First of all I must apologize for not updating my blog as often as I would like to. Whether I have been traveling for long periods of time or been without internet, I have found it tough to sit down and write out an entry for a while. But much has happened in the last couple of months and I will try and lay out much of what has been going on in my life. This past 4th of July was truly a fun time, but also quite bittersweet. Several friends and I went up to a quiet beach town on the Mediterranean Sea to celebrate our country's birthday and it was a wild success and quite fun. The first night I was out on the quiet beach with two of my closest friends in the country and one of my friends, one that I have been closest to since day 1 in the country told us he had decided to leave the country early and head back to the States. It hit me hard but I knew what it meant to him and gave him the support and love and let him know I was so happy for him. Without a doubt it will be tough going the rest of my time here without my closest friend but I'm so happy for all the time we had it doesn't leave me sad or bitter. People enter our lives in random ways and without our say so and can sometimes become something so meaningful we don't realize it until they are moving on. I am not sad about missing theoretical times we could have had in the future over here in Morocco, I am so thankful and happy for our great times together and all he meant to me while I tried figuring out what I was doing in this country.
Pretty soon after the 4th I went with a few others to Spain and Portugal for a couple weeks and it was like a breath of fresh air. The food, the people, the culture, I had begun to forget what western culture was like and I found myself giddy with every tiny aspect of life outside of Morocco. To be fair, I do enjoy my time in this country, but this was as close as I felt to being back in a familiar world in almost a year and it was glorious. Pictures from my trip are up on my facebook if people would like to see visuals from the trip.
Before I left for my trip I had three days in the country which were the beginning of Ramadan, which is the Muslim holy month that consists of much praying and fasting. While I was in my town I wanted to participate for the first couple days in solidarity and for the first time in my life I chose to forgo food and drink for the day until the breaking of fast around 7:20 in the evening. Currently it has been between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside so this was tougher than I had anticipated. I pushed on through, using reading and movies to distract me and also moving as little as possible to conserve energy. At one point, when I noticed my watch and saw I still had about three hours to go, I put on the film Ghandi which helped keep me going. Seeing this powerful skinny little Indian getting beaten and starving himself made me keep things in perspective. Breaking fast with families in my town has been some of the best moments in my time in this country. I have broken fast with three different families a number of times now and it's been great each time. Being a part of something that so many people are doing, and have done for more than a thousand years is beautiful. Knowing that all of 40,000+ Moroccans in my town are participating in this religious celebration and doing my part as well has meant a lot to me and also, as they have told me, the families and the people I talk to it about it.
I am coming up on my year mark of being in country and then will be a couple months away of reaching my year mark of service and I haven't yet wrapped my head around what I think about that. This will have to wait for another blog post at another time.
Pretty soon after the 4th I went with a few others to Spain and Portugal for a couple weeks and it was like a breath of fresh air. The food, the people, the culture, I had begun to forget what western culture was like and I found myself giddy with every tiny aspect of life outside of Morocco. To be fair, I do enjoy my time in this country, but this was as close as I felt to being back in a familiar world in almost a year and it was glorious. Pictures from my trip are up on my facebook if people would like to see visuals from the trip.
Before I left for my trip I had three days in the country which were the beginning of Ramadan, which is the Muslim holy month that consists of much praying and fasting. While I was in my town I wanted to participate for the first couple days in solidarity and for the first time in my life I chose to forgo food and drink for the day until the breaking of fast around 7:20 in the evening. Currently it has been between 115 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside so this was tougher than I had anticipated. I pushed on through, using reading and movies to distract me and also moving as little as possible to conserve energy. At one point, when I noticed my watch and saw I still had about three hours to go, I put on the film Ghandi which helped keep me going. Seeing this powerful skinny little Indian getting beaten and starving himself made me keep things in perspective. Breaking fast with families in my town has been some of the best moments in my time in this country. I have broken fast with three different families a number of times now and it's been great each time. Being a part of something that so many people are doing, and have done for more than a thousand years is beautiful. Knowing that all of 40,000+ Moroccans in my town are participating in this religious celebration and doing my part as well has meant a lot to me and also, as they have told me, the families and the people I talk to it about it.
I am coming up on my year mark of being in country and then will be a couple months away of reaching my year mark of service and I haven't yet wrapped my head around what I think about that. This will have to wait for another blog post at another time.
