The Long Road Ahead...and the Bled

First, The Bled.

This past week, some volunteers and I went hiking and camping. While it surely was fun, it was also for work. I am replacing two volunteers (a couple), and they needed to show me the route to take when I will be working in the large park in my site.

We spent three days in total hiking and two nights camping. The first day and the last day we hiked 25 km to/from the place we camped. The middle day we spent exploring, and showing me the correct routes to follow when I do this on my own. So here are some more details, and I will try to be succinct and organized.

The hike we took is not super technical, on the way there it tends to be more downhill than uphill, but there are three large uphill portions. There are a couple of roads (think hard dirt) that we followed as well. Along the way we passed through two small villages, and by a couple of random houses. To me, these villages and houses represent a style of isolation that is very unimaginable to me. While the two villages are accessible via cameo ride when the weather is good (dump truck ride with 20 or so people and goods in the bed), many of the individual houses are only accessible via mule or donkey or horse. I know that back in the states, some people have cabins in the wilderness only accessible (by car) for part of the year. I suppose this is the same… but the people here are there all year round.

In Morocco, there is a specific term for the country. This phrase is called “The Bled”, and basically stands for the country, the middle of nowhere… you get the point. Mud houses are the only structures in these villages, and from afar, it blends in somewhat with the landscape around, and looked very serene and natural. It is this isolation that I had envisioned when I first came to Morocco.

The middle day of hiking was, as I said, very much exploring, but also showing me some of the technical portions of the trail. The campsite we chose is near a natural spring, and the water is cold and fantastic. No need to treat it. The site also is at the mouth of a gorge. The gorge consists of cliffs on either side around 1000 feet at least, maybe more. I am a bad judge at heights. In some portions the gorge is wide, like a quarter mile. Other portions are only as wide as the length of a car, or the width of a normal bedroom. In periods of heavy rain, naturally there are flooding issues. The weather we had was gorgeous and clear, so the stream was at a normal level.

Some of the exploring we did consisted of free-climbing, as the rock faces were perfect for it. There was also a small pool of water that was good for cooling off and swimming. The end of the gorge opened up to a valley (this gorge is THE pass through the mountains) and there were some more houses and trees. Once again, it was absolutely gorgeous.

The volunteers pointed out the way from there over another pass (A pass is a route through/between the mountains) and into the park. From my town, the park is two days hiking away, just to get there. Basically that is roughly 50km or so of hiking in two days. This is in fact the bled.

Naturally, there were a number of people we met along the way. Most of them are curious, yet friendly. There were some shy characters who gave us odd looks, others who talked with us and were happy we knew their language. There were also people along the way who asked us for things. The main things were medicine and candy.

Apparently, whatever foreigner had visited these places in the past must have been a doctor or a candy dealer, or both. There were some adults who would come up to us and ask if we had medicine to give them, or if we had pills to help various ailments. I suppose it is odd for a person to be backpacking through their town, and naturally they may have thought we were all doctors, coming to help the sick and give medicine.

There were also the children. Many of the kids would ask us for candy. They would say hello (after we said hello to them) and then ask for candy. The word for candy in Tam is “l’Hlwa” (basically pronounced Hull-uh-wah). In one particular village, things got crazy. Kids were coming from all around the village, not even saying hello, and just saying as fast as they could “Hlwa Hlwa Hlwa!” They did this in a very high pitched sort of sound. It was both hilarious, and also sad. At some point these kids have been trained in some manner to react this way to foreigners. Maybe some candy fairy foreigner (or doctor) gave them candy, but even so, it was crazy. So we decided that the name of the village should change to “Ait Hlwa.” The word “Ait” means tribe. So Ait Hlwa means “tribe of candy.” It was fitting.

“The Long Road Ahead”
Being at my final site, I have seen some amazing things. I have also seen things that make me sad, and wonder how people can just dump trash and deforest without replanting, and how the environment is not taken care of in any sense.

I had a conversation with my host mom the other day about if I was lonely, or missed my family back home. I told her that of course I missed my family and friends, but at the same time I did choose to come here and do this work.

It is a long road, and definitely an uphill battle in many ways. It has been a great time, but there have also been times since I have been here that have been difficult. Sometimes it gets quite lonely, and due to the fact my language is not yet strong, I cannot just go out and talk to people about intellectually stimulating things. I have to stick to the basics. It is still difficult to describe exactly how I feel to people. There are really good days with language, and then days where talking just is not happening, and the frustration is beyond belief.

As a disclaimer, please do not read this and think that I am having trouble, or am having a hard time. With anything, it is natural to have ups and downs, especially when you are singled out and stick out everywhere you go. This is just a bit of the realistic side of it all.

Of course I want to be at the point where language is perfectly understandable and easy, and the environmental work is going well. But, I definitely have to keep telling myself that while this point will come… and I know that it will… that the whole process should not be forgotten in the meantime, and that the process is maybe more important than the product.

I know that experiencing the ups and downs on my own (yes, I know that people support me), will help me in the end to become a stronger person, and be able to deal with hard issues and events. No matter how ready I ever thought I could be, or how strong I thought I was before coming here, I know that when my time here is up, I will have grown so much more and will see the world in a different way. Sometimes, I just realize that it definitely will be a long road, at times awesome, at times difficult, but it will be rewarding. (That all sounds really cheesy when I re-read it.)

Once again… give me topics to write about if you have questions. Thanks for the already suggestions!

Here are some future topics (I came up with these):
- Biggest problems of my Village (that townspeople tell me)
- Funny Language translations, and the way people talk (including my nickname)
- Moroccan Hospitality
- One Plate, One Cup (Communal dinner at its finest)

That’s all I have for now. I love you all, and if you want to send me things, I have an address. I want to mention that you should be smart about shipping in many ways. But the first thing is this… THE US POST OFFICE SELLS BOXES AT A FLAT RATE TO GO OVERSEAS. YOU CAN PUT UP TO A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF WEIGHT IN THE BOX. THIS IS THE CHEAPEST WAY TO GO PROBABLY, BECAUSE IF YOU SEND ME PACKAGES, YOU MIGHT AS WELL SEND FULL PACKAGES.

Some hints for packages again:
- Label the box “Educational Materials”
- Sending money or electronics = bad idea… things get opened and taken here, this is not the USPS usually good system
- Sending religious materials = see above. I do not want to be viewed as a missionary by anyone in the government here, because it is illegal, and probably would not be helpful for work purposes.
- I like surprises.

Im not saying I expect everyone to send packages… but don’t you like mail too?! If you want to send me packages, and do not have my address, e-mail me or my parents. If you want a list of things to send, I can give make a list up, and post it here on my blog.

I love you, happy summer, and Oh yeah, I saw my first scorpion the other day out hiking. It was cute.

Loves,
Me!