Hi folks,
It's been awhile since my last post, but not too much has changed. Work has been appearing, slowly but surely, which has been good. I've gotten a little more involved in the project I mentioned in my last post--besides the soil testing, a large component is developing a training program that will be taught by Moroccan employees of the Park Office to the owners of the land in the park to change their grazing practices. The goal is to implement a program that has been used very successfully in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and other states in the west to restore soil and vegetation quality that has been damaged by overgrazing. I'll likely be helping revise the curriculum that the U.S. Forest Service team taught to the Moroccan trainers to make it more Morocco-appropriate, and helping to organize the actual training sessions when they happen. Some pictures of the park:
I've also started working with a small cooperative based in a tiny village outside Azrou that's been working with a small business development volunteer for two years. She's about to finish her service and go home, but they just got a grant, so I'm going to continue working with them after the other volunteer leaves. Their products are medicinal herbs (rosemary, thyme, verbena, and a lot of others made into oils and waters) and amazing couscous that's dried with herbs already in it. Part of the grant is paying for a solar-powered couscous drier that's being designed by a nearby university class, and part of it will go towards product development to help them reach a broader market. They're lovely women, a small group and mostly middle-aged, and it's nice to collaborate with a group of women that has the freedom to work outside the house.
There's a couple other little things that will hopefully come together soon, but that's about it work-wise. I've been doing some traveling, to Marrakech for a peer-counseling training in September and to meet my friend Kristin's parents. I'm at site now, though, and it's COLD. I don't have a thermometer, but I'd guess that midday temperatures in the sun outside are low 50s, and much colder when it's cloudy or stormy, which is often. My lovely basement house holds in the cold, and generally it's colder inside than out. I haven't woken up to frost in my house yet, but I'm told it will happen soon. Seriously.
The past few months have been very quiet otherwise; living without a computer made me appreciate a little more what Peace Corps service used to be like (okay, I still have my cell phone and occasional internet access in the city,but still ...) I'm almost embarrassed by how many books I've read, and I've also done things like make peanut butter with a mortar and pestle. But now I do have a computer again, which is a relief for work reasons and also means I can read the news and respond to emails a little more regularly. I am determined to be a better snail-mail correspondent, though, and I finally found envelopes and stamps, so write me letters!
Some pictures from Casablanca:
This is the Hassan II mosque, built by and named after the current king's father. It's the third largest mosque in the world, and the largest that non-Muslims can enter. (The largest two are in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia.) It's only about 20 years old, and has a capacity of 25,000 inside. It was beautiful.
It's been awhile since my last post, but not too much has changed. Work has been appearing, slowly but surely, which has been good. I've gotten a little more involved in the project I mentioned in my last post--besides the soil testing, a large component is developing a training program that will be taught by Moroccan employees of the Park Office to the owners of the land in the park to change their grazing practices. The goal is to implement a program that has been used very successfully in Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and other states in the west to restore soil and vegetation quality that has been damaged by overgrazing. I'll likely be helping revise the curriculum that the U.S. Forest Service team taught to the Moroccan trainers to make it more Morocco-appropriate, and helping to organize the actual training sessions when they happen. Some pictures of the park:
 |
| the famous Atlas ceder! old one on the left, babies on the right. this is in a fenced area, otherwise babies get grazed |
 |
| digging some holes--my PCV colleague on the left, our counterpart from the Park Office, Lahcen, on the right |
 |
| digging more holes, in an unprotected area of the park (notice the lack of vegetation)--see the culprits in back |
I've also started working with a small cooperative based in a tiny village outside Azrou that's been working with a small business development volunteer for two years. She's about to finish her service and go home, but they just got a grant, so I'm going to continue working with them after the other volunteer leaves. Their products are medicinal herbs (rosemary, thyme, verbena, and a lot of others made into oils and waters) and amazing couscous that's dried with herbs already in it. Part of the grant is paying for a solar-powered couscous drier that's being designed by a nearby university class, and part of it will go towards product development to help them reach a broader market. They're lovely women, a small group and mostly middle-aged, and it's nice to collaborate with a group of women that has the freedom to work outside the house.
There's a couple other little things that will hopefully come together soon, but that's about it work-wise. I've been doing some traveling, to Marrakech for a peer-counseling training in September and to meet my friend Kristin's parents. I'm at site now, though, and it's COLD. I don't have a thermometer, but I'd guess that midday temperatures in the sun outside are low 50s, and much colder when it's cloudy or stormy, which is often. My lovely basement house holds in the cold, and generally it's colder inside than out. I haven't woken up to frost in my house yet, but I'm told it will happen soon. Seriously.
The past few months have been very quiet otherwise; living without a computer made me appreciate a little more what Peace Corps service used to be like (okay, I still have my cell phone and occasional internet access in the city,but still ...) I'm almost embarrassed by how many books I've read, and I've also done things like make peanut butter with a mortar and pestle. But now I do have a computer again, which is a relief for work reasons and also means I can read the news and respond to emails a little more regularly. I am determined to be a better snail-mail correspondent, though, and I finally found envelopes and stamps, so write me letters!
Some pictures from Casablanca:
This is the Hassan II mosque, built by and named after the current king's father. It's the third largest mosque in the world, and the largest that non-Muslims can enter. (The largest two are in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia.) It's only about 20 years old, and has a capacity of 25,000 inside. It was beautiful.
This was touristy but worth it--the movie was actually filmed in Tangier, on the Mediterranean Coast, but someone recently build a replica in Casablanca, and we had a fancy drink there. Sadly, there was no one playing the piano.
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