M'rockin' Vlog

The Ever-Popular House Slide in the Staircase

Philip Eubanks — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:58:36 +0000

The video says it all.

A Slew of New Videos

Philip Eubanks — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:00:19 +0000

As many of you know, the glasses project proved (and continues to prove) to be an incredible fruitful part of my service. While Eyejusters were in Morocco, they took several videos, some of the Olive Orchard where I live, some of the actual glasses project. I’ve been meaning for some time to get these up for the world to see. So, here they are.

First things first, a few more of my village in the orchard:

Next up, some adventure shots of our travels around Morocco, as we brought glasses from place to place with – of course – stops for tea along the way:

Next on the list… a series of shots we took that show everything from “how the glasses work” to fitting a pair of glasses to even a trial and a training of other Peace Corps Volunteers:

Put ALL of those videos together, and what do you get? A professionally made video by Eyejusters:

For more, check out the Eyejusters website on Morocco.

The Orchard House

Philip Eubanks — Wed, 30 May 2012 20:35:33 +0000

Moved to the Olive Orchard. Thought you might like to see the new place:

An Opportunity to Give this Christmas

Philip Eubanks — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:12:39 +0000

This year for Christmas, instead of spending lots and lots of money on things people want, I implore you to throw out just a little change on a need that can make a real difference in a student’s life. Help students in my community and in the south of Morocco see the blackboard in school, as we bring 120 innovative and self-adjusting glasses to the Kingdom of Morocco from Eyejusters and the Centre for Vision in the Developing World. For only $15.00, you can provide one youth with a pair of these glasses. If you would like more information about this project, please email me, and I would be more than happy to provide you with a copy of the Partnership Grant I recently wrote.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

How to Cook a Moroccan Tajine

Philip Eubanks — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:17:25 +0000

I am certainly no Julia Child (thank goodness) or a Moroccan mother of eight (again, l-hamdulilah), but for some time now, I’ve wanted to show off how to cook a Moroccan Tajine, a dish incredibly famous and well-known in this country. My friend Abdelcreme who lives on the other side of town showed me how to cook it, and next week, inshallah, I will show him how to cook spaghetti. I should say, as a bit of a disclaimer, that I don’t pretend to be an expert on this. I’m sure my way of throwing this recipe together is shameful, as every tajine I’ve ever eaten in this country certainly puts mine to shame. But I was experimenting a bit with spices and thought it tasted delicious, so I can’t complain all that much either.

Tajines are both dishes themselves and the food in them. There are many kinds of tajines, ranging from an omelet-like dish with tomatoes and onions to the one I prepare to a “kefta” (ground meat) tajine. The dish is cone-shaped and fashioned in either clay or metal. It’s function appears to pre-date the advent of the crockpot. Imagine cooking your food in a crockpot that’s beautiful where you can eat right off the plate of the crockpot, and that’s pretty much a tajine.

As for this video, I had to keep it short so it didn’t take me forever to upload it to the internet. That said, I took the liberty of cutting the veggies beforehand, even placing the onions in the bottom of the tajine before filming. Sorry you missed a few steps, but you didn’t miss much. All together, this is a dish that took me almost two hours to prepare between purchasing the food, washing and cutting the produce, mixing the oil and spices, laying it out on the tajine for filming, and then the forty or so minutes it took to cook (probably would’ve taken longer if I’d put it on low heat, as I should have).

I should apologize, too, because it was difficult to hold the camera while placing veggies on the tajine, and there are a few places where I just got wordy and couldn’t think through what I was trying to say.

Other than that, the pictures I’ve provided you with don’t really do the dish justice but a couple of them are nice. If you want to make a tajine, I’ve heard rumors that you can buy metal ones at CostCo in America. Try looking around at international markets, too. You might get lucky.

The High Atlas

Philip Eubanks — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:15:04 +0000

I spend a lot of time on here showcasing Morocco’s geography, because I find it so beautiful, and this post is no different.

A friend of mine recently went down to a Wedding Festival where Berber tribes negotiate dowry’s for their daughters at a giant market. Part of the festival, aside from music and the lovebug floating around, is a souq, or simple a very large market where you can buy just about anything. Think of it as Goodwill but ten times better, cheaper, and Moroccan. Part of the beauty of it was that the festival was on a landscape that looks like the surface of Mars with large mountains in the backdrop.

My friend took this video nearby in a village called Outerbat, where one of the volunteers lives:

Near El Jadida

Philip Eubanks — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:55:58 +0000

A friend of mine shot this short little video of some beautiful ocean cliffs, a favorite Moroccan vacation spot:

Moroccan food, as best told by Anthony Bourdain (in two parts)

Philip Eubanks — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:56:03 +0000

At some point, I’d like to give my own two cents on this, and I can certainly show you how to cook a tajine, if you’d like to know, but because I’ve grown quite fond of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” I thought his take of Moroccan food was especially worth watching:

Gnaoua Music Festival in Essaouira

Philip Eubanks — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:04:44 +0000

Had an opportunity recently to attend the Gnaoua Music Festival, which featured several bands from Morocco and all over Africa. Even K’naan came to play the World Cup song and selections of his other music. Here’s a clip of one of my favorite bands I saw – Baba Sissoko and the Malian Tamani Revolution:

In addition to listening to some great music, we took the opportunity to do over 600 HIV/AIDS tests, as well as blood pressure checks with anti-smoking and anti-huffing information to share. I took this video near the beach in lovely Essaouira:

More Scenes of Morocco

Philip Eubanks — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:04:51 +0000

As you can tell, most of my vlog has highlighted what Morocco looks like from mountains to deserts to cityscapes to beaches. I want to make sure I get some cultural stuff on the blog, as well, and hope to make that happen in the not-too-distant future. But I make no promises. In the meantime, here’s two videos I thought you might appreciate. They both capture some Moroccan scenes, one even showing a windy Moroccan sandstorm of sorts.