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April 2013.
This blog entry is a summary of the month of April, so a bit lengthy. Due to hectic circumstances and bad internet, we have not been able to keep our stories flowing regularly and for that, we apologize. We hope this summary provides an idea of this crazy month in Morocco. As for April in the US, Happy Birthday, Adam!
The most important thing we want to communicate right now: Ksar el Kebir is, simply, the most alive town we have ever seen, and we have been to A LOT of towns and cities over the years! To compare its business with the streets of Paris is, unbelievably, an understatement. People are everywhere, all of the time after 10 a.m. (except Friday (the holy day) and the daily lunch time when everyone goes home to eat (schools and businesses close). Every night, people lay out their wares for sale in every conceivable location. The sidewalks and even some streets are completely filled with everything one could possibly imagine. The number one kiosk of choice is an old blanket on the ground, sidewalk or road. Upon these blankets are laid a multitude of goods. For example, a man
may have half of his blanket filled with used tools of various kinds, one quarter of it filled with shoes (new and used) and the remaining quarter filled with the fruit du jour! Such randomness is the norm here and it makes each and every day a new experience! In fact, as far as markets and shopping go, who needs Publix?!?!?! Every single day, massive amounts of fruits, vegetables, spices, dates, olives, eggs, homemade cheese and milk, fresh fish, live chickens, daily slaughtered beef and sheep at butcher shops (it MUST be fresh daily in accordance to the Islamic faith), fresh bread and ready-made, silky rounds of noodles line the streets! This happens every single day, no exceptions. For those of you who know us well, you will understand that this type of market living is something that we have dream of for many, many years! We now enjoy it to the fullest! The challenge for Americans is not having the option to buy prepared foods (fast food or otherwise), particularly after a long day (think hard about your life without these options – just a rotisserie chicken would make life easier!!!). The food pyramid implements itself here naturally, although
no one has ever heard of it or researches diet plans to implement it.
General observations worthy of note: (1) family is VERY important here and family takes care of family, no matter what (even if they do not like one another); (2) asking about one’s family is VERY important and to not do so, EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU MEET, clearly makes you a foreigner and is just plain rude; (3) greetings take a while and cannot be skipped and if you do not dally with greetings, you are clearly a foreigner and again, quite rude; (4) Titanic is by far the most popular movie in Morocco (and Leonardo is on many store-front advertisements, we are just guessing that he doesn't get any royalties from being so); (5) the male gender of Morocco is favored and gets excused for everything (including the fact that uncontrollable sexual desire excuses bad sexual conduct) and he is well taken care of by his mother (and sisters) until he decides to leave the house at whatever age, if at all (after all, why would you leave such doting?); (6) you should ONLY buy from the butcher, green grocer, fruit seller or fishmonger that
We have now seen it all... A donkey cart wheelie!!!!
Do you think he just popped the clutch and floored the gas?your friend introduces you to or you will absolutely NOT have a product of good quality (even if they all get the goods from the same place); (7) bad breath is everywhere and dental hygiene is generally not a priority; (8) everything, no matter how small and simple a task it should be, takes an inordinate amount of time (relax and get over the watching the clock, things will happen when they happen… inshallah.); (9) there is no harm in pouring wet cement when it is about to rain or doing anything else that makes no sense to us, such as hammering in wood-screws with a hammer , when you have a screw driver in your other hand; and (10) every purchase MUST involve bargaining (this is really fun without language skills, we can tell you) and to not do so, clearly makes you a foreigner and a sucker. J
The top 5 things said to us most often: (1) “How do you find/like Morocco?” (2) “you are a good person, you can be Muslim now!” (3) “I want to go the US”; (4) “Morocco has been a friend of the US since 1776”; and (5) “hola” or “bon
jour” (as we are assumed to be Spanish or French). The thing that did not make the top 5, but is up there in priority is, “Ah! You speak Darija, don’t worry, I will give you a good price.” (why not just give it instead of taking about it???? Makes you think… Hmmmm.)
The word heard most, by far, anywhere in Morocco: “Dirham” (the local currency). The next word is “Ah-gee” which means come here.
The top 5 challenges thus far, in order: (1) language barriers create the most frustrating circumstances - - the importance of being understood cannot be overstated; (2) missing our peeps and our pups; (3) terrible and intermittent internet (particularly for Clay); (4) the toilet situation in our temporary home (would be number one (he-he) but did not present a challenge but a few times a day rather than all day); and (5) needed patience for everything, since the speed at which things are accomplished is less than slow motion. Although buying pillows and sheets did not make the top five, just understand that pillows are a luxury and finding them is much like a scavenger hunt and sheets the sheets are about 12-count
sheets! LOL!
Final observations for now: Sweets, sweets, sweets and hot, sweet mint tea ARE the offerings of every good host(ess) no matter the time of day or how many times you have already had them that day. Weddings last into the early morning and are loud, with multiple changes of clothes. We will never forget the fresh, live snails sold in buckets (which are actually VERY tasty!), huge mosquitoes smushed against our unventilated bedroom wall with blood and all, apartment hunting based upon word of mouth only (with no language skills), BFF (Best Friends Forever) men, schwarma sandwiches, but on the brightest note, the successes made with meeting some awesome people despite language issues. Red tape, red tape and more red tape is required to accomplish anything legal, bathing on the roof at our host home had to occur for lack of a better option, and a Hammas party invitation was given by well-meaning friends, which required some fast talk to avoid with controversy. Unique medical treatment anomalies and reasons for our sickness that we have never contemplated have been provided. It would seem that no matter the illness of ache/pain one feels, it was caused by an
uncovered wet head after a shower or too much sun (sun on the skin is avoided at all costs!). We have had English classes with awesome kids and illiterate women with great attitudes. We have seen and then eaten a sheep head with teeth still intact, while it smiled at us as we reached into the giant bowl of couscous. On our main street, in our non-touristy town, we had a Jerry Springer show complete with bleached blonde trailer trash (from the U.S) and a baby strapped to a man’s chest in a brawl. And we wonder as to why the world sometimes sees us in such a bad light… pity.
Our out of town (away from Ksar El Kebir) adventures: We have been, a couple of times, to the city of Larache, where we assisted with a Spring Camp and then for some training on how to teach STD classes (not how to get them, but information and prevention to be incorporated in our English classes). A married PCV couple lives there and they are great new friends. We have also been to the city of Asilah which is just north of Larache, to stay overnight when Larache
accommodations (decent ones, anyway) were full. Larache is a lovely port town, which is on the ocean, but needs some serious TLC to be a tourist destination. Asilah is on the ocean, and is very touristy (interestingly, there is an RV park for Europeans, with camels in the park for a fun ride around the grassy area and of course a photo-op). In Larache, we found a fantastic restaurant and made friends with the owner, a lovely man who takes great pride in his food and presentation (see photos). We ate actual ham (yes, from a pig) and had Moroccan wine at a restaurant in Asilah.
In upcoming blogs, more will be unveiled about this strange land and in particular our awesome town of Ksar El Kebir; more details about these thoughts and observations will make things much clearer, we hope. There once was a time when we had little to say about what happened in a short month in our lives. This fact has dramatically changed and we can’t wait to share our ever on-going discoveries with you.
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Sandra
non-member comment
Enjoyed the Post and the pictures
Thank you for posting - I will read again, I am sure. Thinking of you daily! Love, S