An Overdue Update

Hey again! Please forgive me for not having posted in so long, but I'll give an update of what's been going on in the last couple of weeks.

A couple of weekends ago I was invited to another Moroccan wedding, but this time as a performer. It's great to have friends in fun places. A couple of friends of mine who live in Temara are musicians who play in weddings each weekend. They invited me to attend one with them, so I met them at their house a couple of hours before the wedding. They dressed me up in a typical outfit for Moroccan wedding musicians, and we crammed into the back of a van and headed across town, drumming with our hands on our thighs, singing and dancing the whole way. Fortunately we weren't the main musicians for the wedding, so we were only required to make two entrances, play for about 10 minutes each time, and exit. So instead of performing until 7am like the main musical group, we got to experience the wedding, play music, sing, dance, and go home, all in about 2 hours. I didn't know the words to the songs nor how to play an instrument, so I was responsible for carrying a flag and dancing, which I had no qualms about. I love the Moroccan music rhythm, and I fulfilled my duties to the utmost of my ability, moving and grooving in place while my partners sang and played their instruments. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the actual performance, but I did get one of one of the other members and me before entering the wedding ceremony.

Holding a flag is something I can do! The uniform was very comfortable! It included some Aladdin-like pants that only reached slightly past the knees but were baggy enough to hide an elephant in. I think I'm gonna get some to wear even outside of weddings. I would just have to be careful not to get blown aware by strong gusts of wind...

This man was truly a unique character. he played a Moroccan flute in my friends' group, and he spoke absolutely no French, or any other language I speak. But this didn't stop him from talking my ear off the entire night I was with the group. When I didn't understand his Arabic (which was about 98.5% of the time) he would get closer and talk louder. He did this to the point of being within two inches of my face and kindly showering me with saliva as he tried to make me understand what he was telling me. Oh the things I do to learn Arabic...

I'm still not officially enrolled in the University here, but I'm in a Portuguese and Arabic class at the University. The teachers are very kind and have welcomed me whether I ever get enrolled or not. I am immensely enjoying the classes and I am meeting all kinds of awesome students in my classes. The University atmosphere is definitely where I will best be able to meet new people and find "my crowd." Once I get officially enrolled I'm hoping to move into a residence hall on campus. I think that would be the best way to get integrated into Moroccan University student life and learn the language.

I have, however, finally moved out of the hotel where I stayed for over a month waiting on University housing. Through Annemarie, a fellow Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Rabat who is from Chicago, I met a German girl and Romanian guy, Jette and Iulian, who are living in an apartment in the oldest neighborhood in Rabat, called L'oudaya, which is located right on the coast. They invited me to stay with them for as long as I needed to before getting University housing, and I gladly accepted. I've now been with them for about 10 days and I'm loving every minute of it. Jette and Iulian are great people, and the apartment is terrifically simple, old, and with an awesome rooftop terrace that overlooks the city and ocean. I will send pics soon, but I am currently without batteries that work for my camera. I haven't yet been able to find batteries here that work with my camera = (

From Right: Dina (Russia), Annemarie (Chicago), Iulian (Romania)

The girl next to me is Jette (Germany).

A Moroccan toad (for you animals freaks like me!) It was so much more colorful in person. It even ribboted differently...had an Arabic accent.

Something Musical

This past Friday I was invited to eat couscous again with the Moroccan family from Temara who has adopted me. In a way, this invitation came as a surprise to me and was passed along out of sheer grace. I say this because of my doings after eating couscous with the family the previous week. When the meal was over, I wanted to thank Mater, the mother of the household who cooked the meal. In Arabic there is "shukran" for a normal "thank you," and there is "lla y-khlf" for an extra-special "thank you" after someone has graciously provided for you. Literally lla y-khlf means "may God reward you". However, I was still new to using this word, so when I tried, it came out as "lla y-khlk," a very slight variation that drastically changes the meaning. I told my wonderfully kind host, "may God take you away." Of course Mater knew what I meant, so she smiled and said, "bssHHa" - to your health, the proper response to lla y-khlf. Au contraire, the rest of the family, when they heard me tell God to take Mater away, busted out into uncontrollable laughter. They explained to me what I had said and then Mater and I both joined in on the laughter. Ever since it has been a joke between Mater and I when she serves me food or tea. I make sure to emphasize the F instead of a K.

Here's a picture of the tea Mater served after couscous. It's typical to hang around a while after a meal and talk. Moroccans will often have tea a short while after lunch and sit around a while longer enjoying the tea and conversing with each other. The lunch "hour" here is from about 12pm to 2pm. They take their time to enjoy a meal with family.

The always smiling "Mater" serving mint tea in the typical Moroccan way. She heated the water up on a butane tank and then asked me to make the tea. This is a very specific, ordered process. First I put the tea pellets in the kettle and Mater poured into this a cup-full of boiling water. I shook it around and poured the liquid into a cup. Then mater filled up the tea kettle with the rest of the boiling water. To this I added the mint leaves and sugar (lots of it.) I poured in the kettle the cup of concentrated tea I poured earlier, and then I repeated a couple of times this process of pouring out a glass and putting it back in (to stir the tea, essentially.) Then I poured out a little bit to taste. It was already too sweet for me, but not nearly sweet enough for Moroccans, so I added another chunk of sugar. When it tasted like tea-flavored kool-aid, I knew it was suitable for the family. I poured each glass, raising the kettle high as I poured in order to create bubbles (Moroccans jokingly complain if there aren't bubbles in their tea. They say they make the tea taste better.) I then passed out the glasses starting on my right and saying bismillah -in the name of God- to each person I served. And voila! The Moroccan way to serve tea.

Now, I am by no means a musician, but I'm convinced my DNA is replete with musical notes and rhythm that were never encoded for production. So I can't make good music, but when I hear it my souls starts a groovin' and I can't help but move to the beat. When I'm around fun music, I feel a connection to the divine. And this particular day I got a pleasant musical surprise. After tea Khalid told me he had a surprise for me. He went to his room and came back with a guitar-like instrument. This instrument, which is very traditional in Morocco, has a wood frame, which is hollowed out by hand. It has a sheep-skin covering the base, and the strings are made of sheep intestine. It is played a bit differently than the guitar in that the middle, ring, and pinky finger drum the sheep-skin covering of the instrument while the index finger strokes the strings. In this way the person playing can play percussion and guitar simultaneously. Khalid was pretty good at doing this, and he and Abdessamad began singing traditional Moroccan songs. They handed the instrument to me, as if I knew what to do with it, and I made a little bit of noise before handing it back to the professionals to make some good sound.

Abdessamad, left, and Khalid, right, playing around and singing traditional songs.

Khalid was very excited about showing me how to play. It's definitely an instrument I could get in to. It has the guitar sounds and drum all in one instrument. Pretty cool.

Khalid went and got a traditional garb to wear and pose for a picture. As I was taking the picture he said, "if you have any single American female friends in the US, show them this picture," and laughed. What do ya say, ladies?