taza, tummy bugs, and truman

so, in keeping with the theme, this was an eventful weekend. after some run-around to nail down plans, eva, jason, and i headed out friday morning: destination taza, a relatively small city that's unique place in the valley between the middle atlas to the south and the rif mountains to the north have given it a rich history of essentially being trampled subsequently as various forces have invaded morocco from the east. tricked out in our hiking gear, we embarked in high spirits ready to catch a grand taxi to fez, a petit taxi to the train station, a train to taza, and a petit taxi to our hotel in the old part of the city, which sits two kilometers up a pretty steep hill from the ville nouvelle (new city) below.

upon arriving in taza, we went about settling into our room: a glaringly pink hotel that despite blinding you in the sun, had a genuinely friendly feel to it. the shuttered windows and doors opened inward to the sunny courtyard, giving everything an open and fresh feeling. fairly quickly we realized that our origional mission (mission spelunk - so named for the cave exploring we were hoping to do) had become two-fold. added now was "mission communication," as we struggled through our few words of arabic, and our handful more of words and phrases in french. here, away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, the average person didn't really speak french, which didn't bode well for us. in the end, we didn't matter much, and survived fairly well, laughing our way through misspeakings and blunders of all kinds. although, i must say, it was really enjoyable struggling through and forcing ourselves to stretch our little language muscles.

friday afternoon and evening were spent pretty much bumming around the city, wandering in the markets, and having random conversations with people. i quickly learned the immeasurable value of the phrase, enshah'allah, which - loosely translated - means "god willing." as random residents of taza encouraged us to come back later and visit their restaurant or stay at their hotel or have lunch with their family living in a village only a few kilometers away, enshah'allah, a common phrase to be spoken here, quickly found its way into my vocabulary.

after being joined by tony late friday evening, we headed for bed in order to get up early saturday morning to tackly our main mission: mission spelunk.

saturday was a really enjoyable day, although it was also the day that turned abruptly downhill for me at the end. after grabbing a quick breakfast of harcha, a cornbread-type food served with honey, jam, or laughing cow cheese, and a cup of coffee, we headed out via grand taxi to the gouffre de friouato (frewato, as it's also known). by the time we arrived at the caves, i wasn't feeling the hottest, but after sitting for a bit while the bartering was underway for our admission and our guide, i was feeling better. so into the earth we went. 520 steps down (a kilometer of steps, we were told) and another kilometer or so into the earth - a magically different universe. damp, cold, and completely blac save for the few sqare feets illuminated by our torches (flashlights). i had to laugh to myself at the thought of what this cave would be like in the hands of a western tourist board: brightly lit, carefully partitioned off with a constructed walkway guarded by shiny silver railings double and triple certified to bear a certain amount of weight, neatly laid out with informative signs that offered the latest research on how stalactites and stalagmites were formed with gentle admonitions on the impact of humanity on this earth followed by a friendly reminder to recycle or global warming will get you!

instead i found myself crawling around on hands and knees as our billy-goat of a guide ran back and forth in front of us, laughingly encouraging us along, spouting of randon facts in his cheerful mixture of arabic, french, spanish, and english. my favorite part was at the salle des draperies, a point about a quarter of the way through the known part of the cave and our turning-back point. it was a big, empty, echo-ey chamber whose true granduer was carefully hidden by the inky blackness only penetrated by our weak pin-points of light as we crossed and crisscrossed the stony vault with our beams. at one point we shut off our lights, and sang into the dark, struck by the beauty of our returning echoes as if the cave itself joined in the song, adding undertones of centuries of age and wisdom. the moment was broken a few seconds later by the erruption of beat-boxing from jason and tony and a strobe-light effect from the torch of our guide. we all laughed together and then turned around to face the 520 steps back up.

the rest of the day was spent journeying back to taza, a mixture of walking, hitch-hiking, chatting with people, picture-taking, with a brief off-road hiking adventure as we ventured to explore the cascades, waterfall, in that area.

upon returning to our hotel, to make a long story short, i started feeling worse and worse, generally exhausted, nauseous, headachy, and as though some small creature was alternatively performing somersaults in my stomach and tying it into a series of small knots. not the best feeling ever, to say the least! i essentially crashed for the night, surrounded by my phone, water, and some various foods to tempt my appetite, curled up in my sleeping bag. everyone was so great about it - really considerate - and i was so touched when they came back early after dinner, and chose to chill with me in the room, playing cards and drinking a few beers, while i dozed in and out of sleep, alternatively getting up to throw up. thankfully, i stopped throwing up half-way through the night, managed to catch some genuine hours of sleep, as was back to 85 or 90% in time to travel back to campus sunday morning.

sunday itself was fairly uneventful - a rainy, cold day that made you wish for a fireplace, a good book, and a cup of tea. the only special thing to note, is that, upon returning to my computer and checking in with the rest of the world, i found an email congratulating me on moving on to the next round of competition for the truman scholarship - a u.s. federal aid competition that provides a scholarship for graduate studies. so stay tuned as i sort out everything with that...