Albaicin, the old section of Granada Amazing Moorish architecture and cobble stone streets, the section of town is right next to the Alhambra.
Ouzoud Waterfalls This waterfall is a few hours south of Marrakech. One of the tiny dots in the lower righthand corner is Chuck!
Streets in the old section of Chefchouen This town in known throughout Morocco for its blue streets.
Morocco
In August of 2003, we participated in the World Congress of Youth in Casablanca, Morocco as representatives from Hawai'i. Motivated by the United Nations' Earth Summit in Johannesburg 2002, this conference invited youth delegates and activists from all over the world to learn about each other, to network, and most of all to answer the congress question, “How can young people work most effectively with the United Nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals?”
Mea, Karla, and Aimee Hawai'i delegates getting ready to perform the hula!
For two weeks, over 800 participants from around the world between the ages of 18 and 25 (we just barely made the cut off age!) shared their cultures and what their organisations have done to advance the cause of sustainable development and youth action for the MDG. We also spent 5 days of the Congress working on Action Projects with local communities in the 16 provinces of Morocco.
We ended up going to Chefchouen, a town in the mountainous northern province of Morocco. Here we worked side by side with UNICEF and the local people to build a wall for the remote village's school, the only school within 40 miles! Not only that, but school had no bathroom, huge holes in the roof, and no blackboards so teachers had to paint over the wall at the end of every day. The people there, especially the children, were so excited to see that people actually cared about them and wanted to help them. We thought that they helped us, though, by opening our eyes just as they opened their home to us. There's a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, in this case it was a wall, and the entire vilage pitched in making the cement, laying the bricks, and everything, from small children to the elderly. It was a very humbling experience!
Aimee and Chuck at the gardens in the Alhambra
So how did we end up in Spain?
Good question! A ticket from Hawai'i to Morocco is very expensive, so the two of us thought to ourselves, when are we going to be on that side of the world again? We should take advantage of this while we can! So instead of getting tickets to Morocco, we got them for Madrid, and, thanks to our extremely generous employers, took 3 1/2 weeks to travel from Madrid to Granada, then over the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco and down to Marrakech all before the conference! Then, after the conference, we headed back to Madrid to catch our flight 3 days later.
We loved Spain, especially Granada. With the Sierra Nevadas as its backdrop and an incredible combination of Moorish and Andalucian architecture, this town was beautiful. We visited the Alhambra almost every day we were there and even got to see a Garcia Lorca play adapted to flamenco in its outdoor amphitheater!
