Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Heat, Rabat, and Henna Fun

Ok. Below is a photo taken of Lake Tislit near Imilchil from my 4th of July weekend. It was a bit rainy that day, but still beautiful.



Will be glad when the locusts die off. They like to jump and fly at anything that moves near them. And still dealing with the fearsome turk. A friend of mine left it uncovered the other day. I’ll just say it’s a bit of a shock to see 6 huge black beetle/cockroach things in your bathroom. I like summer other than the darn bugs. They’ll go away around September inchallah.

I’ve been back for about a week since my latest Rabat trip. I had to go up for a medical thing, like usual. As far as I know all is well, :). I have a new allergy med that I think it is actually causing my ear to ache more, but I’ll re-evaluate after a month. The trip was a little crazy. Had trouble finding an open room in Rabat on Wednesday and then just stayed with a CBT mate of mine on Thursday, she lives about an hour outside of Rabat. Then I was going to stay in Midelt, but my friend backed out last minute and I stayed with another CBT mate of mine in Azrou instead. It was nice in the fact I was able to travel there with a friend and was able to just relax and use internet while my friend did his thing. Also got to see my language trainer from training, :). Haven’t seen her in 8 months, so it was really nice. The bus ride back to Errachidia the next day was crazy. The buses weren’t running between 9am and 11am, so had to wait a couple extra hours and then fight my way on the 11am bus and enjoy a 6 hour ride back instead of the normal 4-5 hours of the 9am bus. I should have awoken an hour earlier and caught the 8am, but that’s Morocco for you. I didn’t realize traveling during the summer was so different. I also wasn’t feeling well the entire way back, hence I was very happy to return to my house after a long journey back.

Otherwise just been going to the coop and hanging out with my women since I got back. I also dared and dyed my hair with henna. It’s a pretty deep red now, but I love it. If I’d henna’d my eyebrows you would think it was natural. Posted some photos below so you can see the difference in color. Basically I had to sit around for 4 hours with plastic on my head before I could rinse it out. Normally women here henna their hair in hammam for about an hour or two, but I wanted the really rich red color and it’s too hot to go to hammam during the summer. Henna is supposed to be really good for your hair and also a cure for dandruff. Not so sure about the latter, but hair feels much healthier now and head isn’t as itchy as it was. Looks great too, ;). My coop women loved it.




Weather’s been a bit warm as well, so started sleeping on my roof until the temperature in my house goes down a bit. As you can see by the following photo, my new roof bed isn’t so bad. Just wish I had a fluffy blanket and it would be perfect. Sure beats sweating all night, it’s actually cool enough on my roof to use a blanket. Had to deal with a small plague of locusts the other night, but as soon as I turned off the light they stopped bothering me and my cat killed many of them. It’s also just nice to look up at the stars late at night, so beautiful here.


Otherwise life is good. My host family is great. I’m planning a trip out to the West coast for about a week to visit Essaoura and Tiznit. Have friends near both and plan on doing some shopping and hanging out at the beach. Essa is great for the beach and Tiznit is very well known for its silver jewelry.

It’s days like today (Monday) that make me happy to be a volunteer and not sitting at an office job all day. My coop president and a couple other women decided to take a walk through the forest today instead of going to the coop. It was so nice to just hang out and be outside getting some exercise. Great bonding experience, :).

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