Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Day 113-180: Cambodia, Ghana, and Morocco


Day 113-180: Cambodia, Ghana, and Morocco

As you can probably tell, I didn't quite finish blogging my trip. I'm not going to give you excuses for this because it's not going to change anything, but I'll do my best to go back and recall some major components!

Cambodia
Enrichment Week
January 1-8, 2018
Highlights
  • We visited Angkor Wat, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm, the temple used to film tomb raider!
  • We dined while peacefully floating down the Mekong at sunset.
  • We took a class in traditional Cambodian dance with Cambodia living arts! It's all about the hands!
  • Our hilarious in-country director, Bun (pronounced Boon), kindly invited us to his home where we ate delicious food, met his Airbnb guests, saw the lovely English class he'd set up using his guests as volunteer teachers, and, of course, we had a dance off with the entire English class full of kids (they won).
  • We attended Phare, this super cool cultural, opportunity-giving, 'circus' show full of acrobatics and dance.
  • During our quick layover in Bangkok on our way to Phonm Penh, I spontaneously dyed my hair blue and sported it throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia. I had to include it.

Ghana
Core Country: Public Health
January 9 - February 11, 2018
Highlights/Memories
  • The sky. When the plane first landed in Accra, I thought we had been surrounded by the smog of pollution. There was so much brown dust in the air. We later learned that this dust was, in fact, sand from the Sahara that the wind had carried down south. It created a beautiful haze that turned the sun pink! You could look directly at the sun for all hours of the day. The sunsets and sunrises were just as magical as Disney made them out to be in the Lion King.
Culturescape
  • The culture was very sincere. Everyone greeted on another with a smile, including us 'yayvoos' or foreigners. Quick fact: 'Yayvoo' is an Ewe word that directly translates to white. I had an enlightening interaction with a nurse in the maternity ward of the clinic that I was, NOT volunteering at, but learning from. She held a piece of bread in her hand and said to me, "You are invited." She didn't point in any direction, so I responded, "where?" She repeated the statement, "you are invited." I replied further confused, "TO where?" She then explained that she was inviting me to share her food. As an American, I promptly declined out of courtesy. "No, you say thank you, and then you may eat the bread or you may not," she corrected. I was surprised. It was such a sincere and pleasant way of interacting. I then reflected on why I responded the way I did. I went on to explain to the nurse the reasoning behind my reaction as American culture. We offer others food and other things out of obligation; we want to be polite. The offer is usually declined first because the other person is trying to be polite as well and not take something offered only obligatorily. Then if there is a, "no, I insist," only then will the offer be truly accepted or declined since the formalities of politeness have already played out. I'm not saying this happens every time, but I have noticed this pattern growing up in the Southern United States. It could be different other places or for other people. In Ghana, all these formalities and 'insincerity' is out the window. If someone offers you food, just say thank you, and you don't have to worry about anything past that!
  • Another example of the sincerity of this culture is an exchange I had with my 21-year-old host sister. She had just taken my roommate, Rhea, and I to church. Days before, we had discussed going to the market after church. I was mentally exhausted from church, and my sister could tell. She asked if we still wanted to go to the market, and I responded "whichever you would like to do." She then said, "we are going to the market because of you, so you just say yes or no." Very straight to the point. No formalities. No worries. This cultural aspect was hard to adjust to after Thailand, where politeness was more important than most everything else. But, it was quite refreshing and unlike anything I had experienced before.

Morocco
Enrichment Week and More!
February 11 - March 6, 2018
Highlights
  • Overall, Morocco is easily one of the best countries for tourism that I've ever been to. If you're looking for a beautiful international vacation, I highly recommend Morocco. It's so breath-taking and diverse from the Atlas mountains to the Sahara desert. 
  • Exploring the Medina in Rabat, the capital, over two weeks time. 
  • Visiting 'the Blue City', Chefcaouen (pictured above).
  • A local guide took us on an off-trail hike outside of Chefcaouen to a beautiful rock formation
  • We visited the ancient city of Fes. The medina there was so large that our guide warned us not to go in alone because many tourists get lost inside, some of which I ran into. Fes is home to one of the oldest universities, the University of Al Qarawiyyin. It was founded by a Muslim woman in 859 and is still in operation today. Fes is known for its leather products, and we visited a tannery. It was horrifying and disgusting, and made me so happy I'm a vegetarian. 
  • We rode camels and camped overnight in the desert, sleeping among the sand. It felt like stepping right into a desktop screensaver. The vastness and sand were so surreal. One person would talk at quite a distance away, but it sounded as if they were right next to you.
  • We took a tour of the nomadic villages and natural formations around Merzouga. On this tour, the driver of my car spotted a fennec fox and followed the adorable creature as well. We got to hunt for ammonite fossils and see an old quartz mine. I have plenty of rocks from that desert.   
Learning Zone
  • I had the opportunity to jump out of my comfort zone and into a local Moroccan Hammam, a public bathhouse. My roommate, Rhea, first introduced me to this by pointing out the 'black soap' made from olive oil while exploring the medina in Rabat. This soap is commonly used in Hammams, and we sprouted the idea to visit one ourselves. Fast forward two weeks later and two fellow TBB students and I are headed into a Hammam with our black soap, scrubbing gloves, towels, and none of our clothes. Hammams are separated by sex, and they have three rooms with varying levels of heat. We first entered a room for holding belongings and clothes while you are inside. There were two attendants that asked us for money, and we paid even though we didn't really know what we were paying for. Afterward we discussed this with Mohammad, our in-country coordinator, and found out it was for watching over our belongings and the use of their buckets. We entered into a cool(er) room, the next was tolerably steamy, and the third one was thick with steam and, for me, impossible to breathe in.  Along the walls were spigots for hot and cold water. Now, we're naked, surrounded by staring locals, and we have no idea what we're doing. We looked around and tried to do as the others were doing. As we settled into a corner of the second room, a kind woman with her daughter noticed that we could use some instruction. She spoke some English and taught us how to use the black soap. We spent about 30 minutes scrubbing away our skin but not our worries. We were still not completely comfortable and rushed the process slightly. We rinsed off, headed out, and comfortably put on our clothes again. I felt SO refreshed. I expected to have to take a shower afterward, but I felt as clean as I had ever felt! The experience was outside my comfort zone, but that's what made it the most rewarding. We visited the Hammam on our last real day in Morocco, and I regretted not diving in sooner so I could go again! 10/10 would recommend.


I want to apologize if my writing is not as intriguing as when I was in it. It's considerably harder to write about these experiences after the fact. I may go back and add stories as they come to me because I know I've left out a lot. I needed to wrap up my gap year so I can begin to write about my experiences in University in COSTA RICA! I'm so excited to begin my next journey and continue to share my experiences with anyone who wants to read them. But, I do still have one most TBB wrap-up post planned about our reflection period and time in Washington DC including my speech about what I learned on my gap year, so stay tuned chicas y chicos!

I also made three videos during my trip for all the different countries we visited! There's a beautiful marketing video made by Timber & Frame that captures TBB amazingly and also features me! Check those out:


Human Highlight(s):
Our in-country directors; Bun (Boon) in Cambodia, Makafui in Ghana, and Mohammad in Morocco


Fun Fact:
Sahara means desert in Arabic. 


BE a challenger
This trip taught me how to challenge myself and others.

"I believe we are here for each other, not against each other"
- John Denver

Keep Thinking,
Meg

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