Morocco is a-MAZE-ing!

Hey all! It feels like a lifetime, but only a week ago, I arrived in Morocco from Niamey, Niger. Last week was a very emotional time known as the Transition Conference. Many volunteers closed their service (COS) and a few people made decisions to continue volunteering elsewhere. A few people from my stage that had just begun service in Niger decided to ERS (expedited return to service), which means they all gone home and begin their service all over again in Philly with a new stage to a new place. Volunteers who chose this option are going to Costa Rica, Namibia or Malawi. Ellie boo is going to Malawi, a fellow Maradi volunteer that I know is going to Costa Rica. Best of luck to those ERS peeps. The volunteers that are still here in Morocco will be continuing in one of the following countries: Senegal, South Africa, Guinea, Rwanda, Malawi and...CAMEROON which is where I am going! People going to these countries will be leaving right from Casablanca, Morocco in the near future. When we get to our country, we will have a specialized training (language, culture, technical skills) and be placed at our site. It is going to be a challenging transition to start over again, but I knew that I wanted to continue servin' in Africa!

Morocco is pretty sweet! Yesterday, I took a train to Fez with some friends. Three of them were going to stay there so we went to a youth hostel and dropped their stuff off. Then we walked around the Medina, or huge old market, that is the heart of Fez. The streets are tiny and we got lost several times, but it was fun because we weren't really looking for anything. So we're walking around the MAZE of stores and people are trying to sell us stuff and this one guy is like would you like to go to a restaurant and brings us into this side street? We're like ok, this is sketchy, but we have two guys in our group walking around so we're ike what's the worst that can happen? So this dude ends up bringing us into this huge back area where they're selling rugs. We buy yummy sandwiches from him and he tells us the history of rugs in Morocco and Fez. We go upstairs for a demonstration of women making the rugs. The rugs were gorgeous and the guy was really nice and wanted to sell them to us but we were like sorry man we are poor college graduates who are traveling there's no way we can haul these things around the African continent. No it was cool though. Then he had one of his friends bring us to a tannery. So we walked through the labyrinth to this huge leather store that looked down into where they do all the dyeing. It was super cool!

 Looking down on all the beautiful rooms in the sketchy rug store

 Leather tannery, vats used to dye the leather

Entrance to the Medina (only one entrance/exit, fire hazard anyone?)

I tentatively leave for Cameroon February 6th. So, in the mean time, I may head back to Fez and do a desert tour through Morocco. Stay tuned!

BES Note:
Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of Flat Stanley in Niger, but yesterday in Fez, Morocco I took pictures of him in the market.

Mr. Stanley on a Moroccan rug

Flat Stanley will be coming with me to Cameroon and then I will send him back to Vermont!