Hotel Asiah Rabat

... by 312 columns and 42 marble pillars, covering an area of about 183 meters by 40 meters. By contrast in the Christian world, the Tower of Pisa, built by one of the most powerful Mediterranean City-States if its time, was started in 1173 at 55 meters tall and the adjacent cathedral is more like 30 meters by 80.

The mosque itself was destroyed and the top of the minaret toppled by an earthquake ...

... on, and there will be two new volunteers taking our place on Monday. I filled out my volunteer evaluation paperwork yesterday and tried to provide as much input as I could to help pave the way for the new people. The do's and don'ts, etc. Future volunteers will have a chance to read our feedback on the placement as they're preparing to go in.

I feel good about the work I did at the hospital, and am proud of myself. I've ...

... spill when one of the kids' IV's came out of his hand. Blood started spewing everywhere and, of course, no nurses were anywhere nearby. Olivia shuttled him out of the playroom as fast as she could (she was freaking out about all the blood), and then she looked for a nurse while I blocked the other kids from running through the mess on accident. His mom was with him at the time, fortunately, so she was able to calm him down - he was crying so ...

... worked! "si mohamed endu firma, ee i ee i o - L firma fiha bagra, ee i ee i o - moo moo hna, moo moo tmma - hna moo, tmma moo . . . " Here are a few clues: firma = farm bagra = cow hna = here tmma = there moo = moo This evening, Mohamed and I had a great conversation about his time with the Peace Corps - I just soaked up every bit of it! For the most part, I 'm happy with ...

... block getting volunteers iniated into the hospital. :-) I asked him to pronounce his name for me, and he asked the same of me. Then, he taught me how to count to five in French. "Schnu smitek?" "Smiti Patty". I said that over and over today. Schnu smitek means 'what is your name' in Arabic, and smiti means 'my name is'. We also employed some other key Arabic words to praise the kids. One time, a kid got a little out of hand and my partner called ...

... Arabic? or at least the word for fort in Morocco. Anyways there was a tower Hasan that we thought was inside the Kasbah. This tower was built to be a mosque but it was never finished because the king who was building it died before it was completed. Unfortunatley the tower was not inside the Kasbah, but there was another functioning Mosque (also with a tower) that we wandered around for about 20 minutes before realizing we were at the wrong place. The Kasbah's ...

... Ugly as frig but warm as hell. Oliver on the other hand got a pair of push up bars, as you do. Now on the truck driving, hoping to get to bush camp before night fall. Everyone is either reading or sleeping. Kristy and Muz are up on the beach soaking in some rays. I, as always, are tapping away at the keyboard. Continued... (written after lunch) Stopped for lunch at a servo around 12.30. Pasta ...

... side as we ducked and dodged our way to the site of the Hassan Tower.   The Hassan tower is one of three similar towers, the others being in Seville (now attached to the cathedral) and Marrakech, however the Hassan tower is missing its top for unknown reasons.  The same site also contains the mausoleum of the Moroccan royal family, a magnificently ornamented structure that seems to strike an eternal grace that, in my opinion, few mausoleums share.  We ...

... girls around a shopping center. It was a strange up-side down kind of world. Small children filled the hallways, with a mix of excited delight, bewilderment and tears in reaction to their unique outing. The little girls were decked out in heavy makeup, and all the children were in various stages of their transition from modern to traditional. Most of the boys wore starched-white robes with small red, flat-top hats, but others sported different ...

... had darkened, the parents had retired to their bedroom and the two girls were in various states of sleep in the salon. Thus, I was very surprised well after midnight when, after hearing the clanking of dishes, I entered the salon to find a full dinner laid out on the table. The rest of the family filed in shortly, and I prepared my stomach for the next step of this crazy food rollercoaster of Ramadan. It took a little convincing - a few "vraiment's ...