Climbing, music, and delicious food...

Today I found some sandstone boulders on my lunch break that are really terrific for climbing. No photos yet, but below you'll see me on the conglomerate boulders (described in previous post) that are located closer to our house. Pretty sweet eh?

Pockets galore!

Boulders everywhere!

Ouchez...so sharp!

In addition, I am including some videos of traditional Berber music that I was fortunate to participate in the creation of last weekend. My host dad, a fantastic banjo, gimbri, and tarwri (sp?) player is wearing the blue scarf around his neck in the photos. He tried to help me fit in by adorning me in a jlaba and turbin (traditional Berber clothing), AND GEEZ WAS IT HOT (hints the lack of turbin in the vid)!  

(Videos coming soon if we can ever find a high speed internet cafe ;-)

Believe it or not, our language is really coming along. We can now hold a conversation with our host family (we keep it simple but it's better than nothing). Furthermore, we met with the local community organization for our town yesterday, and we were really pleased with the rapport and their level of receptiveness to our proposal for improved waste management and education in town. It's no surprise that they were amenable to our suggestions when we described the benefits of better trash cleanup and disposal (i.e. less liter = more tourists = more $$$, not to mention safer for kids and better water quality). Rumor has it that Peace Corps will provide us some funding to provide the community with some trash cans...success!

Alex has been really working hard with the language.  She also learned to cook traditional Moroccan Tagine...see photos below.

Alex in her element

YUM YUM!

Me and Housayn anxiously awaiting a delicious dinner!