Morocco Part V

The Moroccan landscape is breath taking!

We were mostly in the Atlas mountains. The weather was very mild when we first arrived with highs in the upper 60's and low 70's. A front came through in the middle of the week and it turned colder - it even snowed when we went to see the monkeys!

Driving down the road you would see shepherds tending to their sheep, goats and cattle. There were also HUGE stork nests and storks everywhere! If you have never seen one flying, it is really a sight to behold. Looks like a prehistoric animal! I hate that I did not get a picture of one or one of the nests! There were also wild peacocks everywhere!

Field of cherry trees
Goats going to the watering hole
View from atop a home in Azrou
Meknes
Valley between Azrou and Meknes.
In the bottom there are Roman ruins.
A valley outside of Ain Lieuh
Mountain spring

Morocco - Part IV

Souvenirs! Souvenirs! Souvenirs!

Much like China there is a vast amount of things to entice even the most frugal shopper!

Here are just a few of the things I brought home!

On my list for next time, a "party" Djellaba (traditional dress of Moroccan women - the party ones are usually silk with lots of beading) and a tangine!

Traditional doll - the water seller - legs and face are of camel skin/hide.

Water sellers are everywhere and for less than 7 dirhams he will sell you a cup of water from his sheepskin bag. He only has about 4 cups that are made of brass so I did not go for this!

Camel carved from tashy wood - indigenous only to Morocco. It is a very soft wood and hard to find pieces that have not broken! I was lucky that I found one and lucky that it did not break on the way home!

Fancy women's slippers (hand)made to wear with the Djellaba!

I love the way the toes turn up!

I bought the princesses some slippers as well! Who could resist!

Mae calls them her "Aladdin slippers"!

One of the 2 carpets I purchased! This one has the 3 types of carpet weaves that are done.
Carpet up close - The diamonds represent the Eye of Fatima, the stars in top middle are representative of Fez and the remainder are mostly traditional Berber tattoos.
My lantern! I cannot wait to hang it in our foyer!

Morocco - Part III

This post is all about the fabulous things you can buy in Morocco! Right now, you get about 7.5 dirhams to the dollar. A much better rate than say the Euro - who can afford 1 Euro to $1.50 American dollars???!?!!

The Moroccans do many things well and artisan crafts is certainly in this category! They are most famous for the carpets (I bought 2 for less than $200 and they are big at least 5x8), metal and glass lanterns, tangines (big pots that they cook in), leather goods, fine linens that are embroidered by hand and much much more!

Pottery
More pottery

All done by hand from the shaping of the platters, bowls and vases to the painting and glazing!

Fossils and geodes.
Spices galore!
Animal skins if you care!

If you enlarge the picture you can see the leopard skin in the back left of the picture. You could buy a square for good luck!

Morocco - Part II

We stayed mostly in Azrou located in the middle Atlas mountains. There was a park just outside of the city that is famous for its 900+ year old cedar tree and its wild Barbury monkeys.

This post is all about those monkeys! They were somewhat tame and would come down out of the trees when you approached with their treasured food item - carrots! They would take the carrots right out of your hand and even pull on your pants leg looking for more! It was quite the experience!

Here they come!
The smaller monkeys would get a piece of carrot and go back to the safety of the trees.

There was an easily identifiable alpha male that was pretty keen on getting all the carrots for himself!
Alpha Male
Monkeys and the donkey - harmony at its best!
Monkeys, Monkeys everywhere - even on the cars!

Morocco - Part I

What can I say about Morocco? One word - AMAZING!! We had a great time and got tons of information. Due to the private nature of the officials and most importantly to protect the children I will not discuss any details of what we did.

I HIGHLY recommend Morocco as one of those "need to see before you die" countries. The sounds, sights and smells were intoxicating and overwhelming to the senses all in one! It reminded me of China in that way.

The people were all very gracious and generous and welcomed us warmly. We were in several cities while there including Fes, Meknes, Ain Lieuh and Azrou. The country is very beautiful - where else can you go from tropical (Casablanca) to mountains (Azrou) to desert (Marrakesh)?

We did not explore Casa - only the airport - nor did we get to Marrakesh and I definitely want to go back to see these 2 cities!

Entrance to the Medina in Meknes
Market in Meknes - from the top of a cafe that we ate lunch in.
All over there were beautiful fountains and water faucets like this one. People would take their cups and get a drink of water from them. Like our water fountains only much much prettier!
Downtown Meknes as seen from our hotel room!

Princess philosophy 101

Somewhere along the way, I noticed that people were recording things that their children have said and I thought this was a good idea. Now normally EVERYTHING that comes out of the princess' mouths is PRECIOUS but here were 2 that I just could not resist!

Jane's Ponderings:

Mae: "Jane if you don't buckle your carseat then the police will get you."

Mommy: "umm yes that is right Jane so we need to buckle up"

Mae: (repeats above in bossier tone, if that is possible!)

Mommy: "Jane lets go; buckle up"

Jane: "Okay"

Jane: "Where you gonna find me? In jail if i don't?"

Mae: "Yes, Jane!"

Mae's Musings:

Let me do a quick side bar and say that our musical taste runs the gamete from folk to rock to country to classical and even Grateful Dead. On Sirius satellite there is now an all Grateful Dead channel that we sometimes listen to. Mae has heard it from a young age and can now recognize that classic Grateful Dead melody.

Today was really warm and sunny and the girls played outside for a while.

At one point Mary Austin looked up at me and said

"Mommy today is really just a Grateful Dead kind of day."

I can only assume that Tripp has said this to her before!

Here's to you having a Grateful Dead kind of day!

Happy Easter

from the Princesses!

More posts on Easter, snow in Alabama and Morocco

once I settle in and get over the jet lag!

One last picture

of CNY 2008!

One of my favorites because it truly captures how much fun the girls were having!

One week from today.....

I am traveling to Morocco.

This still sounds really strange when I say it. I am going back to school to get my Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner in public health with my special population being orphans/internationally adopted children. Just by chance I was presented an opportunity to travel to some villages outside of Fes to do developmental assessments on orphans. I will fly back on the Saturday before Easter. Hopefully, flights out of JFK will be running smoothly so that I make it back in time to catch some zzzz's before Easter morning and church!

Please pray that I will have safe and HEALTHY travels!