Hmm hmm, hm hmmmm…interesting day. Rained all day, second day in a row. Apparently it’s extremely uncommon for it to be raining so much this time of year but that’s global warming for you I guess. A little upset at myself for coming so unprepared clothing wise, but like I said-uncommon weather for this time of year.
This morning we woke up early, around 7 to meet up with the rest of the group at 8. Then, we packed up the bus and left Rabat for the city of Fes. On the way out we drove by a shanty town on the outskirts of Rabat which I was highly against-not because seeing these living conditions is not important but because we stopped the bus-took pictures and drove off. Honestly it made me sick, seeing it is one thing but that really doesn’t send the right message in my mind nor give people the incentive to do something about it. In my mind it was only slightly different than looking up a picture online of the same thing…I dunno, I have mixed feelings about it.
Anyway, after that we drove about 4 hours to Fes (still raining) and walked around the Madina there. The city of Fes used to be the capital and has about 1 million people living there. Inside the walled Madina, there are 400,000 people and essentially the way life runs inside has not changed in hundreds of years. No cars are allowed inside and the streets are anywhere from the size of half a regular street in the states to half a side walk in the states. Really a crazy experience but worth every soaking wet moment.
Wet and soggy we drove another 45 min. to Sefrou, a smaller town where we are staying with another host family-again Jon Matt and I. We got there around 7:30 and dropped our bags off at the house first meeting the family obviously. What’s different about this host family however is that they have never had Americans stay with them and it shows. Haha. A little awkward but we got through it. After meeting and chatting for a little while we were put on a taxi and sent off into the city to a Hammam (bath house) which we had no idea where it was-and the family spoke so little English we had no idea what was going on…eventually we found the place and after waiting for 10 min. the rest of the group arrived and we took what I would say was a Sauna/bath/massage. Amazing.
However, leaving we were yet again put on a taxi and sent off into the city hoping that we would end up outside the host family’s house….We didn’t. The guide gave the taxi driver the wrong address…Anyway, 45 min. later we got ahold of someone who knew the Moroccan in Sefrou, our guide, and we eventually got back to the house. Holy shit it was scary but we figured it out-mostly due to us somehow staying as calm as possible and just not wandering around trying to figure out where we were. So, now I am in bed writing on a microsoft word document until I can post tomorrow online and am fading fast because of the amazing drug I like to call Benadryl….Yay! Goodnight, goodluck and goobye. Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully a little better than today in terms of weather and unnecessary complications.