Lauren Jamie Bernstein's Blog

Lights, Camera, Blog Post!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:06:00 +0000

We've had a few power outages recently, so I think I have light on the mind! I've been accumulating a collection of favorite lamps that I've seen on my travels in Morocco and I think it's the right time to share them. Enjoy :)

Some of our newest projects

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:28:00 +0000

I mentioned a little while ago that we've been working on some exciting projects! One of those projects is a website that I built at the request of Peace Corps Morocco staff, to help promote Peace Corps and volunteers' projects with current and potential partners. Peace Corps Washington has fairly strict guidelines in terms of content and layout, so I didn't have a lot of creative flexibility, but I'm still pretty happy with the result. I actually finished the website at the end of last year, but the process of getting all of the approvals from Washington took a long time and it finally went live last week. Here's a screenshot of the homepage, and you can check it out by clicking here!

There's more: This past weekend, Justin and I along with two local counterparts and close friends launched a project that has been in the works for the last 9 months or so. Unemployment is a major issue in Morocco, particularly for youth; according to a report that came out last year, 49% of Moroccan youth are neither employed nor in school. Although Justin and I are not in a position to address the lack of available jobs in Morocco, one thing that we realized that we could do was to help provide youth with the tools and skills to better equip them to find a job. So we worked with our friends to develop a workshop series on employability skills. We held the first two workshops this past weekend with sessions on creating/improving their CVs and the Moroccan versions of cover letters. We'll continue over the next 3 weekends with sessions on interviewing skills, goal setting and career planning, entrepreneurialism, conducting a job search, social media, and financial management. The first two sessions went really well, with participants asking lots of questions and expressing that they have already begun to gain new information. We're excited to see how the remainder of the program will go, and I'll post an update when it's over! Check out some photos from the workshops, and if you're interested, you can learn more on the Facebook page that we created for the program, which also includes some of the course materials.

It Was a Very Moroccan Place [Guest Post!]

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:23:00 +0000

GUEST POSTER: Justin

Sidi Harazem sits about 10 miles east of Fez. Like Moulay Yacoub, Sidi Harazem has mineral springs believed to possess healing properties (unlike Moulay Yacoub, Sidi Harazem is also a popular brand of bottled mineral water sold in Morocco). Sidi Harazem is a popular recreation destination among Moroccans. Very popular. Actually, when we visited it with my sister and brother-in-law on a Sunday morning during a school holiday the place was packed to the gills, and not including ourselves we saw a grand total of one person who, based solely on appearance, was likely not Moroccan.

Sidi Harazem’s overwhelmingly Moroccan presence contrasted sharply with many of the places to which we had gone the week before, most of which were blissfully uncrowded and where the majority of the visitors generally appeared to be foreign tourists. This of course was not the case everywhere. Active Islamic religious sites are generally not open to non-Muslims in Morocco* and since most foreign tourists are not Muslim the proportion of local-to-foreign visitors was generally higher in places such as Moulay Ismail’s mausoleum (which actually constitutes a rare exception to the general prohibition, though only Muslims may enter a central chamber) and Moulay Idriss. But no place that we had visited remotely approached the concentration of Moroccans at Sidi Harazem.

*I do not know whether this is the reason in Morocco, but the Ninth Surah of the Qur’an (called At-Tawbah) contains verses (17-18) which some people interpret as forbidding the presence of non-Muslims in mosques.

We had spent the previous week visiting places of exquisite beauty (to our eyes) and tremendous cultural and historical significance (in our perceptions), yet the locals were flocking to Sidi Harazem. To be fair, Sidi Harazem is certainly not without allurements; it is situated in some lovely hilly country and is very clean. But it just seemed, to us, rather bland and somewhat artificial.

Sidi Harazem has two mains areas. The first consists of a flat and somewhat featureless stone-like space, with grassy sections and cafes off to the side. There was a massive concrete structure (possibly a sculpture, though of what I cannot imagine) at the entrance and a fountain in the center. The fountain is less like the Fez medina’s beautiful Nejjarine fountain and more like a rectangular pillar with spigots sticking out. And of course there are pony, horse, and camel rides; people selling balloons; snails, for eating; and harsha.

Sculpture(?) near the entrance to Sidi Harazem.

Where it says "fountain" above, you could be forgiven for
picturing something that looks like this
(the Nejjarine Fountain in Fez) ...

... but the fountain in Sidi Harazem is more like this.
Seen here with people filling vessels with the water.

Not sure what he used to dye the horse's hair, but I prefer not to know.

This could be the only living camel within a hundred kilometers.

To reach Sidi Harazem’s other main area you walk downhill, first past a big fancy hotel (not obviously occupied when we were in Sidi Harazem except for the cows grazing on its grounds) with a high fence, presumably to keep out the common folk, then past some carnival rides, including a disturbingly fast-moving (to us) Ferris wheel. The second area has more cafes, a second fountain, a larger grassy open space, and a group of shops catering to Moroccans, many selling cheap souvenirs. Football (soccer) matches and families picnicking or relaxing shared the grassy parts. Further down and off to the side there are two swimming pools, sparsely occupied while we were in Sidi Harazem.

Cow grazing on the grounds of a large, fancy,
and not otherwise obviously occupied hotel.

I'm pretty sure this Ferris wheel was breaking the speed limit.

In some ways Sidi Harazem reminded me of Ifrane, a town in the Middle Atlas which the French developed to resemble a faux-Alpine village (it also houses Al Akhawayn University). Lauren and I will often ask young people in Tiflet what their favorite place in Morocco is, and Ifrane is the most frequent response. We visited Ifrane briefly on January 1, 2012, on a daytrip bus excursion with some of the youth of Tiflet. I did not much care for Ifrane, I found it expensive and artificial, even though it is pretty, well maintained, and clean. But for many young Moroccans with whom we speak, their idea of a great day is to take a bus to Ifrane and stroll around. Similarly, for many Moroccan families, a fun day out is apparently to pack the family, a pressure cooker, a Butagaz tank, and lots of empty water bottles in the car and then go to Sidi Harazem for a picnic (and to fill the water bottles with the special water).

Forgot to bring your empty water bottles to fill at the spring?
They've got you covered.

I do not at all mean to say or imply that they’re wrong or to mock, belittle, or denigrate this idea of a good time as inferior to mine, it’s just a different notion of what constitutes fun. I don’t think it’s not a matter of accessibility, because there’s a lovely (and free to enter) botanical garden in the middle of Fez (Jardins de Boujeloud aka Jnane Sbil). We poked our heads in at the Jardins de Boujeloud when we walked by and while there were certainly people there, it was nowhere near as crowded as Sidi Harazem, which requires more effort to reach. And the entrance fee to most public monuments and museums in Morocco is only 10 dirhams (about 1.20 USD), which I cannot imagine covers their operating costs and is almost certainly less than the cost of the gasoline required to get to Sidi Harazem (gas is very expensive in Morocco). So this really seems to be a matter of preference.

Big grassy area used for football and picnics.
The makeshift structures on the left provide shade for picnickers.

It's not a picnic without a pressure cooker and
Butagaz (a tank of cooking gas, the blue thing).
Please forgive the metal bars in the frame,
I took the picture zoomed-in through a fence
from a distance, to avoid seeming extra creepy.

Then again maybe I shouldn't find it odd that Moroccans would not flock to their monuments. I lived in New York most of my life and only visited the Empire State Building for the first time (and the Statue of Liberty for the second) in the summer of 2011 in anticipation of leaving for Morocco, and it’s not like we spent every weekend at the Met. My friend Badr (who, by the way, loves Sidi Harazarm) and I have talked about the idea of Morocco that the Moroccan National Tourist Office promotes – camels and deserts and belly dancing, even though this idea bears little resemblance to the vast majority of Morocco. So then foreigners (myself included) come to Morocco and go to museums housed in old palaces, take tours of the medinas, and head down to the desert pursuing a certain idea of Morocco and wanting to experience authenticity, and these certainly are facets of Morocco. But in a way the experience of visiting Sidi Harazem gives a more accurate idea of contemporary Morocco (and Moroccans) than many of the other places we have been, and I was especially glad that we were able to bring my sister and brother-in-law there to share it with them. Even though none of us were thrilled by Sidi Harazem, it was a very Moroccan place.

Mmm...still warm.

Feeling healthier already.
Though we were later informed that one must
drink several liters of the water
(while still warm of course)
to enjoy the supposed health benefits.

Without knowing anything about this guy, I'm guessing that,
in decreasing order of likelihood, this t-shirt is (a) intended as a joke,
(b) a political statement (not endorsing terrorism), (c) something the
wearer thought looked cool without noticing, understanding, or caring
about what it said, or (d) meant to be taken at face value (very unlikely).

What we've been up to, and post-Peace Corps updates

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:46:00 +0000

It's been a busy few weeks! How have they been busy, you ask?

Travels with Liz and Dave
The same morning that we said goodbye to my brother Neal and future sister-in-law Erin in Casablanca, Justin and I rushed up to the Rabat airport to meet his sister Liz and brother-in-law Dave. They visited during a school holiday in Morocco, so we were able to take some time to travel around with them to a few places: Rabat, Meknes, Azrou, Fez, and of course Tiflet. A few photos are below, and look for future blog entries about some of our travel experiences!

Dave and Liz in our riad in Rabat.

In Rabat's Kasbah, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Justin and me in a beautiful old Koranic school in Meknes.

Liz and I try out Moroccan style scarf-wrapping in a cooperative in Fez.

Justin and me in an old Koranic school in Fez.

Dave shows off his scarf-wrapping, in Fez.

Liz and Dave, at a beautiful outlook en route to Azrou.

Justin and Liz in the Chellah in Rabat.

Springtime in Tiflet
Even though we were traveling, it was very much a working holiday! We have lots of exciting plans for the coming months, and now that we're back in Tiflet, expect more posts soon as projects come to fruition. Meanwhile, spring has (finally) arrived in Tiflet with beautiful sunny weather every day! And with that beautiful weather, I have proven myself as a gardener. Check out my handiwork:

I harvested the spinach to make a birthday pizza for Justin, at his request. But I've planted a new round and am keeping my fingers crossed that the green thumb wasn't just beginner's luck :)

Women's Leadership Workshop
One of the projects that I had been preparing for was a women's leadership conference in Rabat, that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer planned along with a Moroccan NGO called "Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc." I brought 2 women from my site to the training, and I stayed for the weekend to help the Volunteer. Being around this group of 20 women, of all ages and backgrounds, from small and large towns across Morocco, was absolutely inspiring. Here's a photo of all of the workshop participants and the trainers:

Post-Peace Corps Plans
I haven't really written much about it on this blog, but post-Peace Corps plans have been a topic of much discussion, consideration, and anxiety for Justin and me, really since before we even came to Morocco. One of the things we knew we wanted when we left the US was change, and Morocco has given us plenty of that. As we think about returning to the US, what seemed impossibly far off when we first got here is now surreally close, and we’ve finally decided to continue that theme of change by readjusting back to life in the US while at the same time integrating into a new community, the Washington DC area. Granted, it won’t be nearly as different from New York as Morocco was, but will certainly be quite the change from our lives now! We’re confident that our skills and experiences from integrating into a new community here in Morocco will serve us well as we return and reintegrate in the US.

Now here’s where you come in, dear readers. I plan to return to the marketing/advertising world and am seeking opportunities as a Marketing or Brand Manager in the Washington DC metro area in late summer/early fall. If you are involved in the marketing/advertising scene in the DC area, know people who are, or your company is looking for a new marketing person, I would be immeasurably grateful for any and all tips, leads, referrals, or introductions! The same goes for any insights on places to live in the area. Click here to view my resume, or here for my LinkedIn profile, and read a bit more about my marketing and advertising background. And you can be sure that we’ll be experiencing as much as we can of this amazing country as our remaining time ticks by - and of course sharing it here!

Doorways of Fes

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:33:00 +0000

Greetings from Fes! Justin and I are finishing up some tourist/tour guide time with his sister Liz and our brother-in-law Dave. Full blog post on their visit coming soon, but in the meantime, I was struck by the beauty and variety of many of the doorways in Fes. Enjoy :)

Family and Travels

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:38:00 +0000

Well, I'm back in America now.

April Fool's!! Yes, I know that I'm a few days late, but I've been busy. Speaking of America and being busy, just what have I been doing??

As you can see by the lookers in the photo above, I've been spending time in Morocco with my big brother Neal and my soon-to-be sister Erin! Here's a bit about what we've been up to. Justin and I met Neal and Erin at the Rabat airport and brought them to Tiflet for a night. They experienced the ambiance of a small town, enjoyed some Moroccan mint tea and traditional breads with our host family, and chowed down at one of the restaurants in exciting downtown Tiflet.

Neal and Erin had booked a 10-day tour which started in Marrakech, so from Tiflet, we journeyed with them to the other side of the country to spend a bit more time together. And while Justin and I have been to Marrakech a few times now, there are still sites we have yet to see and lots that keep changing! On our own (while Neal and Erin were with their tour group), we visited the beautiful Majorelle Gardens along with a Berber Museum, which really impressed us with the quality and quantity of information offered about the Berber heritage in Morocco. And with Neal and Erin, we got a second opportunity to see the El Badi Palace, which since our first visit has been restored in several new places, some of which we hadn't even been able to visit before. It was really amazing to get to literally experience the restoration on our visits. And we got to eat some new Moroccan foods, namely the "tangia," a local Marrakech specialty that is cooked similarly to a tagine, in a clay pot but more of an urn shape and typically cooked by burying in hot coals for many hours. Like a tagine, the meat cooks low and slow, creating a very tender, juicy dish.

After a few too short days with Neal and Erin, we waved goodbye as they headed off with their tour group. We'll meet back up with them this weekend at the end of their tour and can't wait to hear about their Moroccan adventures! In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from Marrakech, at the Majorelle Gardens and the El Badi Palace.

Where "Mad Men" Meets the Peace Corps

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:25:00 +0000

For those of you who don't know, before the Peace Corps I worked in advertising agencies in New York City. My life has gone from developing marketing strategies and producing television and radio commercials, billboards, websites, and lots more... to teaching English and aerobics, developing programs for youth, spending time with people in the community, studying a new language, learning about a new culture, teaching about America, doing activities for women in the community, and so on.

A pretty big change as you can imagine! But one thing that I did not count on was being able to continue some marketing/advertising related work in Morocco. Recently, I was highlighted in a "Peace Corps 101" radio interview to provide marketing tips for Peace Corps Volunteers. You can check out the interview here!

On this blog I haven't talked about all of the projects that I've done in Morocco, but here are a few specific things related to marketing that I talked about in the interview. With Peace Corps Morocco's Gender and Development Committee, I helped to revamp the committee to be more relevant and helpful for Volunteers and used strategic planning models to develop a vision and mission statement. I created a website and new communication channels to make it easier for Volunteers to learn about and access resources for gender initiatives. For Peace Corps Morocco, I created a website (which is almost finished!) at the request of staff to showcase Volunteer efforts and to promote our programs to governmental and NGO partners in Morocco. And lastly, as the PR Senior Advisor for the Serving Volunteer Advisory Council, I'm currently running all PR outreach efforts for this global group dedicated to connecting Volunteers and helping provide strategic solutions to worldwide issues.

These are the big ones - and I have one more big marketing-related project in the works that you'll hear more about in the coming months. So while a lot has changed, it's been nice to continue some of the marketing-related work that I enjoyed back home!

Old Friends and New Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:08:00 +0000

Before Justin and I left for Morocco, we spent a lot of time with our old friends. We had a two week-long NYC tour, we took a road trip along the east coast, we even threw ourselves a grand goodbye party with our New York friends. And we took a piece of our friends with us - Here's a picture of our wall which is covered with cards, pictures, and memories of our time back in the U.S.

I didn't really know what to expect in terms of forming relationships in Morocco. I knew that we would be expected to integrate, to get to know a community and to form relationships with counterparts to help plan activities... I didn't know what that meant in terms of friendships. But after 18 months of living in Morocco, I have been able to form real, true friendships with some people in my community. And when I leave Morocco, I will be overjoyed to return to the friends that I have left behind in the U.S. but will also be incredibly sad to leave these wonderful people who have become such an important part of my life.

The last week has really intertwined this idea of old friends and new friends. Last week, one of my closest friends of more than 18 years, Ellis, came to Morocco along with her boyfriend Alex. They drove far out of their way to spend 2 days with Justin and me and it meant so much to get to spend time together in our home. Ellis now lives in Portugal, and it was also really interesting to discuss our similar experiences in being ex-pats and in creating new relationships and learning a new language and culture. Here's Ellis and me from then and now - nothing has really changed :)

A few days after Ellis left, I planned a program for girls and women along with one of my closest friends here, Riham. Riham shares my belief in the importance of giving women a safe space to speak and to express themselves and we created a program together about dreams, goals, and obstacles. Getting to work with Riham on the program and to share our own dreams, goals, and obstacles was really inspiring and brought us even closer together. The program was truly amazing and I think that Riham has been inspired to do more good work in the community. I certainly hope to do more with her in my remaining few months here and I can't wait to see what she will be able to accomplish in the future for the women of Morocco. Here's a picture of Riham and me, and a few other photos from our women's event:

I'm so thankful and happy for both the new and the old friends in my life, and that I've been able to create new relationships where we can teach and learn from one another!

Moroccan Travels... The Roman ruins of Volubilis

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:31:00 +0000

This post is very delayed as Justin and I actually traveled to Volubilis back in January! But it was an amazingly impressive site, so I wanted to be sure to share it with you.

Many people are not aware of this, but part of what is now Morocco included some of the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. There are several archaeological sites throughout the country, and the most well-known is called Volubilis in English ("Oualili" in Moroccan Arabic). Volubilis is fairly close to our town, so we decided to make a day trip of it.

Approaching the site through the hills north of Meknes, massive white stone shapes appear against the surrounding farmland. And as you get closer, the monumental architecture begins to come into focus, and you are taken aback at the scale of the place. Unlike archaeological sites in the United States or much of Europe, you are largely left to your own devices, and allowed to wander, climb, and touch where you will... though guards will start to whistle at you if you are too close to something they decide you shouldn't be close to.

Most of the remains speak for themselves, but our pictures really don't do justice to the gorgeous mosaics that you just happen to come across at seemingly random intervals. They are unfortunately left exposed to the elements and some have pretty significant weathering damage, but it's still a very different experience to view them in situ rather than in a museum.

We strolled around for a few hours and I think we could have spent days there! I selected some photos that hopefully will give you a sense of the scope and beauty that we saw in Volubilis:

Some of the work I've done recently

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:18:00 +0000

You might already know that International Women's Day was last week - If you didn't, you can read a bit more about it in my blog post from last year. This day marked the culmination of a few fun projects that I've been working on, so I wanted to share them with you!

My role as the Chair of Peace Corps Morocco's Gender and Development (GAD) Committee is to help motivate Peace Corps Volunteers to plan gender awareness activities for women and men, boys and girls, in towns throughout Morocco. The Committee tries to create resources to provide Volunteers with ideas for projects and helpful information on gender-specific language, cultural ideas, and current events. As International Women's Day is a great opportunity to do gender awareness programming in Moroccan communities, we wanted to focus great effort on motivating and supporting Volunteers during this time. So here are some of the things that we did:

Created a toolkit for Volunteers with 5 different types of activities that they could do during International Women's Day, with topics ranging from volunteerism to leadership, harassment to empowerment. If you are interested in seeing the toolkit, you can view and download it here.

Partnered with the "Division des Affairs Feminines" (the Division of Women's Affairs) of the Moroccan government to plan a special event to celebrate women and to symbolically launch a week of gender programming throughout the country.

Partnered with the U.S. Embassy to print t-shirts that we distributed to Peace Corps Volunteers who committed to leading a gender awareness activity during this time. We also printed stickers to match the t-shirts that Volunteers could give out in their communities.

I'm so excited to say that almost one-third of the Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco committed to leading a gender awareness activity in their communities! Which means that if each event has 20 people, we will have reached thousands of people with programs ranging from leadership to volunteerism, running to empowerment, women’s and girl’s health to film screenings, harassment to art, women's rights awareness to employment, self-esteem to gender roles and stereotypes… and the list goes on and on!

Yesterday, I attended the event that I helped to plan in conjunction with Peace Corps staff and the Moroccan government. I was asked to deliver a speech at this event on behalf of the Peace Corps, highlighting Volunteers' gender-focused work in Morocco during this time. The most exciting part of the speech, for me, was that I chose to challenge myself and deliver the speech by myself in ARABIC, instead of with a translator. I wrote the speech in English, translated it into Moroccan Arabic, then sat with a friend to review the speech line by line (special thanks and a shout-out to Abdellah Boutahar!). I was really happy to see that I was able, fairly successfully, to write most of the speech by myself, and when an American started delivering a full speech in Moroccan Arabic, the crowd was blown away! I gave my speech alongside several Moroccan government officials, and I was told that many people thought my speech was the highlight. It was a massive language challenge and I'm so excited that it was a success.

So that's what I've been doing lately! Justin and I have a few other projects up our sleeves in the coming months, so you'll be hearing more about those soon. Enjoy a few photos from yesterday's event:

Schmoozing with the Minister of Youth and Sports,
along with the Peace Corps Country Director.

With other members of the GAD Committee, showing off our t-shirts.

Dancers from Casablanca perform at the event.

Last minute language prepping before my speech.

Delivering my speech!

I love this paparazzi shot - I am being audio recorded,
video recorded, and photographed all at once!

Moroccan Cooking 101: Harira!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:12:00 +0000

If you've kept up with this blog or with my Facebook albums, then you may know that I have tried to embrace the extra time that life in the Peace Corps has afforded us to engage in many activities: from traveling to gardening (update: we have a few sprouts!!), from music to exercising, to perhaps most importantly, cooking. I've spent lots of time learning to cook and bake with fresh and healthy ingredients and I've learned many new techniques in the kitchen (if you're interested, I keep an ongoing cookbook which you can download here).

But as much as I've learned about cooking many different types of foods, surprisingly I haven't cooked a lot of Moroccan food! I think because we eat Moroccan food when we visit other people in the community (which happens fairly often), I haven't felt the need to spend time cooking traditional dishes in our house. But recently I've had several female friends who have tried to teach me some of the typical dishes made here. I've done well cooking alongside them, but had yet to try anything on my own. UNTIL TODAY!!! And HOLY HARIRA, this stuff is GREAT!!

Chickpeas and lentils and chicken and amazing spices.... so good!

I present to you my first (and hopefully not last) successful Moroccan cooking endeavor! Harira is a very traditional tomato-based soup, often eaten during Ramadan to break the day's fast. There are many variations between recipes, some of which I noted in my recipe below. It's quite a long cooking extravaganza, made a bit shorter with the use of a blender and a pressure cooker, but for me it was well worth it. I made mine a bit thicker and chunkier than what I've eaten in other homes but I'm not gonna lie, it's one of the best I've eaten. If you make it, please let me know what you think!!

Harira
Serves 6-8 people (depending on how much you pile in the bowl!)

Ingredients
1/2 lb of raw chicken with bones (I recommend removing the skin)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped (I used a blender for this)
1 large onion, grated
1 handful of dry chickpeas, soaked overnight
6 large tomatoes, peeled/cored/pureed (I used a blender for this)
Spices: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1-1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp dry lentils, sorted and washed
3 tbsp tomato paste mixed into 1-1/2 cup water
3 tbsp uncooked rice (you can also use vermicelli noodles but the cooking times may vary a bit)
1/2 cup flour

Directions
1) Soak chickpeas overnight, then rinse and drain. To prepare ingredients before you begin cooking, do the following: Sort/wash lentils. Peel, core, and puree tomatoes in a blender. Chop parsley and cilantro finely. Puree celery in a blender.
2) In a large bowl, combine the finely chopped cilantro, finely chopped parsley, pureed celery, grated onion, drained chickpeas, pureed tomatoes, and spices.
3) Put the chicken into the bottom of a large pressure cooker. Brown on medium heat for 2-3 minutes (you can use a little vegetable oil if you'd like to keep it from sticking, but if there's some fat on the chicken you should be fine without it).
4) Add mixture from #2 along with 3 cups of water. Cover with pressure cooker top and turn heat to high until pressure is reached. Then reduce heat to medium and cook 20-30 minutes.
5) Release pressure. Add lentils, tomato paste mixture, and 4 cups water (if you want thinner soup, you can add a bit more water here). Cover again with pressure cooker top and turn heat to high until pressure is reached again. Then reduce heat to medium and cook for 30 more minutes.
6) Release pressure and add uncooked rice. Cover again with the pressure cooker top and turn heat to high until pressure is reached again. Then reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes.
7) In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup flour with 1 cup water. Be sure to whisk it well and check the bottom of the bowl to make sure that all of the flour blends together.
8) After 15 minutes on pressure, release pressure. Taste and season if needed with salt and pepper (I didn't need to add anything). Reduce heat to a constant simmer. Pour in the flour/water mixture slowly and in a thin stream, while stirring constantly to thicken the soup to your preference. It should thicken very quickly. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
9) Enjoy it!! And save some extra for me :)

The newest members of our family

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:37:00 +0000

Don't get too excited! The newest members of our family are living creatures but they're not very huggable or likely to learn any tricks. But they will (hopefully) be delicious!

This is my first shot at gardening, something that I've been wanting to do since we came to Morocco. Since we can't have a dog here, I figure I need something to tend to other than Justin - and I am really craving some of the fare that we can't get locally. If all goes well, in a few weeks we'll be seeing the start of spinach plants (on the left), basil (in the rigged up greenhouse covered in plastic wrap), and some herbs for cooking (thyme, rosemary, and oregano).

Keep your fingers crossed for me! Green thumbs don't run in my family but I'm hoping that I can succeed nonetheless. I'll share updates either way!

Moroccan Travels: North and beyond!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:34:00 +0000

Riddle me this...

I walked from the UK to the EU on Tuesday.

I walked from the EU to Africa on Wednesday.

Where was I?

(Hint: Buses and a boat were involved,

but only traveling between places in Spain!)

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Many people may know how close Morocco is to the Spanish mainland (only about 9 miles apart!), but they might not know exactly how close, because there are in fact 2 Spanish cities not across the water from Morocco but literally ON the African coastline, sharing land borders with Morocco!

Perhaps this piece of information solved the riddle for you. If not, then I will add one more hint from the other side of the Strait: Gibraltar, territory of Britain, but pretty far from England: Gibraltar is located on the Mediterranean and shares its border with Spain.

Got it now?

I walked from the UK to the EU on Tuesday. --> From Gibraltar to Spain

I walked from the EU to Africa on Wednesday. --> From Ceuta (one of the two Spanish cities on the African continent) to Morocco

Enjoy the photos and descriptions below from our travels in northern Morocco, the UK, and Spain!

Moulay Bousselham

A small beachfront town along the Atlantic. Very popular resort among Moroccans in the summer for its beach and also the Merdja Zerga Lagoon and National Park, known for birdwatching! We visited a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer living here for a half birthday celebration and a trip on the Lagoon.

Getting ready to board our transport for the afternoon :)

Hassan Dalil, our guide for the afternoon - our tour
books recommended him but there are apparently
lots of imposters. Now you have photo evidence
of the REAL Hassan!

Justin and me on our boat.

A flock of flamingos in flight!

Asilah

Continuing north from Moulay Bousselham, we spent 1 night in Asilah, also on the Atlantic coast. Asilah's famous for its annual International Arts Festival in the summer. We were of course there in the winter, but got to enjoy some of the many murals that line the walls of the medina that artists paint each year as part of the festival.

Beautiful murals:

View from the medina rampart with a cemetery in the foreground.

Tangier

One of the northernmost cities in Morocco, this was our second visit to Tangier, but you'll see photos below from both trips. Tangier has a unique history because for much of the 20th century, it was an International Zone, controlled by a group of foreign powers, and not actually a part of Morocco. The city of Casablanca in the movie Casablanca was really inspired by Tangier during the International Zone period. And it's also known for having housed many international writers over the years. Some beautiful buildings, in many ways very cosmopolitan, but still very Moroccan. From Tangier, it's less than an hour ferry ride across to Tarifa, Spain. From there, we caught a bus to the town nearest to the UK border and walked into Gibraltar!

In the American Legation Museum.

A beautiful old theater. The facade has
been somewhat restored but sadly the building is unused.

Inside St. Andrew's Anglican Church.

Inside the Kasbah Museum.

Justin and me at a cafe with great views.

At a cafe, looking across the Strait at Spain!

Gibraltar

A small peninsula across the Strait from Morocco that various empires fought over for centuries (the name actually comes from Arabic for "Tariq's Mountain," after the Moor who led the invasion of Spain) but has been controlled by the UK for three hundred years now. The territory is dominated by "The Rock," much of which is a beautiful nature reserve with the only wild monkeys in Europe! From Gibraltar, we walked into Spain and took a bus to a nearby town to catch a ferry back onto the African continent.

Walking across the border, greeted by "The Rock."

View of 3 countries and 2 continents!
Morocco to the left and Spain to the right.

Monkeys playing on a tour van.

Monkey portrait... I am not using any zoom on my camera!

Inside a beautiful cave.

More monkeys... can you tell this is very exciting??

Ceuta

A piece of the European Union on the African continent, Ceuta is one of the last remaining outposts of the formerly huge Spanish empire and a point of contention between Morocco and Spain with periodic flare-ups. From time to time Morocco asks Spain to return the territory (along with Melilla, a city farther east along the coast), comparing the situation to that of the British control of Gibraltar... but Spain doesn't quite see it that way. Ceuta has a large military presence but also some interesting sights, public spaces, and tapas!

Ceuta is largely a fortress town - some of the
Royal Walls remain and are open to visitors.

Casa de los Dragones - House of the Dragons. Very cool building!

Tetouan

Moving southeast from Ceuta along Morocco's Mediterranean coast, Tetouan is characterized by its mostly green and white medina walls. It was the capital of the Spanish zone during the colonial period and feels much more Spanish influenced than other cities that we've visited in Morocco. It has a great archaeological museum and a really cool artisanal school where people get trained in traditional Moroccan craftwork such as zellij tiles, woodworking, and carved plaster.

Huge cemetery in the medina with gorgeous views!

Cut tiles in the artisan school.

Amazing painted wood in the artisan school.

Roman mosaic in the Archaeological Museum.

Chefchaouen
Our last stop, Chefchaouen is the city that most Moroccans (even those who haven't been there) tell us is the most beautiful in the country. And its famous blue and white walled medina is really something special. It also has the good fortune to be situated along the gorgeous Rif Mountains, allowing for some great hiking opportunities just close by. And a lot of artists have also made their home in Chefchaouen so there are lots of galleries to visit and good shopping!

Our first Moroccan painting!

Hiking in the Rif Mountains.

View over the medina from the Kasbah.

Beautiful blue walls and archways.

Aerial view of the medina - you can even see the blue from here!

After trains, cabs, buses, ferries, our trip home was easy and uneventful and after so much time away we were glad to be back home and to see our friends in Tiflet. We only have about a half a year left and there are still many places that we want to visit in Morocco! We're so excited that we were able to see these cities in the north as they were high on our list. The time is flying by quickly but we very much want to see more places, and as we do I will of course share with you :)

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:26:00 +0000

I am happily back in Tiflet after a few weeks of being on the road! The first half of my travels involved an 11-hour journey to a small town in the south of Morocco called Taznakht. One of my Peace Corps friends organized a camp called Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) and I joined 8 Peace Corps Volunteers and 10 Moroccan staff to help run the 4-day program.

GLOW camps were first started back in the 90’s by Peace Corps Volunteers and since then have spread throughout the Peace Corps network as a way to educate girls on important life skills and to empower the girls to use those skills in their lives and to share with their communities. Our camp had a variety of workshops ranging from very serious topics to more lighthearted: gender roles, self-esteem, Morocco’s family code law, goal-setting, self-defense, women's health, beauty, calligraphy, rape laws in Morocco, harassment, henna, belly dancing and cinema. In between the workshops, we led them in singing, dancing, games, scavenger hunts, field trips, and did I mention dancing?

For many girls, this is often the first opportunity to leave their town and participate in a camp-like experience and it was really amazing watching them grow over the course of the 4 days, develop a sense of comfort with the group, and make lots of new friendships. For me, it was also a welcome challenge with my language skills - the camp was run almost entirely in Moroccan Arabic, and in leading some of the workshops and participating in others, I found myself talking about topics that I had not yet discussed with Moroccans. It was nice to step outside of the boundaries of typical language that I use in English classes and in day-to-day interactions.

I left the camp feeling mentally and physically exhausted but so grateful to have had the opportunity to share this amazing experience with 45 of my newest Moroccan friends ;) Fortunately, my recovery came in the form of an awesome vacation with Justin. More on that in the next post - In the meantime, enjoy the photos from the camp!

First day of camp, getting everyone up and moving.

Homemade face masks in a beauty workshop.

A "Hands of Peace" poster that girls created.

One of the MANY impromptu dance sessions during the camp!

Girls practice moves in a self-defense workshop.

Some of the Peace Corps Volunteer staff, on field trip day.

Playing games with the girls on field trip day.

In my harassment workshop, girls wrote on slips of paper how
harassment can make them feel. In the middle, in Arabic,
it says "Everyone deserves respect."

Girls create a poster about a world without harassment.

With 2 other Volunteers, enjoying the beautiful weather!

Morocco in Tiles

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:30:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done a photo-heavy post so I thought I’d focus on one of my most favorite parts of Moroccan sites – the amazing zellij tile designs. Zellij refers to a type of terra cotta tilework that is covered with enamel in the form of chips set into plaster- and they can be seen on everything from thousand-year-old remains to newly designed buildings. And each design showcases the most amazing patterns and colors. I just can’t get enough of them. Hope you enjoy!

Winter holiday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:30:00 +0000

It’s a winter break from school in Morocco and Justin and I are using the time for work and for play! We finished up our fall/winter session of classes and had small parties with the students to celebrate the completion of our “semester” – check out some photos below from some of our classes:

Our adult conversation class

Justin and 2 students from our beginner class for young students.

Our beginner class for high school students and adults.

We’ll be starting a new semester of classes in February, but in the meantime, some new experiences and adventures: First, I am currently in Taznakht, (a small town near Ouarzazate, in the south of Morocco) helping a Peace Corps Volunteer to run a girls-only leadership and empowerment camp called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). The camp is geared towards girls in underserved rural communities, and includes 4 days of programming aimed at building leadership and self-confidence, developing a safe and supportive community, and teaching girls valuable lessons related to gender roles, health, and future planning. I’ll be running one program about gender roles and another about sexual harassment. I’m extremely excited about this unique opportunity and can’t wait to share more with you in February!

After the GLOW camp, Justin and I are taking some time to explore some parts of Morocco that we have not yet seen! With less than a year left we still have a long list of places we want to visit, and we are going to try to get to as many as we can. More on these when we return, I promise with lots of photos :)

Things I Wish I Knew

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:39:00 +0000

I just spent 3 days with a group of 96 excited, apprehensive, eager, and motivated Peace Corps trainees! They just arrived last Wednesday and have been thrown into the grind with 2 months of intense training to learn everything from Moroccan culture and language to figuring out how to assess community needs and develop an action plan to lectures on Peace Corps policies and procedures. My time in Rabat was spent in sessions talking about gender-specific programming, volunteer diversity, and harassment, and out of sessions talking about everything and anything on these trainees' minds - how to manage language learning, volunteer experiences, the kinds of programming we do, what the food is like, you name it.

Sharing some of my experiences with them was really exciting, and in return I soaked up so much of their energy and motivation. Watching a group of individuals who are about to embark on this amazing adventure, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic about those first few months when everything was so scary and overwhelming, but at the same time incredibly new and exciting. I have now been living in this country for over 16 months (scary!) and while I’m no expert, I certainly feel I’ve come a long way from those scary initial months. So I thought it might be fun to make a quick list of some of the things that I wish I knew (or wish I understood) about this experience at the very beginning, for better or for worse!

1. My job ~~might~~ will be ambiguous

My official title is a Youth Development Volunteer. What that means in Morocco can vary from being an English teacher to running sports teams to doing job skills trainings to developing health activities to cleaning up neighborhoods to teaching about citizenship to training teachers to supporting cooperatives and artisan groups to promoting cultural exchange to working with people with disabilities… and pretty much everything in between. What’s awesome about this is that Volunteers truly have the opportunity to match their skills to the work that they feel is both important and needed in the community – but what makes it difficult is actually determining what those are.

2. Making mistakes is okay

I very distinctly remember on day 2 of our training, my Moroccan Arabic language teacher sent me out of the classroom and into the street to have my first “conversation” with a Moroccan. He picked out a girl near our training center, asked if she wouldn’t mind speaking with me at a 1st grade level, and then pushed me towards her. I consider myself an outgoing and friendly person but I remember feeling more scared of this encounter than anything I could remember… mainly because I wasn’t confident in my language skills (pretty reasonable after only 1 day!) and I was practically paralyzed with fear about making mistakes. But I sucked it up and went into that conversation, and laughed with her as we worked together to construct a very broken conversation. And this spills over into so many experiences that I’ve had – I can only improve from learning and I can only learn from doing and if doing involves making some mistakes, then it’s an important part of the process.

3. Morocco gets COLD!

Yes, I know that Morocco is on the edge of the Sahara Desert. But there are mountains and forests and large bodies of water and did I mention ski resorts or that homes are generally not heated? And I’m fortunate to be in an area that’s not even the coldest part of the Morocco by far.

4. Everyone’s experience is different

Peace Corps staff teach that we shouldn’t compare our experience to any other Peace Corps Volunteer’s, because every person’s situation is so different – varying communities, backgrounds, attitudes and perspectives contribute to totally different experiences. But it’s certainly hard when we’re all trying to figure out our ways at the same time.

5. Relationships take time to build

Just like making a good couscous here, relationships take time to develop, build, and nurture. It has taken me until just a few months ago to develop strong relationships with young women in my community. Part of this comes from cultural restrictions – these women just don’t spend as much time out of the home, so there’s less opportunity to create relationships – and part of this comes from me being with Justin and spending less time on my own developing individual relationships. Regardless, I have been patient and I am so happy that I have done so, as I’m now being rewarded with some wonderful friends and potential partners.

6. I am stronger than I think

I am truly proud of what I have been able to do here – not just in terms of programs or classes or partnerships but for the personal leaps that I have been able to make: living in an unknown place separated at an enormous distance from friends and family and the comforts of the U.S. that we are used to; learning a spoken language for the first time (other than English) in my life (regretting that choice to study Latin in high school); figuring out how to understand, appreciate and respect a new culture, religion, and way of life; dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity (see #1); and taking new experiences and adventures head on and with drive and positivity!

7. Time will fly.

Cliché but very, very, very true.

Cooking and food in Morocco

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:09:00 +0000

I just finished writing my monthly letter to pen pals in Connecticut (I do this as one of Peace Corps' three goals, to educate Americans about our host country - you can read this previous blog post for more info). This month's letter was all about food in Morocco - and it got me thinking a lot about how living here has really changed my relationship with and perspective towards food and cooking.

If you read my blog post at the beginning of this year, then you may have seen that I've lost a lot of weight since moving to Morocco (close to 50 pounds at this point). And Justin has lost over 30 pounds. Now granted, both of us gained a lot of weight in the months leading up to our departure from America--mainly because we were trying to enjoy the food and drinks as much as we could before we left! But even so, a lot of this weight loss has come from having a more active lifestyle and adjusting the way that we cook and eat. I wanted to talk about a few of the things that have changed:

Use of Meat vs Vegetables
In Morocco, meat is expensive, relative to other food. For example, a pound of tomatoes might be the equivalent of $0.60, while a pound of chicken (is about $1.50 and a pound of ground meat is close to $5.00. So it might be for this reason that people eat far less meat than in the U.S. - or maybe it's also a difference in cooking styles. The biggest difference that I've noticed is that here, people do not seem to plan their meals around the meat. I remember often planning meals in the U.S. thinking about what meat I might make, and then adding sides/sauces/accompaniments to go with that meat. Here, people plan the meal itself (most typically a vegetable or bean-based meal) and sometimes meat is added into the mix, sometimes not. For example, on Fridays, families eat a massive plate of couscous that is LOADED with vegetables (photo example below)... sometimes meat is placed on top or in the middle, it's eaten last, and only a small amount is consumed per person.

I've found that while Justin and I don't typically eat traditional Moroccan food (I have yet to learn how to make couscous Moroccan-style), we have adopted the approach of eating far less meat. We get protein from eggs, beans, and other legumes and we eat meat only a few times a week, and that's probably still more often than many Moroccans.

Processed vs Simple Foods
This is the big one for me. I think often about my lifestyle before moving here and how weekday dinners often consisted of a mix of takeout and frozen meals. Here, it's rare that I use a single "processed" ingredient in cooking - if I want tomato sauce, I have to make tomato sauce; if I want an American-style bread, I have to bake it; if I want lasagna noodles, I am rolling them out from scratch. I know that when I return to the U.S., I won't have nearly as much time for cooking as I do in Morocco. But for me, finding a middle ground that will allow me to still prepare healthy, vegetable-focused meals, and not rely on lots of processed stuff, will be crucial. That's a big goal for me to begin figuring out as we move closer towards the end of our service in the fall.

Low Fat vs Full Fat
I have to say that it's been nice to live in a place where I'm not constantly bombarded by the diet wagon - low fat, low calorie, the newest diet fad, etc. I was explaining to a Moroccan friend recently about the pressure that people face in the U.S. to eat "healthy" and we were discussing what "healthy" really means. Is it worth it to eat low-fat foods that have lots of added chemicals, or high amounts of added sugar and salt? I'm not a doctor so I can't really say for sure what the answer on this is, but I've been eating full fat yogurt, milk, and butter for the last year (in moderation) and I feel healthier than I have in a long time.

If you're interested in learning about the types of foods that Justin and I eat here, I keep an ongoing cookbook with all of our favorite meals. You can download a PDF of the latest cookbook by clicking here. It's a work-in-progress but I am excited that I'll leave Morocco with a thick stack of papers that might help to continue to improve my lifestyle back in the U.S. If you have recipe suggestions or other thoughts about this blog entry, please leave them in the comments section below! This is a topic that I've become really passionate about while living here, so I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Moroccan Travels, Part Six: Rabat!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:40:00 +0000

This says "Medina Rabat" or "City of Rabat." If you can see the logo at the
top or read the Arabic words underneath, this sign is about
Rabat's recent addition as a UNESCO World Heritage site!

I'll just come out and say it - Rabat is my favorite city that we have visited in Morocco. Perhaps it's because Justin and I live so close (only about 45 minutes away) and thus spend more time in Rabat than in other cities. Or perhaps it's the lack of the crowds upon crowds of tourists that swarm to cities like Fes and Marrakech. Or maybe it's all the green spaces, beautiful gardens, and parks throughout the city.

Whatever it might be, I think Morocco's capital city is really unappreciated on the tourist scene. And before Justin and I went up to Tangier for New Year’s Eve (more on that another time) we spent a couple of days in Rabat just enjoying ourselves - since we are usually there for work, we often do not have the chance to take advantage of all it has to offer. As we were walking around, Justin and I kept remarking to each other how much we love Rabat. There are some absolutely beautiful sites to see throughout this city. So without further ado, below is a photo tour of my favorite sites to see in Rabat!

1. The Hassan Mosque and the Mohammed V Mausoleum
A must-see, the minaret of the Hassan Mosque is visible from almost any view of Rabat. The mosque was begun in 1195 but construction was abandoned in 1199 when then-Sultan Yacoub al-Mansour died. At the time, the minaret and mosque were expected to be the largest in the world (it is currently 164 feet tall; had it been finished it would have reached around 262 feet). The bases of the mosque’s columns give a sense of the size of the place and along with the unfinished tower create a kind of ethereal ambiance.

Facing the minaret is the mausoleum of King Mohammed V, designed by a Vietnamese architect and beautiful inside and outside. A lot of what people come to Morocco to see is the artisanry, but unfortunately in many of the older palaces and museums the work has suffered over the centuries. Because the mausoleum is modern, well maintained, and houses revered figures’ remains (those of Mohamed V (the current king’s grandfather) and his sons, King Hassan II (the current king’s father) and Prince Abdallah, the visitor can see the height of these traditional Moroccan crafts and craftsmanship in perfect condition. It is also one of the very few Muslim religious buildings that are in use and open to non-Muslims.

The mosque and mausoleum are set on top of a hill towards the northern end of Rabat. We usually come into Rabat from Tiflet in a grand taxi which passes through Sale before crossing the Bouregreg river south into Rabat. The view going over the bridge, seeing the unfinished minaret and mausoleum on the top of the hill, the city stretching out around them, and finally the medina, kasbah, and ocean off to the right is spectacular. Both are free and the view from the top of the hill looking down isn’t bad either!

The unfinished Hassan Tower and Mosque.

Inside the Mohammed V Mausoleum.

Beautiful ceilings in the Mohammed V Mausoleum.

2. Promenade along the water and the Kasbah Oudayas
The River Bouregreg sits on one side of Rabat and feeds into the Atlantic Ocean. The area around the river has been made into a beautiful promenade with anchored boats and cafes along it. The promenade leads into the Kasbah Oudayas - a fortress and city built on a hilltop to be more easily defended. Inside the Kasbah are beautiful gardens, blue and whitewashed walls, and an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean.

With my parents, looking out over the promenade and the Kasbah.

Bab Oudaia - a huge intricate gate leading into the Kasbah.

In the Andalucian Gardens, just inside the gate of the Kasbah.

Inside the Kasbah.

A musician inside the Kasbah.

Justin looks out in the direction of New York!

3. The "New City" of Rabat
Most bigger Moroccan cities have an "old medina" and the "Ville Nouvelle," or new city - and Rabat is no different. Rabat's Ville Nouvelle features a beautiful promenade leading down one of the main avenues, as well as lots of parks, galleries, shops, and restaurants.

Promenade with lots of palm trees and pigeons.

A very cool gallery in the Ville Nouvelle named Galerie Mohamed El Fassi.
When we visited last week it featured an exhibit of works by young Moroccan artists.

Work by a young Moroccan artist - I thought it was beautiful!
Hard to tell from the picture, but while most of this is painted,
some parts have added pieces (e.g. the jewelry)
which gives it a really interesting effect.

4. The Chellah
Just outside the Ville Nouvelle are some amazing ruins that have been uninhabited since 1154 but for over a thousand years prior, served as Sala Colonia, a thriving Roman city and port. But this is actually two or three sites in one, because while ruins remain of this ancient Roman town, it also has the ruins of a mosque and necropolis from the 14th century built right on top of it. And on top of that there’s beautiful plants and LOTS of storks who have taken up residence on the grounds, with huge nests atop any available surface.

Approaching the Chellah from the Ville Nouvelle.

The minaret of the mosque, and two storks in flight!

A sacred spring pool filled with eels. Women come here and feed
eggs to the eels to invoke assistance with fertility and childbirth.

Remains of tiles and beautiful gates.

5. The Zoo!

Rabat refurbished its zoo and reopened its doors sometime in the last year or two. It is a beautiful zoo which seems to focus mostly on African animals, and has some that we don't see in America (in zoos or otherwise): the Atlas lions, a subspecies that is extinct in the wild, and the African wild dogs, nearly extinct as well. The animals seem well cared for and most seemed to have plenty of space in their enclosures (no bars or anything like that). And also very exciting was a restaurant at the zoo that serves NEW YORK BAGELS! Though sadly they were nowhere near the real thing - still as close as we have found here :) The zoo was unfortunately a bit difficult to get to, but well worth the excursion!

The Atlas lions, playing.

Just thought this giraffe was taking a funny pose :)

The African wild dogs.

Cute porcupine.

Yes, that is an NYC bagel listed there - even one called the Brooklyn!

Here's their "Brooklyn" bagel. Not exact but we'll take what we can get.
The inside even had a few pieces of pastrami!

I hope you enjoyed your short tour of Rabat. There's much more to see, from simple things like walking around in the old medina, shopping in the medina or the Ville Nouvelle, visiting some of the many parks, or soaking in the city life at a patisserie or cafe. As Justin and I discover more about Rabat, I'll be sure to post updates.

Wishing everyone a happy 2013!! Hope your celebrations were great on whatever side of the world you may have been on :)

Ringing in an exciting new year

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:45:00 +0000

It's hard to believe that an entire year has come and gone! As we move towards 2013, I can't help but reflect upon the past year and think about how much has developed and changed. This time last year, Justin and I were new residents of Tiflet, knowing a handful of people, not sure about what we might plan or accomplish during our time in Morocco, and certainly very nervous about our new lives. Today, we have established strong relationships with people young and old in the community, we have developed some great programs, and we now look at each obstacle and challenge with confidence and readiness. And another big difference from last year - I haven't broken any bones!!

In looking back on some of the goals that I set for myself at the end of last year, I wanted to call out a few for which I am particularly proud of my progress:

1. Take better care of myself
Coming out of a year in which I broke bones in both my hand and leg, I wanted to make sure that taking care of my health became a priority. And I am happy to say that I have made amazing strides. In November I had a mid-service physical check-up and the doctors reported that I am in great shape - not only that, but I have lost 44.5 pounds since I came to Morocco! This has come mainly from exercising regularly and eating lots of healthy vegetable-rich meals that we cook for ourselves.

2. Explore and travel

If you've kept up with this blog, then you have seen lots of travel-related posts. I'm happy to have had the chance to see many of Morocco's beautiful places and in the coming year, I hope to visit many more! (Going up to Tanger for New Year's, my first time up north, stay tuned!)

3. Develop a support network

Over the last few months, I have begun to develop some truly strong friendships in our community. And with these friendships, I have been able to learn much more about Moroccan culture and to teach about American culture. Beyond the support network in our community, I have developed a strong support network of Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco and friends and family in the U.S. who have provided more love and strength than I could imagine. Please know that I am so very grateful for it!

It's been a tough year, full of uncertainty, confusion, and disorder - but out of all this has come so much learning, beauty, and adventure - and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store!

From Justin and me, wishing you a year filled with learning, beauty, and adventure.

I look forward to continuing to chart our journey in 2013!

Women and exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:21:00 +0000

Yesterday, I held my first women-only aerobics class at our Youth Center. In my community (and in many others in Morocco) women do not seem to have access to enough exercise opportunities. Boys and young men play soccer morning and night everywhere you look, and while younger girls run around outside playing with friends, older girls and certainly married women seem to get very little exercise. I run several times a week and rarely do I see any females running or walking, and based on what other Peace Corps Volunteers have told me, in some communities it does not happen at all. There are several gyms in our community, but all are men-only, either by rule or in practice, as far as I can tell.

Now don't get me wrong, women work quite hard in the home - cooking, cleaning, taking care of the house and the family - but they don't have the opportunity to do cardiovascular exercise. The top reported cause of death in Morocco is coronary artery disease - with the most common risk factors including obesity and lack of exercise. And a recent study reported that 67% of chronic diseases in Morocco are due to unhealthy nutrition, lack of exercise, and smoking (though this affects mostly men as women seen smoking are, in many communities, presumed to be prostitutes, so few do), with only 20% of Moroccans exercising regularly and 40% not consuming adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables. In comparison, 50% of Americans report that they exercise regularly, and think about how much we hear about Americans' health problems!

So I think exercise and nutrition for women are both really important areas to which I can contribute during my time in Morocco (and hopefully I can discuss nutrition more in conjunction with the aerobics class). The reason I chose to make this a women-only class is simply to help women to feel comfortable. We have women-only gyms in the U.S., but I think even more so in Morocco, for many women to be willing to come to classes, they need privacy and a separate environment from men. For my first session, I had 7 girls and women show up, ranging in age from 16 to 35. It's great for a start, and hopefully in time that number will increase. The class went really well - all of my years doing aerobics classes at gyms paid off and everyone loved getting the chance to move around and listen to fun pop music. After the class was over, 3 of the girls stayed around and danced to the music for a while because they enjoyed it so much!

In case you are curious, the playlist from the class is below. I spent a LOT of time finding the latest "cool" music that Moroccans like to listen to, some American, some Moroccan, and some international. A lot of the songs are available on YouTube if you don’t recognize some and want to know what is popular with the youth here, but for the next class I got requests for more Pitbull and Celine Dion!

1. Warmup Song: Moukana Wein, Myriam Fares
2. C'est La Vie, Khaled
3. Rain Over Me, Pitbull feat. Marc Anthony
4. On the Floor, Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull
5. We Found Love, Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris
6. Mr. Saxobeat, Alexandra Stan
7. Love you Like a Love Song, Selena Gomez
8. Glamorous, Fergie feat. Ludacris
9. Run the World (Girls), Beyonce
10. Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), Shakira
11. Cooldown song: Inas Inas, Mohamed Rouicha

I'll post more updates as my class continues!

Morocco 101: Funerals

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:50:00 +0000

One of the most amazing parts of living in another country is getting to experience its cultures and traditions firsthand. We've experienced observances of life - birthday parties, engagement and marriage ceremonies (I haven't seen these in person yet, only from afar and through people talking about them - hoping for an in-person experience in the coming year!), traditional events for a newborn baby... each with its own set of music, festivities, atmosphere, and food. And now in addition to those observances of life, we have experienced an observance of death. Recently, Justin and I returned from our travels to learn that our landlady had passed away. Since death is an important part of any community's culture and traditions, I thought it might be interesting to talk about how Moroccans observe death.

Moroccans follow Islamic tradition by burying the deceased within 24 hours of their death. The body is prepared at home by family, or if needed, by someone in the community who has some experience. The body is typically wrapped in a simple and modest cloth and some perfume may be applied to the cloth as well. After prayers have been said, the body is carried through the streets as a mark of respect, and then buried in a cemetery facing Mecca.

It seems as if almost as soon as a person dies, a tent is erected right next to their home. Neighbors immediately mobilize to prepare food for the family in the tent (it is truly an amazing show of community!). For three days, family and friends gather together in the tent to mourn and read parts of the Qu'ran. After those three days, the tent is removed and the family (particularly the spouse) continue mourning for 40 days, and during that time friends and family come by to pay their respects.

Justin and I visited our landlady's family during those 40 days of mourning. We had returned from our travels and were doing laundry on our roof, when we heard a neighbor yell over to us from an adjacent roof to tell us about our landlady's death. We were spending that afternoon with two of our good friends who speak English well, and so we asked them to help us understand what we should do when visiting the family. They advised us to bring two large cones of sugar, a typical gift that is brought to families on a wide variety of occasions, and to greet the family with a traditional phrase in Moroccan Arabic, "Baraka f rassk," literally meaning "Blessings on your head" but metaphorically meaning something more like "May God grant you grace." The following day, we went to our local shopkeeper (who also made sure we knew about the landlady), bought our cones of sugar (8 pounds worth) and headed to our landlady's home. We arrived there just as a group of other people were leaving. The family brought us into the "salon," the Moroccan equivalent of the living room. They brought out tea (no Moroccan observance seems to be without it) along with some cookies and traditional breads, and we ate and met new members of the family. Our friends had advised us not to stay too long, so we left after an hour or so. The family seemed really touched that we came there and took the time to understand the customs and traditions.

Certainly there are many variations in funeral observances throughout Morocco - the Imazighen people, for example, have their own set of customs, and Moroccan Jews (which I talked a bit about in a previous blog post) observe death very differently. As our last year ticks by, I hope to experience much more about Moroccan observances of both life and death that I can share with you!

Mountains and camels and pumpkin pie, oh my!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:50:00 +0000

Greetings and happy December! Justin and I are settling back into Tiflet after a few weeks of traveling - first with friends from the U.S. in Morocco and Spain, and then with Peace Corps Volunteers in a small town in southern Morocco for an authentic Thanksgiving celebration. I was very happy to have lots of travel and adventures this month, because this same time last year I didn't do much more than stare unhappily at the cast on my leg! Thankfully, this year we were able to spend the holidays with new and old friends and take on new experiences, explore new places, and eat lots of yummy food :) Enjoy a few photos from our Moroccan adventures below - photos from Spain will come in another blog post soon!

Justin and I and snowy mountains! Never thought I would see this in Morocco!

Our friends from the U.S., overlooking Ait Benhaddou

Camel trek in the desert near Zagora! My ride for the afternoon :)

I'm not sure if this is just me, but I swear that Justin and his camel
have the SAME facial expression :)

I have been wanting to ride a camel for a while, so you can see I am very excited!

Camel shadows on the desert

Our Thanksgiving feast, some of which required key items to be shipped
from the U.S. (thanks to Justin's parents!). Stuffed chicken (no turkey to be found),
vegetable quiche, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole,
sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and gravy. I think I'm still full from it!

Even some authentic apple and pumpkin pies!

A very happy group of Peace Corps Volunteers, about to partake in the meal.

Squeeeeeeee!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Squee, \skwēē\

verb: To squeal with glee; from a combination of the two words.

noun: A feeling of excitement and happiness, such that one feels like squeeing.

I don't usually post much about my personal life on this blog, but for this one I just must share! See this little cowboy?

This is my big brother Neal (well, only a little over a year older, so not too big). And this is Neal and his girlfriend, Erin.

So what does my squeeing have to do with my big bro and Erin? Well, one week ago today, Neal proposed!!

That's him proposing!!!

I am so, so sad to be far away from home when such wonderful things are happening, but Erin and Neal are planning a trip to Morocco in the spring and I'm very excited to get to spend some time with the two of them. And thanks to the wonders of Skype, I'm able to hear about everything that's happening and feel like I'm a part of it. AND next fall, I'll be coming back from the Peace Corps to a big fat North Carolina wedding - So what else is there to say but squeeeeee!!

Happy anniversary to us!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Bernstein) — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:30:00 +0000

It is officially one year since Justin and I were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers! As I enter into my second year, I am truly beginning to understand why Peace Corps is a two-year commitment and not just one. Over the very recent months, I have gained a new level of comfort with my language skills, with my community, and with the ability to confidently try (and maybe fail) in developing new projects. And beyond that, we've started to develop incredibly strong friendships with women and men in our community, friendships that simply can't just grow in a month or two, but have been cultivated over time and with a lot of effort from both sides. With improved language, confidence, and growing relationships, I am so excited to see where the next year will take us.

Here's a photo from exactly one year ago today, with our training group and language teacher at our swearing in ceremony in Rabat:

As we get closer to the new year, I'll write a bit more about my thoughts on the last year and my plans for the coming one. But for now I'll just be thankful about how far we have indeed come!