Sahara Desert

baby monkey!
monkey with one eye :(
hangin with the monkey
he's playing hard to get. ;-)
Chelsea and I with our Berber camel tour guides who also played drums and cooked haha.
In the morning after our return!
Camel shadows.
Beautiful sunrise.
Beginning of sunrise.
Lacey at night when it started getting windy.
meeeee. Pitch black everywhere!
Our tent!
On the camels. They smellllllled!
Ripples in the sand.
Our camel procession.
HANK!!!
bahahahaha.





Hello!
It's been about a week since I've updated. Last week was kind of boring, that's why. I had to stay home from the orphanage on Monday and Tuesday because I was still too sick to be of any use. It was slightly boring and a little frustrating but I eventually got better after sleeping for hours and hours. The rest of the week at the orphanage was pretty typical. We took the toddlers out one day (2 each) to the playground. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to give my toddler a chocolate coated cookie. She was such a mess! And the rest of the week we were back with the sweet little babies. Who are quite stinky in the morning, by the way.
This week end we went to the Sahara Desert! It was sooo fantastic-- it definitely made up for not such a great week end in Fes. Friday afternoon we were picked up at our homebase by Hamzah (the guide) and Said (the driver). Our program director Mohamad also joined us for part of the trip because his mom and brother live in a town near the desert, so it was nice to have him come along. Friday we drove for about three hours and stopped in I'Frane just to check it out. There's a university there where Chelsea might be studying abroad in the Spring (she gets to choose there or Meknes). It was such a beautiful, clean city. Actually it seemed more like a town. It didn't seem like it was in Morocco. After a short stop there we headed on to Azrou where we stayed Friday night. The hotel we stayed in was really nice! I felt like we were kind of robbing them because we were paying so little. (The entire week end was about $200, food, accomodations, camels, basically everything included.) There's not much to do in Azrou so we just hung out in the hotel. There is a "restaurant" in the basement. More like a kitchen and eating area and a woman who makes really delicious food. We had soup (of Ramadan- it was soo good) and tangine (chicken and such). By the time we were done with dinner it was pretty late so we just hung out in our rooms. We also had a huge family room thing just for us. No one else was staying in the hotel that night.
Saturday we woke up around 7 and showered and had breakfast and then hit the road. We stopped at a few places with nice views to take pictures. The roads winded through the Atlas mountains and then it got really flat and deserty. Some of the roads were very bumpy and the driver didn't exactly go over the bumps slowly so there were a few where we got some significant air time. It was funny and surprising. At our stop for lunch we dropped off Mohomad who was picked up by his brother. Then we ate sandwiches and were back on the road. We got to our destination (the town of Merzouga) around 4:00 (it was a little desert hotel, also where the camels were kept and the desert guides lived) and had a little bit of time to clean up, have tea, and take a short nap while we waited for the desert to cool down a little. Around 6:00 we were ready to go. One of the guys showed us how to wrap our scarves around our head. It was funny to see everyone looking so Arabic. I couldn't stop laughing, especially at Lacey :). Then we boarded the camels!! We gave all of our camels names: mine was Hank, Lacey's was Herman, Chelsea's was Doug, Nicole's was Sherman, and Liz's was Henry. Kay and Caroline's camels remained unnamed. All of the camels were strung together by rope and the two desert guides led us through the desert, winding around the dunes since it's easier for the camels and less painful for the riders. Let's just say camels aren't the most graceful creatures. They're not really spastic or anything but they're really lanky and take long loping steps. The uphills weren't bad but the downhills were a bit rough. The only way I can think to explain it is you know when you're walking down a flight of stairs and you think you're at the bottom but there's actually one stair left so when you step it's a really heavy, clumsy step? Well that's what every step was like when the camels were going down hills, even if they were small hills. But it was still a really awesome experience!
We got to our campsite around 7:30 or 8 I believe. We trekked up to the top of this massive dune... Nicole, Hamzah and I were the only ones to make it all the way to the top. The sunset wasn't very spectacular since there were some clouds. We met some guys from a military school in Virginia who were in Morocco studying Arabic. The one I talked to was actually from the Chicago suburbs which was cool and surreal that we found a bunch of Americans on top of a dune in the middle of the Sahara Desert. They were also camping there for the night in the campsite right next to ours. After that we headed back down and had some dinner in one of the tents. The dinner was surprisingly good. It was a simple meal- bread, veggies, tangine and oranges for dessert. After dinner the two camel guides brought out their drums (bongos?) and played for us. They were really talented! Our favorite song was "Vamos a la playa". We were able to communicate with them with bits and pieces of Spanish. Then they handed the drums to us and asked for American songs which was funny. I'd say we failed miserably at playing the drums. We sang them a few songs very poorly but they clapped anyway haha.
After that we headed into the tent to sleep. It was divided into 2 parts so we slept 4 on our side and 3 on the other. It was a bit warm even with one whole wall open so everyone except me moved their mattresses outside to sleep. However it was extremely windy outside and Lacey's mattress blew away so she had to go chasing after it-- probably one of the funniest things of seen (well, heard) in a long time. But the sand was blowing everywhere so Lacey and Nicole ended up coming back in the tent after all that. Kay and Chelsea were the only ones who slept outside, wrapped in sheets looking quite dead. They said they saw some pretty amazing stars though (it had been too cloudy when we went to sleep which was a little disappointing). We saw some when we woke up before sunrise but didn't get the full effect. Yes, that's right, we woke up before sunrise, around 5 am I think. Lacey and I peed behind a tent since there were no bathrooms at the campsite. Luckily we were smart enough to bring our own toilet paper!
After gathering our things we got back on the camels who had been sleeping a short distance away. First of all, I thought my butt was sore after the Florence bike tour-- that did not even compare to how sore I was when I had to get back on that damn camel this morning. I thought I was going to die. I ended up sitting cross-legged for a while because it was less painful, but then I had to perform a serious balancing act to avoid falling off. It was worth it though. Lacey's camel was totally wearing its cranky pants this morning. It was making all kinds of grumpy noises. Plus since she was the last one it kept coming up to the side of my camel since we were right in front of her. It was a bit scary having it's head and big mossy teeth right next to my leg. I think it even slobbered on my foot a bit. I was about ready to kick some camel ass after a few minutes of that crap. Lacey found it really funny and encouraged the poor behavior.
The sunrise was very beautiful so we stopped briefly to take some pictures. I'm not exactly sure how my butt didn't fall off but don't you worry- it's all still there. The ride back seemed shorter than the ride there. Chelsea had the fabulous idea of taking showers (we had rooms back at the little hotel in Merzouga). The water was cold and came out slightly more pressurized than a trickle but still it was really refreshing and a very good idea before our long journey back to Rabat. They also had breakfast waiting for us which was really nice. After that we parted ways with our camel guides and headed back to the van with Hamzah and Said. We drove through the bumpy roads for a couple ours, dozing off since we had a very short night's sleep. We picked up Mohomad at the same spot we left him on Friday. That's where we parted ways with Hamzah, who was from a town nearby so he didn't need to come all the way back to Rabat with us. Hamzah was a really cool dude. He spoke English but was really enthusiastic about improving it. He asked Kay questions since she's an English teacher (how can some one be "well" but they can also get water from a "well", what does this word "breeze" mean? etc etc) It was very cute and he was a very kind person. He asked our permission to get off at the town rather than continuing to Rabat. We teased him that he had to stay with us the ENTIRE time. But anyways, after that we continuted on a few ours and stopped for lunch around 1:30. Lacey, Liz and I got some Kefta (beef) dish but the beef seemed really rare so I didn't eat much of it. I'm not trying to get deathly ill again. Good thing it came with fries though :). After lunch we continued the longggg journey back (9 hours total). It actually wasn't that bad because the scenery was so different from what we're used to. Plus I don't mind time to listen to music and think and just be with myself in general. Also, I really enjoy the company of the people I've been traveling with. We all get along very well.
So we made it back to the homebase around 7 I think. Lacey, Liz and I ordered pizza from dominos because we were craving some American food! It was pretty good I have to admit. Now we're just hanging around, resting our aching bodies haha. All in all, I'd say this week end was a success. It was so interesting to see the desert, a massive ocean of sand so to say. It was really peaceful.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention the monkey forest we stopped in on the way back! Literally just a forest right off the road where a bunch of monkeys hang out. I sat next to one that only had one eye. It seemed pretty calm with me being so close. It turned its head swiftly at one point and I got startled and fell over haha (I had been crouching down). (See pictures above^^). We also saw a baby monkey. Very cute.
I think that's all for now. Back to the orphanage and the adorable babies tomorrow :) We're going to ask the nurses if we can take a few pictures so hopefully they'll be okay with that because I really want to show everyone these awesome kidsss! Maybe it will convince you to become a Muslim and adopt one ;-). Okay, bye for now! <333 onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">