My First Rotary Meeting

After playing email and phone tag with Saadia Aglif, the ex-president of one of the two Rabat Rotary clubs, since I arrived to Morocco, we were finally able to talk last week, and she invited me to a dinner to meet the current president of her Rotary club. The dinner was held at a very nice hotel in Rabat, and both Rabat Rotary clubs were in attendance. A Rotarian from Tunisia was also there as the honorary guest-speaker and he gave a talk about what Rabat Rotarians can and should do to strengthen the presence of Rotary in Rabat, which is apparently pretty weak. Many of the Rotarians were French, as one of the Rabat Rotary clubs has a sister Rotary club in France, and everyone spoke in eloquent French throughout the night. A marvelous dinner-buffet was served, and I got to chat with some very nice Moroccan Rotarians during the meal. Saadia introduced me to the current president of the club, Mohamed Himmiche, and both were very welcoming and offered me support whenever I needed it during my year here. It was nice to finally meet my host Rotarians!

Rotarians introducing the themes of the night's meeting. The delicious buffet is just behind these men. Yum!

Current Rabat Rotary club president Mohamed Himmiche on the left, and ex-president Saadia Aglif on the right.

In very unrelated news, I thought I'd put up a picture of a typical Moroccan toilet. It's the kind of toilet found in most Moroccan houses, apartments, etc. Sometimes culture-shock stinks. This is one of those cases.

There are places to put your feet when you squat and a drain where all the formerly food and drink go. Moroccan's don't typically use toilet paper. They wipe with  the left hand (hence they do everything else with the right hand) and rinse off using water from the faucet which they put in a bucket like the blue one in the photo. When they're all done, they fill up the bucket with some water and poor it down the drain. This flushes everything down the line and Voila! A Moroccan toilet experience.