I haven't been doing much recently besides hanging out in my town. I will start my health lessons next week inshallah so things should be getting pretty busy soon. I actually wanted to update this today because I have been learning a few things about Moroccan migrant work in Spain. I spent the better part of this morning calling various agricultural offices in Spain to try to help some women from my town. There is actually quite a substantial number of women from my town that go to Spain every year to work on the berry harvests in early spring. There were a couple women who hadn't been invited to go back this year so they asked me to call and find out why. They don't speak spanish and my tamazight insn't that great but in any case i was playing translater. haha. It was quite interesting really. The people in Spain kept wanting to know who I was so I had to explain my role as a peace corps volunteer and then I had to ask them about the migrant work that these women do. I will try to learn more aout it from these women so that I can write a more well informed entry next time. I will leave it at that for now :)


For lack of a better image, I have posted this. haha. Here, I am hanging out at my host family's house on the day after Ramadan ended. They make all those cool rugs that I am sitting on :)

End of Ramadan

Once again i have waited far too long to update this. I think I recently wrote about Ramadan. Well, I fasted the entire month except for five days. :) I explained most of what happens in my town in my Ramadan post of last year. We broke fast at the second to last call to prayer, basically at sunset. Then most people went to bed at their normal time and woke up at 3:30am. There was a drummer who came by to wake everyone up. Most people had real dinners at this hour while I, on the other had, tended to have a snack like a smoothie or yogurt and fruit. I just couldn't do the full dinner at this hour.
I broke fast at someone's house almost every night of Ramadan. The photo below is actually from one of the houses that I went to. The break fast meal was usually bread heavy and very sweet. Everyone breaks fast with a date and then digs in :) At this particular fdr(breakfast) there was also hard boiled egss, shebekiya(honey covered sweet), a few kinds of moroccan bread, "berber pizza," cake and many other yummy things. The meal is always accompanied by sweet mint tea or coffee. After the bready meal, everyone gets a bowl of soup. The soup is called Harira and is usually tomato based and has chickpeas, pasta and sometimes veggies. The soup was usually my favorite part. Though, everyone has the same basic meal it was really interesting to see how each house had slight differences. I really enjoyed Ramadan despite the difficulty of fasting. Ramadan ended on the 20th of september so now we're back to normal eating schedules, hamdullah.

Ras Lma

I promised that I would write about my recent vacation to Ras Lma and look I'm keeping my promise. :) My sitemate, Briana, and I are actually just two days apart in age. Crazy huh? So we decided to celebrate our birthdays together by going to a quiet beach on the Mediterranean. We went a week after our birthday and had quite an adventure getting there. We were waiting to take a train from Fes to Nador and instead of getting on the next train we were at the train station for hours because a previous train on that route had derailed. We couldn't leave until they cleared the mess up. Once we did leave we thought all was well but only discoverd a few hours later that we had to change trains (trainge) because the derailed train was still on the tracks. We walked past the derailed train and hopped on a new overcrowded and hot train. After hours of heat, tiredness, hunger and everything else we finally made it to Nador. Once there we took a grand taxi to Ras Lma. None of us had been before and were rather pleasantly surprised by our accomadations and the town in general.

Ras Lma is actually a little berber town nestled between the mountains and the sea. The town doesn't have hotels so we rented an apartment. The only people vacationing there were Moroccans. Really I think I only saw two other foreigners. The water was warm and it felt great to just relax and take in the scenery about me. I also learned a bit about the differences between the berber dialect spoken there as compared to the one that I have been learning :)

Cliffs below the lighthouse. Its beautiful here and these cliffs are perfect for a nice (and sorta scary) jump into the sea. I actually jumped, as you can see below. I did it after a couple of failed attempts haha. And no, I still don't know how to swim, but my friend was below in the water ready to grab me once I went under. It was actually a lot of fun :)

Mudouana

A young girl whom I am quite fond of was recently married. Her wedding was fun and went over quite successfully. Though I'm glad that the ceremony went well, I can't help but feel sad that it ever happened. I don't like that she got married because I think shes only 16(or so). She's too young to be entering into a lifelong contract that she probably didn't have any say in to begin with. (her older sister, now 22 years old, was married last summer and is now back at home because her husband beats her)
In 2004, Morocco enacted a family code called the Mudouana. This family code raises the legal age of marriage from 14 to 18. It also allows women half their husband's wealth in case of death or divorce and it makes sexual harassement an offense punishable by law. (polygamy is still allowed under the family code)
The Mudouana sounds great but the truth is that it's quite difficult to enforce, especially in little towns such as the one I live in. It is also easier to get one's way in a culture where bribing (and political fraud) are endemic. Many 14 year olds do and will continue to marry. There is still hope for those stuck in sour marriages, though. A divorce must be obtained through the courts and the husband must provide for his ex-wife. Divorce is still rare but at least now the woman won't have prostitution as her only resort. If a woman in a bad marriage(ex: her husband beats her) had no family to care for her she either put up with the marriage or had to work. Women in cities were likely to be literate and thus not have to resort to prostitution as their livelihood.
The Mudouana strives to protect women's rights and to liberalize them (a bit) from their previous confines. Women have been making great strides in Moroccan society in the last few years. I only hope that this trend will continue.
To read the Mudouana go here: http://hrea.org/moudawana.html

Update

I know that I have been terrible about writing on this thing. I was rather busy recently and frankly, the internet has been less then good as of late. I apologize (really i shouldn't be making excuses) but will briefly tell you about what's been happening.
First of all, Ramadan has commenced once again. Saturday was the first day of this month of fasting. I saw two shooting stars on saturday night and have taken that to be a good omen for this month :) I am still fasting (now four days in) and hope to continue to do so for the entire month. I am going all out and abstaining from water as well as from food.
Ok. So before Ramadan my friends and I took a wonderful vacation and went to a small mediterranean beach town called Ras Lma. I will post some photos up soon. It was a great vaccation. Before that, a bunch of peace corps volunteers (myself included) helped out at a SIDA booth in Boulmane. We educated people about the disease and enjoyed the Boulmane berber festival :)
All has been well and I promise to write again soon (internet permitting).

You Are Lonely Here?

I met a girl on a train once, and like everyone else that I meet she was very surprised that I wasn't Moroccan. But you have the face of a Moroccan... I know, everyone tells me that. Anyways, she began asking about what I am doing here. I told her about my work with peace corps and where I live. She then asked me if I was lonely here. Yes, I live alone. She wasn't asking if I was lonely but rather if I had family here or if I lived alone. People often tell me that in Arabic there is no word for privacy; the closest equivalent is lonely. Haha. I guess most of us peace corps volunteers are "lonely."
Just to keep your minds at peace, no I am not lonely. In fact, I feel quite at home here. There is never a lack of lunch or kaskrew (snack) invitations. For the lack of anything better to say, I am going to tell you about what I have been doing in the past couple of months.
I hope you all don't think that I am constantly working. One of the hardest things for volunteers is usually dealing with the lack of work and the overabundance of free time. Anyhow, right now the bulk of my work consists of health lessons at the elementary school. I wrote about this previously, but I thought I would mention the latest lesson that I taught. My sitemate always helps so she helped as I told the kids about the bad effects of tobacco or smoking in general. Surprisingly (or maybe not) most men here smoke. Cigarettes are sold individually anywhere you go in this country, so its rather easy to just buy a single or two if one is low on cash and can't afford the pack. This makes it easier for many more people to smoke. I showed the kids pictures of cancerous lungs and of the way smokers age. I hope that had some sot of impact on them. The school year is actually just ending so this summer I will just be improving my lessons for the next school year. I also want to start doing exercise with women. Some women in the weaving co-operative have asked me to show them some exercises. I want to accompany these exercises with talks about health topics that affect them, such as: high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc.
Apart from work I have just been hanging out in town and learning bzzaf(a lot)! I have been cooking and baking a lot :) Also, recently I witnessed local elections here. A woman whom I highly respect ran for a position in the commune and she won! There was a lot of celebrating at her place and I was really glad to be around to witness all of it. I have also been to a wedding or two in the past few months. Those are always a lot of fun though tiring at times. Also, recently all the volunteers in my stage had to go to Rabat for medical exams. It was great seeing people who I never get to see because we live so far from each other. After medicals, i took a side trip as I made my way home. I went to Asilah (beach town near tangier) and to Chefchaouen. Both are beautiful towns that I hope to see again before I leave Morocco. I can't think of what else I have been up to but I'm sure theres more. I'll put some photos up too. :)



A wedding in my town. We're watching from the balcony of a neighboring house. The row of men are the haydus performers.

Look I can bake! Haha. My family thought I wouldn't survive here because I didn't know how to cook when I first left the states, but look I'm doing just fine.


My sitemate and I teaching children about the bad effects of tobacco. My sitemate is holding up giant cigarettes that we made for the lesson.


A Rifi woman selling vegetables outside the entrance to the Chefchaouen meedina. This is from my recent trip to Chefchaouen, a beautiful town nestled in the Rif mountains of northern Morocco.


This is Asilah, a beauiful beachtown about an hour south of Tangier.

Why Young Girls Will Remain Illiterate

The other day I was talking to the mudir (director) of the elementary school in my town about my health lessons but my mind kept drifting to the young uneducated girls in my town. My mudir wants to make sure that my lessons make a lasting impact on the children here. He wants for kids in the future to know that an American taught health lessons in Tamazight at the madrasa (school). He was offering suggestions for how I could improve the lessons; even suggesting that I somehow acquire a microsope to have the children look at microbes. He also wants me to bring American elementary school kids to my town that a cultural dialogue can exist between moroccan bled (countryside) children ans american children. I don't disagree that this is a good idea but really how would I ever accomplish this? Also, how will the children communicate with each other seeing as they have no common language? Before I left our meeting he mentioned that on the 30th of june they're having a little celebration for the 6th graders who will have finished school. I left the school feeling both satisfied and saddened all at once. I felt satisfied because I know that the mudir fully supports what I'm doing at the school; which is incredible considering how little support most volunteers get. I felt sad because I know that now that they've finished 6th grade, only a fraction of those kids will continue on to secondary school and most of those continuing wil be boys.
We don't have a secondary school in my town, only a few elementary schools. The secondary school is in the next town (6km) so many parents are weary about letting young girls continue with their education. I mean, really, they're more useful at home making bread rught? Not! Its sad to see so many girls stop school after the 6th grade, but its even sadder to see young girls never go to school. Its understandable why most of the older women of my town are illiterate; there weren't as many schools when they were growing up and the town was much more conservative. Now younger girls teach most of these older women to read and write. But there are still many young girls who are illiterate. Just in the alley in which I live, there are two girls less that 10 years old who are running errands all day long. Occasionally I see them play with other kids their age but usually they are going to buy something at the store or fetching water. I constantly here "zineb, zineb!" because they want her to go do something else for them. Also, my host sister in homestay was illiterate. She didn't even know how to tell time so she was constantly asking me to tell time. I think what happens is that the youngest daughter is made to stay home and care for the parents. In my host family, my host mom works all day at the weaving cooperative so my sister does the cooking, cleaning, field work and whatever else needs doing. This youngest daughter thing is a trend that I have started to notice in my town. :( There is however one woman who has started to teach some young girls how to read and write but its only a few lessons a week for an hour or two, basically when she and the girls aren't busy with other work. I really hope that we can do something in town so that more young girls will enjoy the benefit of literacy.