22 March 2008

22 March 2008

Well, this is more of a record of what occurred around this date, but there was cool stuff, so I’ll just take a little trip back in time for this. J
I stayed a week with my first host family!! My host father’s name is Brahim, and my host mother’s name is Fatima. These are some of the most common names here in Morocco, in fact, one of the other trainee’s parents have the exact same name. And exact same last name. Because I’m related to what must be half of the village through my host family. There is also a little girl, Aisha, and a little boy, Murad. They’re great, really kind, understanding and easy going. I’m lucky in that. Mine is not the house where food is forced upon me until I gag. Let me explain: in the Moroccan culture, hospitality is INCREDIBLY important. If you have a guest, you roll out the red carpet. You buy extra nice food if you can, and give them all the best parts of it even if you can’t buy special food. You would never dream of allowing them to help you in the kitchen. You want them to eat as much of that best portion of food as they want, and the way they make sure that you get all you want is that they tell you to eat. And eat, and eat and eat. Because in this very subtle culture, it’s only good manners to refuse food on the first, second, third, fourth try. Thus, one of the first words I learned was “tsh!” meaning, “eat!” In my family, if I say “safi! Baraka, shbeght!” three times or so, they will get let me stop eating, realizing that when we silly Americans say “I’m finished, I’m blessed, I’m full!” we really do mean it. The kids are very helpful with learning the language, too. I think they’re tickled pink to have someone who pronounces the words worse than they do! It’s hilarious, every time I try to say a word with a “q” in it my little sister gets right up in my face and emphatically demonstrates how to properly say it. “q” is a sound made in the very back of your throat, kind of like a crows caw, only duller and louder. Needless to say, it’s pretty challenging when thrown between a few other consonants. Vowels are unpopular here…
I wrote in my email what the valley looks like… I’m going to try to post a picture here to show just how very, very green it is in the river valley and how very, very dust-colored it is everywhere else. Water is an amazing and precious resource. Let me just reiterate that: we in the Midwest of the United States of America are blessed far beyond our understanding with the water the flows in abundance in streams, rivers, ponds and lakes all across our land. The fact that our well water exists and is drinkable, instead of salty, is a blessing. The fact that it does, in fact, rain and snow regularly is a blessing. The fact that we do not have to pull every last drop of water out of a river that has filth, laundry detergent and all manner of trash in it to irrigate our crops, wash our laundry, and even drink is a blessing. It is incredibly rare on the face of the earth, and we should be singing and dancing in thanks and praise every day. I know I do now when my shower actually has pressure and balanced cold and hot water for more than 2 minutes!! (Honestly, I’d rather have a bucket shower with one temperature than a shower that keeps you guessing.)
Some fun/funny/interesting little things I’ve noticed:
--Horses are well treated here. Donkeys are not. They are scorned, beaten, and their legs are all too often sore from running up and down roads without shoes.
--Cheese goes onto pizza after it comes out of the oven at my host family. And my host brother loves pizza, but without the cheese, veggies or sauce. Never seen a 9-year-old so excited about vegan pizza!
--Children of all ages love soccer. It is the only game I’ve ever seen them playing.
--Satellite dishes are common! Apparently they’re cheap, because they pepper every kind of housing unit you can think of.
--People don’t always bother buttoning their flys. I don’t know why, but especially kids. Maybe it’s just too much trouble??
--Motion sickness is a common occurrence on public transportation. Very.
--The Saharan dust is more than equal to crossing the height of the High Atlas Mountains. When there’s dust in the air, there’s dust in the air. Everywhere.
--Apparently people use camels to plow their fields. I wait with great anticipation to witness this!!