Our Sahara Adventure, Part I

Dear fellow travellers,

Is this really the Sahara Desert?!?!? Not quite what we were expecting to see!

As it turns out, there has been rain in this region now for several weeks, and we were told that areas of the Sahara have been flooded! It is so bad that we could not drive into the desert on the day we were scheduled to, because the roads were flooded out and the desert was too wet - even the 4x4 trucks were getting stuck!

So, we spent the night in Zagora at another "Salaam" ("Peace) Hotel, ate another meal of chicken tajine, lots of olives, and another breakfast the next morning with lots of bread (French influence) and plenty of Coca cola to calm our stomachs!

We had to put our jackets on because it was so chilly. It rained all night, but we were so excited that we were going to be headed out into the Sahara desert in the morning. We were determined to have this part of our adventure!

The next morning, we loaded up the van and headed east twoards Merzouga, from where we would drive south into the Sahara. We drove all day through towns and past kasbahs and palm orchards.

Here is a map of Morocco.

Can you locate Ouarzazate? Find Zagora and Merzouga.

On a larger map of Morocco, locate Ouarzazate, Zagora and Merzouga.

• What is the longitude and latitude of each town?
• How many kilometers did we travel between each city?
• What is the average rainfall in the Sahara around Merzouga? Was the flood we experienced normal or wacky? Find out and tell us!

We stopped to visit several kasbahs, and to eat lunch, but we had to keep driving becuase it was still raining and our guide didn't know if we would be able to drive into the desert becuase of the flooding. We were driving in a van, and there was a river that was washed out and stranding travelers. Well, by the time we reached this river, it was about 8:00 at night, pitch dark, and the river was a raging flood over the entire roadway. It looked like whitewater rapids! And we said to ourselves, NO WAY! We did not want to get swept away trying to cross that water in a van!

Our van stopped and we sat waiting for what seemed like hours. We were waiting for a 4x4 truck to come pick us up. Well, it finally arrived, we transferred vehicles, and began approaching the river. When we saw the river we really began praying! Our truck stopped behind a line of other vehicles who could not cross the river. There was a line just like it on the other side, waiting to come in our directions. All the vehicles had their headlights shining on the water.

We watched another, much larger diesel truck approach the river and slowly drive through. As the truck drove through, the came up to the vehicle doors. We thought for sure it would get stuck, but it kept going, and finally made it to the other side! Well, that's when our driver got adventurous. Our truck pulled out of the line of cars and started moving forward towards the raging rapids flowing across the road. We held our breath (just in case!) and started thinking positive thoughts. Was this really happening? It didn't say anything about whitewater rapid floods in the Sahara in the guidebooks!

Well, we made it through the river, but little did we know that that was only the beginning of the Sahara floodwater adventure.

A short distance later, we turned off the paved road, and headed into the desert. It was pitch black, and a bumpy ride. We did not drive in a straight line, but rather seemed zig zag our way through. We found out the next day that this was because the regular route that the desert drivers used had been washed out and destroyed by the rains, and that our driver was having to negotiate his way around huge puddles and soft spots in the sand.

We thought our driver was doing a pretty good job. Our driver kept assuring us that we were close to our desination, although we could see nothing. Every once in a while, we would see some lights appear then disappear in the distance, and we wondered what they were from. It had stopped raining, and we could see one or two stars in the sky, but not like stars in a planetarium which we had expected to be able to see in the Sahara.

Just as our driver assured us once again that we were almost there, our truck stopped abruptly. The wheels began to spin, and we were STUCK! Our driver made several attempts to get us out, then got on his cell phone and there was a flurry of calls back and forth. We thought how useful cell phones must be in the Sahara - they seemed to get better reception than we get in some places around Boston ("can you hear me now?") - and how this technology must make their lives easier.

Well, after several minutes, out of the darkness came...a bulldozer!!! What? In the middle of the desert?! You just never know what's going to happen out here! The bulldozer was accompanied by 6 or 7 Tuareg men of the desert. They wore blue head wraps and long indigo blue robes, called gandurah. The Tuareg people are known as the warriors, travelers and traders of the desert.

Q: What other information and pictures can you find about the Tuareg people?

The men attached the bulldozer to our truck with some cables, the bulldozer pulled us out, and we started up again, feeling relieved. 50 yards later, we stopped, and this time the truck started sinking. Where was the bulldozer? It had disappeared into the darkness. Well, our driver made a few more calls, the Tuareg men reappeared, and there was some animated discussion. Well, one of the men walked around to the side of the truck and opened the door, and asked us to get out. They told us we would have to walk (were we still going to a tent?!?). It turns out that we were only a few hundred yards from our guesthouse destination, but we didn't know that because it was so dark.

We had to cross a river in the sand, and our guides told us it would be no problem. But, with each step towards the water, our feet sank deeper and deeper into the sand. Alicia and another woman sank up to their knees. The sand was like a suction cup, like quicksand pulling them deeper. Well, the guides helped them out, and we found a much narrower stretch of the water where the sand was also a little firmer, and we could wade through. "Wade in the water, children, wade in the water!" Lucy took her shoes off and experienced her toes in the sand of the Sahara for the first time.

We reached the guest house, and were taken to a room with carpets covering the floor and cushions covering the seats. Hafid, the manager, brought us mint tea to warm us up, and a silver pitcher with hot water, and began washing our feet in the basins. When we protested that he didn't have to do it, he told us that this is a usual ritual. He said that after he and his brothers have been many days in the desert with the camels, his mother welcomes them home and washes and massages their feet with warm water and salt.

They then had a delicious hot meal prepared for us. When we were done eating, the same Tuareg men that had rescued us in the desert brough in their drums and instruments, and began to serenade us with music, singing and dancing.

What a wonderful way to end our long and adventurous day.



But we had to get to bed early, because the camels would be waiting for us at 5 a.m.!

Stay tuned for the next episode of our Adventure int the Sahara!

Love,
Alicia and Lucy

Our Journey to Ouarzazate

Driving through the High Atlas mountains

Dear Fellow travellers,

We are travelling in a mini-van, and our driver's name is Hallid. He is from Fes (Fez), and is taking very good care of us.

From Marrakech we drove to Ouarzazate, from where we are now writing to you. To get here we had to cross the High Atlas mountains. This is the highest mountain range in North Africa. The Atlas mountains are 800 Kilometers long from north to south, and in some places 100 wide. One kilometer (km) is a little bit less than a mile. Crossing the mountains we drove over the Tizin 'n' Tichka Pass, heading southeast to the Draa Valley and the town of Ouarzazate.
The whole journey was 204 kilometers (128 miles).

(Another lesson on the metric system - see if you can find the comparison, and tell us how many miles is 800 kilometers?)

This is where the Berber people live and prosper. The guidebook says that the "villages seem to grow out of the hollows in the hillsides, flat-roofed, low and angular, the same color as the earth." The views are spectacular, and the road is so winding - Lucy said it looked like roads from, the roadrunner cartoons! Along the way we passes little tourist stalls where people are selling fossils, minerals, and geodes that they go way up into the mountains to find. We stopped and bought some walnuts from a small group of young boys, from 6-12 yars old. Hallid our driver is Berber and very familiar with the area, and we were able to speak to the boys a little bit. We told them we are teachers and that we teach children close to their ages.

Berber children we met along our drive through the Tizi 'n' Tichka Pass

We stopped at the Kasbah of Ait Benhaddou. A kasbah is a fortified house with either a single tower or4 towers, one at each corner of the wall. Powerful families built these at different times in Moroccan history to control the trade in the area. From their position on the hillside and from the towers they could see a caravan coming from many kilometers away, and stop them, tax them, or whatever they wanted; This is important in Silk Road trade. To get to the Kasbah, we had to cross a small river by stepping on stones. If it was December, we couldn't cross because the river would be full of water - but now is the dry season and the river is dried up. We walked by a camel resting all alone. The man sitting outside probably lives there.

We had a restful night in the hotel Salaam (Peace hotel), which is modern but has a lot of traditional architectural details and geometrical shapes.

Ouarzazate was built in 1928 as a "garrison post on the threshhold of the Sahara" (in the words of our guidebook). It is now home to a lot of movie studios - we learned that many movies have been made here, including Lawrence of Arabia; Jewel of the Nile; Kundun; and lots of others.

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Now we are off back through the High Atlas mountains to the Draa Valley, on to the oasis town of Zagora. The Draa is Morocco's longest river. Tonight we will spend the night in a tent in the Sahara desert, and in the morning we will wake up early and ride our camels out into the dunes to watch the sunrise! After that we're on to Erfoud, so it will be a couple of days before we can get on the internet and write again.

Farewell for now! Au revoir!

Love, Alicia and Lucy

Finally some pictures!

Here we are getting ready to make our presentation about Malindi's Journey at the Fulbright Conference in Marrakech. Sitting to our right are two teachers from Marrakech who spent time teaching in the United States.










This is the Koutoubia minaret in Marrakech. It is the city's most famous landmark. it is 70 meters high 230 feet).
















Spices are displayed at the souk (market) at Djemaa el Fna, the legendary city square in North Africa, and the largest outdoor market in the entire world!

Cinnamon, saffron, cumin, and many others.

Below are dates, figs and roasted peanuts.

At lunch on Sunday at the conference we had a full Moroccan feast, with traditional Moroccan dishes, including mechoui. The tajine is the clay vessel it is cooked in, with lots of vegetables. It is tender and very flavorful.

This is bastilla, a Moroccan pastry made with flour and water and egg, and served with ground almonds and honey and argon oil, which you can only get in the Southern part of Morocco.

Our Presentation at the Fulbright conference

Dear Future Fulbrighters (yes, that's all of you),

What an experience and honor it was to present your work. We made our presentation on Saturday morning to an audience of about 120 people, who came to this conference from all around the world, from countries like Pakistan, Finland, China, India, France, Thailand, England, Belgium, and Nigeria, just to name a few! Can you find all those countries on the map and label them?

In our presentation we talked about our book Malindi's Journey, and the Dolphin class at Young Achievers' study of East Africa two years ago. We showed lots of pictures of the class busy at work, including the visit to the Roxbury Mosque, building mosques back in the classroom, building the mtepe, the big map of the east coast of Africa and the east coast of the United States, Ms. Leslie teaching and helping students label the parts of the mtepe, and much more. The whole presentation including the paper and the powerpoint should be posted on the Fulbright conference website in the next day or so. The website is http://www.fulbright.org/conference/2006/schedule.htm

Nothing is posted yet, but check back in a day or so!

We are pleased to say that people loved our presentation, and were very impressed with the Dolphin class work! They couldn't believe that young children could learn and do so much! College professors and university students, other Fulbright recipients and others were in the audience and told us afterwards how much they learned from us - about the giraffe that went to China, and about how smart students in Boston are. People who were not in the audience heard about it from others who were there, and approached us on Saturday and Sunday to tell us that we were the hit of the conference. The US Ambassador to Morocco, Thomas Riley, introduced himself to Alicia at dinner on Sunday night and told her that he'd heard that the children's work was brilliant and amazing; He said that the research we have done is very scholarly, especially as classroom teachers, and wondered where we find the time to do it; He said that global education for students in the US is essential, and our work is a model for how to do this. Way to go Dolphin class! You have made quite an impression around the world!

An interesting connection happened on Saturday evening, too. As we were going into a conference dinner, several people told us that on CNN news that day, they saw that representatives (ambassadors) from 48 different African countries were meeting in Beijing to develop trade and business relationships. The room where they met was decoated with giraffes models, and the African ambassadors presented the Chinese officials with a large giraffe model. Many people at the Fulbright dinner had seen that news story, and told us that they were excited because, after hearing our presentation they know the significance of the giraffe as a symbol of friendship between African countries and China. We think that this also shows how a story that took place in 1414 is still relevant and important to know in 2006.

Many people want to buy our book Malindi's Journey, but we had to tell them it's not finished yet. This is our homework!

Love,
Lucy and Alicia

Sunday evening: first experiences continued!

It is now Sunday evening we are on the computer of the hotel. Please forgive any typos and spelling errors; the keyboard is different. For example, the "q" is where the "a" usually is, and the "," is where the"m" usually is. - this keyboard must be for the french language?

Speaking of languages, the two main languages spoken here are Arabic and French. English is spoken by some people, but not most. The Arabic spoken here is the dialect spoken by the people in the United Arab Emirates, not the Arabic spoken by people in Iran, which is Farsi. It's kind of like the difference between American english and British english. Although written Arabic is the same throughout Arab countries, the spoken language dilaect is different throughout the Middle East.

Assignment: go to the classroom map and locate these countries: United Arab Emirates (also called Saudi Arabia), and Iran.

We have learned that "thank you" in french is "merci" and in arabic it's "shukran." We've also learned how to say "je ne parle pas français," which means "I don't speak French!" Although we both learned French in high school, and Alicia learned Farsi living in Iran, it's a different dialect and we need to get a phrase book!

The official language here is Arabic, and it's the first language learned by Moroccan children. However Moroccans speak at least two languages - many people speak more than that! When you speak other languages you can talk with so many people and learn so much more about the world!

The signs and street names in Marrakech are bilingual, too.

Money: The money here is dirhams (dh). The bills (paper) come in 20 dh, 50 dh, 100 dh, and 200 dh. You can get coins of 1 dh, 5 dh, 10 dh. A dirham is divided into centimes (a French word).

When we got to the hotel, we had to change our dollars into dirhams so that we could pay for things. For each dollar, we got 8.5 dirhams. A cup of mint tea or a coca cola costs 20 dirhams. How much is that in US dollars?

Everything here is measured using the metric system. In fact, the US is the only country that doesn't use the metric system. Find a ruler or a yardstick that has centimeters on one side. How many centimeters is in a foot (a ruler)? How many centimeters is in a yard? Now, measure your arm from, from the tip of your thumb to the top of your shoulder. How long is it?

At the souk (market) at Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech, when the merchants sell items, for example dates, figs, and spices such as cinnamon, saffron, cumin, they weigh them them, using kilos instead of pounds. At the gas station, the gas is measured in liters, not gallons. There are 4 liters in a gallon. If gas here costs 3.5 dirhams per liter, how much would 1 gallon cost? Here the temperature is measured on the celcius scale, not the fahrenheit scale. The weather here has been around 80° (fahrenheit) every day, which is 25° celcius. So when someone tells you it's 25 degrees out, it's hot as an m'semen frying on the grill! (m'semen, by the way is the fried bread that you can buy from vendors at the souk. We eat it every day for breakfast with honey. mmmmmmmmmm!)

That's all for now; but there's so much more. Please do your assignments, and post your answers to the site for us! We really want to hear from you!

Amika - thanks for posting a comment!

Love, Alicia and Lucy

First experiences

Dear Fellow Travelers,

It is now Sunday afternoon, just a few hours after our last post. The lunch was wonderful. We ate traditional Berber food: bastilla (the Arabic spelling) (or pastilla the French spelling), a very specisl food. It's a pie with layers of flaky pastry (like filo), filled with ground chicken, ground almonds, saffron, eggs, and spices, cinnamon, and all covered on top with powdered sugar. Yum Yum! We were already full after that, but there was much more to come!

Next we were served lamb slow-cooked with vegetables (cauliflour and green beans), with a light gravy, and served in a tagine, an earthen-ware container with a conical cover.

For dessert we had a Moroccan pancake - made with flour and water, then blended so it's light and fluffy, then cooked on a non-stick pan so it's light and fluffy and full of little bubbles. It was covered with ground almonds mixed with honey and argan oil, which we were told is only available in Southern Morocco. The argan oil is very good for many uses. It's good for the body!

We also had mint tea, made from a mixture of green tea and fresh mint. This is Morocco's national drink - so far we have had it with every meal, and in between meals. It's very tasty and refreshing, and is also very good for the body. We'll have make some when we get home.

We're off to Djemaa el Fna, the main square with the largest market in the world - lots of souks (little markets_).

xxox
Alicia and Lucy

First experiences

Dear Fellow Travelers,

It is now Sunday afternoon, just a few hours after our last post. The lunch was wonderful. We ate traditional Berber food: bastilla (the Arabic spelling) (or pastilla the French spelling), a very specisl food. It's a pie with layers of flaky pastry (like filo), filled with ground chicken, ground almonds, saffron, eggs, and spices, cinnamon, and all covered on top with powdered sugar. Yum Yum! We were already full after that, but there was much more to come!

Next we were served lamb slow-cooked with vegetables (cauliflour and green beans), with a light gravy, and served in a tagine, an earthen-ware container with a conical cover.

For dessert we had a Moroccan pancake - made with flour and water, then blended so it's light and fluffy, then cooked on a non-stick pan so it's light and fluffy and full of little bubbles. It was covered with ground almonds mixed with honey and argan oil, which we were told is only available in Southern Morocco. The argan oil is very good for many uses. It's good for the body!

We also had mint tea, made from a mixture of green tea and fresh mint. This is Morocco's national drink - so far we have had it with every meal, and in between meals. It's very tasty and refreshing, and is also very good for the body. We'll have make some when we get home.

We're off to Djemaa el Fna, the main square with the largest market in the world - lots of souks (little markets_).

xxox
Alicia and Lucy

Welcome to the kingdom of Morocco

Dear Fellow Travelers,

Today is Sunday, November 5. It is 12:20 p.m. our time, which is 7:20 a.m. Sunday morning your time! Time to wake up! :)

This is the first time we have been able to write to you on our blog, so we will try to fill you in on our experiences and impressions so far!

We got on the airplane in Boston on Wednesday evening at 6 pm and arrived in London 6 1/2 hours later, but it was already Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m.! London England is 5 hours ahead of us in time! After walking around the airport we had to take a bus to get to the terminal for our next airplane to fly to Marrakech. The flight was only 3 1/2 hours, and we landed in Marrakech at 12:30 in the afternoon - no time change this time!

As we descended into Marrakech, we could see mountains from the plane. We could see fields of greenery, but we didn't know what it was. Later we learned these are groves of olive trees!
The land surrounding the olives groves was brown and sandy looking, like terra cotta.

As soon as we stepped out of the airplane, we noticed the colors of the buildings. They are the same terra cotta color, matching the land, and the doors are turquoise color - beautiful.
We expected the air to feel like a warm fall day, in the 70s, but we were surprised that it was much warmer, in the 80s. We had to go through passport control where they checked our passports and stamped them, and then we had to go through Customs, where they ask you if you are bringing anything to selll into the country. We told them, no, we're not selling anything, we're teachers, and we're visiting Morocco to present at the Fulbright conference, and to visit schools and learn about education here!

Assignment: Morocco recently won an award from UNESCO for their literacy programs (teaching more people to read). Look up UNESCO on the internet and find out who they are, and what they do. Can you find information about the award they gave to Morocco?

The hotel was a short taxi ride away from the airport, and on the way we saw many things that are new to us. We saw lots of busses, cars, people riding on motorbikes. The main streets were lined with roses of all colors - red, white, orange, peach, yellow. We saw lots of orange trees, and we saw lots of olive trees - this is when we learned what we had seen from the airplane. It turned out we were passing Menara Gardens, a garden and olive grove built by the Almodads, a ruling dynasty in the 1100s and 1200s.

It's now time for us to go to the conference lunch. The Speaker is Alex Counts, the President of the Grameen Foundation. He went to Bangladesh in 1988 with the Fulbright grant, and is now president of the Grameen Bank.

Later on, the Honorable Thomas T. Riley, the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco will be speaking. It's full day, and we'll write much much more in a few hours! So check back with us!

Love,
Alicia and Lucy

We are getting ready to leave tomorrow, and are busy trying to prepare everything we need. We'll write soon! Stay tuned to this spot.

L & A