Visit From PC Bulgaria

So the past few days have been a lot of fun. It all started with a random email entitled “RPCV’s
in Morocco”. It was from two returned Peace Corps volunteers, Tim and Andrew, who have recently finished their service in Bulgaria. In this email they explained that they were conducting a post PC project, which involved traveling across the world and conducting work similar to that which is conducted by the Peace Corps. Furthermore, they explained that their partner in Morocco had fallen through and that they were in search of a way to make use of their time while here. I told them to come on through, and that they were more than welcome to present in the Dar Chebab. That they did, and I was pleased to find out that they are both in fact very cool and very serious about their project. While they were here I introduced them to my community, explored with them like a tourist, exchanged similarities and differences from PC Morocco to PC Bulgaria(which forced me to convince myself that I'm better off here, living an alchohol free, celebate lifestyle), and conducted one hell of a discussion with my students on stereotypes. This was also a great opportunity for me to gain some confidence in my Moroccan Arabic, as being around people who don’t speak a word of it made me feel much more skilled than I actually am (teaching English has the same effect of my English confidence at times).

About 25 people showed up for this discussion, and on time (first time that has ever happened). I arranged for there to be translators, as I assumed many audience members would not be able to understand English or Bulgarian. We began the discussion with a simple statement of “all women are good cooks”, and asked the audience weather they agreed or disagreed with this statement. The majority of participants caught on quickly, which allowed us to promptly illicit heavier stereotypes from them, such as “all American’s are rich and selfish”, and “all Muslim’s are terrorists”. It worked out amazingly well, and was relieving in a sense, considering that these were things that I have always wanted to talk about but needed the proper setting to do so. I do feel lucky that I was assigned a site where there are many educated and seemingly open minded youth who are eager to participate in such discussions.

Having Tim and Andrew here for a few days also allowed me to explore activities that I would probably not have pursued if it were not for their presence, such as Tae Kwon Do lessons on my roof (Andrew is a 3rd degree Black Belt) or a trip to the Hammam which is right around the corner from my house. As for the Hamman, it is essentially a Moroccan bath house which has three bathing rooms, each of which has a different temperature. There is also water offered in three different temperatures (cold, warm, and burning lava hot). The hottest of these rooms, which one might nickname “the chamber of fire water”, is where the majority of the skin scrubbing and soaping takes place. There are Moroccans there are available to lend a helping hand with the peeling of “dead” skin. I figured that might be something to save for when I’m a bit more integrated.

For more information on Tim and Andrew and their project, you can visit their website at www.supercross08.com . I am actually now on their partner page for my courageous contribution to their work.

So it looks like I broke my blog promise. It has been about 3 weeks since my last entry, and by no means have I been updating it more frequently as I said I would. Sorry, to all my fans out there. Maybe I’ll just stop making promises.

Life has been a little slow recently, but good. Over the past few weeks I have been able attack my soon to be apartment full force with cleaning supplies, and have bought some furniture so its about time to move out of the host families place. Despite my cleaning efforts however, yesterday my Turkish toilet went insane and sewage began to come up through the drain in my shower, leaving my bathroom resembling a broken outdoor latrine. On a good note, I was able to practice my Darija with a local plumber. I hadn’t had much plumbing vocabulary practice prior to this event.

I have been able to get out on several bike rides and hikes, which have been therapeutic. The day before Christmas I hiked the Todra Gorge with a fellow PCV, and last weekend I went on a bike ride through the Dades gorge. Both of these places are close to me and beautiful. Hiking through the Mid-Atlas mountains reminds me a lot of hiking through the Rocky’s in CO, yet in CO there are no nomads, donkeys, and randoms sheep herds that you might run into while hiking. It’s interesting to hike 10 miles into what seems like the middle of nowhere and find a wardrobes’ worth of clothing laid out and drying on a rock, along with a make-shift lean-to with a donkey tied to it. To me the most fascinating thing about the nomads is that they seem to move themselves, along with everything they own everyday. There are days when I barley leave my apartment.

Today there will actually be the celebration of another Moroccan holiday called Ashura. The 10th of January is officially Islamic New Year. Magic, good, and evil is practiced on the Ashura day and on the preceding night which is said to favor witches. People gather and wear masks and costumes and speak in disguised voices the night before, which is apparently today (even though today is the 18th). On Ashura eve, “the bonfire night” fires are built throughout the town and people sing and dance around them. In addition, there are water rites attributed to this holiday, and it is said that you can freely soak someone with water on the morning of it. So from the sounds of it, it seems like a Moroccan Halloween without candy, but water, and in the coldest time of year. Today there will be a festival for this near my site, so I will have to go and see for myself, and perhaps wear my raincoat.

As for teaching, it continues to go well. I recently got a camcorder (thanks parents!), so my next big perceived activity will be making a documentary video with my students about life in Tinejdad. They are all very excited about this idea, as am I. Part of me has always secretly wanted to make documentary videos, and I can’t think of a better place to start than right here.

That’s it for today. Hopefully the next few weeks will be more eventful so I will have more interesting things to write about. Until then…