Random Funness

The next weekend Emma, Joanne’s roommate from Mercer, came to visit. She was studying at Oxford for the semester. Since my roommate had gone she ended up staying with me. She barely spoke a word of Spanish, so Joanne and I had fun translating for her and Magdalena, it made us feel like we could actually speak Spanish! [Side note: NO, I am not fluent yet, so please don’t ask me if I am! :( It would probably take a good year and not being around Americans so much to get to that point.] It was funny though because I would hear Magdalena say something like, “Have you slept well?” while Emma passed through the living room and she would be clueless so I would yell the translation from my room and Magdalena would always laugh. It was cool to have a little Mercer reunion!

The next weekend a couple girls and I went with my intercambio, Cristina, her boyfriend, and another girl from her English class, Encarni, to this festival. It was funny because it was basically like a hippie festival. It was cool though…there were a lot of little booths with homemade stuff and all natural food, which I’m always a fan of! We also went to this massage thing (was actually their idea to go, I am too ticklish for most massages!) which ended up being a massage class. Let’s just say it was very interesting! (And by interesting I mean a new experience that I hope to never repeat! Hehe If you really wanna know you can ask….) All in all it was super fun just to hang out with Spanish friends! :)

That Saturday three other girls and me took a day trip to the nearby town of Ronda. It is a beautiful little community seated right on top of a breathtaking gorge. The pictures don’t do it justice but here are some anyway:

We hiked down to the bottom of the gorge and were able to see it from below as well! We also found this deserted building (above is the areal view of it) and went down in it’s basement, it was like in suspense movies or something hehe. We packed a lot in so it was an exhausting but fun day!

Semana Santa

So after Morocco I came back to an entirely different Sevilla: it was Semana Santa (Holy Week), the week of Easter. It scared me a little at first to see the “Nazarenes” (members of the “brotherhood” of each church, see photo) walking by in their outfits when I got off the bus that night.

After resting a few days (I was exhausted) I ventured out to experience one of the biggest holy week celebrations in the world—second only to Rome! Seville was flooded with people who crowded the streets to watch the “pasos” (floats of statues of Mary or scenes of Jesus during the Easter story) parade by, along with the Nazarenes and penitents, and often a band as well. Each paso made its way from its own chapel to the big cathedral and then back. You can also walk down and see them on display before they are taken out of the church. Magdalena took me to see a few in Triana (our neighborhood) which was cool. She is so funny—she and her sister love Semana Santa and they were watching everything on TV like all week. I went out with some friends to see the parades on Thursday and Friday night. On Thursday night the most famous pasos make their routes through most of the night and morning. I went out late but I didn’t last all night!

I have to say seeing the pasos in person was much different than seeing them on TV. Magdalena told me that with all the music and people and smell of incense it is very different and very emotional. She was totally right. One of the first ones I saw was of Jesus being taken off the cross after His death and it was actually a silent one. The crowd was hushed and the Nazarenes walked slowly by with candles. I liked it; was a sobering and poignant reminder of what He did for us.

However, it seemed to me that people were almost more emotional about seeing the pasos of the Virgin Mary…or Marys I should say. I think each church has their own Mary paso and Jesus paso…but the Mary always comes last in the parade. They are all different Virgins…the one of Triana is “la Esperanza de Triana” (The Hope of Triana). There is the Macarena, “La O”, and many others. I have seen people cry when they see the paso, sing prayers to it out loud… Magdalena told me to touch the float when it went by and say a prayer. She told me that people form an attachment to “their” Virgin—they step into the church and say a prayer to it on the way to the grocery store or wherever. This just blew my mind. Praying to Mary already doesn’t make sense to me, much less a specific statue of Mary. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to offend anyone or disrespect the culture… I can see how if you grew up doing that a strong emotional attachment could easily be formed. And they are beautiful statues. But it was more disheartening than I can say to see people in a Christian denomination not only praying to Mary, but praying and worshipping a specific statue of Mary. It looks too much like idolatry to me…to go pray to a statue instead of Jesus who died so that they could come straight to Him. So that was frustrating and saddening for me.

I also wish there was more focus on the resurrection. There is only one paso on Easter Sunday of the resurrection. I do think it is good that the Catholic Church focuses on the crucifixion—one thing I think the protestant church may not do enough. The extent of His sacrifice shows us how much He loves us! But I want people to see that His death was not to bring guilt, but freedom from sin and a relationship with Him! That truth was not evident to me through Semana Santa. It seemed like the week focused more on feeling guilty because of His death and doing penance. The penitents were people who walked, covered up like the nazerenes (just without the pointy hat), carrying crosses the whole route (hours and hours—a whole day or night). Some did it barefoot. I think most were people with a prayer they wanted God to answer and felt like they needed to do this to earn it I suppose. Then there were the costeleros—the men (and sometimes boys) who carried the pasos. It rested on the back of their neck right above their shoulders. The paso is so heavy that by the end of their one or two hour shift they would often be bleeding. When we saw it on TV Magdalena would point out their wounds with pride. Although I admire their devotion, it made me sad that they feel like they need to do all this…for a statue, or to get God to answer their prayer…He offers His love freely, we don’t need to feel like we have to torture ourselves to earn it!

Anyway, despite all that, Semana Santa was a really neat experience. It was crazy to see Sevilla so full of people! I love the picture to the right. See the crowd?? The paso is in the distance. That is right in front of a bridge I crossed everyday. And it was cool to celebrate Easter like that—with reminders of it at every corner, literally! But I have to say that I was overjoyed to be encouraged by those who believe like I do on Easter Sunday. (Although I also love hanging out with people who have different beliefs as well!) I was with Mary Alice and some American girls interning with her. We had a picnic and church service in a park with three missionary families there (two that I worked with when I came before!) We sang familiar praise songs (in English), listened to one of the missionaries, Dave, speak, and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids…which was great because I was sad about missing watching my siblings do that. It was a wonderful day!

Morocco Chapter 6 -- The End!

The next day after driving a while as always we arrived at the market, where we were free like birds in the sky! It was fun to bargain with the guys—that’s how you buy things there. None of the prices are set you have to bargain with them (in English, Spanish, French…whatever language you choose). If you are tough you can get some pretty good prices. I bargained a few things down and got some souvenirs for people. It was fun because a couple times I was like “no I can’t pay that much” and wouldn’t go any higher and was about to walk away when they would give in or make a better compromise.

We went to a pretty nice place at lunch (I think they were trying to sort of make up for our little 6 hour delay earlier) where we had another performance. There was this lady and some guys that danced and then this other guy who balanced a tray of candles on the top of his head and danced around without letting it fall. It made me nervous but was really cool. The food was strange but amazingly good! The main course was this round kind of crispy thing that was made up of some tortilla like bread and with very flavorful chicken inside. But on top was powdered sugar and cinnamon I think…sweet stuff. It was bizarre but surprisingly very good!! Then we started the long trip back…by bus, ferry, and bus again. Overall it was a long and exhausting trip, but very exciting and eye-opening, one I hope I’ll never forget!

Morocco Chapter 5

The next morning I did indeed wake up at 4:45 I think it was…and we all huddled in the cold waiting until it was time to get on our camels. Although it was freezing, I was glad I was awake in the darkness when all the electricity was still off…I didn’t know so many stars existed in the sky! It was absolutely incredible, a fingerprint of God that I hadn’t seen quite in that way before! And while we’re on the subject, the sand dunes inspired the same awe in me—they were another wonder of creation that left me speechless as I saw them for the first time. They amazed me in the same way mountains do. But it was weird because it was like that same grandeur of mountains—the height and impressiveness—but with something completely different. Made of a deep orange sand and lacking any trees or vegetation, they loomed against the solid blue sky as if confident in their simple but matchless splendor.

But I digress. So we woke up early and hopped on some camels, and I got my own this time! It was fun and I must say, much much more comfortable when you have the camel to yourself! Although it did still made me nervous going up and down those little dunes, as well as the standing up and sitting down of course. We went to one really big dune and got off the camels and climbed up to the very top ourselves, and just sat and waited. The sun rising over the Sahara was quite a sight!

After breakfast we rode the camels back to the land rovers and headed out. Needless to say, we had some even worse problems getting through the sand this time. We and everyone else kept getting stuck and having to get out and help each other get unstuck. At one point, our car and this other car got really really stuck. So we got out and were trying over and over again to push the cars out of the sand. Finally our vehicle got loose and so he just drove off. We were like “Hmm…wonder where he went…ok…” The other one was still there though and we were all standing there watching all these Moroccan guys try really hard to get the other 4x4 out. Eventually another driver came back for us, and all of us from both of the two stuck vehicles (there were about 8 of us I think, 6 students and Esther and Michael) piled into this one 4x4. It was probably the craziest ride of my life! The guy had to drive really fast, I guess it was so we wouldn’t get stuck in the sinking sand again…so we were all squished in there like on a ride at Six Flags, everyone being jerked and flung around as he sped over all the little dunes. I was really honestly scared because half the time it felt like the car was going to flip over! Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure petite little Esther was sitting on the window sill hanging out like the always did! Hehe it was funny. Luckily we didn’t die—we made it out of the dunes to where everyone else (yes, fortunately our driver, too!) was waiting for us. They were just chillin, some of them were dancing to some music they had turned up real loud in one of the cars.

We went back to the nice hotel for lunch…and somewhere in there we went to another place where they tried to sell us rugs again…then we rode the bus through the mountains and stopped at several look-outs, like one over an oasis which was really cool. We kept driving through the mountains and a lot of the countryside. A lot of the time our guide, Muhammad, would talk to us and explain things; he would do it in Spanish and English. He would say funny things in his broken English. He would always say “might” for things that we were obviously going to do, “we might go to Fez, then we might eat at the hotel, then we might have a tour…” When he told us we would get free time to shop at a market the next day he said, “Each is free to buy what he wants, free like birds in the sky.” Hehe. At one point we were driving by farmland and little homes and communities way out in the country and he told us about how hard life is there. They are very very poor and do not have almost any doctors or medicines available to them due to the location. It made me sad and want to do something to help! Muhammad explained to us the role of women in the country as opposed to that of the changing urbane environment. In the country it is still very traditional, where the husband has total control over her and she has no rights at all. I don’t think he remembered he was talking to a bus almost full of American girls when he explained that a man wants a wife from the country because she will be submissive and she is uneducated so she doesn’t know any better, she can just basically live to meet all his needs. It was about the last straw when he told us why he would want to marry a fat woman: “If I get married to a fat woman in wintertime she gives me warmth and in summer time she gives me a good shadow.” Hehe it was funny…but at the same time sad to see how women really are very oppressed there under traditions of Islam and the culture. They need missionaries there to show them what freedom and worth they have in Christ! Although that would be one tough mission field…

That last night we slept at a different hotel that wasn’t nearly as nice as the one before. We had a little musical performance at dinner though, so that was fun.

Morocco Chapter 4

Hello everyone! I have been home safe and sound in the States for about a week and a half now, and have come to find out that apparently there are still a faithful few that are reading this and want to hear the end of the story! (If you haven’t been keeping up with it that’s totally ok, I would’ve had time either!) I will continue on then and try to type up everything through the end of my travels (and the end is quite a story I must say!) Starting where I left off in Morocco…

As you may remember we had a long drive throughout the night before. Well that was to get to the nice hotel from which we would go ride camels and spend the night in the desert the next night. (Get excited!) So we woke up the next morning and had an excellent buffet breakfast at the hotel and then all jumped in Land Rovers to head for the desert! But first, I had to drop my sunglasses on the ground in the hotel parking lot and not realize it until we were driving away, because when would be a better time to lose sunglasses then right before the only time in my life I am going to the SAHARA DESERT?? Hehe. So that was sad. But it actually ended up not being too bad, I managed okay without them! So we are all in these 4x4’s driven by Moroccan men. I was in a car with two of my friends in the back seat with me, Catherine and Elena, and another student named Mark was up front. He spoke some French so he would switch between that and Spanish and English when talking to our driver. Did I mention they speak 5 million languages there?? Our driver was somewhat quiet but friendly. We went through town, and it was weird for me actually seeing a few women dressed in the full-out burqas (a traditional Islamic dress) – only showing their eyes. First stop was this fossil place where of course they tried to sell us stuff again. It was actually pretty cool though, there was tons of stuff (even whole bathroom sinks!) made of what seemed like a polished stone with real fossils in it! I spent a couple euros on a few little pendants myself. Then we hopped back in the cars and headed for the desert!

At this point we were just driving on the rocky, flat part at first and it was really fun. There were like 12 vehicles all racing across the terrain in whatever path they chose, being that the road had kind of ended. We had the windows down and the music up…our driver actually had some CD’s with some American oldies, which was bizarre to listen to driving across the Moroccan desert, but super fun! We stopped at a few places with views across a lake and the dunes in the background which were really pretty. We randomly stopped at a little village as well, where we crowed into this room and were given Moroccan tea as we watched these men dance and sing and play different instruments. One of them was a little boy who was really cute! The performance was good, very loud, and by the end they had everyone get up and start dancing around with them! It was really fun. This is when I finally started feeling like I was really in Africa; these guys looked more African, everyone else looked more Arabian or Middle Eastern.

We passed several tiny little communities like that…just groups of little nondescript buildings and houses that blend in with the tan expanse of nothingness in the background. These people are very poor, it was very sobering. Some of us were talking about it at dinner that night, how we just come in and stare at these people and gawk at how they live their lives, like they are on display, as we enjoy our tour that never really deprived us of any of the luxuries we were used to, which they live every day without. But on the other hand, I don’t think we should feel guilty for coming, because tourism is an incredible economic help to these people. We decided that it’s only good if you do it with the right perspective though…if you let yourself be changed by the experience and share it with others and help them if you can and don’t just go back to your normal life and forget that there are others living that way. I hope I don’t.

We stopped at another hotel for a buffet lunch and then relaxed for a little while and listened to our drivers play instruments and sing. Then it was back in the Land Rovers and into the dunes. That stuff is harder to drive on than you think! We actually had to get out of the car at one point and help push another vehicle that had gotten stuck in the dunes, and then had to do the same for ours! Well first we had to dig some of the sand away from in front of the tires, then everyone got behind to push, girls and guys alike! It was funny.

Our car ended up being the last to get to the camels so we jumped out and ran over there and were rushed to our individual camels. (They were actually a type of camel called a dromedary, dromedario in Spanish, which only has one hump so that’s what they called them but I will probable just say camel because it’s easier.) Before I knew it I was put on the same camel with my friend Catherine, and the camel was standing up, which was a very scary process that we were not warned about! I guess they just get up on their hind legs first so you are like hanging on for dear life facing the ground for a few seconds…at first I thought it had already stood up all the way and the saddle-thing was falling off or something so I was like yelling for help! Lol. But then it stood up all the way and we were horizontal so that was good hehe. At that point I was kinda glad to be with a friend so I wasn’t all by myself my first time on a camel like that!

We rode the camels up some pretty steep sand dunes and then got off and ran up to the very top of a sand dune…like a ridge of dunes I guess. You had to run though because if not you would sink in the sand! It was a workout hehe. The sunset was beautiful though; I couldn’t believe I was watching it on top of a Saharan sand dune! When it was over Catherine and I hopped back on the camel and she graciously let me have front seat this time. I regretted it the moment my lovely little dromedary started walking down that dune. It was a steep hill and so I was falling forward with this mettle part of the saddle digging into my thighs, which was being made worse because of course Catherine had to reach around me to hold on to the handle bar too, which pushed me more forward, making me really feel like I was gonna fall off, not to mention even more painful! On top of that everyone was making fun of us squished on top of the same camel, it was only us and two other girls that had to share, everyone else had their own! Definitely an experience. hehe

We then rode our camels to the camp where we would spend the night in the desert, which was basically a little hotel made out of tents! Hehe so we weren’t exactly roughing it. We all slept in little tents with mattresses in them and ate at basically a little restaurant they had set up. There were candles for the feel, but some electric lights as well as toilets! All the tents and carpets and candles made for a very pretty little place, like something out of Aladdin or something! (Actually the whole time in Morocco felt very Aladdinish lol). That night was quite relaxing – we had some tea again, some lamb for dinner, and some more African entertainment from those guys. I was pretty tired so I went to bed early…bundled up as much as I could and I actually slept pretty well, just woke up a little when I got cold.

I had a hard time getting up though when my roommate, Christa, woke me up at 4:45am. I didn’t want to sleep in though because we were going for another camel ride to see the sunrise! Stay tuned!! :)

Small digression...

Hi everyone! I hate interrupting the Morocco saga (if anyone still has interest...it's been so long!) because the best is yet to come, but I have noooo time to write! Especially since I don't want to write about it without all the interesting and funny details.

So I decided to update really fast to tell you that I am still alive! I have been super busy enjoying life here and traveling a little more...I went to Ronda, experienced feria here in Sevilla, went to the beach in Portugal, and we had a trip with the school to Granada last weekend. I've actually hastily written about most of that on paper so one day (aka, possibly not until this summer...sorry!) I will write about it on here so I can have it typed out for myself if nothing else lol.

But just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing well! One reason I am busy is I have an 8-10 page research paper due soon that I need to prioritize...which is hard because I would much rather hang out with my intercambio, talk with my host mom or watch Spanish tv with her, go to Biblestudy, or get a coffee with a friend lol. So we'll see how that goes! hehe I know I will get it done but I am a little nervous becuase I have never written something that long in Spanish!

I hope everyone is doing well, thank you for all the prayers and support!

Morocco Chapter 3

So the next day the original plan was to get straight back on the bus and drive to our next destination which was 7 hours away (supposedly we were going to tour Fes on our way back). But the powers that be decided that traveling all day was a little much so we were going to spend some time in Fes that morning. (As you will see, it’s a good thing we got some sort of touristy activity in!) So we did the tour of the city. We saw some golden doors to the king’s residence there and had our pictures taken with the guards, who very graciously tolerant of us. Then we walked around more of the city. It was bigger of course and much more urban than Chefchaouen, but it still had just as much poverty. It was really interesting though to walk around those very narrow roads in between tan walls (not blue here!) and interrupted by little holes in which people made a living with shops selling one specific type of thing. They were seriously like little closets, most of the time it looked like the person had to climb over the counter to stand in it. They sold everything…shoes (some looked like they had been worn), flowers, bread, nuts and spices, cleaning supplies, clothes…we even saw one of the enclaves filled to the brim with stacks of dusty cassette tapes. A lot of the time there were a lot of the same thing being sold on the same street…I heard that the people didn’t really care about trying to compete though; they were just concerned with trying to make enough to eat that day.

It wasn’t always pleasant though. We poked our head in this place where they had like a million sheep hides they were gathering cotton from. Walking into it was definitely a very smelly, strange experience.

We soon found out that we would be taken to a lot of touristy places where they would try to sell us something in the end. They were still pretty interesting though and they didn’t normally pressure us to buy something unless we started bargaining, in which case you could be stuck! One place was where they made things out of leather. The main store overlooked the area where they dyed everything. We could see all these big holes with dye and men working down below, so that was pretty cool. We took pictures and one young guy working saw all us girls (there were actually only 4 guys on the trip total!) and started flexing his muscles and doing pushups across the hole for the camera. It was funny!

There was also a weaving place where they had a lot of traditional clothes and scarves used for turbans. They would put them on our heads for us like they wear them so that was fun. Then we went to a place with like a million beautiful, hand-woven, very expensive rugs. It was cool to see them and drink the tea that they gave us. We also got to go up on the roof there, which had a good view, and see some ladies actually doing the weaving!

I think that’s about all we did in Fes. So after that it was off to Erfoud for lunch. We still supposedly had a 7 hour drive ahead of us which was going to put us there even later than the normal late lunch we have in Spain. Or so we thought. We started driving and at about 12:30 or so (I think we were less than an hour outside of Fes) the bus started letting out a lot of smoke. So we had to pull over to the side of the road. Apparently, the bus was having some grave problems and going even like 15 minutes to the next city would not be a good idea. So we were stranded….in the African wilderness. We had to jump out of our burning bus and face lions—luckily the elephants gave us refuge and there were a few trees we could climb during the stampede. Hehe just kidding. (Totally had you going right??) No it was interesting because it didn’t really feel like we were in Africa. We hadn’t really seen any jungle or even the Sahara yet and all the people looked more Arabic than African. So fortunately for us we weren’t driving through they jungle, although we did see a turtle and some sheep. It was just some countryside with a small mountain and a little house with a donkey across the road. We did all get out and hang out in the grassy area by the bus. Some of us practiced our Sevillanas (traditional Seville dances kind of like flamenco), others read or played games. Ester called back to Spain and had people contacting the agency to get another bus. They said they would have one on the way and there within 40 minutes. That did not happen. Upon calling back, they told us it had left already and they could not communicate with it but it should only be like ten minutes. We heard this same line over and over again, seeing as we were there for about six hours. Yup, 6 hours. Apparently in Morocco it is more important to tell people what they want to hear to try to keep them happy rather than tell the truth. God is good though, there were trees and bushes nearby providing for good restrooms (if we had driven a couple miles more there would have been nothing!), and some mentioned that that was actually preferable to the ceramic holes. We did get hungry but luckily most of us had snacks with us. Some people started getting frustrated with the situation but overall everyone was pretty relaxed and just enjoyed hanging out—understanding that this is a third-world country and we can’t expect it to be the same. So finally at 5 something the first little van came (they didn’t have another bus the same size so they had to do a van and a bus). There was much rejoicing. Eventually people decided to go on and fit as many as possible in that on head to the next town for lunch. The rest of us waited for the other bus. Not to long later, after having watched other charter buses drive by all afternoon, ours finally arrived! There was much more rejoicing! So we got to a hotel in the next town and ate a much anticipated “lunch” at around 6:30pm. Phew.

After that we were going to take the same bus and van to Erfoud, but to no avail. Somehow it wasn’t licensed to go that far or something. So we sat at the hotel and Michael, Ester, and Muhammad took our orders for beer, wine, and mint tea while they figured out what to do. Hehe it was funny when they offered the second round and we knew they were just trying to keep us happy for as long as possible!

After thinking we were going to have to stay in a hotel there or back in Fes that night they finally found a way to take three vans and said that if we were willing to drive really late we could go on and go to Erfoud and not loose so much time in the Sahara the next day. We voted yes and piled into these van-bus things. We ended up having to sit in them without moving for a while though because it turns out that one of the drivers didn’t have his license and had to go get it. At that point we weren’t surprised. I think it was close to 11pm when we finally left.

Although I can’t tell you how happy I was to finally be moving, I have to say that driving that late at night in the middle of who knows where in Morocco was a little scary for me. It was so dark and we had gone a different route than the other two vans and we were just winding through mountains in the middle of no where in the middle of the night in Africa—not the safest place in the world. Ester was in our van though and it was all fine of course. Luckily someone let me have some of their Dramamine and I slept a little. We stopped for one bathroom stop (one of those rest stops we saw a lot of there with pork in the form of a full skinned pig hanging right in front of you) and a lady was standing in front of the restrooms. She let some people go in but when she realized how many of us there were she started yelling at Muhammed. He argued back but ended up angrily giving her money out of his own wallet so we could use her holes in the floor. Crazy.

We finally got to the hotel at 4:30 in the morning. And of course this was the nicest hotel we would be in during the whole trip! We only got to enjoy a few precious hours of sleep in those amazing beds. It was just really pretty and spacious and had a pool shaped like Africa!

Anyway, so that was that day. What an adventure! Hehe. Sorry I don’t have pictures this time, I am at the center and I don’t have my laptop with me but I wanted to go on and post this. Until next time!