I’ve been teaching English classes at the town primary school. It’s pretty entertaining, and good for me to have a bit of an external schedule to stick to. It started pretty informally, that is, I only talked to the director of the school. He seems to be very enthusiastic about it though. Now we are getting paperwork squared away with the regional office. I sincerely hope it doesn’t cause any problems!
So last Wednesday (I teach on Wednesdays and Thursdays) after class I had a couple of errands to run down town. I came upon a group of my students, girls, all clustered together. They came running up to me, and I noticed a couple of boys on bikes moving away from the girls but watching us. The girls came up to me and said, "what is this?? : You ha a bee asz!!" I had no idea, and asked them to say it again, and if it was in English. "Yes, yes! You ha a bee asss!" A sudden thought came to me… but I didn’t want it to be… what is it again? "You ha a bee ass!!!" Yeah, if it’s in English it must be… You have a big… I asked them who it was who told them this, and they pointed to the same boys on the bikes. Hmmm. I’m thinking, you never know what kids will come up with! And I’m still wondering, who taught them that??? It most certainly was not me! And clearly it’s being applied to me…
I mean, it’s kind of true. Elyse can testify to the fact that I do not fit into her swimming shorts… it’s the way it goes, and frankly I don’t really mind. Except, I didn’t realize people, that is men here were, well, commenting on it. Although, in retrospect I really should have realized that it couldn’t be only happening in the cities. There was this one guy in Marrakech (and it is Kesh, after all) who made a comment about both me and my friend Alicia, in English, in earshot, loud enough for us to hear while walking behind us: "Nice! Very, very nice!"
Which is all pretty funny, really. Once one decides that it just is and won’t change and is therefore best thought of as little as possible, and in as bouncy and irreverent a manner as can be found. Bum-be-dum-bum-buuuummmm!!! J
Monday, February 16, 2009
Food
Food recently eaten and/or cooked:
Wheat bread. Baba ganoush. All bean chili. Lentils and macaroni and curry. Coffee with bread and olive oil. Breakfast barley. Cheese omelette with toast and Mom’s black-raspberry jam. Egg and tomato spiced and eaten with bread. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. Chocolate chip cookies with flax seeds and whole wheat flower.
I’m expanding my culinary enterprises! It’s fun, and delicious. The baba ganoush though, was a bit of an undertaking. First, make tahini from scratch (it’s pretty simple, just olive oil and sesame seeds) and then roast the eggplant and then throw it in the blender together with other ingredients and blend. Chill. Eat with delicious bread. I’m learning how to use a blender properly. Blenders were rarely used in the house when I was growing up, but I am quickly learning how useful they are, if used enthusiastically and properly. I never would have thought a blender could make tahini paste… but there you have it! They can.
I love making bread, but unlike my friend Adrienne, do not often rustle up the gumption to do it. But the thing is, if I want bread here, I a) buy the bland, dry, white store bread in my souk town and transport it back b) beg it from my neighbors or c) make it myself. So, inspired by Adrienne, guided by the bread book sent from home, and motivated by my desire for delicious wheat bread, I hope to be making bread far more frequently.
Chocolate chip cookies are delicious, and one of the things that seem to have more or less universal appeal. I have given them to many a Moroccan with great success. Other things have had less success, like zuccini bread and pumpkin bread. But chocolate chip cookies, no prob. J Which means I spend a fair amount of time chopping up bars of chocolate.
I found powdered tomato soup in Marjane! What is Marjane? Wal-mart. Wal-mart in Morocco. And thus in French and Arabic. I have spent far too much of my money there… as time goes by I find more and more products that I thought I could only get at Marjane elsewhere. Which is good! I’m glad to be supporting small business owners! It’s just a little more difficult to unearth things in tHanuts sometimes. THanuts tend to be all higgledy-piggledly in organization. Well, to the casual observer that is. I’m sure the storeowners would say otherwise. The powdered tomato soup, though… that’s gonna be hard to find elsewhere. I guess I’ll just have to use it sparingly. But for the occasional lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup, I may just be willing to go to Marjane. Wal-mart. Sigh. Globalization is evident everywhere you go… I remember watching a Target go up in the 5 months I was in Dar es Salaam… and just recently I realized that one of the reasons the herders here have such large herds of goats and sheep is that they can sell them to city folk at a good price for the annual feasts. On the other hand, I just bought the most delicious eggs from my neighbor. There’s an interesting mix of local and decidedly not local food in my kitchen. I know which one is easier on my conscience, though.
Ps: the other thing i recently ate for the first time was... alfalfa! Yup, that's right, cow food. Carefully chopped, steamed, spiced and oiled, it was, in fact, delicious. I am only wondering, can it possibly have had any nutritional goodness in it??
Wheat bread. Baba ganoush. All bean chili. Lentils and macaroni and curry. Coffee with bread and olive oil. Breakfast barley. Cheese omelette with toast and Mom’s black-raspberry jam. Egg and tomato spiced and eaten with bread. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. Chocolate chip cookies with flax seeds and whole wheat flower.
I’m expanding my culinary enterprises! It’s fun, and delicious. The baba ganoush though, was a bit of an undertaking. First, make tahini from scratch (it’s pretty simple, just olive oil and sesame seeds) and then roast the eggplant and then throw it in the blender together with other ingredients and blend. Chill. Eat with delicious bread. I’m learning how to use a blender properly. Blenders were rarely used in the house when I was growing up, but I am quickly learning how useful they are, if used enthusiastically and properly. I never would have thought a blender could make tahini paste… but there you have it! They can.
I love making bread, but unlike my friend Adrienne, do not often rustle up the gumption to do it. But the thing is, if I want bread here, I a) buy the bland, dry, white store bread in my souk town and transport it back b) beg it from my neighbors or c) make it myself. So, inspired by Adrienne, guided by the bread book sent from home, and motivated by my desire for delicious wheat bread, I hope to be making bread far more frequently.
Chocolate chip cookies are delicious, and one of the things that seem to have more or less universal appeal. I have given them to many a Moroccan with great success. Other things have had less success, like zuccini bread and pumpkin bread. But chocolate chip cookies, no prob. J Which means I spend a fair amount of time chopping up bars of chocolate.
I found powdered tomato soup in Marjane! What is Marjane? Wal-mart. Wal-mart in Morocco. And thus in French and Arabic. I have spent far too much of my money there… as time goes by I find more and more products that I thought I could only get at Marjane elsewhere. Which is good! I’m glad to be supporting small business owners! It’s just a little more difficult to unearth things in tHanuts sometimes. THanuts tend to be all higgledy-piggledly in organization. Well, to the casual observer that is. I’m sure the storeowners would say otherwise. The powdered tomato soup, though… that’s gonna be hard to find elsewhere. I guess I’ll just have to use it sparingly. But for the occasional lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup, I may just be willing to go to Marjane. Wal-mart. Sigh. Globalization is evident everywhere you go… I remember watching a Target go up in the 5 months I was in Dar es Salaam… and just recently I realized that one of the reasons the herders here have such large herds of goats and sheep is that they can sell them to city folk at a good price for the annual feasts. On the other hand, I just bought the most delicious eggs from my neighbor. There’s an interesting mix of local and decidedly not local food in my kitchen. I know which one is easier on my conscience, though.
Ps: the other thing i recently ate for the first time was... alfalfa! Yup, that's right, cow food. Carefully chopped, steamed, spiced and oiled, it was, in fact, delicious. I am only wondering, can it possibly have had any nutritional goodness in it??
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Marrakech
Marrakech!!
It’s one of two truly famous cities in Morocco, and frankly one of two truly dangerous cities. You know, like New York City… or maybe Los Angles… actually, I don’t know that there’s a comparable city in the US. I had yet to visit it, and wasn’t really itching to, either. There have been some not-so-fun stories comin’ out of that city from other PCVs. I however, had a lot of fun there! Yes, a woman swindled me out of 10 DH for a poor quality Fatima-flower in henna on my hand, but that’s fine. My fault for sitting down.
Every year in Marrakech there is an international marathon. I came down to watch Anthony, Sarah, and Moira run the full and a couple others run the half. Little did I know that about 15 PCVs total were signed up to race! So there was quite a bunch of us, either running or serving as moral support. I ended up running around the city on foot quite a bit without even racing. I didn’t run no 42.5 km (26.2 miles), though! It was fun hanging out at the finish line and seeing all the different runners come in. There was one girl (I believe she was the winner of the full) who looked like she was from the Ethiopia region of Africa, and un-numbered French people, even a woman who has now run well over 40 marathons on most of the continents I think. For those runners of you, most of the PCVs running either half or full didn’t come in with blistering times. For the full, only one of us came in under 4 hours. But then, it’s not always easy to train properly in the back of beyond! One of my friends is a talented runner, and he gave up on the marathon because training was proving to be insufficient. Well, I was still inspired to train and see what happens next year. Even though my site is basically a town on the side of a steep and rocky mountain. Most of the terrain is therefore quite hilly and the ground often made up of 2-inch diameter up to head-sized rocks. Perfect for long distance running! J
We also found this neat café, Earth Café, on one of the side streets there. A vegetarian café. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was vegan, which is quite simply astounding to find in Morocco! Meat is a big deal here. The food was great, so was the atmosphere, and then the owner came to chat with us. Turns out he’s a Moroccan who has lived and run restaurants in Sydney, Australia, Los Angeles and NYC. Here he runs his café and an educational farm. The kind of deal where people can go stay there and work and learn where their food comes from. Super cool, and the guy’s attitude was amazing. It was fun to see the response of the PCVs. Some volunteers become quite jaded, and to see them inspired by this guy’s positivity was awesome. I, too, felt lifted by it. Highly recommended if ever you go to Marrakech. It’s near the hotel Sindi Sud, if that helps. J
The thing about Marrakech is how far away it is. It’s a 13 hour bus ride direct, and a good deal further if you go round the long way. However, that distance means it’s a good bit further south, which was fantastic! Warmth! Hurry up spring!
It’s one of two truly famous cities in Morocco, and frankly one of two truly dangerous cities. You know, like New York City… or maybe Los Angles… actually, I don’t know that there’s a comparable city in the US. I had yet to visit it, and wasn’t really itching to, either. There have been some not-so-fun stories comin’ out of that city from other PCVs. I however, had a lot of fun there! Yes, a woman swindled me out of 10 DH for a poor quality Fatima-flower in henna on my hand, but that’s fine. My fault for sitting down.
Every year in Marrakech there is an international marathon. I came down to watch Anthony, Sarah, and Moira run the full and a couple others run the half. Little did I know that about 15 PCVs total were signed up to race! So there was quite a bunch of us, either running or serving as moral support. I ended up running around the city on foot quite a bit without even racing. I didn’t run no 42.5 km (26.2 miles), though! It was fun hanging out at the finish line and seeing all the different runners come in. There was one girl (I believe she was the winner of the full) who looked like she was from the Ethiopia region of Africa, and un-numbered French people, even a woman who has now run well over 40 marathons on most of the continents I think. For those runners of you, most of the PCVs running either half or full didn’t come in with blistering times. For the full, only one of us came in under 4 hours. But then, it’s not always easy to train properly in the back of beyond! One of my friends is a talented runner, and he gave up on the marathon because training was proving to be insufficient. Well, I was still inspired to train and see what happens next year. Even though my site is basically a town on the side of a steep and rocky mountain. Most of the terrain is therefore quite hilly and the ground often made up of 2-inch diameter up to head-sized rocks. Perfect for long distance running! J
We also found this neat café, Earth Café, on one of the side streets there. A vegetarian café. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was vegan, which is quite simply astounding to find in Morocco! Meat is a big deal here. The food was great, so was the atmosphere, and then the owner came to chat with us. Turns out he’s a Moroccan who has lived and run restaurants in Sydney, Australia, Los Angeles and NYC. Here he runs his café and an educational farm. The kind of deal where people can go stay there and work and learn where their food comes from. Super cool, and the guy’s attitude was amazing. It was fun to see the response of the PCVs. Some volunteers become quite jaded, and to see them inspired by this guy’s positivity was awesome. I, too, felt lifted by it. Highly recommended if ever you go to Marrakech. It’s near the hotel Sindi Sud, if that helps. J
The thing about Marrakech is how far away it is. It’s a 13 hour bus ride direct, and a good deal further if you go round the long way. However, that distance means it’s a good bit further south, which was fantastic! Warmth! Hurry up spring!
Overview of January
4 February 2009
Wow, January just flew by! Which is good, seeing as it’s the second coldest, and darkest month here. December is both colder and darker. Now, spring is tussling with winter over who possesses this land. It’s still very cold a night sometimes, but the sun (when it breaks through the winter storms that march along the mountains whipped by gusts of wind) is fierce to my now pale skin. Yes, that’s right, I’ve already been sun-burned. In February.
January flew by because I was either hosting someone in my site or out of site on a lot of those weekends. After Adrienne left, Natalie came to help me care for Trouble as he healed, and then Erin came up to evaluate my site for a new health volunteer. Lots of fun hosting everyone, but after all the hosting followed by traveling for meetings, marathons, and naming ceremonies, I was cashed! So, these last days of January and first days of February have included some good down time.
It looks like I’m going to get a site mate in April or May! I’m excited about that, and hoping for the best. Peace Corps really wants to send a man, but the villagers want another girl “like me.” There are pros and cons either way. It would be good to have a guy, because he could reach out to the men of the village more effectively than ever I could, especially on issues of STIs. A man would also help them to get a wider picture of what US culture looks like in a person than a woman would. A woman, though, is an easier fit into the culture here. She isn’t a threat to the woman of the village’s honor (and thus no competition to the men either). She can work with the women easily, visit homes more easily, broach difficult topics with families more easily because of that one reason. So we shall see.
My own projects go so slowly! A new horizon or two of challenges has appeared with the building of the Women’s Center. The first and most difficult is that of infighting within the association I’m trying to work with. This fighting existed long before I was here, and now… now it continues. What do they want to do with the honey? Sell it and keep the money for helping out with building the building? Eat it and enjoy it? A lot of this seems to stem from a general lack of administrative organization and good decision-making skills. Unsurprising as none of these women have much experience in this sort of organization, and compromises don’t seem to have been forth-coming. Following that are mis-understandings, and who knows? Accusations have certainly run thick from certain quarters. I still have hope though, because they have (several of them, anyway) a strong will to succeed. And I have to believe that where there is a will… we will find a way. I started teaching English in the school. I hope that out of that and Environmental Education Club will get started. Certainly the kids are enthusiastic about learning English! There’s one older boy who comes, we can call him Joe, a friend of mine and a member of my extended host family. He’s the only person of his age who comes, and also the only of my students who will bring in long lists of words to learn. His enthusiasm makes me happy, but it also makes me sad. He’s not finishing high school, I’m pretty sure because his family needs help at home. He’s a sharp cookie, too, and a full education is something he would take advantage of, I’m sure! Literacy lessons for the women have still not happened… a million small delays in finding a place to hold them… a million more in my search for a woman teacher… And in my other project, the herders are out to pasture and that makes it really, really hard to hold a meeting. So that goes uber slowly. In short, patience and stubborn persistence seem to be my two best skills right now. J I think I can thank my time on crutches for developing those traits in me… never thought that time would have a direct impact on my later life like this!
There, that’s a bit of a summary about the past few weeks. Peace to all ya’ll!
Wow, January just flew by! Which is good, seeing as it’s the second coldest, and darkest month here. December is both colder and darker. Now, spring is tussling with winter over who possesses this land. It’s still very cold a night sometimes, but the sun (when it breaks through the winter storms that march along the mountains whipped by gusts of wind) is fierce to my now pale skin. Yes, that’s right, I’ve already been sun-burned. In February.
January flew by because I was either hosting someone in my site or out of site on a lot of those weekends. After Adrienne left, Natalie came to help me care for Trouble as he healed, and then Erin came up to evaluate my site for a new health volunteer. Lots of fun hosting everyone, but after all the hosting followed by traveling for meetings, marathons, and naming ceremonies, I was cashed! So, these last days of January and first days of February have included some good down time.
It looks like I’m going to get a site mate in April or May! I’m excited about that, and hoping for the best. Peace Corps really wants to send a man, but the villagers want another girl “like me.” There are pros and cons either way. It would be good to have a guy, because he could reach out to the men of the village more effectively than ever I could, especially on issues of STIs. A man would also help them to get a wider picture of what US culture looks like in a person than a woman would. A woman, though, is an easier fit into the culture here. She isn’t a threat to the woman of the village’s honor (and thus no competition to the men either). She can work with the women easily, visit homes more easily, broach difficult topics with families more easily because of that one reason. So we shall see.
My own projects go so slowly! A new horizon or two of challenges has appeared with the building of the Women’s Center. The first and most difficult is that of infighting within the association I’m trying to work with. This fighting existed long before I was here, and now… now it continues. What do they want to do with the honey? Sell it and keep the money for helping out with building the building? Eat it and enjoy it? A lot of this seems to stem from a general lack of administrative organization and good decision-making skills. Unsurprising as none of these women have much experience in this sort of organization, and compromises don’t seem to have been forth-coming. Following that are mis-understandings, and who knows? Accusations have certainly run thick from certain quarters. I still have hope though, because they have (several of them, anyway) a strong will to succeed. And I have to believe that where there is a will… we will find a way. I started teaching English in the school. I hope that out of that and Environmental Education Club will get started. Certainly the kids are enthusiastic about learning English! There’s one older boy who comes, we can call him Joe, a friend of mine and a member of my extended host family. He’s the only person of his age who comes, and also the only of my students who will bring in long lists of words to learn. His enthusiasm makes me happy, but it also makes me sad. He’s not finishing high school, I’m pretty sure because his family needs help at home. He’s a sharp cookie, too, and a full education is something he would take advantage of, I’m sure! Literacy lessons for the women have still not happened… a million small delays in finding a place to hold them… a million more in my search for a woman teacher… And in my other project, the herders are out to pasture and that makes it really, really hard to hold a meeting. So that goes uber slowly. In short, patience and stubborn persistence seem to be my two best skills right now. J I think I can thank my time on crutches for developing those traits in me… never thought that time would have a direct impact on my later life like this!
There, that’s a bit of a summary about the past few weeks. Peace to all ya’ll!
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