Hotel Xaluca Dades Boumalne Dadès

... is tradition in this part of the world I accept 3 small cups of tea and refuse the fourth, they offer the fourth cup but it is polite to refuse. They also offer some salted nuts. These nuts were easily the nicest nuts I have ever had in my life. They are a cross between salted nuts and beer nuts. I will find them somewhere and buy them.



At about 7pm the night starts with copious amounts of alcohol and the mood among the group is very jovial. Everybody is very ...

... followed us up and down, they kill the goats so the guide was trying to get rid of them. We all had a go at throwing rocks at them, most of the time they would head off for a few minutes but come straight back again. Sharon had an encounter with them when she stopped for a toilet break. Arriving at the village, we walked through dark, narrow alleyways then up several flights of dark, uneven stairs to a room where we stayed for a delicious lunch prepared by a ...

I woke up around 6 am and it was bitter cold in my room. Thick snow flakes were falling outside my window. I was having a white Christmas in Morocco. I couldn't stop humming that old Frank Sinatra song. Two dutch cyclists looked quite surprised too, folded their bicycles away and took the bus down the gorge. I wanted to see more of it and walked up the valley. It was peaceful and quiet. After a mile or so, a very friendly dog joined me ...

As of yesterday, I have been at my site for a month. Time here moves languidly, and I feel as if I have lived 6 months in just the past month. This month has been characterized by attempting to become accustomed to my site and to my life in general as a Peace Corps volunteer. At times I feel bipolar, because one second I am enamored, and the next second, I am doubting the very fiber of who I am and why I am here. My work at this point as I have mentioned, is becoming ...

I am now writing in this blog as a Peace Corps volunteer. Oh yessss.... We swore in at a beautiful hotel in Fes, sadly enough we were only able to stay for 4 hours, but I do hope to return to the city at sometime during my service. In other important news, I bought a huge, beautiful lantern and silver heels. Where will I be wearing these heels one might ask? That is an excellent question. Now, about my site...crazy...as in I love it and this is exactly where I ...

... we're back in college and being coddled. But then I remind myself that after that and in a month and a half I will be allllll by myself wherever I happen to go and that will be a wee bit lonely, so I enjoy my time with the other Trainees. Other than that I'm just struggling along with the language, and trying to figure out if my host family is talking about cooking (which is the verb "Snu") or if they're saying "Znu" which is my ...

This week I went to my CBT (community-based training) site which was a town about an hour away from our base, Azilal. Firstly, the language. As I had mentioned previously, I am learning Tamazig(rrrr)t which is one of the three Berber (Amazigh) languages. It is mostly an oral language, and is unlike any of the languages I have previous experience with. For example: "Rig ad-gnx" or "I would like to go to sleep". The problem being that the g and x ...

I got back to Azilal yesterday after going to my field trip- meaning that I went and visited a Peace Corps volunteer to see what is actually done in the field. It was a big relief to see someone in action, and get a feel for it all. The town I visited was Assoul (I finally got some photos downloaded then my camera died, arrrgh!), which is in the middle of the High Atlas mountains and it ...

... Dadès, near where people told us there were some interesting sites of natural beauty. In the bus a guy who works as a guide for these areas started talking to us and, as he seemed to be different from the usual people who come to talk and we would need a guide anyway, we decided to hire him after coming to his house and sharing tea and dinner. The plan was to spend three nights in the nearby valley of roses and gorges and then two more in the ...

... the other more developed urban areas. The first shop we noticed was a dentist that appeared to operate out of a mechanic shop! As in most developing countries that we have visited, you get a mixed bag of reactions from the locals. Some are indifferent, some treat you with hostility, some are overly friendly and have an angle as to how to cash in on your almighty tourist dollar, and of course some are genuinely welcoming and helpful. In our short walk in Tinerhir we ...