Re-learning how to ride a bike

Two weeks ago I spent a week in my new home in Ouarzazate. It was nice to have a time during our training to visit the site that we will spend our two years of service at. Luckily, I have been placed in the same province that I trained in, so once I am on my own I feel like I have somewhat confident traveling through the region by myself. Also, my final placement site is not far past the site that I have trained in so I ended up pick up the Peace Corps bike that was at my training site and taking it to my final site.

Although my final site is not far from my training site, I was amazed by the change in climate and geography as I traveled an hour past my training village into the mountains and into one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited, lived, or worked. It was amazing. Half way up the mountain, the main road turns into an unpaved word that is twisting and turning throughout the mountains. I was squished into the back seat of the transit with four other people so I wasn’t able to understand take in the full beauty of my site OR to see the edge of the cliff that we were driving on. (Side note: A transit is a small bus that is commonly used to transport people from rural areas to big cities.) I was able to steal a few peaks out of the window, but I was not able to discover the beauty of my sight until the first full day that I spent in my bike.

After I arrived at my site and met my host family. I spent the night meeting my family, talking about my life in the States, enjoying a lot of mint tea (a Moroccan delicacy), and take a few strolls through town to get familiar with the place.

The next morning the first duty of business, after breakfast and second breakfast (at 7am and then 10am), I went for an introductory bike ride of the community. This is when I first realized the beauty and vastness of my new hometown. As I traveled from village to village, I would find myself in a different ecosystem with every time. My town is a combination of grasslands and desert-like climate. My town is littered with fields (corn, wheat, walnut trees, apple trees, and so much more), however if you travel along the main road, which is a dirt road, in 2 km in any direction….the fields and lush green nature disappears and you are surrounded by nothing but rocks, sand, and probably some snacks and scorpions hiding under the many rocks. When you are in between the towns, you feel as if you are in the middle of nowhere and there is no one around. However, as you travel down a hill, around a mountain, or through a field…another town mysteriously appears. The next town with a unique, yet beautiful climate. Some towns are surrounded by nothing but rocks, others are carved into the sides of cliffs, and others are surrounded by the a dense forest. Although my mountain top, which covers 70km, is extremely diverse…every duwar (town) in my area shares one important quality…it has a beautiful view of the mountains that surround our gorge, especially the snow covered mountains of the nearby Atlas Mountains. I could not have dreamed of a more breath-taking place to spend my service.

Although the towns are spread by (mostly) main roads…the fastest way to get to a place is a straight line. Unfortunately, the fastest way isn’t always the paved way…well, there aren’t any “paved” paths. So I have learned how to “re-ride” a bicycle through irrigation ditches, through rock scattered fields, around the fields, through a field of sheep, and many other obstacles. I have never rode my bicycle so much in one week.

Although my legs and arms were sore by the time I returned to our training hub…I am so excited to get back to this beautiful place that I will call home starting on May 6th! In addition to the amazing climate…the people are ten times more welcoming and amazing than the scenery is…but I will save that story for another day.