111 Degrees - The Hunt Begins

Until now, I almost forgot that I've been in Africa. In our trip's glory days, we were forced to wear sweatshirts and cover ourselves with wool blankets at night. When we awoke the next day, we still needed pants and sweatshirts. Ahh memories... 

These past few days have been blistering. When we wake up, it's hot. Even before the sun breaks though the clouds, it's hot. We keep the windows and door closed in our room the entire day, yet it's still hot! Times like these, I wish I wasn't staying in such a modestly dressed village. I would absolutely strip down to my recently purchased boxer briefs and walk between the shaded areas of our house. Maybe consider a dip in the in-house well. (It's like a hot tub with really high walls.)

But, the 111 degree, moderately humid weather is tolerable. We've been keeping up with our fluid intake (as my dad likes to call it) and taking lots of siestas. 

The issue? Our new visitors. 

Every cushion, mat, pillow now needs to be checked for scorpions. We've already found four. No biggie, we're not too afraid of these guys.

Yo scorpion, imma find you.

Just tonight, the women taking care of the house called us over. They found some bug (called something in Berber - I  smile and nodded when they told me) that flies and latches onto flesh, giving a lethal injection of poison to its unlucky prey. Oh, and it walks around like a crab. Great, now we have a possessed spidery crab... thing that's going to kill us. One more thing, the women said a 16 year old girl in the mountains here died last year from its bite. Hichem and I are now super paranoid. (He freaked out after seeing the shadow of a blanket on the clothesline... heheh got him.) We still are not exactly sure what this mystery bug is. We're thinking its a Running Crab Spider, but its information doesn't match the grotesque stories. 

To those with expertise in North African taxonomy - what the heck is this?

...And there's another one somewhere in our house. Fantastic. Im looking forward to an easy sleep tonight.

Your half-terrified friend,

Brent

From this past week:

Unlicensed taxi? Meh, no problem

Meditating inside of the sun

 Copyright infringement makes one heck of a cheese burger

Berber Viagra. Nuff said

Brent

And the project begins...

8:00 - Argan distribution. (So far, we haven't been able to wake up early enough to help)

9:30 - English teachers Brent & Hichem. We're rotating between villages Riad & Asaka. Our kids already know more English than I know Arabic...

10:40 - Our favorite store. Every morning, we buy a 5 dirham liter of water. 

11:00 - Traveling through the streets of Asaka. (Lots of chicken poo)

11:15 - Collecting data from each water meter with our friend Abdurahaman

Brent

Why We're Here

The village of Asaka is the first of the 26 villages in the Immsouane region to get taps installed to each home. All other villages use wells or a communal tap that fills each family's individual cistern. Within the next few years, all villages will have the same ease as Asaka. With this added convenience, the citizens naturally used more water than they did in previous years. Why is this a problem? Morocco is in the middle of one of the worst droughts in its history - this year, it only rained once.

There is a huge disconnect between use and scarcity. It will only worsen once all Immsoune villages have the Asaka water system. 

The Moroccan government is beginning to take notice. They've hired consultants & experts to analyze the best ways to manage the current and future water crisis. "Discover a new supply of freshwater! It will save the country!" Good try. There's an untapped supply right in front of them - conservation. 

But one can't convince a group of people to save water with just goodwill, guilt, or doomsday scenarios. It's a frustrating reality. People need to be incentivized. And the easiest way to do that? Money! 

Hichem and I will spend the next 4 weeks paying families to conserve. We'll measure the effectiveness of these incentives while framing water conservation as a profitable commodity similar to gold. In the long run, we would want this to be a weapon in the Moroccan government's water scarcity solution regiment. "Woah Brent, you lost me there. I kinda get what you're doing - paying people to save water - but all that other stuff doesn't make much sense. Help me out?" Sorry, I can't get into the details until after we've finished our report.

Keep rockin the free world. 

Brent

P.S.

Forest fire! Our hair was covered in white flakes from the burning trees. 

A typical business meeting always involves cheesy poses.

Assorted Asses & Other Animals

I received a request from one of the blog's biggest fans, my mom, for more animal pictures. So here goes:

Mmmm.. dinner. (heh heheh, sorry for this one.. kinda)

Goats are Morocco's version of New England squirrels.

"Uncle Hmed, please, please don't let your horse kick me!"

Who knew camels could ham it up for the camera as much as Hichem?

It takes this kind of bravery to lead a non-profit like Volunteer Morocco. Git out the way!

Our trusty donkey. Thanks for bringing tons of pillows to the beach for us.

Mum, if you want a 4th tortoise and don't mind the salmonella... 

 
Brent

Some Mo'

My favorite picture so far. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

Relaxing in our roofless courtyard. 

Researching the region's water system. This makes up the bulk of our day. 

A typical night when the rest of the volunteers were here - music and henna tattoos downstairs & stargazing on the roof

For all the leggy blondes... (high fives if you know the reference)


 Brent

Top 10 Surprises about Morocco:

So, now you know the basics & have seen a few pictures. Lets get into the heavy stuff. 

Top 10 Surprises about Morocco:

10. There are fossils everywhere! Our region was once underwater, so while hiking in the mountains, one should always be on the lookout for funny looking rocks. I already found 2!

9. Moroccans are genuinely the nicest group of people I've ever encountered. If you're fluent in Berber (not Bieber), French, or Arabic, you're bound to make a new friend in minutes. If people were this friendly in America, you would think they were ill intentioned. 

8. The cost of living is super low here. A moderately upscale italian meal, which might have cost $15 in the states, cost the equivalent of $2.50.

7. Goats sound like crying/ whining toddlers. 

6. Every male under 25 has a few FC Barcelona and Real Madrid soccer jerseys in his wardrobe. They're mostly knockoffs from the souk (the market), but whatever. Close enough. 

5. More a religious observation that regional - God, or Allah, is in so many words in everyday speech. 

English - "Hey, how are you?" --> Arabic - "Peace be with you."

English - "That's good." --> Arabic - "Praise be to God."

English - "If all goes as planned." --> "Under God's will."

English - "This food is awesome." --> "Thank you God."

4. Turkish toilets. Don't want to elaborate much.

3. While riding around in a taxi, the driver chatted with us the entire way. He said he was in an awesome mood after recently coming back from a vacation. As we were getting out, he gave us his cell phone number in case we needed any more rides while in the city. (GOT SUM DIGITS) Hichem assures me that this is a common occurrence in the Arab world.

2. People here love America. We met a guy wearing a blue baseball hat with a United States flag on the back that said "Oklahoma" on the front in big letters. It wasn't for a sports team, just reppin a mediocre state. In morocco, It doesn't matter what shirts say, as long as it has English letters, people love it. And they like it even better if they don't know english…

1. The biggest insult is calling someone an donkey, or ass, especially the combination ass-head. Insult someone's mother, but never call them an ass. We learned this while watching our friend insult the guy driving this car - 

Brent

P.S. My email address is at the end of my last post. I dont want to write it too much; those cyber robots might send me fishing supply discount codes and online dating promotions...