_____The next day I slept in until 9:30. It must have been the alcohol. We cooked breakfast and made coffee. Joe came up and the three of us spent the rest of the morning doing crossword puzzles. Very relaxing. Mom wanted me to experience Moroccan government services in action so we went to the post office. For one thing Moroccans do not believe in lines. The British will queue up for anything but not the Moroccans. So the post office was just a mad house. People were there picking up packages, mailing letters, government employees get paid there, and who knows what else goes on. To make matters worse there are only three people working there, and only one of them is doing anything, plus there is no line. You have to muscle in and place your documents in a quasi line on the counter and then make sure that no one puts their stuff in front of yours. M'barka said that it took her a few visits before she figured it out. She would stand in the crowd and wait to be called and never was!

After we picked up the mail we went to visit the women at the Netty. It was very interesting. Some of the older women were sitting around crafting phrases from the Koran with gold twine. I got to meet some of the younger girls who were out of school and studying to get clerical jobs. They giggled whenever I said anything. Becky said that they were mostly waiting to get married and that I was a prize catch because I could get them a visa. From there we went to the Dar Chabab. Here Mom showed me the world map that she and Joe had painted. Painting world maps in schools is a big Peace Corps starter project. These schools do not have the resources to purchase maps. So the Peace Corps volunteers paint them on the walls of classrooms for the children to study by. I was very impressed with the job they had done. After we saw the Netty and the Dar Chabab we went to look for Lahcen to schedule a camel trek. He told us that he would give us a price that "will make you funny." After tracking down Lahcen he told us to meet him at his shop at 5:30 pm. We went back and got our stuff together and went to the shop. From the shop we took a petite taxi to a village just down the road. We pull up on the side of the road and there are three camels and two guys in desert garb. After some logistical issues are ironed out we mount up and head off. M'barka, Joe, and I are on camels and our two guides are leading on foot. They are the smart ones. Riding a camel is pretty cool for the first hour or two but after a three-hour ride into the desert you back and your backside are in considerable pain. The trekking "companies" have these Berber tents setup on a permanent basis out in these little dune fields. It was pitch black when we arrived at the camp site. As soon as the camels were tied our guides started to make a tagine for all of us to eat. M'barka, Joe and I took this opportunity to venture into the night with some duty free spirits I had brought. We sat in the dunes and sipped this vodka/crystal-light concoction for quite some time. After a while our guides came and called us to dinner. The five of us huddled around the serving plate and proceeded to stuff ourselves. The tagine was magnificent! By the end of it all no one could move. At this point I fell fast asleep.

Copyright Seth Toomay 2000

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