Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I'M STILL ALIVE!


Reckon it’s time for an update? I guess I should start this blog entry off with an explanation of why I haven’t posted an update in over a month…Well as for the month of December, one word describes my life pretty well: hectic. I got in over my head with scholarly and extra-curricular activities. I was taking 6 hours of Arabic a day and then teaching English four nights a week. Then I had the other daily obligations with friends and providing for dinner, etc. In short, I hardly had time to respond to emails, much less spend 4 hours to make a blog entry (sadly it does indeed take me at least that long to make even a simple entry. I’m not a technological wiz…) So am I forgiven?

So let me give a brief recap of December, highlighting the big events and animating with pictures, before moving into the new year and plans for the near future.

The intensive Arabic courses I took on for December definitely benefited me linguistically, but because of them I experienced mental exhaustion for the first time in my life. One day I even reached the point of struggling to answer basic questions in English. I had decided to take 4 hours of Classical Arabic classes in the morning and 2 hours of Moroccan Arabic classes in the after noon, and the combination of languages (they aren’t indeed that similar) is what probably did my head in. I speak Derija (Moroccan Arabic) in the street for basic necessities, but once the conversation goes further than simple remarks about food and daily life, I have to resort to French to converse with people. Then at school I learn Fosha (Classical Arabic) and speak it with other students and teachers. Then one day a week I have a Portuguese class which is taught in Spanish…so you see why my brain started to grind gears? I realized I hadn’t made a wise choice in taking so many hours of Arabic (and different dialects of Arabic), so I knew I just had to make it out of the month of December and in January I would take just 4 hours of Fosha (Classical Arabic.) I also decided to stop teaching English at the school where I was. I didn’t think I was contributing to the education of ambitious, motivated, humanitarian-minded students, so I decided my time would be better-spent elsewhere, hopefully making a difference that will help Morocco long-term. December was a productive month, nonetheless, and I’m glad I made it through.

The 14th of December was the birthday of Hessna, the youngest daughter of my Moroccan family in Temara. They invited me to attend a little get-together, so I showed up with some goodies, ready for a party. Birthdays aren’t cause for grand celebrations in Morocco, but they’re fun nonetheless. We ate a nice meal together, and after we had finished the family asked me to sing the Happy Birthday song in Arabic, opera style (I had jokingly sang opera the last time I was there and somehow they thought I was talented and they asked me to prepare the birthday song in opera fashion for Hessna’s upcoming birthday.) I asked Abdessamad to accompany me, so he sang low and I sang probably 5 octaves above him, and I must say we sounded magnificent together. Everybody cheered, took a video, and then joined us as we followed our opera performance with an English version (in normal voices). After the meal it was time for music and dancing. They put on typical Moroccan birthday music, and we started dancing. Hessna was the only one dancing at first, with the whole family around singing and watching, but they soon drug me into the mix, and Hessna began showing me the steps. They took advantage of having a goofy foreigner at their mercy, and they tied a scarf around my hip and showed me how to do the typical dances of Moroccan women…and of course they filmed it. Hey, I don’t mind being the butt of a few jokes as long as everybody enjoys the evening. My little sacrifice (but was it really a sacrifice when I was having such a great time?) Sorry I don't have pictures of this event. I am an amazing photographer who never learned how to take a good picture and who always forgets to take them in the first place...

You must be curious about Christmas celebrations in a Muslim country…well let me tell you about ours! Christmas is not a recognized holiday in Morocco, and in fact most people didn’t even know the exact date (most people thought it was January 1st since it made sense to them that Jesus’ birthday would signify the start of a new year…yeah, kinda makes sense right? I had never considered that before…) However, my roommates Jette and Jull Ian and fellow Ambassadorial Scholar Annemarie and I were able to find a little Christmas Tree and decorations for it, and we set up a nice little Christmas area in our house. None of us are big on the commercial aspect of Christmas, so something quaint and simple suited us just fine. We organized excursions to the medina (old city where the good markets are) with each other to get the others a couple of little gifts to exchange on Christmas. We had several guests for Christmas: Jette’s sister from Germany, Annemarie’s friend from Sweden, and Jull Ian’s friends from Holland. Since we were a mixed European/American group, we decided to split up Christmas celebrations according to tradition: we celebrated Christmas on the 24th for the Europeans, and they cooked an awesome, typical German meal, and we celebrated the 25th for the Americans, and we cooked a quite good, traditional American meal. We even opened stockings on Christmas morning, so all around it was a complete, fun, successful Christmas. We went to mass at the big Catholic Church in town, and for me at least that was a terrific experience. It was filled with people from all over the world, with over half the congregation being from Sub-Sahara Africa. The church choir consisted of only Sub-Saharan Africans, and as a result the hymns and chants had awesome African rhythms and were accompanied by dancing in traditional African fashion. Needless to say, it was my kind of approach to hymns.
European Christmas (24th). The German sisters (two girls on the left) made a soup thing that consisted of potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes and other goodies that I can't remember. It was very good. (Can you tell we don't have heating in our house?)

And voila the American Christmas meal. We cooked up some mashed 'taters, green beans, chicken, and garlic bread. And gosh dernit it was tasty! (crap I didn't change clothes...)

Our humble Christmas tree and what Jette calls "Bahim's Muslim Corner" (Bahim is Jette's Moroccan boyfriend.) Bahim was pretty impressed with our Christmas celebrations. It was his first and he really enjoyed it.


Because Islam has its own calendar based on the lunar cycle, the Muslim new year does not often coincide with the Western New Year (January 1st). Since Morocco does recognize and celebrate the Muslim New Year, it doesn’t give a lot of celebratory importance to the Western New Year. So a group of us foreigners decided to throw a New Year’s party at our house. It was complete with alcohol, dancing, and of course a countdown to 2011. The only thing missing was fireworks. But we stood on our rooftop and yelled “Happy New Years” at the top of our lungs, probably disturbing the neighbors, but definitely catching the attention of some Moroccan teenagers on a nearby rooftop who wondered what the big fuss was about.

So January started and I wasn’t teaching English at the language center anymore, but I got busier with the local Rotary clubs, so my schedule never really slowed down. I have complained plenty about my business, mainly because I’d like to have more time for friends and family back home and also my friends here, but I always realize when I have a dull moment that life is just much more meaningful when I’m busy. It’s better to lose a little sleep and respond a little more slowly to emails and have a day full of productive events than to have nothing to do. After all, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. One of the worse effects of poverty is the idleness that accompanies it. It gives a person time to fret about all the bad stuff. I believe humans were just made to be busy, either with each other or working, and hopefully a healthy combination of the two.

Something very positive that came from getting more involved with the local Rotary clubs was a connection to a local orphan school. I presented to a club and told them about my past experiences with the orphanage in Honduras and my life interests and goals in Morocco, and one of the members, Driss, had a wonderful proposition for me to get involved at an orphan school here in Morocco that he has a relationship with. Last week I went with Driss and Annemarie to the school to become acquainted with its administration and facilities. We set up a meeting with the director to discuss specifics on what we can do to help. I’m very excited about this project. I wanted to work in an orphanage in Morocco, and now it seems I have a great connection to one through Rotary.
Here I am exchanging Rotary club banners with the president of Rabat Rotary club Rabat Chellah.


After my crazy month of December I needed a break, a vacation from my hectic schedule. There was a national Holiday the second week of January, so some friends and I decided to take advantage and go to the desert. We rented a car and headed out early in the morning to arrive to the Atlas Mountains by sunrise. The plan worked and we weren’t disappointed by the view we had as we drove through the mountains with the colored sky in front of us. Then it just got annoying looking into the bright morning sun. Oh the sacrifices we make for short pleasures… Morocco is such a diverse, beautiful country, ideal for road trips. We drove all day, stopping at a beautiful lake to have lunch, at a Fossil Museum so that Safa, the geologist with us, could drool over stones, and we arrived at our destination around 9pm. We spent a few days in the desert playing on the dunes, taking camels to a campsite in the desert and having lunch, and just hanging out. We left enough time on the drive back to make more stops, and this was well planned because Safa and Anne-sophie wanted to stop every 50 feet to take pictures. That led to a lot of jokes on the part of Karim, our friend from Switzerland, and me. The drive back through the mountains was breathtaking, and we really appreciated having our own car to be able to pull over at will to take pictures or to eat, which we did plenty. We even had a flat tire adventure and met some nice people in a small town in the mountains to get the tire repaired. Our last stop was in Marrakech, the famed city of color, wonder, crazy markets, and wild parties. The girls had to do a little shopping, so Karim and I got drug along as body guards. But that’s not such a difficult job when you’re “protecting” two beautiful women. Enjoy the pics!
A view of the countryside as we headed south towards the Sahara.

The lake we stopped at to eat lunch. Karim and I almost dared to take a swim, but the water resembled ice just a little too much.

To explain: I'm kissing a camel made from grass, and Karim is eating a rock made from....rock.

Kings of the Sahara.

The Sahara's setting sun.

The Sahara in front, the little towns that wind along the verge of the Sahara in the middle, and in the background the Atlas Mountains. Morocco is a beautiful country.

Performing magic tricks with the sand.

The evolution of shadows.

A pose for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

The group on camels. We headed into the desert, had a scrumptious lunch, and road back to catch the sunset over the dunes.

No trip to the desert is complete without some sand-boarding. Karim and I did this a couple of times before becoming completely exhausted from climbing up the dunes. Seriously, there's nothing more exhausting than climbing 10 feet up a steep dune.

Jewels of the desert. One endemic to Morocco, one an invasive specie, but both so much fun to travel with!
Safa, I still blame this on you. I told you we couldn't make it through that section of the desert with a mid-size car. But it was fun getting it unstuck.

This camel downed a bottle of coke in front of us. I can't imagine his dental hygiene.

Employees at the hotel played typical Moroccan music after dinner every night, and we joined in playing instruments, dancing and singing.

I'm beating on the guitar since I don't know how else to make music with it. Safa is clapping some very typical Moroccan instruments called...well...I don't know, but now you see what they look like.

And dance!

I don't understand why this picture never diminished in size, but enjoy the view we also experienced in the mountains as we drove to Marrakech.

Typical pizza from southern Morocco. It's like two crusts with the goodies on the inside. And of course no Moroccan meal is complete with very sugary tea.

The cozy, gorgeous overlook we stopped at to eat lunch that oversaw a little agricultural enclave off the highway. 

Marrakech by night. 
Is an explanation needed?