Day 4 - The Circus Follows Us...

By: Emily W and Hannah P

We found ourselves ready to hit the road early this morning. With Rabat overcast and raining, our customary room checks revealed several culprits guilty of slovenliness. Alexis devised the perfect punishment - they were forced to amuse the rest of us by doing jumping jacks in the rain before being allowed on the bus. After a singing circle featuring "That's Just the Way we Roll" by the Jonas Brothers, we returned to the Circus School to bid farewell. This proved to be a tear-filled goodbye. With the school's faculty translating, we had a trilingual session of thank yous and goodbyes. We gave them clothes, toys and some cameras. There were very few dry eyes in the house by the end.

We left the school at about 10 and drove for 3 hours towards the Ruins of Volubilus. We worked on finding better songs to sing for our other hosts. These included "Build me up Buttercup", "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves", and some spice girls (now prohibited). Were still working on it.

Volubilus, meaning "morning glory" was a fully guarded city with walls all around. It was the farthest city west of the Roman Empire stood in the foothills of the Middle Atlas Mountains. We were lucky to be allowed to walk around the ruins unlike anything we would be allowed in Rome. There were 15 fully restored mosaics in the ruins, so many because they were underground for many years after the earthquake that destroyed the city. Our favorite was one of an acrobat riding a horse backwards (in keeping with our circus theme).

We proceeded to a restaurant that actually had ENGLISH on the menu! After our meal of soggy, overpriced spaghetti and some omelet, which they were convinced we were trying to rip them off for, we went to the city of Mekness. Our plan was to venture into the biggest granary in Morocco, but the roof was leaking due to the rain. On our way, we happened upon a Carnival. After much begging by both teachers and students, Ghali, our guide, agreed to let us look around if we stayed close to a teacher. In groups of five, we explored more authentic Moroccan culture - breaking away from the typical tourist sites. We got some awesome candid photos. We were sure to ask permission to take people's photos. Some politely denied, but many were happy to let us.

Our final Circus encounter of the night was when we saw a McDonald's (McArabia) in Fez on the way to our hotel, Hotel Batha. We were definitely spoiled by our previous hotel. While hotel Batha has a very traditional/authentic feel to it, the rooms aren't as spacious and... there's no internet access!!! Feels like the end of the world. We are currently writing from an internet cafe down the road from Hotel Batha.

Here are a few more vocabulary words from our trip:

n. Happy Snappy - a picture that shows what our group was doing, but is not particularly artsy. Fitting for process book and sometimes blog. NOT fitting for Livebooks. EVER.
"I am taking all happy snappys today... there's nothing worthwhile"

n. Bloggy Smoggy - like "Happy Snappy" but specifically for blog.
"Hold still, I'm on blog duty, I need a Bloggy Smoggy."

Day 3 - Circus School

by Rebecca and Rachael Xoxo

On our third day in Morocco, we woke up early in the morning and set out to see the sights of Rabat. We first traveled to the Hassan Tower Mosque where we saw the ruins of the original mosque from the twelfth century as well as the tombs of the father and uncle of the current King, Mohamed VI. After visiting the tombs of the Kings family, we visited the Palace of Rabat where the King handles Morocco's political matters. We were not allowed to enter into the palace, although we were allowed to take pictures of the many guards, which stood at all entrances. They had Huge guns! Finally after a few photo stops, we headed to Oudaïa, a walled in city near the ocean. Its architecture resembles that of the Greek Island of Santorini style. Within the first five minutes of being there, a woman forcibly attacked our hands with Henna and then charged us from zero to a hundred Dirhams for each piece of “art work”. We took a nice stroll along the coast line, capturing moments, almost adopting abandoned cats along the way and taking every moment with our happy snappys. We retreated to the bus and headed for lunch were we quickly finished and headed to the candy store outside.

The bus was loaded with teenagers filling their faces with candy, chocolate surprise eggs to be exact. We also bought a lot of treats for the kids, which we headed off to see. On arrival to the school, we were greeted by our newly found friends from the circus school and we began handing out the pictures we spent all night printing to the mob which surrounded us. We then spent the rest of the evening playing games with the kids and singing songs all together. We had several national anthems that were sung, including the Taiwanese, Korean, American and Moroccan Anthems. We watched the kids perform their circus tricks and married off several of our own to their lovely circus performers. (Don’t worry it’s only a small child’s game.) After fun and games we presented them with a slide show that we had taken of them that day, as well as the day before. This brought laughter throughout the whole room and brought us closer together as we laughed and joked with one another. Being that it was getting late we said our goodbyes and let the children return to their homes, as well as our need for belly filling of food. None of us want to say goodbye, and can’t wait to see them for the last time tomorrow!

Ross at the Circus School

2/26/09

 

On our third day in Morocco, we visited children at a Circus School just outside of Rabat, where we are currently staying. When we got to the school, we broke into small groups and went into the classrooms to work with the kids. This, as it turned out, was very difficult as very few of us speak French…well. The language barrier wasn’t a problem for long though, and soon everyone was working and interacting with the kids very well. We brought some extra cameras with us for them to use, and taught them how. As soon as we did, they were off, and some came back with amazing photographs. When we went to see the pre-school kids, they were very enthusiastic to have their pictures taken, and then swarming us to see what we’d taken of them (Kenny was nearly knocked down multiple times). After visiting with them, we met the whole school in the courtyard, so that they could teach us some games. The first one we played consisted of everyone running around the yard in a swarm when the teacher yelled “Boouunchh, booouunchh!” Then, he would call out a number in English, and we immediately had to group ourselves into groups of that number. Those without groups were out, and so on until there were only two kids left standing, the winners.

            After a few hours of playing, snapping pictures and running around in the hot sun we were served a delicious lunch in the cafeteria there. After that we played a name game with the kids, which didn’t really work because we couldn’t really pronounce many of their names and vice versa. Then we played another interesting game that consisted of singing “Africa! Yo! Yo!” and then running into the middle of the circle, dancing, then doing several pushups while everyone counted them. Then all some of the boys went outside where they practiced their tricks on mats. It was amazing! All of them were doing flips in the air, juggling and tight rope walking. We were all very surprised when the smallest, youngest boy in the group held another boy twice his size and at least a few years older then him by holding his hands out while the other boy stood on them. After many exciting hours we had to leave. Everyone came outside and waved to us and everyone is very excited to return to the school tomorrow. 

Circus School

Day 2- Arrival and a Visit to the Mosque

DAY 2: a voyage through Morocco

By Natasha & Carlotta

Last night, after boarding the plane, our group seemed to divide itself into two groups: the sleepers, and the …not sleepers. The sleepers, on one hand, could be found at any point during the trip dozing in crammed, awkward, and sometimes completely incomprehensible positions, while the non-sleepers engaged in various estranged activities. Alexis was spotted carrying a child, (for a substantial portion of the flight), which clearly did not belong to her, while Hannah pawned off pounds of chocolate to unsuspecting sleepers.
Carlotta, however, was in a completely separate category: comatose. She failed to acknowledge a near- ten pound backpack being dropped on her head while sleeping (or the service cart rammed into her arm several times). She seemed amused when informed of said events the following morning.
Next came customs and baggage claim, which surprisingly enough came through without a hitch, with the exception of a customs officer mocking each and every one of our highly embarrassing passport photos. Bags in hand(s), we boarded the bus.
About a half hour of driving later, we arrived at the Mosque Hassan II, which truly proved to be an architectural wonder. Upon entering Hassan II, the group could feel the heat radiate from the local Moroccan marble and limestone. The mosque, a highly exquisite center for communal prayer, consisted of 57 chandeliers made from Venetian glass and 360 well hidden speakers used to call prayer. As we glanced around the interior of the mosque, including the ceiling, we discovered that a segment of the roof opens to form a skylight. This is very much necessary when the mosque is packed to a full capacity, seeing as there was no air-conditioning installed originally. The portion of the mosque that resonated most with the group was the “Ablution Rooms” due to the monotonous practice of cleansing. The Ablution rooms serve as an area where one beatifies oneself before prayer. The walls themselves are composed of a mixture of limestone, egg yolks and clay, which creates a humidity absorbing effect. We were stunned as our guide explained a step-by-step ritual of traditional cleansing before actual prayer.

STEPS FOR PROPER SELF-CLEANSING:
1. Wash right hand up to wrists 3 times
2. Wash left hand up to wrists 3 times
3. Wash mouth 3 times
4. Wash nose three times
5. Wash face 3 times
6. Wash right hand up to elbow 3 times
7. Wash left hand up to elbow 3 times
8. Pass water on head back and forth once
9. Wash ears once
10. Wash right foot up to ankle. Repeat 3 times
11. Wash let foot up to ankle. Repeat 3 times.

On the way home, we stopped for food at Oasis Cafe. Since no one on the trip speaks Arabic, Natasha (and all of the other French speaking students) became quickly utilized in just about every conversation in order to bridge the gap.
During the drive to the hotel from Oasis, just about everyone was power-napping (especially those “non-sleepers”). Once at the hotel, we were finally able to shower, change, and crack down on work. As we type, the group resembles a think tank in the hotel lobby, chewing over ideas for our visit with the circus school tomorrow.
Next is dinner with the group in the hotel restaurant, then off to much needed sleep!

ALEXIS’ VOCABULARY TERMS (presented by Carlotta):

• A DUMMY- noun. One who checks the premise for missing items before departure.

• DUMMY CHECK- verb. The act of checking the premise for missing items before departure.

• DOG’S BODY- noun. One who is stuck with all the “grunt” work for being “naughty” (see definition)
•
• NAUGHTY- verb. The act of doing something you shouldn’t be doing, but not really sinful. Ex.) “They were just being loud naughty teenagers!”

• A BABY- noun. An extra suitcase that does NOT belong to you. Often filled with charity donations when leaving for a trip. When departing back to said home base; often filled with souvenirs and other useless stuff.

What's missing from this photo?

Day 1: Pre-Trip and Travel (and invisible ink)

Yesterday we met around 9:00 AM at Ross and went downstairs in the senior building. We discussed our trip and assignments for the day. We worked on a shooting assignment for a few hours to get the feel of shooting with our cameras. We then broke for about an hour and went to lunch. Some people had shot in the wrong format, so they had to reshoot during our lunch hour. When we came back Kenny had us working with final cut pro. We also figured out our rooming situations and planned partners for upcoming projects.

Today we came back to Ross and had a very long critique on everyone's ten best images from yesterday's photo assignment. After we finished that Natasha got to do some listing on our days plans. Natasha, Kenny, and Hannah L. took a journey to Espresso's via Kenny's amazing Ross provided mini van (with the automatic doors). After getting more sandwiches than ever necessary, we came back and Urban helped us figure out how to work our blog. After we got all of our things together, and had our "babies" (extra luggage for the group) assigned to us, we got on the jitney and left for JFK international airport. Upon arrival to the airport, Nick realized he had left his camera on the bus. A little frazzlement, but all was fine, and we'll have a camera waiting for us in Rabat. We're about to board our 9 hour long plane ride - our journey begins!

Getting Ready to Leave

Also Check Out Our Portfolio Site

This will be our final portfolio site. It is currently in under construction and won't be completed until the conclusion of the trip.


Please explore our portfolio site as we build it at: Morocco.RossOnTheRoad.org

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Morocco 2009 Mterm Course Description

• What can we learn by observing and experiencing first-hand, the life of the people of Morocco?
  
• How can we render our experiences so that those who did not accompany us, can nonetheless get closer to what we observed and learned from our travels, first-hand?

Morocco possesses a diverse and lively history that has witnessed a long succession of different ruling people such as the Romans, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Jews, Arabs and Berbers. This diversity is reflected through many aspects of Moroccan life. Through this travel course students will explore and document the rich cultural diversity of Morocco. We begin in Casablanca, with its ramparts and colorful markets. Here we see the colors and feel the pulse of Morocco. Traveling back in time, we photograph snake charmers, magicians, acrobats, and dancers. Through out the trip students will have several opportunities to work with underprivileged children in a variety of locations including a circus school run by the AMESIP Foundation. During this time Ross School students will create workshops in web, photo and video for the children and co-create a web-based product for sharing their stories. Through photography or video, journaling and the web, students will document their experiences and create a personal visual essay as well as creating a media education program for the underprivileged children in Morocco that we meet.