Blogs from El Kelaa des Sraghna, Tadla-Azilal, Morocco, Africa - page 2

Harassment is always a popular topic when I get together with other volunteers. It is always an issue here, especially for the women. I bet we had more sessions on harassment than anything else during training. Since it seems to be such a big deal here I thought I’d share some of my opinions and experience on the subject. It all started in Philadelphia almost a year ago when, during one of our pre-service training sessions about harassment, somebody said that people in Morocco would yell "fish an' chips" at us. I thought this was incredibly funny at the time, wondering how anybody could think that was harassment. I had heard some strange phrases thrown at me by people in Cambodia. I always assumed they had no idea what they were saying and that it was ... read more

I haven’t talked much lately about work and how things are going at the Dar Chebab (Youth Center). Considering that I am supposed to be here for work, I thought I should write a bit about what’s going on in relation to my “purpose” here. Thanks to book donations to the Dar Chebab and some finagling by my mudir (the DC director) we have opened a library. Our DC is quite small and wonderfully full, though that leaves little room for new programs. All the associations who use the DC rooms for meetings strongly opposed using one of said rooms as a library, so the mudir worked around all the bickering and politics and emptied out a storage room for me to use as the new library. At the moment it is only a few sets ... read more

I’m not sure when I last when on a picnic, but it was long overdue. After a busy morning at the Dar Chebab with the new Palm Tree Environmental Club, I went with my landlady and her family to a place on the northern edge of town called “Mrbuh” - pronounced with the hard aspirated H at the end. Sorry, I forgot to ask what the word means. We didn’t end up bringing the kitchen sink with us, but we managed to haul with us so much that seemed to me like we were setting out to go camping. Tromping around in search of the best shade tree though, I saw families that had brought everything, including little stoves and complete tea sets with beautiful silver teapots. I’m going to stick to the stereotypes on ... read more

Leaving Tingdad Cara and I were drained. I felt crabby and snapped at the first Moroccan who followed us. Usually I wait until they throw a few comments at us before I react but that morning I didn’t have one drop of tolerance left. It was one of those “you know you have been in Morocco too long when” moments. I actually looked around for rocks to throw at the guy. Kids here throw rocks a lot and it is one of the things we joke about when we talk about getting harassed. Maybe wanting to throw rocks means I have adapted, but I think it’s more along the lines of losing sanity. The last day of training I went on an Elvis Costello binge and went through everybody’s computers and ipods listening to all ... read more

Thanks to my dear friend Amanda you get a break from hearing about my daily routine. She always asks very pointed questions and in an effort to answer some of her recent queries I will delve into some cultural topics. Disclaimer: I am not Moroccan and have only been here for five months. I do not proclaim to know that much, but will try my best to explain what I have learned so far. Another problem here is that Morocco is very culturally diverse. Sure, they are all Muslims, but it goes way beyond that. This is a very culturally diverse country. There is the difference between Berber and Arab, which is much more than just language. My town, Kelaa, is primarily Arab. The language on the street is the local Moroccan dialect of Arabic: Darija. ... read more