A Glimpse of Wandering

I knew I wanted to write about the last few weeks but was unsure how. In mid-December, my girlfriend and I left Morocco and traveled for a few weeks. We saw incredible places, ripe with history and new cultures (to us), and ate incredible food. As I sit in Meknes, overlooking the buildings and train …

Sh’abi

[A fisherman scales and guts fresh fish in the Essaouira harbor. We bought several kilos of fish and brought them to a grill where we had it cooked for a 10 dirham each. An experience that most certainly counts as sh'abi.] Sh’abi. A single word that can mean so much and is nearly untranslatable in English. I’ve tried …

Transport: Grand Taxis

[Summer, 2015. A grand taxi idles in a parking lot in Azrou, a small Berber town in the mountains south of Meknes. In the center of town, the parking lot serves as the station for grand taxis coming to and leaving Azrou.] This post is the first of a series on transportation within Morocco. Getting around …

Kosheri

[Amr (right) and Samar (left), two of our Egyptian professors and kosheri engineers, carefully instructing students] Ah, kosheri. A heaping pile of starchy, filling food hailing from Egypt and bound to sate your appetite. Every now and then, my program hosts a cooking club in the center’s kitchen and we learn to prepare a dish …

Nusafir: What does it even mean?

[In Chefchouen, gazing at the surrounding Rif Mountains cradling the town.] It was brought to my attention that most of my reader's are not familiar with Arabic and may be a little confused by the name of my blog. I decided to write this post to provide background beyond what can be found in the …

Merzouga, the Fringe of the Sahara

[Riding camels out to a campsite nestled in between the dunes.] The Sahara is strikingly beautiful. It becomes obvious as soon as you become surrounded by the dunes, like the waves of a golden sea, rocking on the swaying boat that is your camel. At one point of the trip, I sat next to my friend, Addie, …

Eid Al-Adha

[September 12th, 2016] A freshly slaughtered lamb sways in the breeze as Tareq, 20, and Hamada, 12, watch as the local butcher removes the fur. Eid Al-Adha is a Muslim holiday that commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim (or Abraham) to sacrifice his son, Ishmael according to Muslims. In Morocco, it is typically celebrated by sacrificing a …