Just Traveling
I think this is website version 52.3. Hopefully everything now will be nice, neat and condensed. Enough about the website already, I’m sure you want to know what I’ve been up to lately.
In late March I traveled to Ourzazate (Oz), which is just on the other side of the mountains from me. The only problem is these particular mountains, the Middle Atlas Mountains, are quite large and not very well ‘paved’ yet. I got to travel via Marrakech, so that was a plus. The ~4 hour trip to Oz is absolutely breathtaking. You wind up and through the majestic mountains, passing through tiny Amaziġ villages whose houses blend into the mountainside ever so perfectly. The contrast in colors was also unexpected. The front side of the mountain is mainly clay-colored with varying shades of dirt green representing crops. Once atop the apex, everything is white because the snow is still sitting from the last week’s storm. When you come down from the bright white, you begin to pass through patches of vibrant green which radiate energy. These mini-oases are dotted with more villages whose buildings are either clay or a soft salmon tone. It’s a place where life seems to flow from one hue to another, a place I hope to return to soon.
Oz is a very popular tourist location for many reasons. It is a good starting point to venture out further out into the desert to begin camel treks, or travel to visit the Dades Gorges. I was there to give a presentation to the environment volunteers who were in training. I also had the opportunity to visit three volunteers who live there, which was very nice. Oz is also the capital of Morocco’s film industry. Such films as Indian Jones, The Scorpion King and Lawrence of Arabia were filmed at the various studios there. Kingdom of Heaven is currently in production and work has begun on the studio of the upcoming Alexander the Great movie. I traveled to one of the studios and saw the sets for Asterix and Oblix’s Cleopatra and The Gladiator.
At the end of March, Scott came to visit for ten days. We saw Marrakech and I brought him to Béni Mellal so that he could see how I live. We visited my host family, my work location and a park developed around some springs in the mountain called Aïn Asserdoun. His website recanting the trip is very well done.
No too much happened in April and in May, some Peace Corps Officials came to visit me, among other volunteers, in order to see how we live, how safe we feel, etc. It was a very nice visit and it provided me the opportunity to see how the Peace Corps Headquarters work, away from which we are very far.
Work has been frustrating, at best. First of all, I have the special challenge of there being very few artisans in my city. For those of you who may have forgotten, I am a Small Business Development Volunteer who is supposed to work with artisans in various areas ranging from business planning to product development. In the six months I’ve been here, I’ve identified few areas where I can be of assistance. In all of those areas it is me who wants and foresees change and not the recipients of this assistance. Begin Monday, I will be attending an in-service training in Marrakech being held for all Small Business Development Volunteers. I truly hope that great things will come from this conference.