This is taken from inside the Kasbah still, and shows the outer walls and one of the towers. The outer walls are all made of this lovely red brick.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Kasbah
A Kasbah in Morocco is a big house, or in this case a small village, with big walls and towers around it. This is from one of the Kasbah's in Rabat, which had heaps of winding alleys and little cafe's.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
In Rabat
Okay I've made it to Rabat and my home base just fine - actually i'm pretty impressed with my navigational skills when no-one seems to speak a word of English! There's a lot of nodding and gesturing wildly, but i get there in the end.
I love my home base - it's a beautiful big house, with about 25 fellow volunteers and 5 very patient staff. I share a room with 3 other women, and although there is a snoring issue it's nothing a pair of headphones and an iPod can't cope with. There's a huge range in the age of the volunteers, from 18 to mid sixties. One of the older women is one of my room mates, and she's a huge fount of information having volunteered all over the world. I occasionally feel like I'm living in Big Brother or something, except that everyone gets along - or seem to so far.
The food is fantastic - three big meals a day, plus tea and pastries every day at 5:00pm. I had resigned myself to getting comfortably large, but then one of the other volunteers took me to a nearby park where we can go for a walk, or jog, or whatever. I went for a jog yesterday, which seemed to create a lot of interest/amusement amongst the locals.
I had my first session teaching English today, which was quite an experience. I have 3 women and 1 men in my 'class', which i have for about 1 and a half hours every morning Mon - Thurs. It's actually quite challenging coming up with a lesson plan for this time - they are really interested in grammar in particular, which is really stretching my memory back to school days. Luckily i can follow the example of many other teachers and just google some exercises and lessons each night to work on the following day. I'm a little nervous about Fridays, which is when i'll be working at the orphanage, which has roughly 120 infants, 200 toddlers, and about 350 other kids up to the age of six. Maybe nervous is an understatement...
I haven't seen a lot yet; we had a tour of Rabat this arvo, which included a walk through the souk - will definitely be going back there once I feel like i've got a grip on bargaining in French. Or maybe I'll just take a notepad and write down offers. I will try and post some photo's on flickr asap.
Going to Fes this weekend, will give an update soon :)
I love my home base - it's a beautiful big house, with about 25 fellow volunteers and 5 very patient staff. I share a room with 3 other women, and although there is a snoring issue it's nothing a pair of headphones and an iPod can't cope with. There's a huge range in the age of the volunteers, from 18 to mid sixties. One of the older women is one of my room mates, and she's a huge fount of information having volunteered all over the world. I occasionally feel like I'm living in Big Brother or something, except that everyone gets along - or seem to so far.
The food is fantastic - three big meals a day, plus tea and pastries every day at 5:00pm. I had resigned myself to getting comfortably large, but then one of the other volunteers took me to a nearby park where we can go for a walk, or jog, or whatever. I went for a jog yesterday, which seemed to create a lot of interest/amusement amongst the locals.
I had my first session teaching English today, which was quite an experience. I have 3 women and 1 men in my 'class', which i have for about 1 and a half hours every morning Mon - Thurs. It's actually quite challenging coming up with a lesson plan for this time - they are really interested in grammar in particular, which is really stretching my memory back to school days. Luckily i can follow the example of many other teachers and just google some exercises and lessons each night to work on the following day. I'm a little nervous about Fridays, which is when i'll be working at the orphanage, which has roughly 120 infants, 200 toddlers, and about 350 other kids up to the age of six. Maybe nervous is an understatement...
I haven't seen a lot yet; we had a tour of Rabat this arvo, which included a walk through the souk - will definitely be going back there once I feel like i've got a grip on bargaining in French. Or maybe I'll just take a notepad and write down offers. I will try and post some photo's on flickr asap.
Going to Fes this weekend, will give an update soon :)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Here at last :)
Yay finally here - thirty hours later. Actually had really good flights, window seats all the way, so can;t complain. I am totally in love with Singapore airport, could quite happily go for a holiday there :/
I should say first that i;m using a different sort of keyboard from what we;re used to. It took me forever to find the @ symbol, and clearly I still haven;t discovered most of the punctuation keys.
I;m staying at a pretty cute little old hostel in the old medina of Casablanca. As I type this the call for prayer is going out - at first i was a little startled at all the noise, but then i realized what it was and it;s really quite lovely - it sounds like it;s someone actually making the call, not just a recording being played, which is the only call to prayer I:d heard before. the hostel I;m staying at is in a little square full of young people - mostly guys - sitting having coffee, playing cards, chatting etc. I feel like i stick out like a sore thumb a little bit, but guess i will get used to that :) - hey just found the key for brackets :)
Tomorrow i;m catching a train to Rabat where I;ll be staying most of the time, will get to meet the other volunteers. I;m really looking forward to it, finally getting started i spose. Will post again soon when i have more stories to tell and when I;ve sampled some of the local cuisine - so far i;ve just eaten a lot of plane food, and no-one really wants to hear about that !
I should say first that i;m using a different sort of keyboard from what we;re used to. It took me forever to find the @ symbol, and clearly I still haven;t discovered most of the punctuation keys.
I;m staying at a pretty cute little old hostel in the old medina of Casablanca. As I type this the call for prayer is going out - at first i was a little startled at all the noise, but then i realized what it was and it;s really quite lovely - it sounds like it;s someone actually making the call, not just a recording being played, which is the only call to prayer I:d heard before. the hostel I;m staying at is in a little square full of young people - mostly guys - sitting having coffee, playing cards, chatting etc. I feel like i stick out like a sore thumb a little bit, but guess i will get used to that :) - hey just found the key for brackets :)
Tomorrow i;m catching a train to Rabat where I;ll be staying most of the time, will get to meet the other volunteers. I;m really looking forward to it, finally getting started i spose. Will post again soon when i have more stories to tell and when I;ve sampled some of the local cuisine - so far i;ve just eaten a lot of plane food, and no-one really wants to hear about that !
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Cool... new gadget
I stumbled across a new discovery today; how to add world clocks to my blog. So if you're ever wondering what time it is in Morocco (you never know, you might!) just flick down to the bottom of my blog and you'll find the date and time for Casablanca - which I think is the same as for Rabat. Pretty cool eh? (I may be getting geekier by the minute)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Welcome!
Hi guys, welcome to my blog, hope you like it :) I am slowly getting organized for my big trip, and in the process have come across some new toys, like this blog and also flickr. It was actually mum who first suggested that I get my own blog, on the assumption that I would have enough stuff to say to make it worthwhile, and - more importantly - that there were people who would be interested enough to read it! Well, I haven't got much to say as yet, but stay tuned because this might change soon, and please ignore the strange things that may pop up occasionally as I experiment with my new toy :) Also, feel free to leave a comment so that I know it's working!
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