Couscous Friday (again)

Last week we missed couscous Friday.  We were on a train, without a dining car, and if you miss lunch, you missed the chance for couscous for the week.

Yesterday as we left the apartment for lunch, a delivery guy was coming in with a brown paper bag.  He smiled at us, and said "couscous".  One of the neighbors was getting couscous without having to go out.

One of the nice things about living downtown in a big city is the chance to have favorite restaurants. One of ours is just down the street, and has food from a variety of cultures.  So far we have stuck with west Africa, but they also have Indian (south Asia) and Mexican for a very eclectic mix.

One of our neighborhood restaurants.

Like many restaurants, a sign outside announces couscous Friday lunch.

I was intrigued by the Senegalais option, which is in the foreground, and has anchored by a quarter chicken, which was hard to see initially under the dark sauce.  Mary decided not to mess with a good deal, and had the Moroccan option again, seen in the background.  I had peach iced tea, very good and very sweet--declicious fresh fruit is everyhwere in Morocco, although we did have one location where the kiwis came from Chile, and had the sticker to prove it.

The Value of Place

This morning we took the tram to Sale, north across the river from Rabat.  Their petit taxis are yellow/gold, while those in Rabat are blue, reminding me of college colors across the Atlantic.  We walked through the medina, and then down to the Atlantic.

View south across the river to the kasbah of Rabat.  There is a wide flood plain, but not too wide a river.  Along the river, on both sides are large sandy beaches protected  by the large jetties.

View south across the river to the kasbah of Rabat.  The area seaward of the medinas in both Rabat and Sale contains walled graveyards.

Jetties beyond the graveyard in Sale.

In many parts of the world, this prime real estate near the ocean would be highly developed, with an attitude full of hubris denying that anything could happen to disrupt the enjoyment of the coast.  Then the storms come, and people rebuild, and wait for the next storm to come.  This year the US had an unprecedented three major hurricanes make landfall on US coasts, but at least so far the African coast has not had to worry about hurricanes, and I'm not sure any future models predict that changing.  But if it did, how much would be lost with this kind of coastal development?

Where's the Plate Boundary?

The geologist in me frequently gets asked questions, and yesterday's question was "where is the plate boundary between Europe and Africa?  My immediate answer was that the entire Mediterranean is a tectonic mess (it has the oldest remaining ocean crust that has not been caught up in mountain building and thrust up onto a continent), and consists of lots of little blocks ground up by the motion between the two big plates.  Then I had to do some research.

The motion between the two plates is very slow, about 5 mm/year (or 5 km/million years).  The mid Atlantic Ridge, which we think of as very slow, is several times faster, and the East Pacific Rise about 20 times faster.   Not much motion, then slow build up of stress, and not much in the way of earthquakes.

Map showing three versions of the plate boundaries.

1.  In green, the most common one available on the web from multiple sources without a clear origin.  Note that it stops when you get into the Med.

2.  In purple, Peter Bird's boundaries from 2003.  Note that a bit of northern Morocco joins with part of Spain, showing the geology predicted the cultural and historical linkages across the Strait of Gibraltar.

3.  In red, probably the best, from USGS.  Note that it also is not continuous, and tightly joins parts of Morocco and Spain.  In detail the boundary is probably a complex 3D structure, with some very deformed rocks.

All three versions show that the data sets may not have been created to blow up to this scale.  Someone drew lines on a map, maybe not as high quality as I can call up at a moment's notice, and generalized by not showing every zig and zag.  But we tend to think they are the "truth".

Earthquakes in northern Morocco and vicinity.  This is a restricted data set, with medium to large earthquakes which allow determination of the type of fault which ruptured and probably includes all those with significant damage, but should reflect the overall pattern of seismicity.  Morocco has relatively few earthquakes, but some have been very damaging.  Note the much greater numbers of earthquakes on the west side of the map, along the Mid Atlantic Ridge, a much more active plate boundary.

 Global earthquakes.  Note they occur along the plate boundaries and active mountain belts, especially in the Pacific "Ring of Fire", which this map downplays because the Pacific is split on the two sides of the map.

Even if the plate boundary is not as active or impressive as that in the Himalayas, the collision between Africa and Europe created the Atlas and the Moroccan landscape, which includes the highest point in North Africa.

Casbah of Rabat

Both my phone and my camera record the GPS location of photos.  Which this has potential security risks, because the photos contain the date, time, and location,  a little care severely restricts the potential damage.  You already know I'm in Morocco, and by the time these are posted, I am no longer anywhere near the locations (and the information has been stripped out in the small files posted here).

One day recently, we visited Casbah or Rabat, and then walked along the Atlantic Ocean.

This shows thumbnail versions of the photos, on the SRTM DEM and the OpenStreetMap roads.  Note that neither data set shows the large jetty on the north side of the map.  The GIS software allows setting the size of the images--bigger makes them easier to see, smaller shows more of them and the map underneath.

Waves crashing on the jetty on the south side of the river on which Rabat sits.

Our pictures from the Casbah, shown on the map where we took them.  There are three groupings: the gardens to the south, the street scenes in the center, and the views of the ocean and river to the north.  At this scale you clearly see the pixels from the SRTM, which is the best free data for this area.  In much of western Europe or North America, much better data is available.

 The gardens.

 The wildlife.  While cats are by far the most common wildlife, other animals show up as well.

Streets are brightly colored, with plants everywhere.

The river, the fortifications, the harbor engineering works, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Making Bread--Part of Darija Class

Today we learned about food, the terms and how they are used in Morocco.  We were surprised when they packed us off to the kitchen, and enlisted our help in making melwi for the morning tea break.

The dough is mixed, formed into balls, rests, flattened, rolled out into a thin circle, and the folded into a square.

The dough is very easy to work, and the butter used is good for the skin.

After the preparation, frying on the stove.

Melwi--By Tamorlan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, wikimedia.  The final product is eaten with honey and cheese, accompanied by mint tea.

CousCous Friday

The traditional Moroccan lunch on Friday is couscous, with  steamed balls of crushed durum wheat semolina on the bottom, then meat, and with vegetables on top. It's a great start to the weekend, even if there is still Friday afternoon to get through.

This is the large family style couscous served at the Fulbright ETA Darija class.

This in individual servings at a small neighborhood restaurant in Aghdal, with the beef in the center under the vegetables.

Apartment Hunting

We spent a week in three hotels, seeing several of the neighborhoods of Rabat.  Our favorite hotel was the Hotel Atlantic Agdal, which wound up being almost just around the corner from the apartment we rented.

We used an agency, which allowed us to see a number of apartments quickly (they drove us around in a car).  We saw a variety of Moroccan decorations, and the ins and outs of washing machines (no dryers), gas canisters somewhere in the apartment, and city amenities (we wound up walking distance from the tramway).

Views from the half dozen apartments we looked at.

Having picked an apartment, we needed to get cash for three month's rent.  That was in the 10,000's of dirham  (even the economists in the family agree we can think of the exchange rate as 10:1), and largest bills are 200's ($20) and the largest withdrawals are 2000 dirham at a time (local limit, not from your US bank), and you can maybe get two in one day on the same card from a single ATM.  Then you have to count out the bills (it seems there are hundreds).  It reminded me of paying Korean mechanics in the 1970's, although then I had to be armed and have an armed escort.

Part of the three months rent.

After counting and recounting the rent with the landlord's agent and our rental agent, then it was down the local administrative office to get the lease notarized.  There was one colored stamp, two seals, and several initials, after which we got the keys and returned to the apartment to do laundry, since the orientation and apartment search had exhausted our clean clothes.

The official part of the lease.

Fulbright Orientation

MACECE, the Fulbright Commission in Morocco, runs a short in country orientation for all new scholars in Rabat.  It includes the history, culture, and language in the country.  In addition to Rabat, we had a tour to Meknes.

Rabat

Rabat, the Hassan Tower which was to be the largest minaret in the world but was never finished.

Rabat, Mausoleum of Mohammad V, which has the tombs of three of Morocco's kings.

Meknes

View from the roof of the riad where we stayed in the medina of Meknes.

Roof of the language school in Meknes where we left some of the scholars for Arabic instruction.

Lunch in the riad in Meknes.

Royal stables in Meknes.

Volubilis

This Roman city was on the southwestern edge of the Roman world, and has a number of mosaic floors that have been left in place.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This mosaic of the man riding a donkey backwards, is, according to the guides, the inspiration for  the colloquial expression about putting the cart before the horse.

Triumphal arch overlooking the fertile plain which grows where, olives, and grapes.