Here are pictures of the children that have taken my heart!!! I am so blessed to have been able to teach these kids...even the ones that annoy me!! :) Thanks nuggets!!

Personal Calling

“What is a personal calling?
It is God's blessings, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don't all have the courage to confront our own dream...
When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times...
Once we have overcome the defeats-and we always do-we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure...
If you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.”
Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist

My birthday night!!! :) It was such a good birthday here in Morocco. Started with going to see all the kids at Ibny. Then at lunch it was sandwich day; which is the best day ever in my food life right now :) After that I was surprised by a cake made by the lovely kitchen ladies. In the evening it was a nice two hour walk around town then off to dinner with friends and a few cocktails at one of the 3 bars in all of Rabat where we were they only women. :) what an amazing day...thank you Morocco!!!

At times in our lives we look back and wonder how we got here. I cannot believe that I have been in Morocco for a month now. I have become accustom to eating only when a bell is rang to let me know that all the food is out and I can start my plates, even though I may have been waiting in line for a few minutes already (depending on the meal). I have even gotten used to throwing my toilet paper in the garbage since you can't flush it down the toilet (yes, poopy toilet paper and all). That one took me a bit to get used to but now it is just a natural thing to do. Surprisingly, I have enjoyed living in a house with so many other people. In the beginning I needed my own space and got annoyed that there was not even a corner of the house where you could go to read in piece and quite; or even just to think! Now I look back at last month when I got here and the experiences I have been blessed to have. What I have seen and done has been incredible. Actually what is really incredible is how it has changed me. I have been forced to live with people that aren't like me, which has taught me how to view things in different ways. In lives we pick our friends, people that are like us, people that share same qualities and interests (after all that is why they are your friends) but in situations like this you are forced to be with friends that aren't like you, that don't believe in the same things as you. And you have to get along because if you don't you will be exiled out of the house :) Voted off the the island we call Cross Cultural Solutions of Morocco. I have been to some of the most indigenous places of Morocco and found some of the most beautiful people. Smiling and happy, offering me tea, even though they live in a cave and have no hot water and minimal electricity; nor do they even speak the same language as me, but some how we can understand each other perfectly. Teaching "street children" English, the same children who's parents make them beg on the streets during the weekends. Let me tell you Mondays can be hard because some of the kids are still "drugged" from the sleeping pills or NyQuil that their parents feed them in order to get them to sit for hours on end begging for money. Even with the hard upbringing and the unfairness of how their lives are playing out right now, they are the sweetest kids. I have gotten attached to each and everyone of them. I cant imagine what it is going to be like leaving them behind. Through all of these experiences I have learned that life is precious and petty little things really dont matter. What matters are the moments like when I walk into the class room and a bunch of 3 year old faces light up and in English tell me Good Morning all in unison. The same kids that in the states would be consider helpless (or even worse...dare I say it...useless). These kids that at 3 years old are learning not only Arabic but also French and, because of me and a few other volunteers, English here in a third world country! It amazes me how little these people have and yet how smart and kind they all are. Why does America value money and status? It is the heart that truly matters!!!!

More Pics

Pics of Hassan II Mosque

Casablanca and Marrakech

Just got back from such and amazing weekend. David, Liz, Emily and I took off to Casablanca on Friday after dinner. After a long walk of turning in circles we finally found our Hotel; though only by the grace of a lovely lady who said she would show us the way though she herself had to stop and ask for directions about 6 times. The hotel was run by a lovely little man who was just so cute and hospitable that I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home!!! Friday night we (us girls) went to Rick's Cafe-the famous cafe from the movie Casablanca. Though I didnt know that the place never actually existed until after the movie came out and some lady realized that she could make a lot of money off all the tourists coming to town asking where Rick's was. The next morning we went to Hassan II Mosque. This place was breath taking!!!

Hassan II Mosque is one of two mosques in all of Morocco that is open for non-Muslims to go into.

With a prayer hall that can accommodate 25,000 the Hassan II Mosque is the second-largest religious building in the world. A further 80,000 can be accommodated in the mosque's adjoining grounds for a total of 105,000 worshipers present at any given time. Built on reclaimed land, almost half of the surface of the mosque lies over the Atlantic water. This was inspired by the verse of the Qur'an that states "the throne of God was built on water." Part of the floor of this facility is glass so worshipers can kneel directly over the sea. The minaret, the lighthouse of Islam is 656 ft high and has two laser beams reaching over a distance of 18.5 miles shining in the direction of Mecca (which is the direction Muslims face during prayer). It took It took 2,500 construction workers, 10,000 artists and craftsman and 7 years to build the mosque, which opened in1993.

Sahara

So I am horrible about posting here...so sorry to all (or anyone, if there is anyone) who are reading it. Finally I will post the pictures from The Sahara Desert. 15 of us piled into a van (13 with a driver and our tour guide Hamssa) for the long adventure. Friday we drove 5 hours to the middle Atlas mountains where we stayed the night in a hotel. From there we woke up and drove the remaining 5 hours through the high Atlas mountains and to The Sahara. Along the way our tour guide had us stop so we could take pictures and he could tell us facts about the history of the places we were going through.

Chellah

The Phoenicians were the first to settle on the grassy slopes above the river, but the town grew when the Romans took control in about AD 40. the city was abandoned in 1154 in favor of Sale, but in the 14^th century the Merenid sultan Abou al-Hassan Ali built a necropolis on top of the Roman site and surrounded it with the towers and defensive wall that stand today.

more weekend 1 pics

streets of Bahlil
Us with Mama Aisha and our tour guide in Mama's cave house

Dinner being skinned in Bahlil
Mama Aisha
Want to do your laundry like this?

pics

making a carpet

I like donkey
by a fountain in Fes
lovely woman in the Medina

here are the pics from this weekend

Just back from an amazing weekend. My first one while here in Morocco. This weekend a few of us went to Fes and then to Sefrou. Can I just say humbling and eye opening experiences! The weekend started off with a tour of the medina in Fes where we got to see a tannery. Awesome yet kind of gross. Then it was off to the medicine man to get some tips on herbal healing. The tour guide then took us to a place where they hand make rugs. I cannot even explain it. The poor women sitting in a HOT room making rugs by tieing knot after knot for months at a time to make one rug. The women were so nice by taking the time to show us how it was done. The last stop was scarf making. Then we had a lovely dinner and drinks under the stars. Fes was so beautiful with all the fountains and people everywhere. Saturday we went to Sefrou and stayed in a lovely little hostel that made me want to sing Aladdin songs while jumping from rooftop to rooftop. We went on a 4 hour hike around the area to the most uninhabited places where there were like 10 people living in little houses where the Berber ladies made buttons for clothes and the men worked the land. It was such an amazing experience. We even met a lovely little lady named Mama Aisha who is anywhere from 85 to 100 (no one quite knows). She was so amazing. The lovely lady invited us into her "house" for tea...did I mention that her house was a cave where she lives alone. She even was so kind to put a bucket of water on her head and dance around! So incredible!!!! I was in awe of seeing how the people lived.

week one

so week one is coming to an end! oh what a week! I have loved it so far. now off for my first weekend in Morocco. There are 6 of us going to Fez and Sefrou. It should be fun. We are taking a 3 hour train to Fez and staying the night there tonight. Tomorrow we are hiring a guide to take us around the medina in Fez and to see the sights then it is off to Sefrou where we will stay Sat night and then find a guide to take us hiking around there. I am told that it is a little mountain village with very few people. Some of them living in caves!! Oh so exciting to see the real Berber life. Then it is back to Rabat and the home base Sunday night. So far Morocco has been very fun. I will try to post pictures of the school and kids next week. ok off for the weekend!! Will write about it all and post pictures soon!

These are pictures of where I am living!

First Day at Ibny

Started my morning off with a nice 6:30 am jog to the local park. A bit surreal passing by a few Ambassadors houses, an embassy or two, the royal guards' house and gardens just to get to the park. Needless to say the area I am living in is the rich part of Morocco. Passing men with machine guns while on a jog!! Then it was off to the Ibny Street Center where I went to the 3, 4 and 5 year old classes to teach them some English. The kids are so receptive and respectful of us. It is amazing to see young kids singing "The Wheels on the Bus" or "If You Love Our World" that don't speak English. A few of the 5 year olds even asked me how to spell my name so they could write it in English! Amazing and humbling. Then it was off for a tour around Rabat and local medina. Followed by dinner with the other 29 volunteers (food is so deliscious!!!) and finally went with a new found friend to the beach to watch the sun set and star gaze! What a blessed amazing day!!!

Apartment is in storage, bags are packed, said my goodbyes and now I am sitting at LAX. Not sure how I am feeling. Tired is the only word that is coming to mind. Oh and of course grateful. Thank you everyone who has mental, financially or even with a few words supported me on this journey. With this blog I will try to be as open and honest as possible and you the reader (if there are any) please read my words knowing that they are my thoughts and mine only. Nap time...next stop Amsterdam....then Paris....and 22 hours from now I will be in Morocco!!! I will write as often as possible and try my hardest to print as many pictures as possible. Here we go........

Getting ready to go

It is May 3rd already and I am getting ready to go to Morocco. I am still trying to get my mind to grasp the fact that I will be leaving this glorious place called San Diego. It is all still surreal to me, or maybe that is because I have not done much to prepare. This week...this week I will actually finish that list of "to do's" that has been posted on my bathroom mirror for the past few weeks. This week I will find a storage unit, get the vaccinations, and start packing up my apartment. THIS WEEK!!!!!