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Published: March 12th 2013
3/11/2013
It has been a week since our last blog. The first part of the week was cold and raining. It was NOT fun to walk to the dar chebab every day. Some excitement came when one night, our brother, Hamza, got into big trouble. You might remember from our descriptions that this kid is very mature for his age and extremely independent. His Mom spanked him, threatened to take his money away (he has more pocket money than all of us) and said that he will no longer go to cafes or hang around bad people. You may also remember that he is twelve years old!!!! As a cultural note, boys are pretty much allowed to do whatever they want to do (girls generally stay at home, do not hang out at cafes and are well monitored). He was in trouble because he has not been doing his homework (French). How long did his “restriction” last? As far as we could tell, it ended about 24 hours later when he got a brand new pair of roller blades. On the bright side, he did act like he was doing his homework for about 3 days, though.
On Wednesday,
market (sook) day, we had a culture lesson on bargaining that took place… you guessed it! At the souq (sook). However, when we arrived, the ground was super wet and muddy and the wind was whipping and gusting with a vengeance. The amount of sellers in the souq was significantly less than the last time we ventured there, due to the weather. We did end up buying 1.5 kilos of strawberries (yes, we have to learn conversions as well)! For those of you that aren’t forced to know the metric system, 1 kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. So, we paid 15 dirhams for the berries. For those of you who are curious, 1 dollar US is worth 8.54 Moroccan dirhams… so we paid $1.76 for 3.3 pounds of awesome strawberries. This place is great for buy cheap food!!! We also purchased some peanuts - - nicely roasted and salted. When you buy things like peanuts (kow kow) or fresh berries, things that are weighed, you may do so by two means. The one way is to ask for the amount you want by the weight. For example, “I would like two kilos of carrots.” The other way is to tell the
vendor that you would like X-amount of dirhams worth. For example, “I would like 5 dirhams of peanuts, please.” (Bġrit xmsa dirhams Ԑla kow kow, afack.)
Most things in the souq, from apples to shoes, may be bargained for. However, some things are a set price. Sometimes, “taman kayn taman” (the price is the price). When it was time for lunch, we ended up eating in the kafta (ground meat) tent on morsels of ground beef with onion, cooked into oblong shapes (accompanied by bread of course). By the end of the meal, the fat that dripped from the tasty little “footballs” onto the metal plate, starts to harden... Trust us!!! That’s the tastiest part!!! (Kathy M., we know you are gagging right now!!!) The Price for lunch (g’dda) was 20 DH, or about $2.75 US apiece and add a bottled soda that costs about 45 cents US and you just paid about $3.00 for an all you can eat lunch!!! Since the average salary in Morocco is about $3500 per year (with unemployment over 25%), this makes sense, eh? Works for us… remember, the Peace Corps is a volunteer organization, we don’t draw a salary!
Towards the
end of the week we had to return to Fes for PC training again. About halfway to Fes, we stopped at a routine bus stop but instead of only being stopped for a few minutes, we stayed put for over an hour. Yep! It would seem that when the bus stopped at the bus stop, and the doors opened for the transitioning of its passengers, none opted to get off the bus (as most of the riders were going all the way to Fes) and there was no room for the new people to get on. This might sound like a no brainer… you close the door and drive away and the unlucky would be riders catch the next bus. Not on this day. It was this day that the people of bus stop number 6 decided no more! No more would they be stranded to find alternate transportation in order to reach work or the university on time! No more would they stomach paying for “grand taxis” when a bus is cheaper! How dare the country not provide enough bus space to accommodate everyone needing the bus that morning! Alack and for shame!!! Here is what those abused people
decided to do about the situation… They started by arguing with the driver about why there is not enough room for ALL of the people ALL of the time. That helped. (He said in a VERY sarcastic tone.) In reality, it did not. But, as is tradition here in Morocco, when at first you don’t see eye to eye, get louder. Yep… that helped. (again, with sarcasm) After 15 minutes or so of very loud discussions as to why the bus is not bigger, the driver opted to exit the talks and tried to close the doors. This firm stance and chosen course of action were not taken well be the very unhappy would be passengers. In response, the pedestrians decided that if they could not ride the bus to Fes, then no one else would either… very sound thinking. (really?!?!?) So the crowd on foot proceeded to physically block the path of the bus by standing and sitting in front of the vehicle. Yep… this was going to be one of those mornings. So… there we were, on a blocked bus to Fes, sitting in between nowhere and no place and not going anywhere fast! We simply ask the
reader to bear in mind that we are due in Fes for PC training at 9:00am. (It’s a good thing we caught the 7:00am bus!) After about 45 minutes of just sitting or standing on the bus, the passengers began to exit and seek alternate means of transportation. Many called “grand taxis” to come and rescue them… as one may well imagine, these taxis were NOT received well by the crowd holding the bus. If people actually get to Fes, it defeats the whole “protest” purpose! It did not take long before the bus was empty enough for ALL of the remaining people, both inside and outside of the bus, to fit into the bus comfortably. However, for some unknown reason, the “protest” was not ready to end just yet… I don’t know why. By this time, about an hour and fifteen minutes into this highjack, we had buses lined up behind us and more on the way… it would appear that one bus may not pass another bus en route. In the end, the trouble makers got on the bus, we got actual seats and we ALL made it to Fes. Sheesh!!! Welcome to Morocco.
This time in
Fes, we did have a working toilet in our room!!! Yay! The downside was, we had no locking mechanism on our door and the handle would not close the door either. By now, we have learned to say, mashi mushkeel (akin to whatever……). While in Fes, Clay also got a bout of chest congestion. This turned into a phlegm fest and the weekend back in Ain Cheggag was recoup time while Ann attended the International Women’s Day events. (Aw… shucks for Clay!)
There were a few interesting moments to note, despite Clay’s illness. 1) Hamza came in from his pigeon coop on the roof and started eating… without washing his hands (again, Kathy M. must be dying!). As he picked up a piece of “Moroccan pizza,” we noticed a little present left on his hand by one of his adoring pigeon friends. Yep, it was poop… a big one! As Clay was trying to causally tell him about it, and he just wasn’t getting the gist, his mother said in a loud voice (in Darija), “You have poop from the bird on your hand! Don’t eat it.” This warning he heard! His hand was midway to his mouth when
he stopped and turned his hand and saw the offending plops! Ironically, instead of grossing anyone out, everyone just laughed. SERIOUSLY laughed! However, they kept on eating out of the same plate of food. Of course, these are the same people that ate after, a very sick, Clay put his hands in the communal dish and our sister used his cup to drink something after he was finished with it. Gotta love it!!! 2) We both got hot bucket baths as a special treat for being here one day when no one else was around. 3) Our “mom” made us a dinner tray for our room one night to give us alone time. She is completely wonderful! 4) Multiple people told us that Clay was sick only because he spent time in the hot, steamy Hammam and did not wrap up warmly before venturing into the night to return home. Yep… it couldn’t be the bird poop in the food or the random kids with runny noses and dirty hands, eating from the communal plate of food with no utensils… of course not. It has to be the fresh night air on his wet noggin that did him in! We
truly do love this place more with each passing day!
Finally, we gave our “mom” one of those digital picture frames loaded with photographs from our time here. The language difficulty was explaining that it was NOT a T.V. (telfezza) as it had a remote control with it and that is was a gift. We are getting better at language, but some explanations go against people’s experiences and culture, too. Language, culture, experience differences, metrics - - what are we to do?!?!?!? Soon, it will be trial by fire… but that is one burn we are looking forward to!!!
Please see our Youtube slide-show at:
. We made this slide-show to capture memories from our Community Based Training (CBT) in Ain Cheggag.
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Diana Farhat
non-member comment
Love It!
Hey Guys! I love reading your blog and the Youtube slideshow was great! Keep up the good work you are doing and hang it there for the crazy stuff. What do they say, poop happens???