Hotel Chellah Rabat

... class with Khadija. She taught us some phrases for local pleasantries, plus colors in Arabic. Then, after tea time, a few of us just hung out talking with Mohamed about random topics - that was by far the best part of the whole day. We talked about cultural, social and political issues in Morocco and the Middle East. I just love those conversations and hope we can squeeze a few more ...

... to walk home. It was a lovely walk - about 30 minutes. We learned that the Marjane is where the rich people shop. It is a pretty small percentage of the population, but given that Rabat is the capital of Morocco, there are some wealthy folks around (maybe 20% of Rabat's population, tops). There is a drastic line between the rich and poor here - most are poor - and they shop in the Medina. This evening has been very pleasant. A few ...

... grounds, and had dinner. The grounds are really pretty - lots of flowers, plants and trees including some version of a palm tree. There are feral cats around, including a litter of kittens. They're really playful with each other and playing in the garden, but shy away from people. One or two of them ran through the house this evening since the front door seems to be open most of the time. No one seemed to care. That's fine by me ...

... to the main part of the Medina where we met up with about 10 others from the group. A 15 minute walk took us to the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, complete with horse guards and armed guards inside the Mausoleum area.

The night is spent drinking a substantial amount of the cheap alcohol that we bought several days earlier. We all had our faces painted with the Irish flag. A good night had by all.



Tomorrow its off to Casablanca.

... the medina. Medinas, whilch literally means "old city," are located in every Moroccan city. They are surrounded with the historial walls of the city and are filled with an overwhelming amount of shops, restauants, local residents, and curious tourists. The first night we wondered around the Medina and Tyler tried his first liver sandwich. There was a lot of mystery food around the Medina as the Moroccans ...

Today is Eid-al-Kebir, the largest festival of the Muslim year. It commemorates the story of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to God if God wished it. At the last moment, a ram appeared, and God (or an angel) told Abraham to sacrifice the ram instead. As a tribute to this event, each Muslim family must sacrifice a ram of their own. In Rabat, as in most of ...

Another wonderful sleep in to 7.30 - I could get used to this. Left camp by 9 and headed to a massive cash and carry place to restock the supplies, this of course included the all important beer and wine. If you thought red wine per carton was bad well hold on to your seats cause I discovered red almost black wine in 1.5lt plastic bottles - for less than GBP2!. Now that my friends is class. Due ...

... and bags, loaded them into Hassan's boat and headed across the estuary where he dropped us off, saving us at least 14kms of riding around the reserve. There's not a lot of good things I can say about the 83 kms today. It rained pretty much all day, the road had been washed away in several places or, just with extremely large potholes and/or great lakes of rainwater. Every time we went through a small village young boys would run out and try to pinch things ...

... of the Medina you just may be able to catch a glimpse through a half-opened window at a high domed ceiling covered in carved wood with shimmering chandeliers hanging down. It's a wonderful stimulant for the imagination. But this is only behind the giant city walls, the chaos on the streets, the bootlegged DVDs, and the stained building exteriors with rusty tin. Rabat was also chosen by the French to be the capital of the Protectorate, and it continued on as the capital post ...

... floor facing Mecca five times a day to worship God and give their thanks to the Almighty Allah for the blessings they have. This now is wealth to me. Their joy comes from companionship with their family and friends. Entertainment is not watching television, surfing the web, or listening to an ipod, but telling stories and jokes around the fireplace and making music by beating on a handmade drumb. I didn't really know what to expect when I came to work ...