Moroccan Moments

Hello from Athens!

We have just concluded a wonderful week in Morocco with John, Cyndi and their girls. It was truly a neat chance to experience a lot of Moroccan culture.

Maynard spent most of his time with John checking on two construction projects or purchasing materials for them. There are two projects currently underway - a community center in a nearby village and a bathroom at a school.

The community center has been the dream of the association leader in the village for some time. Work on the center had begun but stalled until John was able to partner his brick making company with the association leader to re-mobilize the work. The center will be a wonderful place for training classes, craft guilds, internet, and other meetings. There is currently very limited space for any gatherings of this sort nearby so this will be quite nice for them. Maynard and John spent time with this association leader working out the details of a data base Maynard and John are building for them to track various information about all the associations in the area. The leader’s dream is to use the data base to find out how the associations can more effectively work together and share resources.






The bathroom being built at the school is a real significant need. It will include two “squatty potties” each for the girls and the boys. The school has about 400 students and no toilet facility at all, so even though this is only four facilities it is a great improvement. It is hard to imagine this in a school in the US. This was another reminder to be grateful to the Lord for something we take for granted. Here is a picture of the progress made while we were there.



The construction method was very interesting. The walls are created with John’s special adobe bricks that resist dissolving when the rains come. Once the walls are constructed, they are covered with a sort of plaster made with mud, straw, and water. We watched them making the plaster by stomping to mix this all together in a sort of a mud pit. It was really interesting. Maynard and I both wished we had a pair of rubber boots so we could get into the process! After it is mixed, they throw the mud on the walls, and then trowel it out to look nice and smooth. The color comes totally from the dirt so they changed dirt to make different plaster colors. Here is a video clip of the plastering process. Sorry, but I can't figure out how to rotate it upright so you will have to look sideways. :-)



The plumbing for the bathroom is also quite interesting. The pipes come out of each potty and meet in a “box” at the back of the building before flowing on out through the larger pipes to the area that works much like a septic tank. The “box” is built with access so it can be cleaned. The box will periodically have to be cleaned out to remove rocks and date pits because the children typically use them for toilet paper. So I ask you, when was the last time you remembered to be grateful for toilet paper? Well, I am now reminded to be grateful for that too!

As you can tell, a significant part of our experience in Morocco was tied to construction. Very different from the construction we learned about from Mike in Abu Dhabi! As a matter of fact, one of the interesting aspects of this trip has been the cultural whiplash we have seen and experienced along the way. Each country has its own uniqueness and some things are widely different. What works in one will not work in another … due to available resources, culture, or whatever. It really is a big wide world!

We had some great non-construction experiences too. I spent a lot of time at home with Cyndi and Alyssa. I really enjoyed just experiencing life with them. We shared meals, played games, and made a few neighborhood visits to have tea. One evening all five of us shared a meal with a Moroccan couple at John and Cyndi’s house. We learned several rules of Moroccan etiquette during the evening. Prior to the meal, a large silver pot and water kettle is offered to each guest so they can wash their hands. When the meal begins, we all eat from the same large platter, pinching the food off with pieces of bread. No one is supposed to pinch off any of the meat until the male host offers it by pinching chunks of meat and tossing them to the side of the platter in front of each guest. If you don’t want to finish your meat, you toss the rest of it over to someone who looks hungry. Don’t agree to a traditional Moroccan meal if you don’t like eating after people. As for us, we loved it! And it was a really neat chance to get to know this couple as we exchanged reactions to a story we read about the challenges of a tired, hungry man in the desert. That was really fun to try to do with all of the translation involved!





On our last day, we had a chance to visit this same family’s home to see a Berber rug they were making. They had bought the wool, spun it, and died it themselves. Then Alyssa had gone a few days earlier to help them cut the wool into strands. I had the fun chance to try my hand at tying a few strands into the rug. We hope to purchase the rug once it is complete as a wonderful reminder of our time in Morocco and our time sharing a meal with them.




As usual, Maynard was on the lookout for sunset photo ops. On our two+ hour drive to the airport, the sun was beginning to set so John decided to take an off-road chase for the perfect sunset. It was a little bit twisty and bumpy but it was fun….. sort of taking off across the desert. After several attempts we finally did see the perfect shot. The sun was setting in orange and pink hues with a minaret in the distance. Both Maynard and John had their cameras out snapping away for several minutes. God had really provided something to capture. We hopped back in the truck on this back desert road and had a new surprise. The truck battery was dead! In what felt a lot like the middle of nowhere! Well, thankfully God provided a Good Samaritan in a small white truck who came along and gave us a jump so we could be on our way. It was a really neat end to our trip and another reminder to be grateful.



As with every entry so far, this can’t begin to capture all of the experience. Hope you enjoy reading what it does capture. It was an absolute joy living it.

Until the next Belson Big Adventure Times update…….

Love,
Maynard and Sheryl