lines and shapes.

Strike four. Learning Arabic Script, out of the question.

And now, the rest of the story...

Ten months into my service in Morocco, with all that is stacked against its favor, I am learning Arabic Script. It happened this week, during the third tutoring session with my new tutor, we'll call her "Melisa" (I wish to not use the names of host country nationals in this public blog). Melisa, by the way, happens to be a very intelligent female in my site, but I'll get into the importance of this fact later. Learning Script came about as a means to better understand the pronunciation of Darija. Many times I hear something and want to write it down, with the purpose of being able to remember it later. The problem is that I sometimes write down words incorrectly, which defeats the whole purpose. Many times the reason for my error is that my ear has miss-interpreted what I have heard. Often, I ask the speaker to repeat herself/ himself, several times if necessary. But the truth remains that sometimes it's just easier and more exact to see something spelled out right in front of me. But if I don't know Script, I can't understand when someone does spell it out for me. Some Moroccans understand this, and thus try to write things in their own form of transliteration, but many times sounds get lost, and besides, it's a different transliteration than what we've learned.

Fusha, and by extension, Darija, are different than English in a very important way; they use a different symbol, sometimes just slightly different, but different none the less, to indicate a different sound. What a novel idea! Now think of all the sounds that our vowels make in English. Even though every "a," "e," "i," "o," and "u" look exactly like every other "a," "e," "i," "o," and "u," they have the potential for sounding very different, depending on the context of the word. Our consonants too are far from immune from this identity crisis. Take the poor "p" for instance. Put a "p" in the words "pan," "apartment," or "cap," and it makes the same sound each time, but follow it with an "h," and suddenly it turns into an "f." Of course, this is just one example of many.

Remember the "strange lines and shapes" that make up the Arabic characters that I was talking about as being what I thought would be my biggest obstacle in learning to read and write? I now see this as Arabic's greatest asset to me. Our transliteration, like Scrip but unlike English, uses a different symbol for each sound. In theory, this should make it easy to sound out the words. The problem that I have, however, is that even though I understand what each transliteration letter is supposed to mean, I still sometimes apply the English pronunciation to it. Seeing a character that is completely alien to me has actually helped me to associate specific sounds with specific symbols. And, to my surprise and delight I have been able to pick it up rather quickly!

On day one, Melisa showed me my first three Arabic characters in isolation and taught me all the different sounds that they are able make by adding little marks and accents, which of course have their own names. Later on that day I practiced writing each new letter and symbol over and over, just as I did when learning to write in English. After practicing writing them out, as well as saying the sounds out loud, I moved on to trying to find these three letters in words in my Darija book. Finding words that contain only the three letters that I had just learned was difficult, but I did find a few, and after I did, I copied them.

The next day, returning to Melisa's house for another lesson, she taught me four new letters, and taking my lead, wrote out some words that contained these letters plus the three letters that I learned the day before. To my utter amazement I was able to successfully sound out and therefore read on that second day! This of course greatly motivated me. I was on my way to literacy!

On the day of my third Scrip lesson (yesterday), I learned four more letters, bringing my grand total up to eleven. One thing that I'm learning however, is that being able to write and sound out words is one thing. Being able to understand what I'm reading is another. This is complicated by the fact that a lot of the words Melisa gives me are in Fusha, and are either very different from their Darija equivalent, or not used at all in Morocco, making it very likely that I have never heard the words that I read and write being spoken in real life.

Overall though, I think this is a good thing. It makes me feel good to learn how to read and write. I can't really explain why. I'm not convinced that this will help me in my work here on a direct level, meaning that I don't foresee it being a necessity to read or write in Arabic to do my job here. But I do see it as a way to supplement my language learning and thus, helping me in that way. That said, I also don't regret not trying to do this sooner. I feel like this is a good time for me to start. I feel like I can now focus on it without too many other, more pressing, communication matters, since after all, I can talk about most of the things that I want to talk about at this point. Before now I wasn't really in a situation where I feel that this kind of learning was possible. For me at least, it's important to have an actual person teaching me this, so that I can hear each sound, rather than trying to learn it on my own from a book. Before two weeks ago, I didn't have a teacher that was interested in teaching me. Melisa is the third tutor that I've had since arriving in site back in late November. My first tutor was an English teacher from the local middle school. The original plan was for Jon and I to study together. That didn't work out at all, for various reasons, but with little trouble I found my second tutor. This one was a younger man, in his mid twenties, and like many young Moroccan men around town, was unemployed. He did have his degree however and spoke English pretty much fluently. We started lessons at the beginning of January and ended right before IST (in service training) in June, when he told me (via text message) that he would be unable to tutor me any longer. I never inquired as to his exact reason for cutting off the lessons. Maybe he got a job or was planning on moving away. Or maybe he just got tired of showing up at the Artisana twice a week in the mornings when he could be sleeping in. I guess I'll never know, nor do I really care. From the beginning it was a strange and uncomfortable situation. As a person he has a very negative personality. I found that I was having to drag myself to my lessons and that I absolutely hated going. After my lessons I would routinely ask myself, "what did I just get out of that?"

Melisa is different. I can tell that she really cares about teaching me. I don't feel uncomfortable and awkward around her, and I have a feeling that this is due largely to the fact that she is a female. Our sessions last for hours at a time. Sometimes her mom likes to come in to help out, which at first I thought would drive me crazy, but I have come to realize that I don't mind it at all (in fact, Melisa is the one who minds). One of Melisa's greatest assets though is that she doesn't speak English. She knows English, at least words, but our conversations are all in Darija. Because of this, I don't feel the temptation of slipping into English, which I admit happened a lot with both of my previous tutors.

Also, Melisa does crochet. As far as I can tell she hasn't done it for very long, though I can see that she's been getting tremendously better in just the span of a few projects. I hope that in the future this will be another way for us to bond and communicate. In short, I hope that this is the beginning of one of the strongest relationships that I make here in Morocco, one that results in both parties learning from the other. I never want to stop learning.

Emily

Sorry this image is sideways.

How I love souq day

2009-04-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday, I have a re-confirmation of my undying love for all that is souq day. For those who don't know, souq is the weekly market that many Moroccan towns host. My fervor is such today that I have to get it all out while it is still fresh in my mind (and under my fingernails).

Today's occurrences at souq:

1) While purchasing some black pepper (lbzar), I was approached by a salesman from a neighboring tent. We chatted pleasantries for awhile, and then he pulled me aside, learning I was a "volunteer." He explained to me that his father had a procedure done recently and that the poor fellow has a colostomy bag and isn't in the best health. I pretty much knew what he was getting at, so I played dumb for awhile, making him finally say that he needed a way to get some money and that any donation that I could spare would be welcomed. Instead of giving him $, I simply told him about Peace Corps, about why I'm here, and that it's not our job to supply people with money. I expressed my sympathy to his father, but he wasn't sour after my rejection. He actually invited me back to his place where he's from, and we parted ways in a true, warm, Moroccan way.

2) I enjoyed the company of one of our artisans, in my weekly indulgence of a ground beef sandwich with onions, cilantro, and cumin, grilled to perfection. The guy grilling the meat actually has a big hunk of cow hanging from a hook in open air and whenever he needs some more, he goes and slices some off, grinds it, and grills it right in front of your eyes. (One sign that I'm starting to adjust to my life here is that I wasn't grossed out when he - fingers and palms smeared with bits of meat and fat, reached into his pocket and made change for my 20 DH note). Me and said artisan also had an impromptu English lesson. A few days ago, he explained, in Darija, a way to say that the prices are really high at the souq. It roughly translates as, "There is a fire at the souq." However, looking for something a little more expressive, I opted to teach him instead, "THE SOUQ IS ON FIRE," which is his catch phrase now. He's awesome.

3) Talked with random friendly, if not gregarious, people that approach me (already knowing my name) and ask about any and all aspects of my life. In the US, I'd be annoyed, but here, I'm just glad to understand some of what they're saying to me! Of course, now, I'm starting to get heckled by people because I don't know Amazight (the Berber dialect here). ONE LANGUAGE AT A TIME, PEOPLE! It's a miracle that I'm even understanding Darija!

4) Bought a cool glass of orange drink (1 DH), that the juice man (mul 3asir) filled up with a ladle from a big pot of the chilled stuff. Taking a minute to savor it's saccharine goodness while surveying the crowds is a good way to take a break. Are the glasses washed after being used? The thought crossed my mind, but didn't faze me!

5) Bought some popcorn to munch on while doing some shopping. Other times, I opt for sugar peanuts, dates, cookies, or peanut bars (kinda like payday).

Jon

Fes and the South

2009-03-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been full of traveling for us. We went to Fes during one weekend, and we spent about 9 days seeing Erfoud, Merzouga, Tinjdad, Tinhrir, and back north through Rich and Azrou.

We'll start with our trip to Fes, and then talk about our trip down south.

Fes is known as the cultural capital of Morocco. It is the home of the oldest university in Northern Africa and boasts a medina (Arabic city that existed before French colonization) that is simply galactic in size. This medina is filled with narrow, twisty routes that take one from souvenir shop to restaurant to mosque to hotel to residence to butcher to marketplace, back to souvenir shop again. Literally, it is labyrinthine. It's an all-out assault on the senses: piles of fresh, dirt-cheap fruit and spices, hunks of meat hanging in open-air, piles of decaying matter here and there, garbage littering the ground, people shouting and laughing, decapitated animal heads (camels, goats, etc) waiting to be sold, people transporting goods via donkey cart (BALEK! --> "Get out of the way!"), and merchants trying to get your attention.

We saw lots of tourists there, including English speaking ones. That was wierd. Naturally, we felt superior to them, as we - living in the "front line" - have the advantage of both language and culture. As we were having breakfast in a small cafe, three Americans came in and proceeded to purchase some items. Emily greeted one of them, asking where they were from, and he replied, "Conneticut, in the United States."

Umm, yeah. You couldn't tell that we were not only speaking English, but also with American accents?

Anyways, we chatted VERY briefly, to our surprise. And it reminded me how superficial Americans are as compared to Moroccans. I think Daniel Defoe sums it up nicely in his novel, Robinson Crusoe:

"Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries..."

One of the smells that cannot be missed when traveling to the old Medina in Fes are the tanneries, a "complex" that prepares the skins of animals (camels, sheep, cow, goat, etc) to be used to make leather products. In fact, Fes is famous for its tanneries, and tourists are yanked from the crowds to go to the nearest rooftop to get a birds' eye view. I'm not going to lie, the smell of that place is comparable to rotting flesh, and I've heard that they use - among other things - urine and pigeon excrement in the leather "soaking" process. Check out some pictures. Unfortunately, we couldn't provide the smell.

Despite the fact that we are Peace Corps volunteers, operating on Peace Corps budgets, many of the shop-keepers still see us as they see all foreigners: as walking wads of cash. They hold no punches in trying to get us to buy their marked-up artisana goods. This is the part that annoyed us the most about our experience. Many people would call out to us in English, demanding that we follow them up to their carpet shop, guaranteeing that we wouldn't have to buy anything. Of course, ten minutes later, we were pressured into a sales situation. I have to say though, they're good at what they do. They are sweet talkers, complimentary, and generous with the tea and hospitality. They're looking to get your guards down...and then, WHAM, they'll empty your wallet with a 10,000 DH ($1100) carpet out of the blue. Mind you, they probably got it for 1,000 DH or less, and it's the artisans that truly suffer out of this deal, as a carpet of this price usually takes months to create.

Which brings me to the Ville Nouvelle, the portion of Fes that France built during the colonial period. We walked around a bit, and even had lunch, but we were mostly interested in finding the Ensemble Artisanal, a giant showroom of artisanal goods! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to photograph any of the goods, but we did take a few shots of the lobby.

Of course, the showroom was absolutely outstanding, displaying works of leather, wood, porcelain, various fabrics, and metal. We highly encourage anyone traveling in Morocco to stop by one of these showrooms. They're all over Morocco, especially in the bigger, tourist-infested cities. In theory, it's a very "fair trade" way to shop, meaning the artisans that produce these goods get a good portion of the sale.

We spent my birthday in Fes, which was actually really cool. The best part of it - besides getting a hajhouj, a gnawa (a type of Moroccan music that has its origins in sub-Saharan Africa) instrument that basically sounds like an acoustic bass guitar - was just sitting in a cafe, drinking a coffee and watching all of the odd-looking mostly-French tourists walk by. This is a classic past-time of Moroccan men, and I can definitely see why.

The next weekend and following week, Emily and I travelled down south to Erfoud and beyond. We took a grand taxi with 4 other volunteers from Azrou to Errachidia, and I have to say that the scenery is absolutely amazing, especially since the latter part of the trip snakes through a pass between the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountains. I have never seen - in person - the nature of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada, but the scenery on that road reminded me of pictures of these places. The reds, purples, oranges, and yellows of the rock complemented the bright blue sky. I didn't get any shots while we were in the taxi, but I'll leave it to your imagination to visualize this scene.

A quick taxi ride took us to Erfoud, which is known principally for two things: fossils and dates. And we partook in both! There was actually a marketplace in Erfoud that was solely devoted to the sales of dates. Of course, I bought a kilo of them (2.2 pounds for 15 Dirhams...roughly $1.88) and we munched on them as we walked from shop to shop, inspecting the goods of the shop-keepers, who were trying their best to entice us in and make us feel "welcome." Welcome is a very important word in this culture; "mi casa su casa" is the idea, and sometimes merchants use that concept as a means to reach into the wallets of tourists.

In Erfoud we also toured a complex that processed stone - embedded with fossils such as ammonites - into table tops, counters, sinks, decorative garden sculpture, and other souvenir-esque trinkets. First, we learned about the geology of the area, and the maritime nature of northern Africa some 500 million years ago. Quite interesting, actually. We got to see the machine that cuts 1.5-2" slabs of sheet-rock out of HUGE conversion-van sized blocks of fossil-rich marble. Then we went into the gift shop, and some of us bought stuff.

Later in the day, we met up with a tour guide that transported us from Erfoud to the Erg Chebbi: the Moroccan Sahara. On our way, we stopped at a fossil excavation site, and I bought a huge ammonite (the size of a softball) for about 2 bucks. It's not polished or pretty or anything like that, but I feel like the kid that sold it to me needed the money more than the guys at the fossil museum. We got a picture of some exposed fossil-rock while we were there:

Boarding our SUV, we continued onward to the dunes, when our tour guide asked us if we wanted to stop at an Amazight (the politically correct term for "Berber") dwelling to have some tea. We said yes, of course, and no sooner than we exited our vehicle than we were met by a pack of spunky baby goats. They were trying to climb into the SUV and once we got the doors shut, they went under it, exploring and generally defying the young Amazight girl who was trying to herd them into their dwelling some distance away. We had some tea, making small talk, and then said our goodbyes, heading back to our vehicle.

When we finally reached the dunes, we met a group of Moroccans who worked there at one of many "camel trekking" tourism companies. Ours was this one: http://www.letoiledesdunes.com/. We met them briefly, mounted our beasts - a scary process at first - and headed off on the 1.5 hour camel ride to our destination, a camp of several tents next to an IMMENSE mountain of sand. The camel ride was pretty cool, all in all, but after awhile, it really hurts your inner thighs! I guess that's what they call "saddle sore."

We arrived, dismounted, and after putting our gear in our tent, we promptly begun climbing the mountain of sand, which was pitched in the neighborhood of about 45 degrees! Some of our party of seven made it to the top. Not me. I stopped about halfway and waited for the others to come down. We hung out until dark and then returned to our tent, where our guide had tea and peanuts waiting for us. Shortly after munching on peanuts and chatting with our guide, we were presented with one of the most amazing tajines that we've tasted thus far in Morocco! Chicken, eggplant, tomato, potato, carrots, etc. After dinner, we headed back up the mountain, but only about 1/3 of the way this time. We just wanted to sit and enjoy the temperate weather. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and we couldn't see any stars.

Before bed, we went to a nearby tent to check out some Moroccan drumming and singing. I guess a group from Tangier or somewhere in the North had come down here for a vacation, and were enjoying themselves with some song and dance. We saw some French and English people there and from what I learned later, there were Polish and Dutch people as well! Going back to our tents, we played some cards before we slept. The next morning, we were woken around 6:30am for the sunrise, which was pretty cool. Again, people were climbing the mountain. I didn't. No problem, because Emily did, and she got some pictures from the top! After our breakfast (a standard meal of bread, tea, and olive oil and jelly for dipping), we returned on camelback to our starting point. This time, I was in the front camel, as opposed to the day before, when I rode the caboose! The cost of this excursion (including transportation back to Erfoud), was 380 DH per person plus 20DH for gratuity. 400 DH is about fifty bucks; affordable, even on a Peace Corps budget!

From Erfoud, we went to Tinjdad, and then onto Tinhrir to see the Todra Gorge! Approaching the Todra Gorge is quite amazing, as the road winds through dwelling-encrusted mountains and oasis-like palmeries. As we arrived at the Gorge, our primary goal was to find lodging for the night. After a bit of deliberation, we eventually settled on an Amazight fellow who didn't really understand the concept of privacy.

Fast forward to the next day.

We had MUCH nicer weather, and so gathering our items, we headed out to hike the Gorge! I think the hike up took around 2 hours, and we were accompanied by a little Moroccan shoe-shiner named Yussef. I guess he didn't have anything better to do, so he just followed us up the gorge, wearing his oversized flip-flops and carrying his shoe-shine kit. We later learned that the little guy had never climbed the Todra Gorge and was probably as excited as we were to see the view from the top. We managed to get alot of great pictures, especially at the top. Of course, I also caved from the pressure of a few fellow PCVs and my own narcissistic vanity and indulged in a shoe-shine at the summit of the Gorge. Yussef was well compensated for this.

After descending the Gorge, and being treated to some lunch, Yussef decided to accompany us in a petit taxi back to Tinhrir, and even sat with us on the bus until it was ready to leave for Tinjdad. I could tell that we really made his day!
If I ever travel back to that area, I'm going to be on the lookout for him!

Heading back home, we stopped through the town of Rich and were welcomed by Hassan, a Moroccan friend of one of our fellow PCVs. It can't be stated enough that Moroccans will spare no expense in being EXTREMELY hospitable. Hassan had an immense home-made lunch waiting for us at his house after bringing us home from the bus station. Anything we wanted, he was pleased to bring to us or do for us. It's almost strange, as Americans, to be waited on and serviced like this for no apparent reason other than genuine hospitality. Of course, we couldn't let him get away with cleaning up by himself. And later that evening, we repaid him the favor by making delicious ranch-turkey sandwiches! Ranch, I think, is a flavor not too common to Moroccans. Like us, Hassan loved it!

Later, we walked about the town, which was quite pretty, with its salmon/deco green color scheme and backdrop of velvety mountains.

We headed back home after this, traveling through Azrou. This ending is going to seem brief, but I'm getting sick of typing and you're probably getting sick of reading!

Jon

and the list keeps growing

2009-03-03T03:11:00.000-08:00

True to the nature of the inter-web, we've expanded our list of blog links of current fellow PCVs. If our blog is not satisfying your cultural needs, check out someone else's blog to get a different perspective of Morocco and it's culture. Or, better yet, sign up and become a Peace Corps Volunteer yourself!

March 2009, is slated to be a month chock-full of traveling. We have already seen Fes this month. Next on the list is the southern desert and mountains: Errachidia, Merzouga, and the High Atlas mountains is currently on the southern agenda. The weekend after that, we'll go to Meknes, and possibly Fes again, or maybe Rabat. We'll see!

Expect pretty pictures and enlightening stories to the tune of goals 2 and 3 of the Peace Corps (see goals on sidebar to the right)!

Jon

lay of the land

2009-02-22T05:07:00.001-08:00

Our town is on a mountain plain at the base of the foothills of the Middle Atlas mountains. As such, we are pretty much surrounded by small mountains, and transportation to any city involves snaking up and down through them. This makes for some amazing views, but the transportation tends to make me feel nauseated. Emily seems to stomach the trips a little better than me. I'm jealous!

Anyways, we went for a bike ride today and got a few pictures of the land and some common sights in this part of Morocco.

As we rode past the vast and numerous fields that produce the wheat and apples of this region (among other crops, we think), we spotted a herd of cattle and their owners/tenders. We stopped to greet the men, confirmed that they were milk cows, snapped a few pictures, and took off again. The milk probably tastes pretty good, being from free-range cows. We didn't ask for a sample, though.

In our town, there's a small population of storks (called "blarj" in Moroccan Arabic). They have massive nests, and we can see one of the nests from our rooftop. When we have breakfast early in the morning, the storks fly back and forth, directly over our apartment.

Emily was trying to get a closer shot of one of these birds, but it kept evading her. As we travel away from our town, the mountains start to form in the background.

After climbing and descending (mostly descending...) 4 or 5 imposing hills, we reached this spot, and decided that we didn't want to make our trip back any more difficult! From here, there is an appreciable decline that would have been exhausting from which to return. Maybe another time...

It's pretty amazing to just stop, listen, and observe. You hear absolutely nothing, except for the intermittent sound of birds in the distance and the soft hum of bees. As you continue on the winding road, you see various homes in the distance and sporadic herds of sheep, specks against rolling green hills. And in the distance, the purple, blue, and red hues of distant mountains lead the eye upward to a perfectly blue and cloudless sky.

This spot in the road sorta reminded me of small town America. I don't necessarily remember cemeteries being next to churches back home; I guess this image just makes me think of simple, small town people living off the land and being devoted to their religion. If you replace this mosque with a church, synagogue, or any other house of worship, this picture could probably describe lots of places around the world. Here's another reference to the notion that different cultures are not necessarily so different from each other.

Jon