This was taken from approximately three quarters of the way up
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Desert Trip
Well, I just got back from a fantastic trip to the Saharan Desert on Sunday evening, and it was definitely worth all the muscle pains and sore nether regions that I’m feeling this week. It was an eleven hour drive each way, and although that sounds awful it was actually almost as good as the actual desert because we were driving through such an incredible landscape that went from beautiful green rolling hills, to mountains with snow, to barren rock lands with lush green valleys. I was so excited when I saw the red sand dunes in the coming up in the distance – they almost looked fake, like someone had just popped them there for a movie set. I will post some photos on here asap.
We arrived at the base camp, which is at the edge of the dunes, at about 4:30, where we had tea (of course) before getting on camels to ride an hour and a half out to our camp in the dunes. I am ashamed to admit that I was a little bit chicken about riding a camel – they’re a lot bigger in real life! – but soon I was cruising along with my water bottle in one hand and my camera in the other, whilst twisting myself into contortions to find a more comfy part of my butt to sit on – unsuccessfully I might add.
When we arrived at our campsite we were told to start climbing, in order to be at the top of the dune for the sunset. This may have been the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do in quite some time; we were half convinced that this exercise was purely for the entertainment of the guides watching from below, but it was worth it once we reached the top, for the amazing view of the sunset. It was also worth it for the run down again, which was heaps of fun and almost made it worth climbing back up just to run down again :)
The guides cooked us a beautiful meal – tagine of course – then finished us off by getting us to dance to their singing and drums. We all slept pretty cosily, 9 in one tent, and then stumbled up at 5am for the ride back to base camp so that we could watch the sunrise on the way. The drive back was long, and I can now say that I’ve had my first meal in Morocco that didn’t taste great – I guess roadside café’s are the same all over the world! All in all though it was a fantastic, wonderful weekend, and I can’t wait to do a longer trip into the desert with Damien when he gets over here.
We arrived at the base camp, which is at the edge of the dunes, at about 4:30, where we had tea (of course) before getting on camels to ride an hour and a half out to our camp in the dunes. I am ashamed to admit that I was a little bit chicken about riding a camel – they’re a lot bigger in real life! – but soon I was cruising along with my water bottle in one hand and my camera in the other, whilst twisting myself into contortions to find a more comfy part of my butt to sit on – unsuccessfully I might add.
When we arrived at our campsite we were told to start climbing, in order to be at the top of the dune for the sunset. This may have been the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do in quite some time; we were half convinced that this exercise was purely for the entertainment of the guides watching from below, but it was worth it once we reached the top, for the amazing view of the sunset. It was also worth it for the run down again, which was heaps of fun and almost made it worth climbing back up just to run down again :)
The guides cooked us a beautiful meal – tagine of course – then finished us off by getting us to dance to their singing and drums. We all slept pretty cosily, 9 in one tent, and then stumbled up at 5am for the ride back to base camp so that we could watch the sunrise on the way. The drive back was long, and I can now say that I’ve had my first meal in Morocco that didn’t taste great – I guess roadside café’s are the same all over the world! All in all though it was a fantastic, wonderful weekend, and I can’t wait to do a longer trip into the desert with Damien when he gets over here.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Moroccan Wedding
We had fun last Thursday as the organizers here put on a mock Moroccan Wedding for us. Everyone got dressed up in traditional Moroccan gear, we had some traditional food, and a group of musicians came along too. The musicians were great, although I could not for the life of me find the beat in what they were playing; actually when I think about it I'm sure the guy with the symbols on his head must have been playing to some beat. We all got up and tried to boogie, but I think it takes years of practice to be able to shake your bootie to this sort of music. The kitchen ladies showed us girls how it was done - I swear their butts moved independently of the rest of their bodies :)
I had a fairly quiet weekend this last weekend, although I did a day trip to Fes, which, as I think I've mentioned, I am completely in love with. This time it poured with rain the entire time i was there, so I spent a good 8 hours completely saturated. It actually got really cold for a couple of days there - it was only 10 degrees in the middle of the day yesterday; i put on my flannelette PJ's under my jeans, much to the amusement of my American counterparts. This reminds me of something I need to tell Rachel if she is reading this; Rachel, pack three pairs of jeans/pants, not two. What I forgot was that you always have to be wearing one pair whilst doing the laundry, which means pretty much that one pair is always dirty. Just trust me on this; three pairs.
My second day at the orphanage was a little easier than my first; I spent a lot of time dressing the kids, which petrified me at first - working out what goes where is not as easy as you might think! - but now i think i am a pro. A lot of the kids are disabled or handicapped in some way, I guess because these are the kids that are either given up most often or they find it hard to be adopted. I was a little unnerved having to put diapers on 4/5 year olds as everything seems a little awkward, but they seemed to find it a bit of a hoot thank god. I really admire the volunteers who work with the severely disabled kids. These kids stay at the orphanage for as long as they live, which usually isn't very long - the oldest there is 19 years old. The volunteers working in that section do such an awesome job - always smiling and laughing even though it's both physically and mentally draining work.
I had an interesting insight on the views of the nurses yesterday; we have an American/Kuwaiti volunteer - Darah -who can speak Arabic, and hence she has been able to actually converse with the nurses. The nurses, it seems, can't understand why Americans (and Australians) would leave their own country to work in another - i.e. your countries have problems of their own, why are you working here instead of in your own country? Also the prevailing view is that the Americans in particular all hate the Arab world, even those who say that they disagree with the Bush administration. Darah was trying to tell them that that wasn't the case, but they simply told her 'we don't believe you'. It's sad because even working next to each other we're still struggling with cultural understanding. The language barrier is a much bigger problem than I had anticipated it to be - i guess that's part of my own cultural snobbery that I expected everyone to speak English!
That's all for my ramblings for the moment; I have a trip to the desert planned for this weekend, which I am really looking forward to, and I am sure I shall have much more to say after that :)
I had a fairly quiet weekend this last weekend, although I did a day trip to Fes, which, as I think I've mentioned, I am completely in love with. This time it poured with rain the entire time i was there, so I spent a good 8 hours completely saturated. It actually got really cold for a couple of days there - it was only 10 degrees in the middle of the day yesterday; i put on my flannelette PJ's under my jeans, much to the amusement of my American counterparts. This reminds me of something I need to tell Rachel if she is reading this; Rachel, pack three pairs of jeans/pants, not two. What I forgot was that you always have to be wearing one pair whilst doing the laundry, which means pretty much that one pair is always dirty. Just trust me on this; three pairs.
My second day at the orphanage was a little easier than my first; I spent a lot of time dressing the kids, which petrified me at first - working out what goes where is not as easy as you might think! - but now i think i am a pro. A lot of the kids are disabled or handicapped in some way, I guess because these are the kids that are either given up most often or they find it hard to be adopted. I was a little unnerved having to put diapers on 4/5 year olds as everything seems a little awkward, but they seemed to find it a bit of a hoot thank god. I really admire the volunteers who work with the severely disabled kids. These kids stay at the orphanage for as long as they live, which usually isn't very long - the oldest there is 19 years old. The volunteers working in that section do such an awesome job - always smiling and laughing even though it's both physically and mentally draining work.
I had an interesting insight on the views of the nurses yesterday; we have an American/Kuwaiti volunteer - Darah -who can speak Arabic, and hence she has been able to actually converse with the nurses. The nurses, it seems, can't understand why Americans (and Australians) would leave their own country to work in another - i.e. your countries have problems of their own, why are you working here instead of in your own country? Also the prevailing view is that the Americans in particular all hate the Arab world, even those who say that they disagree with the Bush administration. Darah was trying to tell them that that wasn't the case, but they simply told her 'we don't believe you'. It's sad because even working next to each other we're still struggling with cultural understanding. The language barrier is a much bigger problem than I had anticipated it to be - i guess that's part of my own cultural snobbery that I expected everyone to speak English!
That's all for my ramblings for the moment; I have a trip to the desert planned for this weekend, which I am really looking forward to, and I am sure I shall have much more to say after that :)
The 'Bride and Groom'
This is two of the volunteers - Shelley and Dan - who were dressed up in traditional Moroccan clothes to be the bride and groom for the day. The belt around Shelley's waist weighs a ton.
Mock Wedding Fashion
We all got to play dress ups, which was of course a great photo op. The girl immediately to my left is Rachel, and then Darah; the girl on my right is Grace.
Khadija's designs
Yes I know it's not terribly original of me having my hands henna'd, but it looks so pretty! I'm the hand on the left by the way :)
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