From Casablanca to Kingsville

One of the many wonders of the modern age is the ability to travel great distances in a (relatively) short time period. I woke up yesterday in a hotel in Casablanca, and by the end of the day I was asleep at my home in Kingsville. I traveled 3,805 miles (as the crow flies) in about 19 hours. I crossed five time zones chasing the sun on its trek west meaning my day was 29 hours long. I am very happy to be back home and have many stories to tell. I am not sure how I will chronicle my journey although I will make great use of the 1000 plus photos and videos I took and the travel journal I wrote in multiple times each day. For now I am just glad to be home among family and friends.

Greetings From Marrakesh

After a few tough night's sleep in Ain Leuhand some great activities with children during the day, we made the 400 kilometer (about 250 miles) trip to Marrakesh today. We are staying in a beautiful riad in the heart of the old city. I will keep this short since there are others who want to get online, but know that I am well and the trip is going better than I ever could imagine. Tomorrow I will help paint a mural at a cultural arts center. There are new challenges each day and I never really know what I will be doing until I'm in the middle of it, but that is half the fun. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. I will try to post more tomorrow. Until then...I can't believe I will be home on Saturday. I am looking forward to the rest of my time here, but also to seeing family and friends soon.

More News from Fez

After a great night's sleep in an air conditioned room (my first AC of the trip) we took a walking tour of the old section of the city and visited a tannery. We did some shopping on the way back and I found some great tagines that are the pot they do most of their cooking in. This afternoon we went to a girls' detention center and did handcrafts and outdoor games. The temperature was in the vicinity of 114 degrees but it didn't feel a degree above 113. We were all dripping, but we had a great time. The girls are not allowed outside very often, so we wanted to go out for the crafts and games. I got to hold a 3 week old baby boy named Edna, and I taught a ten year old girl who was the daughter of one of the employees how to knit. I also worked with the others in making knotted bracelets which they all enjoyed. The ten year old girl caught on fast and was soon teaching the others (and me when I made mistakes). She spoke perfect French so it was great to spend time with her..

Tomorrow we will go to Tarmalaine and then on to Ain Leu (I'm not sure of the spelling of either of those) I will not have internet access, so feel free to check back in a few days at the earliest.

Things that have struck me about Fez....the streets are very narrow and turn into walkways that also become very narrow...Fez has more stray cats than I have ever seen before...doing laundry in the sink is very gratifying especially with quick dry synthetic clothes that I can wear immediately after washing. Any remaining moisture cools me off in the heat...men can wear shorts here but women cannot...trips that last one month are great except that I miss my friends and family.

I will be home in a week, but I am looking forward to all that the next week holds.

Hello From Fez

We have been busy and have travelled quite a bit. We went to Mergeeza and rode camels in the evening and then again at 5:00 A.M. the next morning to watch the sunrise. After the camel ride we drove most of the day to Tirnest which is a remote village that has had limited contact with Americans and probably never a group of eight at once. After our visit there, during which we meet with lots of people and played with the children, we drove to Fez where I am now. Mergeeza was extremely hot, since it is at the edge of the Sahara. The temperature there reached 110 degrees while we were there, and the tents where we slept did not cool down enough to allow sleep until 2:30 AM which was challenging since we were awakened at 4:45 for the camel ride. The experience was amazing and completely worth the effort. I climbed to the top of the Erg Chibba and saw a fantastic sunrise with the others in our group. The great news for us was that the village of Tirnest, where we were lat night, is part of the way up a mountain so the temperatures were much cooler. It was about 70 degrees at night which made sleeping easy. Mike, the other male on the team, and I slept in a house that has been converted into a barn. In the next room were sheep and other residents were goats, cows, chickens, rabbits, and a donkey or two. It was quite an experience. Tonight we had dinner at a restaurant near the famous Blue Gate in Fez and got to see thousands of birds swooping around having their dinner. It was amazing!!! Here are a few pictures. The first two are from Mergeeza. The second has the dune that I climbed. The third picture has a few of my roommates from last night and the last picture shows some of the country surrounding Tirnest.

Getting Ready to Move On

We are heading off to the desert tomorrow to ride camels. That should be a blast. Then we head off to a remote village that has had very little contact with people from other religions. After that we are off to Fez where we will go visit a detention center and then off to more locales. We will be travelling a lot and I'm not sure when I will have internet access. Things here continue to go really well. Today I did touch-up on a mural and started to teach a few women how to knit. You never know when skills from the past will prove useful.

Five Photos

The internet here is slower than at home but fast enough that I am trying to upload some photos. Since I have already taken more than 600 photos and 40 videos it was difficult to choose just 5, but here they are...On this trip I have learned that it is very hot when you sleep under mosquito netting, but I'll take the heat over the risk of malaria any day. I have learned that sometimes chickens like to hang out in the showers (this guy hung around even during the shower) and that sometimes vans get stuck in the mud. I have learned that some children are too small for the play day that we were running and want to take a nap. I also learned that boys and cats go together all over the world. This is a picture of the boy I got to know today and his cat Trevor.

Many Hours After the Walk

I had a fun walk through the streets with a few of the other team members. We went into a fascinating store that sold wonders of every kind. Most were far too large to bring back, but it was so much fun to look.

Today was a fantastic day...After an amazing Sunday morning meeting with 18 of us, we had a great lunch and then walked back to where we are staying. Since we had taken taxis to the house from the sook we had visited earlier, we were not exactly sure of the way. We got to a fork in the road and had to make a choice. I saw two men walking towards us and got the chance to ask them for directions in French. I studied French for many years and have never before had the chance to use it meaningfully, before this trip. On this trip it has already come in handy quite a few times since many in the local population speak Arabic and French.

While at the lunch I had the chance to speak to a ten year old son of a missionary who was the only child in the group of 18. Before I left home, Sherrill gave me a book of encouragement she had made, in which I read one entry each day from a different one of my friends and family. As it happens today's entry was written by Sherrill and it encouraged me to try to get to know a child and interact with him in a way that would make his day brighter. Given the course of events today this looked to be my only chance. I know I would have talked to him anyway, because as a teacher when I am in a room full of people if there is a child, I will be drawn to him, but in light of Sherrill's words I made a special point to reach out to him. We talked for a while about his life and some of his favorite things (book...The Secret Garden; movie...Despicable Me) and then included other adults into our conversation asking them questions like, if you were an animal what would you be, or if you could be transported into the world in any book to live the rest of your life what book would you choose. It was a lot of fun for all of us and for the ten year old boy since he was an integral part of starting the discussion.

I said before that my health was great which in large part it is, but I do have one small issue. Before we left Liberia we went swimming in the ocean, and I swam out 150 yards or so to what looked like a sand bar with waves breaking on it. As I got nearer and stepped down on it I discovered that it was a reef that had many sharp objects, a few of which decided to break off in my foot. There were six splinter type needles in my foot when I got back to the beach. Three were easily removed right away, and I have removed two more in the last few days. There is one left and it is beneath the skin. It hurts a bit when I walk so I am hoping that it comes out soon.