Marche Maroc Essaouira

Guess who has two thumbs and got to spend another week beach-siiiiiiide

---> this guy!

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend another few days in my favourite Moroccan city while helping out at one of the last Peace Corps run craft fairs back in Essaouira. For the last couple of years, Small Business Development volunteers here in Morocco have organized craft fairs approximately every three or four months in large cities across the country. Any artisan, association, or coop that the SBD volunteers work with, are invited to bring their goods to the host city for a three to four day long craft fair. These marches are usually held in conjunction with the local government, with the cooperation of the local artisana, and with the financial assistance of USAID. These Peace Corps craft fairs, branded as Marche Maroc, are driven by the idea of quality, set pricing, and fair trade and have been held in cities such as Marrakech, Fes, Rabat, and now for the first time Essaouira.

The extraordinary team of SBD volunteers are the folks responsible for executing such a successful craft fair this past week, and I was happy to offer up my services to help man the actual event. Other sector volunteers were generally asked to be floaters - giving artisans breaks when they needed them, filling in at stations that needed assistance, helping sort out questionable display styles, etc. It was a long week for the artisans and volunteers alike, with seminars and workshops starting at 9am and the craft fair running daily from 11am to 10pm.

The event exposed artisans to a new market for their products, to daily seminars on customer service, brand development, and sustainability, and to a new network of fellow artisans across the country. Unfortunately, as the SBD sector is coming to a close this coming year, this may be one of the last Marche Marocs put on by Peace Corps. As this was assuredly the last Marche Maroc I would attend before COS, I definitely bought my fair share of products!

One half of the craft fair tents on the north side

(shoes, carpets, wood crafted goods, jewelry, daggers, embroidery)

Another set of tents on the west side

(carpets, jewelry, goats cheese, and music)

Tents on the East and South walls

(bags, clothing, embroidery, argan products, skins & pelts,

scarves, dolls, metal work, jewelry, stuffed animals)

The table where I spent most of my hard earned dirhams -

Ali's association located in Arazan, just outside of Taroudant

Her ladies produce argan oil - both cosmetic and for cooking,

as well as Amlou - a spread similar to peanut butter,

usually made out of argan oil, almonds, and honey.

Her women also make necklaces, bags, headbands,

scarves, and dresses out of beautiful materials.

Over the past year I have purchased at least one of each of those products...

One of the many carpet & embroidery vendors

The very popular shoe stand from Taroudant

Traditionally dressed dolls made by Anne's ladies in Touama

Photos curtoesy of fellow PCVs Emily Donahue and Ali Records

SIDA and Gnaoua

So June happened. Apparently I missed my cue and totally blanked on updating this blog for the past month. My bad. I'll give you the same excuses for my absence as I gave my Mudir and see if you find them more compelling than he. Then we'll move on to more riveting information.

The first week of June was spent in Rabat doing a SIDA (AIDS) training for an upcoming (and now passed) Gnaoua festival in Essaouira. The second week of June was spent in Madrid initially dreading and ultimately conquering the GRE. The third week was spent in Marrakech with around 25 other PCVs conducting our first regional meeting under the new format PC Morocco will now be operating by. The last week was spent in Essaouira with nearly a hundred other PCVs enjoying the annual Gnaoua festival. I have since returned to Sedona-miz, enjoyed a few visiting PCVs' company, and sweat more than I have in the last six months combined.

The focus of the month, though, was indeed the Gnaoua festival in Essaouira. Regular readers are aware of my undying affection for this city, so any opportunity to venture westward is a welcome one. Last year, I took some vacation days and enjoyed the festival to its fullest, which mostly meant sun, sand, and unwelcome gestures from unusually high & drunk male attendees. I opted to work the festival this year, balance out my play time with my work time, get my PC karma in line and all. Turned out to be a great decision as I had a wonderful and truly rewarding time doing so.

Peace Corps Morocco has worked with a Moroccan based NGO for the last few years in order to address the target population present at this festival in regeards to AIDS and (this year) STI education. ALCS - Association de Lutte Contra le SIDA, is active nation wide, in more than 12 cities, combating myths and poor education in regards to HIV and STI risk. Our organizations (I'm tempted to fall into Captain Planet rhetoric here... when our powers combine... the power is yours!) have traditionally come together during this festival in order to have the maximum presence possible to reach target festival goers. This year we had over thirty volunteers participate in this education outreach program.

Our primary focus while on duty consisted of canvassing the boardwalk in front of the ALCS pop-up tents. The NGO was offering free HIV testing in addition to free condoms and pamphlets with further disease related information. It should be noted that, naturally, there is little to no sex education present in Morocco. With it being an Islamic Kingdom, 98.7% of its population assumed to be Muslim, there is this nationwide facade that everyone lives by Muslim law, thus no one has sex out of wedlock, no one here would go to a prostitute, and why should I wear a condom? I'm not at risk!, etc etc. The general public knows what 'SIDA' is, and they know it's 'bad', but they don't always know where it comes from, how it's contracted, and what the consequences are. Furthering the point, even though they might have an idea of what SIDA is, next to no one knows what an STI is, let alone that they exist. Thus, this year Peace Corps helped ALCS put together Morocco's first ever STI pamphlet. Albeit, it was mostly cartoon condoms asking each other what these weird symptoms are and what they should tell their doctor, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

The week definitely started out weird though, those first couple stops were super awkward for all of us. I mean, here we are, a bunch of American kids, speaking comprehensive but still messy Arabic, Tash, & Tam, approaching who we assume to be reasonably devout Muslims with lines like 'Hey, you have a minute to talk about AIDS?', 'If you need some free condoms, go that way!', 'It only takes 20 minutes to get tested in that van over there!' I mean, I would have though we were crazy. Lo and behold though, the public came a runnin' and we tested over 600 festival goers, handed out over 5,500 condoms, and spoke to at least double that number. It was surprisingly much more gratifying than I ever thought it could have been.

Mid-shift one afternoon, though, I definitely pondered what had been more difficult: Months spent canvassing the streets of a republican Orange County with Greenpeace about the current risks to the environment? Or a week spent trawling the beach front of an Islamic Morocco educating locals about HIV? At least the former was in English.

SIDA and IST information booth & condom distribution center

Pamphlets galore - including Morocco's first ever STI informational guide

Anna & Jen posing in front of the travelling HIV testing booth

Me sporting a backpack full of SIDA handouts, ready & rearing to canvass

Information booth in action

One of the event's fabulous coordinators - and a fabulous friend -

Nina and I

Photos courtesy of another extraordinary coordinator & friend - Diana Yan