Travel from Rabat to my village. September 20, 2018. We departed our hotel at 10 am in three busses, bound for different regions. The Rabat region reminds me of the area around San Diego, the vegetation, including lots of palm trees, bougainvillea and other flowers along the roads. The roads are all in excellent shape and tend to be 2 lanes each way, divided, except right in the towns. The majority of the countryside along our 3 hour trip to Sefrou reminds me of the I5 corridor of central California. There were a couple of large towns, including Meknes and Fes, but predominately olive orchards. There were also vineyards, prunes, almonds, hay and livestock. The homesteads frequently have plantings of prickly pear and fig trees. Most of the orchards and vineyards were modern and well kept, but not all. There were also some melons, corn and a few “truck” farms. The “rest stop” areas are similar to what you would see in Europe, with gas, store, food, car wash, auto repair and large restroom facilities in an island off the road. Our bus arrived in Sefrou, in an area dedicated to changing from buses to taxis. There we broke into our 5 groups and our teachers arranged taxis. Each “grand taxi” (the designation for taxis that go from town to town) will carry 6 people. If you do not want to wait for the taxi to fill, you need to pay for the unused spaces. Because there were 7 in our group, with lots of luggage, we needed 2 taxis. Our teacher was able to negotiate our taxis to take us all the way to our village, which would normally have required 2 taxis. There we arrived in front of the Dar Shbaab (youth house) similar to the one where we will work. Representatives from our host families were there to lead us home.
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