Eid Al Adha (The Festival of the Sacrifice)

     Tomorrow (October 16th) is Eid Al Adha, or the Festival of the Sacrifice. Eid is the second most important holiday in Islam besides Ramadan. True to the name, almost ever  Muslim family in Morocco will be sacrificing a ram tomorrow morning. Although I wasn't really sure what to expect (and am still not sure) our school has been trying to prepare us with several lectures on Eid in the past couple of weeks. Because I find it so interesting, here's a brief background and explanation of the festival.
     The meaning of the ritual sacrifice comes for the story in the Old Testament of when Abraham was told by God to take his only son  Isaac, Ishmael in the Quran, and sacrifice him to prove how faithful he was. Just as he was about to sacrifice him, an angel appears and tells him to not go through it and to instead sacrifice the nearby ram that was caught in the bushes. Abraham in this story represents complete submission unto God and the sacrifice symbolizes belief in God and God's mercy on believers. Every year on the lunar calendar, Muslims sacrifice goats, yew, sheep, camels, or even a cow to represent this story. Most people prefer rams because of the symbol of the ram in the story. Although this tradition might sound a little outdated or gory the significance of it is pretty meaningful. The soul is considered the most sacred thing in Islam. When they sacrifice, they say "Bismellah" which means in the name of God, or with the permission of God. When one sacrifices a ram they are doing it to take the ram's life, they do it in the preservation of the human's life. That being said almost every part of the ram will be used/cooked in some way and a good portion of the meat is given as charity to the poor.
     In Morocco for Eid  people pay the most attention the sacrifice. Every family gets a ram. Many would rather sell their furniture then have their neighbors have a ram and not them. People save up all year to by a ram. Because it is a sacrifice to God, only the best ram will do. If people are financially unable to get a ram its is not a problem. Celebrating Eid is encouraged in Islam but if one is not able to do so they will not be punished by God.

My host families ram and my host cousin's family's ram

Rams chilling in the house.  One ram for each nuclear family in the house.

    On the day of Eid 6 to 6 and a half million rams are sacrificed in Morocco alone. Pretty hard to believe, but consider how many animals are slaughtered in the United States on a daily basis, or even how many turkeys we go through on Thanksgiving, it does put this whole thing into perspective. That being said....sheeps about to go down here. Last week stalls selling hay and charcoal have popped up all over the medina. Also boys have built forts of hay all around the medina that they chill in and smoke and listen to music. Pretty jealous of their hay forts.  In addition to all of this, we all knew Eid was approaching because of the random sheep and rams being dragged or carried around in the medina. Also recently, men sharpening very large knifes have added to the festive decorations around the medina... it's not looking to good for those rams. I saw my families ram the other night it is on the terrace of my host cousins house so that is where I'll be tomorrow. It's pretty weird to think about how just about every household has at least ram or sheep in their house of on their terrace. It is also pretty loud outside because of all the noise the animals are making. The call to prayer  tonight was certainly a little bit more lively tonight with hundreds of rams "bahhing" along to it. Tomorrow is going to be a pretty bloody day. As our professor said, "Don't be alarmed if you see men walking around with bloody knifes and clothes... It's just Eid". I'll get around to updating this post after D-Day and add some pictures.

     Alright this second half of this blog post is coming at you post-Eid. And it will be containing some photos that are pretty gory so heads up, or should i say heads off...
Eid began in the morning with the men going to pray. My host sister and I walked over to her cousins house after I finally got to sleep in a little. When we got to their house we waited for the men to come come home from prayer so we could have breakfast. After a delicious breakfast and some tea we watched the prayer on the TV and saw the king do the first two slaughters. Traditionally, the king slaughters one ram for himself, and then one ram for the people who can't afford a ram. The people of Morocco usually wait for the King to slaughter the rams before they slaughter theirs. Soon many of the men in my host family came and changed out of their traditional robes into clothes that they didn't mind getting dirty. My host father and brother came in decked out in rain boots and a set of coveralls. My host grandmother's brother, a sweet old man that I talked with during breakfast pulled out a  couple of massive knifes and we all climbed up onto the terrace to watch (including the little kids). The men did pray before they went to get the first ram. I felt really bad for the rams because you could definitely see that they sensed something was about to happen. They were extremely skittish. I wasn't too sure about how I was going to handle watching an animal get slaughtered. Generally, (probably due to the massive number of injuries I have acquired) blood doesn't make me squeamish but I knew this was going to be a little bit different. Although cutting the ram's throat and bleeding the ram makes for a pretty bloody time, it is the most humane way to kill the animal. As soon as the artery is cut, the ram loses circulation to the brain and instantly goes unconscious. This is in fact the way that kosher butchers kill animals.  The worst part of it, I think was the sound of the blood squirting out after the artery was cut. Not going to be able to forget that for a while. Again the pictures are pretty bloody but it was kind of cool to see the whole family helping. Everyone had their own role. The women would provide buckets of water to clean the blood of the animal and they would squeegee the blood down the drain.  My host sister got right in there and helped hold the ram so her father could skin it. I didn't help because I felt I would get in the way but I was in the splash zone. The second ram was pretty hard to watch because this guy had no doubt in his mind what was about to happen to him. He put up a little bit of a fight and the knife didn't cut all the way through the artery the first time.
     After the animals were killed and the heads were cut off, they proceed to hang the ram upside down from the top of the terrace so they could skin and gut the ram. Just about every part of the ram is used whether its the head that is roasted, the skin that is donated to the tanneries, or the organs which are put on skewers and roasted.  I'll put the pictures all in a row here in case you want to skip through them. At one point of my host cousins was making fun of the faces I was making and would come up and "Baaaah" really loudly behind me the whole time. He also asked if i was hungry after the second sacrifice to which I politely told him that I was not hungry yet.

After watching for a little and taking pictures me and the other American students that were there decided to go walk around in the Medina and see what was happening in the streets. When we started walking around we got to the street that I live on and all my host cousins and their friends were roasting rams heads in the street after chopping off the horns. They were all laughing at me because they would pretend to try and touch me when their hands and clothes had blood on them but it was great to see them all and wish them Eid Mubarack Sayid (a Happy Eid).

Roasting heads in the street

My host cousins and me... and the ram heads....

Sheep skins collected on the main street of the median 

Earlier that morning I found out that me and my host mother were spending the weekend at my cousins house  (never know whats going on until its going on here) so I went home to get clothes and some books. Because of this I lost the group I was with but decided to walk around and try and find them. Everyone in the streets (all men) were so happy and friendly despite the fact that were bloody. This slight factor did not deter them from walking up to shake hands with me and wish me a happy Eid. In the main street in the medina, Mohammed the Fifth, there were hundreds of  skins laid out on top of each other, and other groups of men roasting heads. Some people will give their head to the boys to roast and then pick it up later and use it to cook, or in their cous cous. They just droped the head off at the friendly neighborhood head roasters.  The entire medina was pretty much enveloped in a large cloud of smoke.There were also carts of bags of trash and guts that people didn't need from the rams. The closeness of the community and importance of spending time with family and close friends was certainly very visible that day.

When I got back to my cousins house we sat down to feast of skewered kabobs and olives, and eggplant dishes, and bread. The skewered meat was the liver and stomach of the ram. Liver was not my favorite but it was still good. The rest of the day we hung around the house, got some reading done and everyone took naps and chilled. Late that night about 30 people in the family came over for a cous cous dinner. We even had a pre course of cous cous before the official dish. It was amazing. In order to prepare for this large dinner, my aunt had a giant tub of cous cous, it was the most I've ever seen at once. Dinner was amazing. The rest of the night we sat in the saloon and I arm wrestled with my guy cousins (almost won) and played with the little kids. It felt very similar to the vibe of holidays back at home with lots of family time and relaxation.

The next few days consisted of more ram at every meal. Moroccans pretty much eat every part of the ram including, spleen, pancreas, testicles, and the head.  So that was pretty much my Eid! All's wool that ends wool...

Essaouira Jewish History and Culture...Unfurled

My friend Sarah and I were assigned to give a presentation on the Jewish history and culture of Essaouria on the bus there. Naturally, we figure the best way to do that would be to write a rap. The large amount of bus time was also a contributing factor. So here's our rap. Our friend Charlotte laid a beat down for us.

S: Yo, Yo, Yo, Salaamu Alaikum C: Shnu kain huna? S: MK-47 M: Gold Standard S: Bout to lay down some knowleggggggeeee. Charlotte? M: Drop us a beat

When the Romans came to power they kicked out the Jews, Many came to Morocco, they had nothing to lose, It was the year 70, then their numbers grew 600 years later joined by others fleeing, too. There they established a small community, They converted Berber tribes while sippin’ some tea. Eventually, The Arabs came. Our boy, Idriss established a Muslim State. Jews weren’t tryna convert, so they fled from the war To the mountains and the desert, no longer by the shore. Idriss the 2nd came to power, he valued more unity, He invited the Jews back, allowed for their prosperity. The story doesn’t end there, there were struggles and strife, Now it’s time to educate how Jews got their Maghrebi life. Here’s a quick summary ‘bout the events that conspired, Jews status and positions in the following empires: Almoravids – PROTECTED Almohads – NOT PROTECTED Merenids – PROTECTED Waattasids – INDIFFERENT Saadians – USED Confused? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X*X I’m sure you’ve heard “Mellah,” Arabic word for salt That’s what they called the Jewish Ghettos, surrounded by walls. There are a couple possible reasons why this name came to be. We’re about to lay them down for you, then you can see. Wahid: Their confines, Built on salt mines Juge: Forced to salt heads Of Arab enemies dead. Which one is true? Well, that’s up to you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X*X Now this brings us to Essaouira, there was a Melah there, Almost as many Jews as Muslims – Minority? Where? Socially segregated, their coexistence was peaceful 7700 – Damn that place was full! Though many left to Israel, their Moroccan role is vital: Their traditions and their values – Strong like a wave, TIDAL! Commercial, Financial, Were their specialties. Their connections to Europe enabled diplomacy. Restoration of Jewish temples called for by Mo6. That Moroccan Identity? Hebrew Characteristic. If you’re looking for important Jewish places to go, Check out the grave, home, and synagogue of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, Or another synagogue of Simion Attias, Or the Jewish cemetery, BINT YOU BETTA BELIEVE US! (Bint is the arabic word for girl) Now you got some education, go experience the world. Baruch atah Adonai, Jewish history unfurled.

B’slamma!

Essaouira... 'nuff said

     It's taken me a while to get around to writing about my time in Essaouria because I knew this post would be a doozy to write... for someone who doesn't write too frequently, the task of putting the experience of completely falling in love with a place was kind of daunting.  I was also pretty sick for a while and down and out for about a week after the southern excursion. Now that I'm finally up and running and almost eating real food again I'm determined to sit down and write all this out.

    My last post left off with Marrakech. When we left Merrakech and headed to Essaouira we got to stop at an Argan Oil Cooperative. Argan Oil is huge in Morocco and essentially is used for everything, i.e. hair, body, acne, scars, muscle soreness, cooking, etc.  For those of you who have seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", its the windex of Morocco. The Argan Oil Cooperative that we visited gave the Berber women in local villages work for a fair share of pay and produced the oil and products by hand. My camera died during this leg of the journey but this is a picture of how they extract the oil from the argan seeds. I got to try and it takes some pretty strong arms to turn those stones that crush the oil! After the spending way more money than we intended to we were on our way to Essaouria. Our first day included fresh fish for lunch, and then we walked through the Medina and shopped. What makes the medina of Essaouria different than every other medina in Morocco that I've been in so far, is the people and just the overall feeling and vibe. The shop keepers and all the locals all took time out of their day to ask  us where we were from and how we were doing. There, everyone is so relaxed and laid back, yet quick to smile. Even when we were bargaining down a product with the shop keepers they would laugh at my attempts to speak Arabic. My two friends and I at one point found ourselves in an old jewelry shop where the shop keeper invited us to sit down. He then pulled out bags and bags of old rings, bracelets, and necklaces and invited us to look through them. The jewelry was absolutely beautiful and included a lot of Berber traditional symbols such as a compass that when aligned with the north star and the three stars around it can point north. The shop keeper told us about the different kinds of compasses he had such as the Saharian, and Berber, and Tuareg. He also told us about how he is a guide for treks through the Merzouga dessert and that his village is close to where we stayed in the desert. He got us tea and invited us to his village in the future in a perfect display of Moroccan hospitality. When we finally decided to continue on through the medina, we found the mellah, the walled ghetto where the Jews lived. At one point there were as many Jews as there were Arabs, making Essaouria the only city to not have a Jewish minority. Presently, there are only about 50 Jews left and they all still live in the mellah. We toured the home, and synagogue of Rabbi Chaim Pinot which is currently cared for by an old muslim lady who was incredibly kind. Her story is pretty incredible because when many of the Jews fled her family remained and took care of the synagogue and now it is open as a museum. This kind of story is part of the large amounts of  inspirations for my decision to do my independent study on interfaith in Morocco (more on that later). After walking around a bit more we headed back to meet our group to play a game of soccer on the beach before dinner. I am clearly not a soccer player but it was nice to be able to run around. I didn't even get hurt...that bad! After dinner everyone kind of went their separate ways but some of my friends and I headed to the beach to see the stars at night.

      The next morning most of our group caught the bus back with the program to return home to Rabat but me and the same group from last night opted to stay and travel the weekend. The next day was an absolutely perfect day from start to finish. Everything just seem to magically work out It started with a free breakfast in the morning then we all headed over to the hotel in the medina we were staying in. At that moment  I was so happy to be in Morocco, walking along the beach, with my backpack on my back, surrounded by close friends. It felt like I was doing the right thing with my life to be in that moment, at that exact instant. That feeling stuck with me the whole day, everything kind of seemed to work out like one big happy coincidence. For instance, once we checked into our hotel, we went down to the lobby to give them our passport information. When we returned to our room we couldn't unlock the door. Everyone tried. Eventually they got a maid to try and she couldn't open it, and then they got a man who worked there and he couldn't do it. A that point he sent us up to the terrace to hang out wait. The terrace by the way had a view of the entire median and the sea and the weather was perfect. So what did we do? We tanned on the terrace in our bathing suits that we conveniently had put on in the morning, while below us the man could be heard hammering away at our door.

Finally we came and got us after breaking down the door and we got moved into a much nicer room with 2 queens instead of 3 singles. While my two friends went to drum lesson at a local trance music store, the rest of us went through the souk searching for a picnic lunch to bring to the beach. The beach and lunch that afternoon was perfect and we sampled some of the local culture and got to relax. Later that evening we went to to a restaurant and cafe called Three Birds Place because it advertised live Gnawa music. There we had  tea, and tajines. The live music was literally a father and his two young sons. The father played the string instrument while the boys played the castanets. It was absolutely incredible. At one point in the middle of a song, the younger boy got a phone call and just walked out of the restaurant to take the call in the middle of the performance which was pretty hilarious. Between the songs, the cafe would play music off a mixed cd that was just perfect. The songs were a perfect mix of jazz, funk, oldies and remixed pop. We were all so taken with the music (both the live and the cd) that we asked the owners of the cafe if we could get the mix from them. They agreed to hook us up if we came back the next morning. (They graciously gave us 4 different mixed CDs the next morning, which now make up the most amazing play list on my iTunes.) Between all the music, food, and getting to know the musicians we were all riding such a natural high that night that we couldn't wipe the smiles of our faces. That perfect night continued with some nutella, banana, almond crepes (no joke.)  and some roof top drumming and singing impromptu blues at our hotel until we were asked to quiet down by some of the grumpier guests. oops. ( Germans need their sleep) The next morning we woke up early and though we all didn't want to leave Essaouria,  half of us continued on to Marrakech the next day to split up the 8 hour travel time back to Rabat. One of our readings by Mohamed Salhi who is a Moroccan poet, captures the city perfectly.

 "Essaouira’s magic lies in its transparent mystery. It teaches you one lesson after another in love of life and embrace of its lethal mirage. It is a carnival city; whoever visits it wears a mask and is immediately immersed in the carnival. The drums are beaten and the senses speak; everything moves away from itself and roves. In Essaouira, you don’t need to have an ID card. Here there is no identity but Essaouira. It is as though this city has split itself into many bodies; it is one city in the plural. It encompasses the charms and beauty of each and every Moroccan city." 

This city is the perfect blend of Arab, and Berber culture. Although there is western influenc just like Rabat and Merrakech, this city incorporated it in a different way than just tourist attractions. The western culture came though in a sort of jazzy, and soulful way, like the way the mixed cds at the cafe that had lots of blues and funk on it, or the way every single local loves Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley. My heart was stolen that weekend by the people who are all so kind and genuine, the sea and perfect accompanying breeze, the gnawa music full of culture and tradition, and the very soul and funk of the city itself. As Salhi put it, "Whoever visits Essaouira certainly comes back to it, lives in it, or dreams of coming back to it".
     Merrakech the next was not quite the perfect day but we all kind of rolled with it since the day before was so great. The bus ride was long and hot and stuffy and it took us a while to find our hotel but when we finally did we had a nice night in the square with more shopping and some good food. the next day we had to catch a 5 hour train ride back to Rabat. We were supposed to have a daylight saving time that morning and gain an hour, however some minister in Morocco decided not to have it. He actually changed his mind. Good to know.  That morning we were incredibly confused because when we go to the train station we were a little disoriented to find the clock and trains running an hour later than what we thought the time was. Classic Morocco for ya. The train ride back was the perfect amount of time to sit and enjoy and reflect on the amazing week we all had and make a new Moroccan friend who sat in our compartment. I just felt such a piece of mind because of the continuing feeling that I was supposed to be in Morocco, and on that train at that moment. It was a great end to the southern excursion.

 

Sahara, Merrakech, Essaouria, and more!

   So its been a while since  I last posted thus leaving me with a lot to write about. This past week was the program's southern excursion. Our trip is on the following map and included loads of bus time! I'm just

going to mention the highlights and some of my favorite places and hopefully whoever is reading this can keep up with my scattered thoughts. :) Sorry this one's a doozy. So much to think about.  The southern excursion started early Saturday morning to Azrou which was our halfway stop for the night on our way to the Sahara. Many parts of the drive reminded me of parts of  New Mexico with long stretches of dessert leading up to tall mountains. The first place we stopped for lunch that day was called Azrou. Its a small village a couple hours south of Rabat. Before lunch we had about an hour and a half so the some of the group opted to walk through the village. The house in the village were perched up on the side of a mountain super close to each other. Walking through the village, it was easy to notice that many of the houses were falling apart, and that this was a very poor village. However,  the amazing smells of cooking food wafting out of the houses as we walked through the village told us that although many of these people are poor, they still continue on with with their lived and make do with the means that they have. It was a completely different life than that of the rest of Morocco that I've seen that is impacted by western influences. This was definitely once of those moments of realization of the fact that I was across the world on Northern Africa. I wanted to stop and talk to these people about their lives. This village seemed to be in its own little world, mostly untouched by western influence. But unfortunately, we had to get back to lunch  After arriving in Azrou and spending the night there, we traveled the Sahara desert stopping along the way to look at the Barbary Macaque monkeys before arriving in a village called Rissani in the dessert. From Rissani we had a lunch of what they called "Moroccan Pizza" which was essentially pizza minus the tomato sauce and cheese with extra bread on top of the filling made of beef, egg, and onion. We than got to take land rovers to the dessert.  Before riding to our hotel which was literally in the Merzouga desert in the Sahara, we had a site visit at a local NGO that empowered the local women in the village as well as nomads that pass through by offering language classes and work through selling crafts that they make. The embroidered clothes and crafts they made were beautiful and inspiring. After this we went to the hotel. Our land rover driver was crazy. He would race with the other drivers in the caravan, do donuts around in the dirt, and plough through sand dunes all then while with the same Arabic song on repeat for about 45 minutes.  Might have gotten the slightest bit of whip lash from that ride but it was so worth it! 

And finally, we got to the Sahara. We were only about 15 km from Algeria.  It is hard to explain what I felt during this time except to say that  I absolutely fell in love with the Sahara and the people in it. We got to ride camels from our hotel to some bigger sand dunes which we climbed and rolled down before finally settling down to watch the sunset. The feeling of the warm sand beneath my bare feet and the absolutely and final silence of the desert took my breath away and left me speechless  (those of you who know me well, know how the significance of this). Upon returning to the hotel we sat down in front of a camp fire and had mint tea while we watched a Gnawa band preform. Gnawa music is a type of African Islamic spiritual music originating from the Berber tribes that is meant to put you in a trance. It involves drums, iron castanets called krakebs, chanting, dancing, and a 3 stringed instrument similar to a lute. It is pretty incredible to hear and indeed mesmerizing.  If you ask,  I will send along a video of a song that I took.  We danced and sang songs that the musicians taught us then went on to an incredible buffet dinner at the hotel involving essentially every traditional Moroccan dinner dish at once. In a massive buffet. Talk about heaven. 

      That night after most returned to bed my friend and I went out to go see the stars.  We ended up getting invited to join some of the drivers that drove the land rovers.  They were Berber and one of them was a from a nomadic tribe. We exchanged greetings in Arabic, English and they even taught us a little Berber. They explained how the nomads in the desert travel during the night and use the starts to guide them because in the day, it is much too hot to travel. One of the guys then pointed to the circle of tents that were pitched outside the hotel and said "would you like to stay in my hotel? I have a hotel. The hotel you are staying in is 4 of 5 stars.... but in 4 or 5 star hotel, you don't see any start. In my hotel, you see 4000 stars. My hotel has 4000 stars."I wanted to camp outside so bad even if its meant giving up a bed and shower.  We laughed, talked more and said our goodbyes because we wanted to go look at the stars but they came with us. As we all walked along the sand dunes we ran into another couple of people from our program and one of the musicians from earlier and they joined us and led us to the top of a small sand dune before we all sat down.

     On that sand dune in the Sahara desert I had  easily one of the best nights of my life. The singer called himself "Timbuktu" and he was absolutely hilarious yet incredibly inspiring at the same time. We sat in a circle and exchanged jokes, and stories. He would tell us half of a joke and then make us go around in a circle and try and guess the answer. If we didn't know the answer we had to each respond with a different animal noise. It sounds ridiculous but it had me in fits of laughter the entire night. Interspersed with the jokes he would slip in quotes. I want to share them with you and hopefully even though you are not sitting in the immensely silent and phenomenal desert you will appreciate the beauty in what he said. One of the quotes he had us guess until we completed it was "It's nice to be nice; it's important to be nice, but it's not nice to be important".  The song he had us sing every time one of us started to get sleepy sounded so light hearted and fun but when he finally at the end of the night interpreted it for us, I was moved. It goes like this: "Halle, Halle, bischeetwelle, ya habibi"I don't remember the rest of the Arabic but it means: "Make your mouth sweat, so you can come back to people. With these words you make my heart crumble in your hands". In other words, think about what you say  and work hard before you open your lips to speak. Make the words that you say mean something, so you can always return home to the people you meet. Additionally he ended the amazing evening with the somewhat paraphrased quote:"Today  I didn't know I was going to meet you all and we would end up in the Sahara tonight    
together. You may call it coincidence, you may call it destiny but to me this is what life is about:           meeting people from around the world and connecting through  songs, jokes, and laughter. Will             we see each other again?  I do not know but we had tonight in the moonlight. Inshallah (God                 willing) we will meet again."
I felt that this summed up this amazing evening perfectly. Inshallah, I will return to the Sahara to do a week excursion on camels by the end of my trip. Plans are in the making. 

     The next morning, with about 3 hours of sleep we woke up early to see the sun rise over the sand dunes and for once last glance (for now) of beautiful desert. After breakfast we hopped back into the land rovers for a hella bumpy ride. Our driver was bumping to some tunes from his mp3 player and I was blown away when a song came on that was in Hebrew, Arabic and English. It was the most amazing reggae song. It was incredible to hear Hebrew, in the middle of the desert, after such a long time of not using it besides when a few words accidentally make their way into my broken Arabic. 

   We then proceed on to Ourzazette, which everyone calls the Moroccan Hollywood because it is where many movies are filmed including Lawrence of Arabia. I'm not going to go into detail but I got pretty sick for the next couple of days. In Rabat me and some of the guys had this meat sandwich three weeks ago. We now refer to it as the infamous "Street Meat" or "Mystery Meat"  I only had one Hamdullah! (thank God) but the guys had way more than that and one even ate it continually throughout their time in Rabat. All of us got sick afterwards. To be short it kind of tore me apart unexpectedly. I was not able to eat or drink anything without stomach cramps and other like symptoms for about 3 days. Our group has become very comfortable talking about our bowel movements.  In Marrakech I was able to see a doctor and got some medicines. I am doing better but still couldn't eat much cooked food besides steamed veggies and rice along with bread and bananas for the rest of the week. Hamdullah I was able to keep the amazing cookies in Marrakech down when we returned this weekend! 

     Marrakech was pretty amazing. It was here that I fully realized the sincerity of the Moroccan people. Majority of the shop keepers in the souk wanted to just talk to us more than they wanted to sell something to us. If we said that we didnt't want something many would say in Arabic, no problem, and thank you, or God bless. People were just so kind and friendly. We were lucky enough to be led by one such shop keeper to a Berber pharmacy. This is a store that specialized in natural herb remedies, cosmetics, every spice you could think of and some you couldn't think of, and perfumes. Just about any ailment that someone has, they have an herbal cure for. I took a picture of the store but this was one wall in the entire store. We spent a day just shopping in the souk and hanging out in the square, where there are stands that sell the best fresh squeezed orange juice I've ever tasted in my life, and souvenirs of every kind. There were also snake charmers, musicians, dancers, etc. The next day we hit up the tourist sites such as the Majorelle Gardens, the leather tannery (smelly! but they hand you a bunch of fresh mint leaves to hold over your nose and mouth. They called it the Berber gas mask!), a tajine shop, and the Saadian tombs. It was a wonderful day even though I was still really sick. 

     After Marrakech, we continued on to Essaouria, which will get its own post because I need to go do all the work I put off for a week, and because it is so far my favorite place in all of Morocco! Next couple of posts will hopefully be coming pretty soon because I still have so much to write about this past week!!!

Meziane Bissef!

I'm so happy and content right now so I figured it would be a good time to write a blog entry! I'll start with what happened Friday though.

On Friday I had to miss Darija (the class where we learn the Moroccan dialect) because I had to go to Casa Blanca to get my bag that was seized by customs. Long story short it was a disaster. I was lucky that a teacher from my school came with me because I would not have been able to get my bag or even figure out where it was. Long story short- we got to the airport and then they told us to go the DHL so we took a taxi. We ended up hitch hiking back and forth across Casa Blanca, because at one place  I had to open my bag and show them everything, at a different place we had to get the receipt stamped, at a different place we had to pay, then go back to the first place to get the bag. It was pretty ridiculous. We left at 8 in the morning and got back at 4pm after two train rides each way. So that is my experience with Morrocan Customs...

On Saturday, my host family and I went to Casa Blanca (again) to visit some of their family there.  There I met some more cousins ( I have like 40 thousand cousins. Every time I think I have met all my cousins I meet someone new!) We went to the Grand Mosque built by Hassan II and then had a huge lunch at the family's house, napped, and then went to the Moroccan Mall. The car ride out and back was supposed to be and hour each way but somehow we ended up driving for about 3 hours each way. The whole time Arabic Music and the occasional Rihanna song were playing with the volume all the way up. I think we listened to this song about 13 times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBUQRI9NUow It was a long but good day.

Sunday was also a good day. In the morning I had my first surf lesson! It was a really hard to pop up from the board. I only was able to do it once but I was still pretty proud of myself. After surfing, me, my sister Imane, her mom, and about 10 of our cousins went to a beach a bit further away. The beach was way less crowded, cleaner, and the waves were HUGE! I mean huge. I got knocked around quite a bit while swimming. We spent all day at the beach and ate lunch there. I tried to do some required reading for school bit wasn't incredibly successful. It was a very relaxing day.

Today (Monday) was the first official day of school. We had been taking Darija since Wednesday but today was the first full day with our human rights and multiculturalism class. After school (done at 3 every day!), I went to a cafe to get some tea and try and do some homework before surfing. Today I absolutely fell in love with surfing! Although all the paddling is tiring (probably good for water polo), and my eyes burned from the salt water, theres really something to waiting for the perfect wave and then being able to catch it! Today I did way better and was able to pop up and stand most of the time The last wave of the evening that  I caught I rode all the way in. I was way too excited about it but I felt so accomplished! After surfing I came home around 8 and had a quick snack of tea and a pastry before I headed to the hammam (the bath house) with my host sister and a girl who is here from Spain that is staying with the family. In Morocco, people go about once a week. Because they don't shower every day, they stay in the hammam anywhere from 1-3 hours (the women stay much longer than the men). Going to the hammam is quite the experience! You wear only underwear and bring soap, and shampoo, buckets, and a mat to sit on. There are usually 3 different rooms. A hot room (like a sauna) a medium room, and a cold room. There you sit and wash yourself and your hair and you can have the ladies who work there scrub you. They use a wash cloth type thing that is rough like sandpaper and they scrub you raw. The amount of dirt that came of me was pretty impressive but my skin was so soft afterwards! I felt so clean and relaxed and it was the perfect thing after surfing (even though I'm going to go tomorrow and get all salty again). Dinner was around 11:30PM again. This meal schedule makes for long days but good days.

 Today was also a great day because I was able to get home from school without getting lost! The school and my home are in the median (or the old city) which is surrounded by walls build in the 12th century. Essentially it is a labyrinth. The narrow streets are lined with homes, shops, and markets.  Every time my host sister walked me to school she took a different way to show me all ways but it really just got me more confused! Many people also ride motor bikes and scooters which you always have to watch out for when you're walking. I saw a woman's purse get hooked on one going by and she got pulled on a for a ride for a while. She was ok so it was funny. However, after that whenever I hear a bike I try to look all around me and move out of the way as quickly was possible. Another hazard of the streets is because people live in the home that line the street, you have to pay attention above you. I was walking home from school today and someone was chiseling in their window sill. A big piece of stone fell and hit my backpack. I was lucky it missed my head! All of these experiences bring me to love Morocco even more. There is a also a huge chance that  I will become a surf bum this semester! More soon but now I'm off to bed! Sabir L'hir! (good night!)

First night with host family!!

     Last night our program had a welcome dinner for us. The meal was incredible! It was pastille which is basically a pie with filo dough and it was chicken with almonds, saffron, and and chopped nuts and its was super sweet delicious. As a surprise the center had a band come play traditional Moroccan music it was amazing! Also because it was Rosh Hashanah me and two other Jewish girls that I met hunted down some apples and honey and ate them by the river. It certainly wasn't my traditional New Year but I think I'm off to a sweet start so far :)
     Today  I met my host family and tonight is my first night with them! In my immediate family is my mom, two sisters one who is 19 and one who is 29 and a host brother who is 30. My host sister Imam picked me up from the school today along with her little 4 year old cousin, her cousin who is 7, and her cousin who is 14. Imam explained to me thamt she lives in her grandmothers house with her brother, and her mom is in her aunts house. When we first got to the house I wasn't sure of what to do so I kind of awkwardly sat down while we watched television for a while. Our homestay coordinator explained that in every Moroccan house, the television is like another member of the family because it’s always on! After awhile Imam and I went to the beach with her cousins best friend and her best guy friend growing up. It was nice to finally be able to hang out with guys and not be harassed, checked out, or made fun for being American. The two guys were very nice and funny and they picked on Imam like she was their sister, pretending to throw her in the ocean and playing with her hijab.  We all went to the beach  and walked around. Tomorrow after school we are going to go back and go swimming! Luckily enough Imam speaks English pretty well but no one else in here family or her friends that I’ve met really does. Because I don’t speak Arabic or French I was just content to listen. Imam is so sweet and would hold my hand sometimes when we crossed the street or so I wouldn't feel left out. She also calls me “Meelo” because she can’t really say my name. So to all her friends and family I am  now "Meelo".

            The traditional time that Moroccan families eat dinner is anytime between 9-11:30PM. They do lunch around 1 or 2 and then do tea and a snack of bread or cake around 7 or 8.  After the beach Imam and I went to her aunt’s house for tea and I met more of her cousins and her mom. I love love love her mom. My host mom I guess. She is so funny and just kind of plays rough with all the cousins and smacks them around lovingly. She also makes funny faces and dance moves randomly. She is quite the character.  We ate dinner at 10:30 which was an early dinner for them. It was a tajine which is a stew of chicken and potatoes and then Imam and several of her cousins and her mom and I went down to the river because there is a carnival with rides for children there. My host family is big and crazy! The entire night  and on our way down to the river and back we all sang and danced and beat boxed and played football with empty bottles and trash with the little kids. Selma who is 7 is quite the dance and her brother Amman who is 4 is adorable. By the time we got the river, the carnival was closed except for the bumper cars. So we got to ride bumper cars. Around 12:30 we started to make our way home. Even walking through the medina the family was paying and laughing and singing. Swear that at one point there was a conga line formed! I'm so happy to get what I'm sure is the biggest craziest host family out there!

 What a day! Also today was my second day of Arabic and I absolutely love it. I feel that I am picking it up pretty well I can’t wait until I can speak with Imam and her family and friends soon!

First post from Morocco!

Alright finally got to some reliable wifi and wanted to take advantage of some down time to write down my expectations as well as some of my first impressions!

Expectations:

- To grow as an individual on this program and become more open minded and independent
- To become proficient in Arabic and the Darija the Moroccan Dialect
- To at times be completely overwhelmed by cultural differences
- To feel lost and overwhelmed at times or get frustrated by inability to communicate
- To eventually feel at home and comfortable here
- Form lasting and meaningful relationships with my host family, students and staff on the program as well as the locals around Rabat
- To apply both my majors to my study and grow academically
- To drink lots of Moroccan tea :)
-To try something new whenever possible

Arriving into Morocco I was super happy to meet everyone and for the first time in three weeks not be in charge of planning out the schedule for the day, or meals and accommodation. Everyone of the program is very friendly and equally excited to be in Morocco. After our first Moroccan dinner we had the night to ourselves and a group of us decided to explore the souk (the market). There is just so much to take in:  the sights of the different types of people, the smells of spices, and sounds of roosters (theres one next to our school building) the chickens being weighed in the market, the languages of French, Arabic, and Berber and the call to prayer every day. Morocco is also hot and sweaty especially because as women we cant't wear anything shorter than our knees or have our shoulders show. Learning how to not trip over my long skirt has been quite the experience as has trying to communicate with people in the souk or on the street. Most only speak French or Darija so well see how fast I can pick up both! I got to run to dinner but more to come! We start learning Arabic this week and will meet out host families soon!