Volubilis, Arabic Lessons, and Chicken Tagine

    Hello everyone! Welcome to the blog for sabbatical three. We woke up this morning in Chefchaouen, Morocco for crepes, mint tea, and bread for breakfast. He loaded into our van at eight in the morning with the rest of our tour group and set off for a driving day. Our first stop was a coffee shop in a hotel that was an hour or so away from Chefchaouen. I slept most of the way there, along with most other people in the van. 

    From there, we drove to Volubilis, an ancient Roman archaeological site filled with tile mosaics,    crumbling fountains, and a view of the countryside. The town was inhabited from 25 B.C. to 285 A.D. and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    After a walking tour, we loaded back onto the bus and drove about an hour and a half to the village of M’Haya, Morocco. The AFER women’s association, partnering with Planterra, served us lunch with consisted of Moroccan salad, chicken tagine, mint tea, and cookies. We also had a chance to learn a little bit about the differences between English and Arabic. For example, English has many vowels which each have many sounds based on context. Arabic has no vowels, only consonants. These consonants can be lengthened to introduce vowel sounds. (https://planeterra.org/afer-womens-homlunch/) 

    After our lunch, we had a forty five minute drive to Fes, Morocco. It rained for the first time since we’ve been here. We checked in to a beautiful hotel and spend some time relaxing in our rooms. At 8pm, we met up with our group and took the van to a restaurant designed for tourists. We were served more Moroccan salad, bread, chicken tagine, mint tea, and Moroccan cookies. Dinner was accompanied by two different musical groups, two belly dancers, and a magician. At the end, Dagny was chosen to model a traditional Marrakech bridal gown, and she was lifted into the air on stage. 

- Adelaide