Home Sweet Home Morocco المغرب

  Hello from Akka, Morocco!

Akka is a small, hot, dry desert town at the base of the Anit-Atlas Mountains.  Surrounding Akka are small Berber villages and the largest palmerie/oasis in Morocco.  There are lizards, scorpions, camels, tree-climbing goats, wild dogs, wild cats, roosters, donkeys, sheep, and wild rabbits.  Two days a week we buy our fresh produce from the local farmer's market in town.  The eggs are always fresh, and we can watch a chicken get its head cut off before we take it home to eat. We like it here.

 We visited the palmerie/oasis one day with our host family for a picnic. It was like going to the beach, but there was no ocean.  Sad.

No sandwiches for lunch on our trip to the oasis - it's hot tagine cooked on site!

We have been in Morocco for 3 months - wow! 23 months to go...only. Some things we have observed about Morocco, the people, and the culture (bear in mind these general observations, NOT absolute truths - which is why we say "some" or "most"):

Some Moroccans do not wear seat-belts - in all cars we have ridden in they are not accessible for various reasons.

Some Moroccans rarely if at all brush their teeth.  Toothaches, lack of teeth, and swollen gums are common in adults.

Most Moroccans LOVE sugar and carbs.  White bread and sweet (and I mean syrupy sweet) Moroccan mint tea are daily staples for many Moroccans.  Most Moroccans drink tea like many Americans drink coffee.  Bread is the main food for breakfast and snack, and it is the primary eating utensil for lunch and dinner.  Cous cous, white rice, and white pasta are also eaten on a regular basis. Good luck trying to find brown rice or whole wheat bread.  Sugar in tea, sugar in coffee, sugar in juice, sugar on vegetables, sugar on fruit...

Since most meals are eaten from a communal dish, it is custom not to talk much during the meal (see photo above).  If you talk during your meal, you may not get your share of food.  Most Moroccans eat only with their right hand.  This is because the left hand is considered dirty (as it is used for bathroom things).  Kate being a lefty sometimes makes the mistake of reaching for food with her left hand but is adjusting nonetheless.  Eating with a spoon in the left hand is OK though.

The word "inshallah" (God willing) is used for all future events - even for most definitely certain future events.  "See you tomorrow! Inshallah." See you tomorrow if God wills it.  Even though we are pretty certain that we will see you tomorrow, you just never know...It is a great word to use in place of "maybe" or "no" too.  Our host family: "Would you like to come to dinner?" (which means dinner at 12:30am...so late!).  We say: "Inshallah"  - which is polite for "no thanks".  It is also a great way to put off making a decision until the last minute too.

In regards to events and gatherings - usually there is very little planning ahead and there is a mad rush at the end.  There is usually no strict schedule and things rarely begin on time.

In business people come and go as needed and there are rarely posted "hours".  Even the post office, the only place we have seen with posted hours, oftentimes closes before the posted time. 

Cell phone interruptions are perfectly acceptable in most all situations.

There is no such thing as a line or a queue and the idea of "first come first serve" does not really exist.  At the post office, a bank, a store, or a market you just walk up to the counter and if you stand back a little waiting for the customer ahead of you someone else may walk up in front of you. 

Some Moroccans like to blame natural causes rather than take responsibility for illness/sickness.  A day trip with our host family ended in food poisoning for Kate and heat exhaustion for our host mom's sister. The bad water in the city we visited was to blame. Bed bug bites at our host family's house? It was the humid air in Agadir - bad for circulation.  Some Moroccans like to blame blowing air and cold for illness/sickness too.  Even when it is 100 degrees many Moroccans will not want the windows rolled down in a taxi for fear of getting sick.

These aspects of the culture have been the most interesting, surprising, and the more challenging for us to adjust to.  But now at least we have our own home where we can prepare our own meals with a little less sugar. Below are some photos of our apartment in Akka.

Home sweet home!

Laundry on the roof - it dries in no time!

Kitchen - stove and blender.

Our fancy fridge and laundry buckets.

Our living room - the floor mats also serve as our beds.

Welcome to the Desert

The journey is long and hot; our bags are heavy and we stink.

The bus is full and wobbles with every bump and turn.

Up through the desert mountains a winding road like a roller coaster

moves us forward towards a place we have never known.

Camels, tan, brown, black, one hump, two, and a baby.

Goats enjoying an argan nut snack, one is up in a tree.

These are the tree climbing kind of goat.

2 women, 1 man stand in the road as the bus driver stomps on the breaks.
They get on.

2 claps will stop the bus; you can get off anywhere.

We are alone on the road in the desolate desert.

What if the bus breaks down?

Do we have enough water?

Just imagine, but we arrive with water to spare.

This is Morocco.

We are home.

We sleep under the stars in a concrete courtyard.
In a metal crib with a cardboard mattress sleeps Adam.

On the ground sleep mother, father, sister, brother.
We lay on a bed, because Moroccans are welcoming and generous.

Behind a wooden door are 3 sheep and 1 goat.

Above us the north star and the big dipper.

Cats wander in under the front door to sniff for scraps.
A radio in the distance sings a song in minor key while a donkey brays.

The desert breeze ruffles our sheet.

This is Morocco.
We are home.

8 Weeks in Morocco!

Hello Friends and Family!

We can hardly beleive that we have been in Morocco for 8 weeks! One week from now we will be saying farewell to our wonderful host family in Azrou and heading to Rabat to prepare to be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers! We have been very busy studying language and culture and preparing for our work as youth development volunteers. 

The past two months of training have been exhilarating - full of challenges, learning, and most importantly laughter (the kind where tears roll down your eyes and you almost pee your pants).  Below is a graph to exemplify some of Kate's adjustment observations.  While the ups and downs look extreme overall our ability to cope and adjust has been easy and comfortable.  Although, once we leave Azrou and get to our final site a whole new adjustment cycle will begin.  Flexibility, a positive attitude, and perseverance are the keystones of a positive and successful Peace Corps experience!

                                                                                                                                                           

We LOVE the food in Morocco - it is AMAZING. 

Below is a photo of a very special dish called Bastilla.  It is a giant pastry pocket made of filo dough, and wrapped inside is chicken (this one contains one and a half chickens), spices (like cinnamon, saffron, coriander...), onions (maybe 10?), and a bunch of parsley.  That is the first layer of the Bastilla.  The second layer is almonds, eggs, and sugar.  That is all wrapped up and baked in the oven.  The top is sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.  Everyone sits around the big Bastilla and breaks it up and eats it with their fingers. YUM - 7 of us took this one out for lunch one day. 

 

Some other foods we LOVE:

Zmita - which contains roasted and ground up: peanuts, almonds, soybeans, corn, flax seeds, sesame seeds.  Also flour, sugar, oil, and fennel seed.  Every thing is ground to a powder and mixed together.  Depending on the batch you either eat it with a spoon or with your fingers.  We get some for breakfast every morning.

Melawi - this is like flat tortilla/crepe bread, but better than both.  You can put honey or jam on it, or just eat it plain.

Rfisa - this is a big dish that consits of pieces of Melawi covered with pieces of chicken, lentils and gravy.  For some more info on Rfisa and a recipe click HERE

Shpekiya - is sinful. It is some sort of fried pastry the is SOAKED in honey and oil.  Mmmmm...

Beef and prune tagine - imagine slow cooked beef in a rich gravy with big warm prunes on top. 


We visited Fes one weekend.  We spent most of our time wandering around the narrow streets of the old medina (medina = city).  Below is a photo of one of the main gates into the old medina.

Below is a photo of Arie and our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) Elghali as we navigated the maze of small streets with little doors into the homes of Moroccans.

While in Fes we ate lunch at Cafe Clock - check out their website HERE.  This cafe offers vegetarian and vegan food (along with camel burgers), as well as cooking classes and yoga classes.  The cafe has multiple floors and a rooftop terrace.  It would be a great place to hang out and use some wifi while sipping coffee and snacking on some hummus and tabbouleh.  Below is a photo of Arie and Kate on the rooftop of the cafe.

Yesterday we led a English/Yoga session at the Dar Chebab (Dar = house, Chebab = youth, therefore a Dar Chebab is a community youth center).  Over a hundred youth showed up, and Arie had no problem getting them all to do some mountain, tree, and eagle poses!

Hello Azrou!

We are very fortunate to have such an amazing host family! They are loving, kind, generous, caring, funny, patient and helpful. Hassan is the father and he is an administrator at a hospital. Fatima is the mother and she stays at home to cook (there is a part-time servant to help with chores), but also works at a little clothing boutique and also sells beauty products from home (a brand called Forever based in Scottsdale, AZ). Our host brothers are Yasin (15) and Mehdi (14). They are so sweet and also very respectful, polite, and well behaved. They love to play football/soccer and spend their free time studying, helping their mom, playing on the computer, and helping us learn Darija since they are studying English at school.

One of the jokes in Peace Corps Morocco is that this is really the “Posh Corps” - meaning that we have more of the comforts of home than many other volunteers around the world – although not ALL of the comforts. Currently we have our own bedroom with a television with satellite cable. Our home not only has clean running water but also hot water (although it is not always abundant). We have two toilets – a western toilet that you sit on and a turk toilet (basically a hole that you squat over – we only use this if the western toilet is occupied). There are no homes that we know of in Morocco that have central heating or air – families have lots and lots of big warm blankets. When it gets chilly our family turns on a large space heater that requires butane gas – beware of the loose connection...

Our family has 3 washing machines – none function as well as most in the US though. Kate washes our clothes in a small portable machine (we want one!) and then rinses and wrings them by hand. The clothes then have to dry on the line (we have the option of indoor or outdoor). It can take 24 hours on a warm sunny day or over 3 days if the weather is damp and cold (the weather has been hot, cold, sunny, windy, rainy...).

We love the food that our family serves us! Every day we get fresh baked bread (made in-house by our family's servant – see photo) for breakfast (with olive oil, jam, peanut butter – provided by us, and cheese). Lunch is the big family meal of the day and is always hot and delicious. We usually get some form of veggies, meat, and bread in a tagine. Friday is a special day (prayer day) and most families, including ours, serves a giant tagine of cous cous and veggies (see photo). Yum! Dinner happens at 9 or 10 pm every night. It varies and tends to be small but usually hot (soup, fresh hard boiled eggs...mmmm...).

Fresh house-made bread (Hxubs) 

Friday's traditional and delicious meal: cous cous tangine 

(veggies, chickpeas, cous cous, and broth). 

Friday (jm3a - also the word for mosque) is prayer day.

Kate has now made a meal and a dessert for our family: spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread (our host brothers loved the bread!) and homemade brownies. The family loved the brownies – we know because they and other families are talking about how delicious they were (gossip is a important form of communication in Morocco). Arie and Kate made Sunday morning breakfast together: banana pancakes and scrambled eggs, a repeat will happen this week and we will serve 13 people (everyone wants to try our banana pancakes!). Initially our family and others (again, word travels fast) were very confused as to why we needed 14 eggs – 4 for a big batch of pancakes and 10 for scrambled eggs to feed 7 people.

Kate has learned how to make Moroccan mint tea (see photo), although she uses 2/3 less sugar than is traditionally used. Our favorite kitchen tool is a food processor that is also a scale. We will be getting one for our home when we settle in. We have seen it used to make flour and to grind nuts, and Kate used it to measure ingredients for her brownies and to make homemade peanut butter (a big hit with the family!).

Moroccan Mint Tea made by Kate

For exercise Arie and Kate have been going to Taebo Areobics with another Peace Corps Trainee, Sarah, and her host mom and host brother (her host mom is the sister of our host mom). We go 3 times a week. The class is at a Karate studio in town. It is high intensity cardio combined with boxing and karate moves with push ups and crunches to follow. We love it, even though we are not very good at it. Hopefully by the time we are finished with training in May we will be Taebo pros! We have also been taking advantage of the mountain climate by jogging, hiking, and climbing in the area.

Team Taebo! Are, Kate, and Sarah

What things do we miss the most?
Kate: high fiber cereal with soymilk/almond milk/coconut milk, a wide variety of clothes and shoes for various occasions and weather situations, heated yoga, high speed internet, and my bicycle!

Arie: Thai food, cold cuts, siracha hot sauce, and checkerboard pizza, high speed internet, and Noel.

Nine Days in Rabat

We have arrived! And we are officially PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) Our first day here was a long one. Many of us did not sleep well or at all on the plane, so Wednesday seemed like the longest day of our life! As soon as we arrived we were given vaccines. Ouch! 4 so far: meningitis, Hep A (some got Hep B – we both already have that), rabies, and typhoid. There are still more to come for those that are a series vaccine. Our jet lag has been manageable, some afternoons are drowsy ones when we are sitting in hot rooms for training.

Our Peace Corps training has been extensive yet concise (we still have 2 months of training to go). We have been briefed on how to manage harassment (women especially), how to be safe (don't go out at night, no riding motorcycles...), how to travel (taxis, buses, trains, camel, donkey, bike), how to eat and drink (the water here usually is safe but doesn't taste very good), how to teach English, how to use our cell phones, and most importantly how to speak Arabic (Darija - Moroccan Arabic - which is a little different).

Our PCT group was originally 120 people, but by the time we arrived in Philadelphia we had shrunk to 112. We are 1 of approximately 12 married couples. We are also some of the few older volunteers - about 10% of the group is 30+. Most everyone is in their early to mid-twenties. Females out number the males approximately 3:1. All of us come from many different experiential backgrounds (there is no trend) and many U.S. states are represented. The states that represent most are California, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota!, but there are only maybe 5-10 of us from each those states. Every region of the U.S. is represented very well. There are lots of interesting people to talk to and learn from.

Learning Arabic has been awesome, and we are really excited for this opportunity. Our focus has especially been on learning the script alphabet and how to read and write it (so fun to learn!). We are split up into groups of 6 students with 1 teacher, and we have lessons for about 4 hours a day, 6 days a week now and for the next 2 months. Along with that we will have immersion experience with our host families, individual time to study, and hands on learning experience in our Dar Shbab (youth/community center) and community.

On Thursday we got to meet the US Ambassador to Morocco and his wife – Sam and Sylvia Kaplan. You can refer back to a previous blog entry to learn more about them and listen to their MPR interview. They are from Minnesota. We and 3 other Minnesotan PCTs were photographed with the Ambassador and his wife, and Peace Corps will be sending out press releases to Minnesota news agencies. Keep an eye out in your local paper in case the article gets picked up.

The weather here in Rabat has been very nice. The sun is bright and strong, and there is a cool ocean breeze coming in from the Atlantic. The city itself is an interesting culture shock. There are some nice parts and some not so nice parts; we are not allowed to enter the un-safe parts of the city of course. The nice parts we have seen are well groomed and contain many embassies and diplomatic residents. The not so nice parts have streets that contain piles of garbage and litter (there is no recycling and very few public garbage cans). Sidewalks are crumbling; buildings and structures are crumbling. There are many, many street cats and some scraggly dogs. Beware of these animals – they may carry disease such a rabies – so no petting until the rabies vaccine series is completed. Beware also of cars, motorcycles, and buses. They drive fast and erratically and there is no policing. You hear a lot of honking and screeching out in the city.

The hotel is comfortable. The food they serve us is delicious – always a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies, yummy meats (fish, goat, chicken), kebabs, spicy tangines (stewed veggies, meat, and spices). The strawberries they serve are spectacular – you can tell that they do not come from California. Our beds are nice, although the shower is quite the experience: low pressure and not a lot of hot water. We should consider ourselves lucky though to have a shower at all! There is 24 hour police surveillance at the hotel for our safety as we are 112 Americans in one location.

Sleeping to the sounds of Rabat has been interesting – early on our second morning here we heard a car accident – screeching tires and a bang, hubcap rolling away. Every morning at 3am a German Shepard barks fiercely, and around 4am begins the city-wide call to prayer (and also at other times of the day, noon, 4pm, 7pm...).

On Sunday we did some sightseeing around Rabat. We walked to the Chellah Necropolis Roman ruins (see photos, wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chellah) and over to the old Medina to check out the Kasbah (see photos - wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasbah_of_the_Udayas) and the Atlantic Ocean. On the walk home we stopped at a grocery store and purchased some nuts, chocolate, peanut butter, and Tabasco sauce. Yumm yumm. Our cravings have not been too bad yet – we would like some cereal and some wine. Morocco actually has some vineyards, but we will have to wait to buy wine when we get to our work site in June. Alcohol free has been nice actually – maybe we will drop a few pounds? ;)

The espresso here is delicious – thick, dark, and rich, and it only costs approximately $1 (8 Dirham) a cup - Arie approves. The street food looks amazing (we hear the sheep heads are good), and since we've had our Hep A shot we will be experimenting soon. Kate has officially made her first purchase at the Suk, or market, and of course it was a pair of shoes (bright teal, soft-leather flats for 7$! - 60 Dirham - see photo). We have discovered a good 3 mile jogging route and have found space to do yoga. We also purchased the service of a laundrymen, and Kate did her “load” of delicates by hand in the sink.

This coming Thursday morning we depart from Rabat and make the journey to our host families. We are going to be placed in the city of Azrou in the Atlas mountains region with 10 other volunteers. This region is known for its natural beauty – waterfalls and caves - and monkeys. No camels yet, but monkeys will do. In Azrou we will continue our Arabic language training and begin our youth development training. We are anxious to get started!

We are so thrilled to be in Morocco and so far this experience has been an exhilarating roller coaster ride that will continue for the next 2 years, Inshallah. Bslama!

a Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Finally! Finally. Finally, we have gotten more information from the Peace Corps that answers so many of our questions.

Here is our known time-line:
Sunday, March 18th we fly from MSP to Philadelphia for a 1 day training.
Tuesday, March 20th we depart JFK
Wednesday, March 21st we arrive in Casablanca and take a bus to Rabat
For 9 days we will be in Rabat 

March 29th we will move with group of 40 to a training site in another city TBD.
May 23rd we will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and will begin living and working at our site.

Here we go!

Packing our life away...

Moving is a lot of work.  This is something we all have experienced.  We collect boxes and bags and containers that serve as portable spaces to transport our belongings from one home to another.  Oftentimes we save things that we don't really like or want because we think that one day they might come in handy.  These things are easy to just throw in a bag and stash in the basement.  Things like 10 second-hand champagne glasses...in case we host a New Year's Eve party (maybe in 2015?...)! Or extra measuring cups and mixing bowls...for the day we want to bake a cake, some muffins, and a loaf of bread before we do any dishes. Wrist guards? Just in case we want to go rollerblading or snowboarding...yea right! But when you are storing things for 2.5 years, the last thing you want to do is store away needless junk.  So Arie and I have been sorting through EVERYTHING into very selective piles.

Pile 1 - things for my little sister who will be getting her first apartment in Winona in June. Iron and ironing board - check. Hand mixer - check. Crock-pot - check. She is getting some good stuff!
Pile 2 - things that will go to Goodwill.  We have decided that we are not going to spend any time trying to sell things on Craigslist...that's just one more thing to do that we don't have time for.  Goodwill will be happy to get a load from us!
Pile 3 - books, CDs, DVDs that we will take to Half Priced Books. We should be able to get some good cash. Cha-ching! $$$$
Pile 4 - garbage.  Some things are just not even worth giving away.  Like old socks.
Pile 5 - stuff that we need while we are staying with our parents that will not go in our Peace Corps suitcases. Like olive oil and winter boots.
Pile 6 - things that will go in our Peace Corps suitcases.  We are limited to 2 checked bags a-piece.  Each cannot exceed 50 pounds, but their total weight cannot exceed 80 pounds. 
Pile 7 - this is the BIG pile of about 50 plastic bins (of various sizes) and other such containers (no cardboard though) that hold the things we want to keep.  Sadly it is a lot, but we don't want to arrive home in 2.5 years needing to buy another stereo, sewing machine, record player, dishes, sheets and pillows...

Moving is one thing, but packing your life away for 2.5 years is a whole different monster.

 

Bins and more bins.  

We have been to Target 3 times this week to buy more bins.

 

Making progress.

 

This kitchen was the most work and required the most bins.

 

Thanks to the peer pressure of Arie and Amanda I was able to get rid of most of my CD and DVD collection - Arcade Fire and Belle & Sebastian stay, but Beirut goes (and I love Beirut).  The Royal Tennenbaums and Fargo stay, but Stranger Than Fiction goes (such a cute film!). Oh well. Goodbye! Now all the discs surrounded by plastic fit into 3 small bins. Nice! Who really needs CDs and DVDs anymore - things have really changed, but I still need to hang onto some for nostalgia's sake.