Marrakesh Weekend 2

We started the Sunday early on to be able to visit as much sites as possible and luckily, we were able to visit the following:

Menara

Marrakesh Weekend

It was a very tiresome week for the whole team.  We need to capture all information needed for our project/s, attend meetings, meetings and more meetings, and then submit a revised SOW by the end of the week.  Another team even experienced getting a request from the client for a totally different SOW. >.<  I thank God that we were able to get most of the information that we need for our project and that we were able to talk to most of the committee heads as scheduled.


To relax a bit, the whole team decided to go for a little roadtrip over the weekend.  We went to Marrakesh which is a 4-hour drive away from Rabat.  We hired a minibus with driver for the weekend since we are a group of 10 and it would be difficult to organize a train ride and reserve tickets, etc.

Friday is Prayer Day

In Morocco, Friday is prayer day and they only have couscous for lunch. According to Ilham, they usually have lunch for 2 hours and then prayer time until 3PM so you wouldn’t see anyone at work during these times.  Ilham, our client, brought some couscous for lunch and it was very delicious.  

Vegetarian Couscous for Tracey

Couscous with Beef

Dar Naji Experience

We are so blessed to have a very sweet client.  Ilham invited us (me, Tracy and Hafida) to have dinner at Dar Naji Restaurant tonight.  They offer traditional Moroccan meal but as with the other restaurants, they got only a few selection of food to offer.  The restaurant really looked nice with all those unique paintings, seats and they even got seats with tents. :-)

Amazing Race + Chinese Dinner

Today’s our second day at the client’s office and we had a very looong day.  We were able to speak with some of the commission heads and were also able to get more information of their areas of concern and improvement.  I really am very thankful that God has been faithful to me and Tracey.  I’ve been praying that God would guide us and that He’ll take care of everything and so far, I’ve seen these prayers being answered.  We were always provided with hot Moroccan mint tea, pastries, fruit, lunch, our own private room with white board and flip charts and of course a heater (which is the most important coz its cold!).  The other teams are a bit jealous of us because of all these plus the fact that we have the “feel good” project.  Tracey, being the playful individual that she is, even sent an email with a picture of the pastries, fruits and hot Moroccan mint tea to the whole team to tease them.

Hammam Experience -- felt like a fish being scaled :-)

Had a great first face-to-face meeting with our clients Monday morning at one of the Government Ministries. It felt like we were at some government official meeting.  According to one of my teammates, it was like we’re in a peace treaty meeting with other government official from different countries. The meeting was led and hosted by Abdelmounaim Guessous who is the Minister of Economic Affairs. We had translators interpreting the presentations for us since most of the conversations were in French. Our team was divided into 4 groups and our clients are as follows: The Ministry of Agriculture, The Ministry of General and Economic Affairs, ARDI Foundation, and Moroccan Women Mentoring/Networking.  I was assigned with the Moroccan Women Mentoring/Networking organization and I am partnered with IBM Australia’s representative, Tracey Pickersgill.  We were tasked to make a 2 year strategic action plan for the organization and make recommendations for marketing, communication and financial sustainability.  I took a shot of our meeting place and here’s how it looks:

Kasbah des Oudaias & the Medina

Sunday was by far the best day yet.  The whole team went on a “walking-tour” around our hotel so we would get the feel of the neighborhood.  We checked out some restaurants for our succeeding dinners, nearby gym and grocery as well.  Our hotel is near the Medina.  The Medina is like a walled city and in it is a local market which sells different stuff such as fruits, herbs, spices, veggies, clothing, shoes, bags, etc.