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Published: January 28th 2013
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January 24-26, 2013
In all sincerity, there are no adequate words to describe the past few days. The word “immersion” is less than the tip of the iceberg. We are living in a house (dar) with our host family and we do not speak each others languages. The family consists of Mom, Dad, eldest daughter, who has a baby less than one year old, a 16 year old daughter (engaged to a police-man and a rare female who is an awesome horse rider/handler) and 12 year old son (smart as a whip!). We have been welcomed into their home with warmth and generosity. We are treated like guests. Clay and the 12 year old have become the best of chums (is anyone surprised?) and Ann has taken to the girls, as well as the baby (now, the baby part should be a REAL surprise). We laugh a lot, even though we mostly do not know what they are saying and we have NO sentences under our belt, yet except for a few introductions. Here is the example, try to follow phonetically (male talking to male):
Salam (like Salami without the I) Allie-koom = Peace be with you
Wally-koom-salam-oo
= And peace be with you too
Keef Dear = How are you?
Leh-bess, oon-tah? = Fine, and you?
Bee-KKHHH-sear, la-Ham-dool-ah = Good, thanks be to God
This is a serious twilight zone, but it is the best possible one.
We do NOT have internet at our house... or heat for that matter! As of this writing, we do not know when we can post this blog but we are contemplating possible solutions. For those of you who may worry about us when we are out of touch, please don’t. We are accountable for our whereabouts and we have a super support system.
When we left Rabat, we took a bus Fes, had lunch (a group of us found a Vietnamese restaurant) and then awaited our “grand taxis.” The whole process in Fes took about 6 hours, simply due to the fact that we are on “Moroccan time.” When it was time to leave Fes for our new town, we watched our teacher (who is female) bargain for a taxi and she was amazing. We had to straddle our luggage for about 40 minutes (Jami and Shane you know what we mean! Think Smart
Car and 4 adults plus luggage!). When we arrived in Ain Chegag, (chehgawg) it was FREEZING! This is no joke cold – long Johns under our jeans and layers upon layers. See photos of the “robes” that men and women wear - - - they really know how to keep warm!
Mama prepares our meals. Every meal includes lots of bread, white, wheat or cornbread rounds. It is broken into pieces at the table and used to either put things on or to sop things up. We eat together at each meal around a table with a plastic tablecloth (to catch crumbs). The table is next to a couch and chairs (white, plastic) are placed around it at mealtimes. When it is just women, Ann is encouraged to sit between the women on the couch. Mama often gives Clay and Ann a cloth for the lap (maybe we are messy!). Breakfast includes olive oil and sometimes olives, cheese, butter, jam and hard-boiled eggs. Lunch/dinner is usually served in/on a communal bowl/plate and each person eats the portion in front of him/her. When finished, the portion left in front of you is pushed in front of others so there is
no reach. We have had cous-cous, lamb stew and spaghetti (with cardamom and cinnamon). Fruit is served after every meal - - fresh oranges, bananas and pears thus far. A pitcher of water comes to the table with one glass (communal) (Kathy, I know you are cringing right now). Hot sweet tea and hot milk (with or without instant coffee) is also served.
The home is NOT heated, and although super-cold we have plenty of comfy blankets for the night-time. The home has one Turkish toilet (look it up!) which we mainly use (downstairs, where we have our room) and a regular toilet upstairs where some family members live (we use this one when major duty calls). Ann has definitely learned an art with the Turkish toilet. Ann’s comment: The process is actually intended to be VERY clean. Soap and water are there for cleaning at each use. Another bonus - - there are no toilet parts to break! The hand-held shower is in the corner of the room which also has a sink (floor drain is in the middle of the room).
We have language/culture lessons daily with our group of six (plus teacher). It is hugely
over-whelming and fast-paced. In ten days, we are amazed at what we have learned, but everything is frustrating. It is as if we are learning everything from scratch like a baby. Our group is completely awesome and everyone is having a different experience, which we share daily. We will be teaching lessons here to youth as part of our preparation for our final site. In a couple of days, we will be visiting the youth center (dar chebab) here and observing the happenings. This week is a celebration of the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday and school is not in session, so we have not yet visited there.
The living area (also downstairs) is a huge, rectangular room with couches along the walls. Mostly people sit in the dining room area where the TV sits. On TV is: The Qu’ran being said, chanted or discussed, soap operas (Turkish but dubbed in Arabic script), news and entertainment (religious music concerts, comedic shows in Arabic) and news (in French). Soap operas are incredibly popular here. We do not understand the language but the actors appear very dramatic, so it is pretty easy to figure out what is going on.
Our little brother
and sisters are really helping us with the language, without understanding ours. We have a book which has Arabic script (which they can read), along with the English word and the phonetic Darijan word. They enjoy teaching us the correct pronunciation and we are happy to be taught.
We have little time alone (think, awkward mostly) but we do excuse ourselves to study. Today we went to the hahnoot (tiny store) to purchase toilet paper and soap. We are the center of interested, but very open stares. It is impossible to blend in for obvious reasons. It is our hope to get people interested to see what we are doing so that we can be effective. It is our intention to do so by showing the utmost respect while offering intriguing things to entice youth to see what we are up to.
Tomorrow, we (our group) intend to take a field trip on a bus to the town of Sefrou to the Marjone (which is the local equivalent of Wal-mart, only on a much, much smaller scale) and our teacher will accompany us. In the afternoon, Ann (with her sisters) will take a trip to the Hah-m’am, which
is the communal bath house. Stay tuned for new adventures!
January 26
th: Ann’s host mom and sisters bought her a “jeh-lebba” (robe) as a surprise gift to keep her warm. Note from Ann: I had admired host-mom’s robe and she had me wear it in the morning to class for warmth. When I arrived back from lessons, they presented this gift to me. I was so touched, I almost cried. I kissed their cheeks and they probably thought I was nuts. I am trying to learn how to humbly receive this generosity.
We would love to have some comments/thoughts about our adventures thus far...
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CK
non-member comment
loks like well into motion.