bad news

as some of you know im back in the states now. i have been hampered by back pain during my service. we (pc med staff) decided i should return to dc for physical therapy which wasnt available in morocco. upon arrival MRIs showed a ruptured disc in my lower back, so i was medically separated by peacecorps and i returned home to hickory. now i have the option of surgery in hopes of a quick recovery and return to my site. inshallah (god willing)

prime real estate

so ive found a mudhouse to move into, its an existing home that is being rehabed. its attached to a larger home with a shared covered courtyard. i spend most of my days helping the two builders, i feel like a contractor inspecting the work and tweaking plans like installing a shower and hot water heater. im excited to move into my first house and have the time to build my own furniture, i already have plans to install hand hued cabinets and selving under the kitchen countertop. i also want to build a rustic log bedframe and waste oil furnace. ive imagined a hanging garden in the interior courtyard and hammock, tell me what you think. but as many of you know im completely inept when it comes to interior design. short of yall coming over to help, which youre invited of course. ive decided to take a vote you can write in the comments what color i should paint the house. and of course youre invited to the house warming party.

nate and alex wedding

congrats big brother and new little sister, im so envious of everything that you two have i only wish to find something close to what you share. its been a tough day, not being there but know i thought about you all day. im sure the ceremony was amazing and the bride was beautiful. know i was there in spirit.



ps Alex are you sure you want to be part of the "addams family" theres still time to turn back!!!!
welcome youre the littler sister i never wanted

more than you ever wanted to know about wheat

i never really knew what i was getting into when i agreed to help my family with the wheat harvest this summer. it all began with me walking with my father through the fields in the evening helping him irrigate by way of releasing water through an intricate system of channels and dams. not realizing the amount of wheat and the process it takes from start to finish i unknowingly signed my sentence. beginning in early june i started to see the preparations being made for the upcoming onslaught, but thought "oh boy ive never done this before." first it begins with the preparation of the grinding yards. a flatish patch of hard packed dirt with a vertical pole in the middle which is used to tether a team of mules/donkeys/dogs/children whatever is available. this area must be swept/repacked/smoothed before the years' harvest arrives.











meanwhile the wheat in the field has turned yellow. now its time for BIG FUN!! threshing may sound like some new fangled skateboarding move to you youngsters but it aint. its waking up at 5 and cutting acres of wheat by hand all day, uphill in the snow. wow i sound like a geezer huh. anyway it really is a good time, you spend all day in the fields with the family, taking tea breaks in the shade, eating lunch in the fields with neighboring families, and all the while listening to the work songs and banshee cries of the women working around you, its fantastic!!! i really feel like i live in another century, its wild.








next its piled and loaded onto mules or donkeys and carried to the grinding yards



once its piled in the yard you can barely see the tops of the posts (4' high) the teams are brought in to run over the full grains which cuts and grinds the straw from the grain. very effective



last but not least is the separating of the chaffe from the grain. with only the use of homemade wooden pitchforks we gently tossed hundreds of pounds of straw and seed in the air and let the wind carry the chaffe into pile which is used for animal feed and the grain is ground into flour for the ever present staple: bread. this harvest God willing will last us the whole year and maybe a little to sell.

oops

heres a little story to illustrate how moroccan approach to life and construction intertwine. the village is currently building a 3-floored, concrete mosque and the entire community volunteers labor to finish building of the ceiling. on a recent sunday i went down to help, after the cement mixer broke down a couple times and was quickly fixed with a combination of bubble gum and clothes hangers, the wheelbarrow's wheel fell off for the 51st time, and the shovel i was using bent completely backwards, i peered inside the mosque to see that the entire multi-ton cinder block ceiling was supported by arm-thick wooden poles precariously balanced on piles of randomly gathered rocks. i heard a loud crash and everyone rushed inside to see that a 90 sq ft section of the roof had collapsed and a worker had fell 25 ft through the void onto a pile of rebar and cinder block. as the semiconscious man lay in the corner mumbling in pain and clutching his back the other 30 men decided that a good argument would be appropriate. after everyone had voiced their opinion 10 minutes later, the mixer was fired up again and everyone returned to work, seemingly unconcerned with the tremendous structure failure that had just occurred. meanwhile the man who had fell was loaded into the one transit van in town and carried off, but as they drove to the hospital i saw the driver stop every time he saw someone to say hello and exchange pleasantries. quite moroccan of them i thought, no need to rush and deal with problems (extremely!!!!) pragmatically.

building codes... not so much

ive been fascinated by the construction techniques in morocco, like in most developing countries you make due with what is around but moroccans take that to the extreme; raising a house literally out of the ground. when i was told i would be living in a mudhouse i imagined monkeys swinging through the kitchen and snakes slithering over my feet as i slept, but i am amazed by the polish and comfort of a well built mud house. from the inside there is no way to tell that the walls are anything but drywall, builders cover the interior with a perfectly smooth coat of gypsum and paint. environmentally speaking they are the perfect home for dry climates and possibly for everywhere. the thermal properties make for cool summer days and warm winter mornings, during the heat of the day everyone retreats inside for relief from the 100+ degree midday sun, often the house is 10-15 degrees cooler than outside. the foundation is merely a stacked rock wall about 2' high, then a two-panel box (used for tamping the dirt) is built atop the base. next, dirt from the site is piled into baskets and hoisted onto workers heads and walked to the "packing box." another worker stands in the box with a homemade tamper and tamps the loose dirt into hardpacked walls. i while away full days watching the house that is going up near my home.





after the walls are completed long timbers are laid across the span and rivercane is used to cover the openings and then another layer of packed mud is formed on the top to seal and waterproof the room. its an amazing use of basic technologies and local materials to build a highly functional and adaptable structure. and if you ever want a window in your new home all you need is a pickax!!! (more pictures to come)