Social Enterprise Association Spring Break in Morocco

Friday, March 12: NYC to Casa
Overnight flight to Casablanca. No sleep since my light was on the entire time and Royal Air Maroc could care less. Highlight: Libyan man sitting next to me shared his life story and was very excited to hear mine. Apparently the U S of A wronged him, so he laughed in the face of so called "freedom" and was heading back to his family.

Saturday, March 13: Casa
Volunteering at the Cultural Center for some. 5 mile hike to Hasan II Mosque, followed by lunch where cats roamed around, for others. VIP police escort to the Cultural Ceremony. Sat behind all the famous dudes and was constantly photographed for 2 hours. Its difficult being civilized for that long, though i'm pretty sure there are silly looking photos of me all over the Moroccan media. Mint tea break. Dinner at another local joint alongside cats where I almost lost my marbles.

Sunday, March 14: Casa-Rabat
Early departure from hotel for Service Project #2 in Rabat. Conference on How Youth can impact civil societies. Breakout sessions in the topics of Social Enterprise Business and Small Business Ventures. Lunch - our first yummy tangine. Group departs for Fes. Three others and I stay in Rabat for our meeting the next morning. Sightseeing - Medina (markets), Kasbah of the Oudaya, sunset on the terrace, mint tea and snacks. Mehndi by random ladies in the dark. Pizza for dinner and bed.

Monday, March 15: Rabat - Fes
Meeting with Director of Transparency International to learn about Morocco's economic state and fight against corruption. Amazing. Drive to Fes full of good talks and naps. More shopping in the Fes Medina, starting at the Blue Gate. Tried camel in the crazy meat market where they were beheading chickens before our very eyes. Spotted a goats head with blood all over it in some corner too. yikes. Dinner in the Medina - Cafe Clock and then Hotel Bartha for a bit.

Tuesday, March 16: Fes - Azrou - Midelt - Erfoud - Merzouga
All day scenic drive across the atlas mountains. Stop at a local market at our request. Lunch, roadside with a random flock of sheep. In Erfoud, scarf buying, switch from the bus to 4X4s and ride into the desert. Team Gold Star! Merzouga - dinner, bonfire, dancing and overnight under tent. fave memory: laying on the dunes with the stars above, singing A Whole New World....

Wednesday, March 17: Merzouga/Ouarzazate
430 wake up for a sunrise excursion to Dunes. My camel, Susie along with her friend George were lovely. Yes, we named our camels. We parked our camels, ran up the Dunes and waited for the sun to rise. Incredible. Breakfast, back on the bus, lunch in some touristy spot that looked like the Grand Canyon. Off to Ouarzazate (many movies were filmed here). Dinner in the local square and then hang out in Berber Palace (ridiculous hotel with Gladiator, etc movie stuff. apparently Brad Pitt stayed in these digs). Of course HBS was staying there.

Thursday, March 18: Ouarzazate- Marrakech
Sick emu :( Everyone toured AIT BENHADDOU while i slept on the hot bus. Upon Marrakech arrival, i rested more, everyone went out to the nighttime markets! So jealous, apparently it was madness. You tube should do the trick.

Friday, March 19: Marrakech
Half-day tour of Marrakech. Historic visit of Marrakech city:
- Menara, a magnificent pool surrounded by flowers, reflecting the image of a beautiful Moorish construction built in 1866 for the dignitaries.
-The Koutoubia Minaret (the twin tower of la Giralda in Sevilla, Spain).

Some weird spice market where they sold us homeopathic randomness. Free time! Haggling in the markets. Poolside lounging. Dinner at a Riad with belly dancing and live music. Group night out.

Saturday, March 20: Marrakech - Casa
Morning shopping at government shops. Long bus ride to Casa. Last dinner at a fancy French restaurant. Round table ceremony and gift giving. Best meal ever.

Sunday, March 21:
Bye bye Morocco, Hello Spain!

something to think about

while thinking about how to better your life...consider some of the thoughts below. ill definitely be working on a good amount of these myself.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time for prayer and reflection
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.

Personality:
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day ---- and while you walk, smile.
11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do; keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right things.
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. Forgiveness heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, don’t take it for granted – embrace life.
39. Your inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least:
40. Enjoy LIFE

Peru: Cusco, Sacred Valley, Willoq Village, Inka Trail & Lima

How was Peru? Interesting. Beautiful. Inspiring. Challenging. Scary. Historical.


Rundown:
Day 1 - Friday - Fly from LaGuardia to Lima. Arrive at 1 am to a gross hotel room with a beautiful lobby and exterior. Shower. Water is spewing out of the AC onto my roommate. Can't sleep.

Day 2 - Saturday: Wake up at 430 am for breakfast. Eat, get on the tour bus en route to the airport. Fly from Lima to Cusco. Nice hotel, check. Altitude sickness, eh not sickness but definitely felt my oxygen being limited. Cocoa tea. Explored Cusco until it was time for our official tour of the city. Visited some ruins - pictures later if i can figure out how to post them - a cathedral (absolutely gorgeous!)

Day 3 - Sunday: Off to the Sacred Valley to a Lodge-like hotel. Lunch, then to Willoq Village to check out the scene for our service project. Little kids were running around with their siblings strapped onto their back. They started going down slides, it was hilarious! Back to the hotel for an orientation with the Inka Trail tour guides, i think they freaked us all out!

Day 4 - Monday: Early start to some more ruins which contained a little preview of the trail. I stormed right up those steps and then got a little light headed and extremely freaked out that i was not going to make it for the next four days....lesson learned: take it slow. the heat is exhausting. Llama and Alpaca farm. Back to the Willoq Village for a day of service - harvested potatoes, cleaned water systems, created a drainage system and transported rocks to clear the entry way to the community. Lunch followed by local market with beautiful alpaca goods. On the way back to the hotel, the guides stopped at a local Chicha (sp?) factory so we could sample the corn drink made in Peru. There was a game with a golden frog and some gold coins, the group went crazy trying to toss the coin into the frogs mouth! Then we got the tour guides to down a pitcher of Chicha!!

Day 5 - Tuesday: Day 1 of Inka Trail: 200 hikers allowed each day, 300 trekking staff.
No sign or rememberance of St Pattys day except for our green duffle bags. Off to the Inka Trail...a few inclines, what we thought was hard but turned out to be a joke later! Gatorade/candy vendors along the way. Apparently people live on the trail since they were there before it turned into a public space...so the Peruvian government allow them to stay. One thing i must mention is our porters - they are truly amazing! These men and woman run up and down the mountains with 40 pounds on their backs wearing sandals made of recycled tires. Its pretty inspiring as they run past and we're barely able to breathe with a small daypack on our backs!! Oh and they make about $14 USD a day.

Day 6 - Wed: Day 2 of the Inka Trail is the toughest. 4000 ft incline with the peak being "Dead Womans Pass" because they found a dead woman up there at one point!! So yeah...everyone was basically terrified. On the way up, we saw a perfect rainbow which basically made my day. Hung out at the peak for a bit and then a two hour descent. Only goal: reach camp before sunset because hiking down in the dark would be a huge disaster. We get there right after dusk, find our tent, celebrate a fellow hikers birthday and enjoy dinner.

Edit: I can't explain the natural sense of euphoria that takes over after accomplishing something that you have been so nervous and terrified about for days...its amazing. And makes me understand why people are adventurous, its the rush that comes afterwards, nothing compares.

Day 7 - Thurs: Day 3 of Inka Trail
The entire day is about going down the 4000 ft that we climbed the day before, with some inclines just to psych us out a little. Sunny, rainy, cold, windy. A typical weather pattern in the mountains requiring lots of layers of clothing and changes. This was our longest hike: 11 miles so we woke up ar 430 instead of the regular 530 am. It was still a race to camp. BUT, at the end awaited an option to shower for a mere 5 solas! (3 solas = 1 dollar). We were forewarned that hot water may not be available...and it wasn't but we finally figured out a way to work the shower and ended up taking over the men's bathroom since most of them didn't seem at all interested in taking advantage of the facilities. Dinner was fun, filled with extra special treats from the cooks - they made pizza! We got them Cusquena and presented them with tips. We finished our dinner and raced to our tents in the pouring rain. Basically it was my second shower of the evening. :)

Day 8 - 430 wake-up call goes like this "Good morning? cocoa tea?" Last day of hiking, with Machu Picchu waiting for us at the end, could the day be any better? Hiked up to the Sungate where we could see the ruins in the distance under the clouds. 84,000 steps later, we finally made it! And only onto see hoards of clean tourists who had paid the fee to enter the area while we had spent the past four days hiking the toughest trail I have ever been on, trying not to fall (one girl broke her fibula but still made it down, talk about a trooper, another guys knee locked up and rest - well we had the regular bites and scratches, along with moments where we thought we might fall off a cliff....in addition, i managed to create two blisters, one on each ear from tossing and turning on the zipper of my Rutgers hoodie which i was using at a pillow)!

Got my official stamp - its the best one in my passport :) We had lunch at the fancy buffet down from the ruins. We were all so happy to see real toilets, soap, and hand dryers. Not so thrilled to see our reflections for the first time in days...yeah, not pleasant but still happy. Local market shopping right before our train - had about 10 minutes and these ladies DO NOT bargain, nothing like India/Bangladesh. Train was fun, we played BS and laughed! At night, we celebrated our success by going out in the main square in Cusco! All in all, 24 hours of staying awake, most of it in delirium :)

Peru

I'm off to peru in about 24 hours....After South America, all I have left is Antarctica (which i dont think i'll be going to anytime soon) as far as continents go! Would write more but I'm sick, didn't do tonights hw assignment, need to pack, etc....good news is that my manager is sending me home! yay!!