Andrea and I...after roughin it outdoors, we couldn't help but throwing on her random hats and red lipstick. You know I can't survive too long without foofing.

Mountain and valley of Ameln and Tafroute

Andrea's village outside Tafroute

Just got back from another week of travels. I got work-related leave to go visit my friend Andrea, in Tafroute (South-west Morocco). The place is magical. She literally lives on the side of a mountain, and walking out onto her balcony offers a million-dollar view. The valley is filled with forests and orchards of Argan, Olive, Almond, Orange, and Date Palm trees. Bouganvilla spices the countryside with a fushia flair. Miska trees perfume the night air..so much so, I was quite convinced some fairy was holding a scented oil under my nose.

A mosque in a high-mountain village. We climbed a couple hours to reach it.

The cactii (or however you spell that) plants were everywhere. Traditional mud homes built into boulders, and mixed among newer, concrete structures scattered about the mountains and valleys.

A break under golden leaves.

Beautiful Andrea on the woodsy path to her house.

View from our lunch spot at the natural springs, high up in the mountains. The colorful vegetation made Thanksgiving a double feast for mouth and eyes.

We hiked in through the mountains, and out to the painted rocks. A Belgian guy in the 70's decided to paint a scatter of the massive boulders in hues of blue, black, yellow, and red, as a means of attracting tourists to the region. The tourists would come with or without, but they certainly add an eccentric touch. We picnicked on top of one that looked like a massive whale..maybe 150 feet long, 75 feet high. Quite an impressive feat.

I was approved to train her and her counterpart in some basic Excel functions, just enough to get her rolling so she can train Fatima in the longterm. We worked on budgets and expense reports. On the last day, went to their association and worked with Fatima to develop a production spreadsheet, so they could enter the number of litres of Argan oil each woman produced per kilo of Argan nuts. The process is very extensive and labor-intensive. They have a grant for machines to cut out a few steps of the work, and are currently developing some impressive marketing tools and opening a hanut to sell the product, while also progressing toward increased sales orders from the larger cities and abroad.

Thursday night was Thanksgiving. She didn't have an oven, so we made orange-glazed chicken in a Tagine pot, carrots and peas, mashed potatoes, fried apples and onions and other yummy dishes..and celebrated by candlelight with another local volunteer. Our evening project was coloring turkeys from our a sketch of our hands. Quite the adult way to celebrate the holiday. In the Nedi, as girls sat making leather purses, Andrea taught them English and we explained what Thanksgiving was..and then asked them what they were thankful for.

I have much to be thankful for, myself. Quite a challenging, maturing year. I feel like I have learned so much, in so many ways. I'm reading voraciously (at least for me, who usually starts 20 books at once, and only reads half of each, to eager to get to the next) and feeling quite comfortable with the year I have in front of me. The bookends of the trip were spent in Agadir, sitting solo in a chaise lounge on the beach, reading A Team of Rivals (about Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet, fascinating read), and snacking on Avocados. Quite a luxurious mini-vacation.