A weekend of field trips

Hello! I had a restful weekend here in Rabat and am gearing up for my last week at the orphanage. I can hardly fathom saying goodbye at this point so I need to begin to prepare myself. We went to the medina on Saturday and the Hassan Tower and down to the water on Sunday. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Getting around during Ramadan can be a bit tricky; we've learned the hard way that if you haven't reached your final destination by about 5:30pm, you're going to be hanging out where you are until 8:45pm! Muslims break the fast at sundown and so there's a mad dash to get home and get the food ready for the special meal. Taxis are almost unheard of at that time and the streets become eerily quiet. Last night Mary Fran and I joined Khadjia in her evening walk at 5:30 before breaking the fast. I guess it's super popular to go exercise right before the evening meal in order to keep your mind off of wanting to eat and drink and to lose weight during Ramadan, as well as to curb your hunger so you don't eat a lot. I'm going to bite my tongue on this subject for now!

Instead, let's jump to some pictures:

This is the Hassan Tower, originally intended to be the world's largest mosque in 1195AD

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V, where the tombs of the late king of Morocco and his sons lay

The Moroccan flag in front of the Hassan Tower

My new buddy

The other side of the Atlantic Ocean! A little inlet that is a popular hang out with the locals

Mary Fran and Jin

Putting the RAM! in Ramadan (Okay, so I just made that up...)

Salam!

I had a great long weekend despite still being sick with bronchitis and some random stomach thing. As you saw in the last post, I spent a day in Fes, came home early and slept all day to my little heart’s content, and then took the train over to Marrakech where we spent the night checking out the nightlife. I’m definitely on the mend and am ready and rearing to go for a full week at the orphanage!

On Saturday Ramadan started! This is what Wikipedia has to say about Ramadan:

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان‎) (also written Ramazan, Ramzan, Ramadhan, Ramdan, Ramadaan) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until dusk ^[1] Fasting is meant to teach the Muslim patience, modesty and spirituality. Ramaḍān is a time to fast for the sake of Allah, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramaḍān, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. As compared to solar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving forward about ten days each year. Ramadhan was the month in which the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed^{[Qur'an 2:185]} to the Prophet Muhammad.

I highly recommend you check out the rest of the page! It’s been relatively the same around here except for eating and drinking in public. It’s actually in the constitution that a Moroccan is required by law to fast, and if caught eating without a valid excuse (pregnant women, children, people that are ill), they can be arrested.... Kinda serious stuff!! As foreigners the law doesn’t apply to us but it’s highly recommended that we refrain from eating or drinking in public out of respect for those that are fasting. Many locals have asked me if I’m going to be fasting as well. As much as I would love to and will probably try for one day, it’s the no drinking when it’s over 100* that I’m worried about! So for now I eat and drink as much as I can at home and try to refrain while in public. Some volunteers have decided to continue to eat and drink in public and many have gotten yelled at. There is also no smoking and drinking allowed and we’ve seen a cigarette black market beginning for those who still need a fix.

Today will be the first day in the orphanage during Ramadan. I dressed super conservatively (you're supposed to be extra conservative and not wear make-up) and I won’t be bringing my handy water bottle. After some thought I decided to switch rooms and leave the WWW to her ways. As much as I love those boys and feel bad for leaving them to the misery of the Witch, I had told myself at the beginning that I wanted to experience more than one room. Who knows, I may still get stuck with WWW and her posse, but we shall see where I end up! I feel like I haven’t been at the orphanage in forever and I’m so happy to have a full week there.

Hope all is well back home! I was going to leave you with the call to Prayer over the Jama F’na Square in Marrakech, but after 2hrs it still hasn't uploaded. We hear the call five times a day beginning at around 5am and ending at 9:45pm. It’s called from each Mosque by a guy called an imam, signaling that it’s time to recite the Koran at prayer. I occasionally wake up at the 4-5am one because it’s super loud and the guard dogs around us all howl. However, as I’ve said before- if you’re exhausted, you will sleep through anything!

Off to the orphanage!

Self entertaining on the 5 hour train ride to Marrakesh (Sock puppets not pictured)

The view from dinner. Bread is considered holy and sacred and it's against their beliefs to throw it out. Instead, it's fed to the stray animals and birds (and let me tell you- we eat a LOT of bread!!!)

The door to our Riad. Apparently people were shorter hundreds of years ago?

The Square in Marrakesh. There are dozens of these fresh orange juice stands- so yummy!

The evening view from dinner. If you look closely, you will see the black speakers on the middle to top right corner that the Imam's call to prayer comes out of