June 12, 2008
Katie Batchelder, who recently completed her sophomore season with the Air Force volleyball program, is spending part of the summer in Morocco, participating in the Academy's Language Immersion Program. During the course of the summer, Batchelder will provide a journal for GoAirForceFalcons.com recapping her time along the northern coast of Africa.
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
29 May
Today we went as a class to Jardin des Oudaya, a small garden area on the outskirts of Rabat. While sitting down for tea that afternoon, I was attacked by a woman who drew henna designs all over my right arm. It is a type of plant that is ground into a dye, and used to decorate hands and feet of women on their wedding day...part of a traditional Morocan wedding. All of the girls ended up getting henna, which is visible on the skin for about two weeks or so. We went back to school and met a large group of students studying at the ILCS, and split up into groups and visited with all of them.
1 June
Our group of 12 which includes nine cadets, one AF Captain, one student from UC-Berkeley in California, and the President of ILCS (Dr. Benhallam), traveled to Casablanca by bus to see the sights. We stopped at the Mosque of Hassan II, the father of Muhammad VI who is the current King in Morocco. The Mosque of Hassan II is the second largest religious building in the world, after the Mosque in Mecca. It can accommodate 25,000 people, and 35,000 craftsmen worked on it. The minaret, the lighthouse of Islam, is 656-feet high, and has two laser beams that point in the direction of Mecca, reaching over 18.5 miles. The Mosque overlooks the Atlantic sea and is decorated in beautiful, colorful zellij tiles, which cover all parts of the mosque, even the fountains surrounding it. We left the mosque and drove over to Rick's cafe, where we split up into groups to explore the local medina. My roommate and I ended up getting a bit turned around in the market, and eventually found ourselves lost. We found our way to a busy street where we had to stop three cabs to get back to Rick's cafe...none of the cab drivers knew where it was so we were worried we'd never see the group again. ;) We made it back safe and sound, and some of the group was able to explore the interior of Rick's cafe, while others stayed outside by a small park and watched some local children play a soccer game. We headed back to Rabat after a long day of sightseeing, and prepared for the next day of class.
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4 June
Today, during our second class, we visited Challah, a site with archaeological ruins from five different civilizations. It was a gorgeous place to walk around. We saw hundreds of birds, mostly storks, which reside in nests on the top of the ruins. We all took lots of fun pictures in the gardens and throughout the ruins, and headed back to class for our final culture lesson of the day.
5 June
I visited the local medina (a market) in Rabat, and stopped for a quick bite to eat at none other than McDonalds, the ultimate fast food restaurant around the globe. I was accompanied by another student studying at ILCS, named Houda, who knows Arabic, French, and is studying English right now. She has offered to take me and my roommate, Erica Chimelski, to her home to learn how to prepare couscous. She also offered to teach us how to salsa dance. Houda showed us around the medina and helped us barter for some purchases in Arabic. Most people are able to speak Arabic, French, and English (all three languages are mandatory in the Moroccan education system), but sometimes we run into people that we can't exactly communicate with. We went to a pub yesterday with a live band and danced all night with some local Moroccans and other tourists, mostly from Europe. Tomorrow we will depart for Marrakech, a city about five hours inland from Rabat.
6 June
Today we left the hotel at around 9 a.m., and drove for five hours to Marrakech, after a few stops for food and drinks. We drove up into the High Atlas Mountains, on a windy, bumpy road inside a tiny bus crammed full of people. We saw two camels from a distance as we made our way up the winding road, and had to stop to see them. I was the first to volunteer myself for a ride, which turned out to be even more rocky than riding a horse. Being on the camel's back as it stood up was the hardest part ... the rest was a blast. We walked down a short trail, and at the end of the trail we saw a fantastic view of Jebel Toukbal, the highest point in Northern Africa. My camel, Aichia, was not as interested in the view as I was. She enjoyed the surrounding food a lot more, and I was a little worried that she wanted to bolt down the canyon and escape, but luckily she didn't and we both survived the ride.
After camel riding, we drove further up into the mountains and finally reached a small school with two classrooms where the local children from Tikhfist (village where we stayed) study. After checking out the school, we grabbed our luggage and hiked what seemed like a very long hike to the Tikhfist village. We were not aware that we had already passed the village halfway through the hike, and that we were only continuing for the fun of it...with all of our luggage on our backs. Two of the girls in the group fell because we were walking down steep streambeds and hills. We finally reached the village and were welcomed by Berber villagers. The village didn't have roads, only rocks and hills; they use donkeys and horses for transportation. They produce all of their own food; both women and men work all day to produce food for the villagers. They have made their own water system, and they also have electricity.
The family that we stayed with had large, colorful wool carpets laid out on the roof. Their animals are kept in a shelter below the house for protection from the harsh weather during wintertime. We relaxed and visited with the families and small children that lived there, and they made us a feast which included salads, couscous, fruit, bread and tea. My roommate and I helped prepare the peas for dinner, and watched in awe as one of the village women prepared a salad, squatting on the ground with a three-year-old girl attached to her back. Dinner was served. We ate until we were full, and all nine cadets slept on the wool carpets on the roof, overlooking the mountains and the mosque in the distance. The stars were so bright; I woke up during the prayer call at around 4:45 in the morning and stayed awake for an hour, just gazing at the stars and absorbing the beauty of the lit-up scenery. I felt like I was on top of the world. Visiting the village is one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in my life, and I would love to go back there someday.
7 June
Roosters were sounding off earlier than 5 a.m., and even the cows chimed in for the wake-up call. We ate breakfast with the entire group, and left the village and went back to the school at around 10:30 a.m. We arrived at the school and visited the first/second grade class first, where the children showed us a song that they had learned, which was a story about mothers. We had brought school supplies and candy to give to them ... they loved the candy! The children enjoyed having their pictures taken, especially when we showed them the pictures of themselves from the digital cameras. We went to visit the older children in the second classroom, and I interviewed one of the young boys for my project for the trip. Brahaim Mezzig, around the age of seven or eight, only knew a little bit of French and was very shy, so Dr. Benhallam, the President of ILCS, offered to translate from Arabic to French for me. I asked him a few questions and offered him some candy which he was very grateful for. We left the mountains, after saying goodbye to the children and giving them high-fives, and descended into the large city of Marrakech, where we stayed in three-story hotel with an open ceiling...birds flew around inside the hotel, and the terrace on the third floor was absolutely stunning. We relaxed, showered, and ventured back onto the busy streets and into the medina, where we ate, bartered for souvenirs, and people-watched. We ate dinner in the center of the city, surrounded by three different mosques. The streets were filled with hundreds of people, including snake charmers, storytellers, and tourists from all over the world. We returned to the hotel for a good-night sleep, and planned to visit the Jardin Majorelle the following morning.
8 June
We rode on the bus to the Jardin Majorelle, a garden filled with 30-foot high bamboo trees, numerous fountains with colorful fish and turtles, and colorful pottery lining the walkways with cactus from around the world inside of them. It was a beautiful garden, highlighted with colors that you can only imagine in your dreams. The drive back to Rabat was long and tiring, and we were all exhausted by the time we returned.
9 June
Class went well today...we talked about our weekend in Marrakech, and shared all of the entertaining stories from the hike in the mountains. I will never forget the trip to the High Atlas Mountains. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I am very grateful for. Class is over and more adventures are waiting! We are planning on doing some sailing in the next few days, or perhaps we will hop on a train and see where it takes us...
Until next time! ... À la prochaine!
Ciao!
For the link to Katie's complete summer journal, click here.
