Ramadan

Ramadan started on Friday, the 14th, my 4th day in Morocco. Thankfully, Peace Corps gave us a cross-cultural training session on Ramadan. I found it to be very informational and thought others might find it interesting.

Ramadan is the name of the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and it is the month of fasting. A new month starts when the new moon is cited. Islam considers the new moon to be the crescent moon. So, the new moon was cited on the evening of 13th and fasting started at dawn on the 14th. There is a window of when the moon will be cited. For instance, my Day Runner said Ramadan started on the 12th but that is just the first day the new moon could have been cited. Morocco’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs signals when to start Ramadan and when to end it. Each country is different so it is possible for each country to start Ramadan on a different day. There are rules about who fasts and who doesn’t: pregnant women, children who haven’t reached puberty, the sick, travelers, and menstruating women.

When Ramadan ends on either the 29th or 30th day of fasting, Muslims celebrate the holiday L-Eid (pronounced Aid). It is very large festival and this year it will be the 12th or 13th of October. What is exciting for me is that I will be staying with a local family when it arrives this year! Since it runs on a lunar calendar, Ramadan starts 11 days (roughly) earlier every year and it takes 33 years to complete an entire cycle. Around 6:30 every night, a loud siren goes off. I tried to capture the sound of the siren and the resulting call to praryer in a video on my camera but I can't upload the video on Blogger. I'll have to think of another way to put it on here. Contrary to what I thought before I arrived in Morocco, the call to prayer is not very loud. Unless I am listening for it, I do not hear it. The chant is a very beautiful sound which really surprised me. Not sure what I expected—maybe a bell or siren of some kind (That was ignorant of me)—but I find myself waiting for the sound at evening prayer time.

At 6:45 every night, we have “break fast.” Moroccans have special customs when it comes to this meal. Unlike many other Muslim countries, they eat this meal at home. To break the fast, they have 3 special foods. Harira is a type of soup. It is similar to minestrone and is very yummy. Rgifa is a fried flat bread shaped in a square. This is my favorite! Tastes a lot like cracklin’ bread. Funny situation at “break fast” when we tried the bread: We were trying to figure out what it tasted like and I said it tasted like cracklin’ bread and everyone at the table was like “What is it?!” They are obviously not from the south  Bagrir is a holy bread that tastes and looks a lot like a crumpet. Dinner is around 10 and it is followed by the dawn meal around 4 AM. And the last thing of the night is another siren. Around 4:30, the signal goes off and eating consumes until the evening “break fast.”

Bus Ride To Ouarzazate

The Small Business Development (SBD) group left Rabat on Friday and headed to Ouarzazate. This was the first time I have really seen Morocco outside downtown Rabat. Even though I slept for 7 of the 9 hour bus ride, the sights of the other two hours were interesting to say the least. Here are some songs that came over the radio:

-LoveStoned by Justin Timberlake
-Irreplacable by Beyonce
-a couple of Madonna classics
-Over My Head by The Fray
-Don’t Lie by Black Eyed Peas
-Fantasy by Mariah Carey

When the first American song came on, everyone just kind of looked at each other with strange looks. It is 4 hours from Rabat to Marrakesh and 5 hours from Marrakesh to Ouarzazate. The road to Marrakesh is flat but after Marrakesh, it is all mountain terrain. The High Atlas Mountains are very pretty and resemble the red rocks in Arizona. Another thing, everything is brown. Seriously. Look at the pictures below if you do not believe me.

I have lots more to say but time is so limited during training. My emails and blog entries are typed beforehand, put on a flash drive, and uploaded at the cyber café. Tomorrow is our first day with nothing scheduled. Hopefully, the cyber will be open and I can spend some time getting US news and updating.

Rabat in Pictures

A rare empty street in the medina…usually very crowded but it was noon prayer


Hello Florida!


Ambassador Thomas Riley spoke to us on Wednesday. It was exciting to meet him. He is a very impressive diplomat and genuinely interested/involved in the work Peace Corps does in Morocco.


We found WIFI in a small corner of the hotel…This was our version of a cyber

On To Morocco

Tomorrow we are off to Morocco! Staging went well. The group of 67 is incredibly diverse. I still haven’t met everyone but so far, I think I am the only person from the Deep South. A couple of people are from North Carolina, and South Florida but none from the Panhandle, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.

We are spending a few days in Rabat but won’t actually be allowed out of our hotel until Day 3. We haven’t been told why; we haven’t been told much of anything. We were finally given our training city—Ouarzazate (pronounced where is at very fast). It is located in the mountains of southern Morocco about 8 hours from Rabat and a couple of hours from Marrakech. Nicknamed “Oz,” it is the Hollywood of Africa. Lawrence of Arabia, Babel, and the new movie Rendition were all filmed there.

In Oz, I will be living with a host family, learning with my community-based training (CBT) group of 5-6 people, and see as much of Oz as possible. Hopefully upon arrival in Rabat, I will learn more about training and the exact work I will be doing for the next 2 years.

Looking forward to being in-country!

Bags Are Packed. I Must Be Going Somewhere.

Well, the bags are packed. Now it is time for sleep so I can catch my 6AM flight in the morning.

Here are my bags:



They are stuffed and a few pounds overweight but that is okay. It took some work to get close to the Peace Corps limit of 80 pounds. Lots of stuff will need to be shipped to me.

Another picture:
My last sunset in Panama City

New York Encounters

Look who I bumped into...literally

APPALACHIAN ADVENTURES

On Friday, I embarked on a kind-of spur-of-the-moment road trip to the southern Appalachians.

On Saturday, I arrived in Asheville for Bele Chere 2007. With all downtown streets becoming pedestrian for the festival, it was easy to explore leisurely. After buying a pint of organic IPA, I listened to reggae, shopped (yay for fantastic finds at vintage boutique), and enjoyed the Burt’s Bees mini spa.

After Bele Chere, Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant was the next destination.

Memo to general manager: You are a theme restaurant. You do not compete on food; you compete on atmosphere. You failed. The mood was somber; funeral parlors have better atmospheres. Also, you were wearing a suit. IT IS A BEACH RESTAURANT. Wear at least a Hawaiian shirt! The number of Buffett songs I heard during my hour-long meal: ONE. It wasn’t even “Cheeseburger in Paradise” or “Margaritaville.” You could have least played those instead of “5 O’clock Somewhere” which isn’t even on one of Buffett’s CDs. Any self-respecting Parrothead would be thoroughly disappointed. You let me down. You really did and as a die-hard Parrothead, I did not think this was possible.

Somehow I was able to find the Blue Ridge Parkway from downtown Asheville without getting on the interstate (it was all luck). Replacing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the CD player with Songs You Know By Heart, it took only a few verses of “Cheeseburger in Paradise” before all was well again in Margaritaville. Cruising down the Blue Ridge Parkway listening to Buffett and later Prairie Home Companion, I thought to myself: “This is the good life.”

PS. Gatlinburg, TN should carry a warning sign: “If you have ever been anywhere in this world, you will be disappointed with our low-life version of hell.”