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Published: March 1st 2013
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2/27/13
Some things are just priceless because they are so foreign to one’s own life experiences. That sentence should and probably will stand as our mantra during our Peace Corps service. To help you better understand what we mean by this saying, let us start with our little brother Hamza and his obsession with birds. Some of you may or may not have seen some of the photos of his pigeons and the pigeon coop on the roof of our house in our prior blogs but believe us when we say that Hamza really has a HUGE interest in his brods. So there we were last night, just sitting in the living room eat dinner with “mom” and Khadija when, just like pizza delivery in the US, a beautiful white dove was delivered to the front door. Our brother was not home, so Khadija brought him inside and put it on her lap while we finished dinner. She admired the bird and stretched its wing to show us how magnificent its feathers were. A funny thing to note is that the bird did not really look distressed at all. In fact, it appeared to completely accept the attention and just
sort of sat there.
Eventually, our little brother arrived home with a plastic bag from the store. He laid it on the table, and took the bird upstairs to its new home. When he came back downstairs, he opened the bag which was full of candy and a random metal can. As it turns out, that can was red spray paint – the aerosol kind. Khadija was interested in what it was, so she opened it and smelled the top. She then sprayed some paint onto the paper towel she was holding (by the way, the paper towels were bought for us, because we are special guests, and incapable of keeping our fingers clean after slurping up our food with our hands – all paper towels are simply called “Kleenex”). Then she smelled the paper towel with paint on it. Seriously?!?! Yes it is true, she sprayed it inside a closed room onto a paper towel and then smelled it. We kept telling her not to do it, but she is 17 after all. At that point, Ann went to the squatty potty and she heard Hamza in the shoe closet right outside of the potty door. He apparently
went into the closet and sprayed some kind of symbol in there with the red spray paint. Yes, the closet was in the house and yes, the smell continued to spread throughout the house. (Thanks kid!). Contrary to warning labels, no one died of asphyxiation. Hahaha! But, by now, we are through saying, “Seriously?!?!?!?!” because everything just is… This is Morocco after all!
So, after the bird and spray paint episodes, we got roped into watching our oldest sister’s wedding DVD. Hold on… let us correct that last statement. We got roped into watching our oldest sister’s wedding on video… NOT her wedding DVD. Little did we know that it was 4 DVD’s!!!! Moroccan weddings are said to last 8-10 hours. We can now fully attest to that fact because although we did not watch all 4 DVD’s, we made it through one and a half and it was over 3 hours and counting!!! In the wedding, there is a lot of group drum banging and singing/chanting. The camera person went around the room and took video of people, most of which were not smiling. So, we sat planning our polite “escape” for a while, but had not come
up with the right way to say, “Please… for the love of all that is Holy, let us go to our room to escape the banging drums and ensuing madness!” We truly tried to phrase it nicely, but we were at a loss. (Probably because of the banging drums!) At some point though, after Ann had made several comments about the bride’s beautiful gowns (yes, multiple gowns), our “mom” decided that Ann should dress up in a beautiful caftan like the ones the women at the wedding were wearing. Ann’s lucky day - - to be a Barbie doll! (Please recall, Clay was the Barbie doll after only 2 days in our new home!) One caftan came out with matching belt and shoes, then another, then another… it was like our own personal bridal show!!! On the final one, “mom” gave Ann some really expensive jewelry to put on with it. (Ann and I had commented on her “bling” when she appeared wearing it in the video.) During the process, there was some shuma (shame) when Ann had to take off her pajama pants in the living room (even though the dress was already on over the pants, it was
still shameful to undress in the living room). The laughing was infectious. See photos of Ann’s bridal show.
We are adding a few photos of the “shower” at our house and our bedroom. There is a bucket for the shower which measures out the amount of water one should use on any given occasion and several other necessary items for cleaning one’s self. Recently, our “mom” has been really sweet to us by providing a pitcher of warm water for our teeth brushing and face rinsing in the a.m. She gets up before we do to make sure we have the water, a clean squatty potty and warm bread (warmed in the outside oven), olives, butter (pungently wonderful), home-made honey, laughing cow cheese and hot milk for our Nescafe (by the way, Nescafe rocks!). It is amazing that she brought us into her home and makes sure that we are comfortable in such a gracious manner. She truly is an amazing woman. As much as we might whine about what we are missing at home, she gives us her best and we are appreciative.
Ann’s birthday today and here is her commentary: Life is good, despite mass confusion
in so many ways. I am happy in a strange land. I know I have much love coming from home (I miss you so much, my family and friends (and puppies)!) and that is truly comforting. I could be having this birthday with less challenge, a big cake and presents, listening to Lisa sing me a birthday song, getting a strong hug from Adam, and I will miss my glass(es) of red wine. I am even teaching two classes tonight. Working yes, but living a part of my bucket list.
An end note here - - while writing this blog entry, we are listening to a soap opera on TV in the other room. Here are two sagely pieces of advice, if you move to another country where a language you do not know is spoken: First, you can get used to not knowing what people are saying and while it may not be productive, it is sometimes bliss. Secondly, soap opera dialogue is usually spoken pretty slowly and so it is a good way to learn the language, especially since you can pretty much tell what is going on by the dramatic miming of the actors and the
cheesy music.
Until next time, we are working on the following phrase in anticipation of our next hotel opportunity: Wesh ftur mHsoob mEa l-beet? Which simply means, “Is breakfast included?” we think it’s a pretty good question!
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Faye
non-member comment
Hi
What an amazing adventure you are both on. We love you. Faye Dan & Milly