Marrakech

Marrakech!!

It’s one of two truly famous cities in Morocco, and frankly one of two truly dangerous cities. You know, like New York City… or maybe Los Angles… actually, I don’t know that there’s a comparable city in the US. I had yet to visit it, and wasn’t really itching to, either. There have been some not-so-fun stories comin’ out of that city from other PCVs. I however, had a lot of fun there! Yes, a woman swindled me out of 10 DH for a poor quality Fatima-flower in henna on my hand, but that’s fine. My fault for sitting down.

Every year in Marrakech there is an international marathon. I came down to watch Anthony, Sarah, and Moira run the full and a couple others run the half. Little did I know that about 15 PCVs total were signed up to race! So there was quite a bunch of us, either running or serving as moral support. I ended up running around the city on foot quite a bit without even racing. I didn’t run no 42.5 km (26.2 miles), though! It was fun hanging out at the finish line and seeing all the different runners come in. There was one girl (I believe she was the winner of the full) who looked like she was from the Ethiopia region of Africa, and un-numbered French people, even a woman who has now run well over 40 marathons on most of the continents I think. For those runners of you, most of the PCVs running either half or full didn’t come in with blistering times. For the full, only one of us came in under 4 hours. But then, it’s not always easy to train properly in the back of beyond! One of my friends is a talented runner, and he gave up on the marathon because training was proving to be insufficient. Well, I was still inspired to train and see what happens next year. Even though my site is basically a town on the side of a steep and rocky mountain. Most of the terrain is therefore quite hilly and the ground often made up of 2-inch diameter up to head-sized rocks. Perfect for long distance running! J

We also found this neat café, Earth Café, on one of the side streets there. A vegetarian café. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was vegan, which is quite simply astounding to find in Morocco! Meat is a big deal here. The food was great, so was the atmosphere, and then the owner came to chat with us. Turns out he’s a Moroccan who has lived and run restaurants in Sydney, Australia, Los Angeles and NYC. Here he runs his café and an educational farm. The kind of deal where people can go stay there and work and learn where their food comes from. Super cool, and the guy’s attitude was amazing. It was fun to see the response of the PCVs. Some volunteers become quite jaded, and to see them inspired by this guy’s positivity was awesome. I, too, felt lifted by it. Highly recommended if ever you go to Marrakech. It’s near the hotel Sindi Sud, if that helps. J

The thing about Marrakech is how far away it is. It’s a 13 hour bus ride direct, and a good deal further if you go round the long way. However, that distance means it’s a good bit further south, which was fantastic! Warmth! Hurry up spring!