February 26-31
A group of about 70 people from ISA Granada and Sevilla went to Morocco last week. We first took a bus to Fes. The first thing I noticed was how out of place I felt. I felt like such a stranger, not being able to read or understand anything. There were hardly any women out and I felt like I was dressed scantily in a white vneck. We stayed in the newer part of town and while it was definitly more run down than the average spain city I didn't really feel like I was in a third world country. The next day we had tour guides take us around the medina. The medina is the old part of town that hasn't changed at all since it began. The people have at least 8 children to be able to help out with their trade and 80% of the people aren't educated. We saw hand-made rugs, silk shops, a medicine man with all natural remedies, a leather factory, etc. It was really amazing seeing all of the things they make and bardering with them. The next day we drove the the Saharan desert where we took 4x4s to our campsite. We slept in huge tents on mats. Outside of our camp, berbers (nomadic tribe) sat waiting for us to come out. They loved talking to us and would eventually try to "teach" us their work. None of them had ever left the desert and were never taught any languages yet they all new at least a little bit of 6 languages just because of tourists. There was a full moon, making the dunes seem like they glowed. We could walk around at night with no problem. The campsite made us all of our meals which were delicious. We woke up early to watch the sunrise. I expected brilliant colors covering the sky so at first I was a little bit dissapointed. In the end, it was beautiful. You could look straight at the sun, which almost looked like the moon and the colors were beautiful. We rode camels to the largest dune nearby and climbed to the top to look at the views. We could see into Algeria which was about 50 km away. Running down the dune made the climb all the worthwhile. Then, we rode the camels into the nearby pueblo. This was the saddest part. We all bought cocacola and water while the children stood around looking so thirsty. Somebody gave one of the kids the rest of their cocacola and about 10 kids fought over it. The biggest kid one, took a sip, and handed it to the next biggest kid. It was kind of like a hierarchy of children. We went to a rug place where I played with the two cutest little courtyards in the back. After, we ate at a house in the pueblo. I was under the impression that the whole pueblo worked together for everything. The same people that worked at the campsite also helped us at the rug place and served us our food. Likewise, all of the women worked to make the rugs, the whole pueblo worked to make the things that the berbers sold in the desert, and they probably all gave their camels for tourists to ride in the desert. After lunch the girls stuck around to get henna tatoos and played with more precious little kids. There was a baby that had flies on its face every other second which was really sad. After that there was a giant sandstorm so we stayed in the main tent all afternoon. At night we explored the dunes for our last night in the desert.
