Travis & Micall: #MyRoccanAdventure in Fes, Morocco

I made it! After 3 planes, 2 trains, a taxi and 28 hours I arrived in Fes, Morocco. I will be completing a month long externship at the American Fondouk . This clinic does Non-profit work for the working animals here in Fes. Horses, donkeys, and mules pull various carts and haul loads in an out of the "Medina". The medina miles of torturous alleyways that were built in 900 A.D. Thousands of merchants are located there selling breads, meats, vegetables, leather, slippers, clothing and anything else you can think of! Since the alleyways are so tight only donkeys and mules are able to navigate them with carts to carry in the merchandise. These animals are given free veterinary care from the American Fondouk. I am going to attempt to blog about my experiences while I am here...we'll see how it goes since I'm usually such an amazing blogger.
I arrived at the fondouk about 9:00 local time last night and got a brief tour of the clinic and then shown my room which is located above the clinic. After a much needed 9 hours of sleep I got a real tour of the clinic this morning. There are about 15 stalls, 3 paddocks, and many trees that animals are kept in or tied to. Since it's the weekend no patients were seen but the in hospital animals needed medications and bandage changes. Since my french is so awful the interns were very patient with me and explained everything in english. I am trying to use my 2 year high school french as much as possible but it's pretty bad despite my rosetta stone! As I hear it more it's coming back a little, maybe by the end of the month I won't sound so much like an idiot. The moroccan intern Karahtura (I'm double checking the spelling) offered to show me some of the medina, which is a good thing because it's no secret that my sense of direction is less than ideal, combine this with miles and miles of alleyways, duplicating shops, foreign language, and jet lag it would have been a disaster! We wandered the winding alleys and I picked out all of the things I will be buying when I convince someone to help me barter...also no secret that I suck at that. My final task to complete today was getting groceries. My housing is a dorm style apartment with a community kitchen and eating area that I share with the interns and eventually some other externs (or students) so you buy your own food and can cook whatever you want. Luckily they opened a new supermarche about a 1/2 mile away. I was able to walk without the hassle of a taxi (ya know not speaking arabic is also a hinderance). It is completely bizarre going from the old medina with open air markets and fresh meat and fruit to a modern grocery store very similar to Wal-Mart within a few miles of each other. I grabbed the essentials: diet coke, bread, peanut butter, diet coke, apples, cheese, diet coke, pasta, and a towel (yup didn't mention I needed to bring my own). Luckily eating out isn't expensive and the food is delicious because clearly I won't be cooking much. I have been assigned my cases (which means I'm responsible for their treatments and medications as well as discussing what to do next) and I will start with them tomorrow...more to come as I learn about them. I will forewarn those reading (aka my family) I will post some maybe not so appetizing photos of "vet stuff" just scroll fast and you will be ok. For now here are some pictures of the fondouk and the medina.
Au revoir!