This morning we woke up to go to the farm of Anass’ family. They have recently inherited a portion of land and are therefore building a house on the land, to live on and cultivate the farm. They are each going to have a room and even each have a bathroom. It will be a very big home. This is a big thing.
As Sam and I went up to the roof to take pictures of the surrounding farm, we had a very interesting conversation about social class and how it exists in America versus in Morocco. Here every person has their place in society and that place is very important. Every person contributes to making life work for everyone else. Every job is significant. Not everyone here sees each other this way. But some do. In the religion of Islam it is important to see others this way. If you have some, give to those who have none.
In the U.S. we often don’t think about people that are poor as an important part of our society. Someone who does manual labor is thought of as someone who didn’t try hard enough, didn’t have enough advantages, or didn’t educate themselves to be successful. If you are not a success, you are a failure. Here, doing the work you do is respected because they see each work as necessary. If they did not respect the work done by farm hands, if this was not equally as important, how would the work get done? Because of this, Anass, who has taken responsibility over the farm, has made sure that those working for his mother on her portion of the farm are taken care of, given a portion of the food grown, as well as that they have social security. This is a noble thing to do, in my mind. Some people here do not treat others with such respect.
When I talk to people about these things back home it is like those who are poorer are beneath us and not as good as us because they didn’t reach a successful level. Even those who do not look at others as beneath them, still do not look at these jobs and say wow this is truly necessary and incredible that someone is doing this for us. It just bothers me to think that we think of others this way. Everyone is necessary. Everyone has their place. If my dad had not been a construction worker, how would those houses be built? How would those people have had someone to fix their bathrooms, install electricity into their home, build them porches…If we all thought we were better than that, we would be without those that we need in our society to keep our lives continuing. We must respect every type of work for this reason.
Additionally, I have been thinking a lot about standards of living and how much we value things and a lifestyle that can give us more and more. Yet, as I grow more in my life I increasingly realize the value of pure happiness and joy. I see the value of people and how this is what life is about. As I travel the world, or live far from my family I see that those people in my life are what makes me feel happy to wake up every morning, not the amount of Tvs that I own or the size of my bedroom. My life was simple growing up, and I was happy. When I got older I thought I would want more. But really all I want more of is love, contentment, and food. If you can have these things, if you can work to just provide these things for yourself, you will live a good life. You will be satisfied. Beyond that is of no importance other than to further pamper yourself. Fun, yet not necessary. We stress about climbing the social ladder to be successful, to work more and more, to make more money, to then be more happy. When in reality, even below the poverty line with 7 children, my family never lacked joy or love. My father worked hard, but when there was food on the table he stopped working to enjoy his life. We need to stop, and just enjoy this right here. The real beauty of living.
Later, we walked around the farm, through the apple, plum, olive, cherry, almond, and many other types of trees. The farm is in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains. It began to rain as we walked and we got completely soaked, even got hit with hail. It was fun to be muddy and soaked. Its really cool to have seen a farm in both countries that I have traveled to. This farm was much more structured and had been producing food for a long time. In Ghana, the farm was just starting up. However, the cool part about it was seeing the more rural aspects of Moroccan culture. The owners of the farm had beautiful homes, both Moroccan and western in style. However, the workers, and the village outside of it were small and simple. It made me think that if I had done ProWorld Morocco, I would have been located somewhere like this, really working with the people. We stopped at the house of the workers who tend the farm and had tea and hacha with them. Hacha is a fried cornmeal-like bread that you eat with butter, and jam or cheese, olives, and boiled eggs (with cumin and salt on top). C’est delicieux! Everywhere you go it is expected that you will let them feed you. They did not eat with us but sat and watched us eat. Even if you have had enough and are full, it is polite, almost necessary to continue to eat to show your gratitude in return.
Greeting people is also a large part of the culture. When you see people you know, you stop and kiss them on each cheek, sometimes twice on the same cheek. Even as a stranger, I kiss every person that they kiss. They do not treat me as a stranger. Every time we come back to Anass’ family’s house, we go around the house and kiss each person to greet them as though we had not seem them for a long time. Its really wonderful. When we left the house of the workers, we said goodbye to them with kisses and then they followed us down the road a ways to talk more. We kissed goodbye again. We turned and went the other way, they kissed us again. Many kisses.
On the ride home from the farm, we took a taxi, always squished full with people. Driving through the countryside on a dusty road with Moroccan music playing on the radio…I might as well have been in a movie. Life is beautiful.
A final thing that I realized today is the concept of all cultures. In our world today all cultures resemble one another in the same way. This way is that each culture has its own specific way of thinking that applies to them. However, as the world becomes more and more globalized, people living in more largely populated areas of the country have different thoughts than those in small rural towns. In Morocco it is traditional to marry a man and then move in with him and his family and take on his life. This is true, however, with more money, a couple can have their own house and create their own space. Additionally, in cities, women think more independently and there will be more options and choices because the mentality expands. We think about countries far from our own and we think that thoughts do not vary or that their whole culture is the same in action and way. This is why we stereotype their world. However, just like in the United States, we have variance. In some places we think it is necessary to take our husbands name. That is just how it is. It is not oppressive, just how we do things. However, some people don’t like that idea, they want independence, they decide to keep their own name for different reasons. There is no textbook concept of how a body of people will think. Culture is not an imprint, but an ever changing landscape affected by various variables. There are so many paradigms that its impossible to know one thing about any culture because the second you think you know it, something will change, especially now in this modern age where people have more influence on one another, even from across great distances.
Arabic Words
zweenah- beautiful, pretty
Mooshky mooski- its not a problem, that’s okay
Lahbess- how are you, (like ca va you reply with ca va, lahbess you reply with lahbess)
La- no
Waugh- yes
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