Ifrane: The changing and retaining of cultural identity

June 9th, 2014

This morning I hung out on the roof with Anass, Amine, and Sam in the mini blow-up pool on the roof, drinking Poms. Its delicious.  We then left and went to Ifrane for the day.  It’s a little town that looks very European.  On the way to Ifrane we stopped at a castle built by a very rich man from the United Arab Emerits (a country in the middle east). It was beautiful. The entire surrounding land was decorated with rose bushes in full bloom.  We stopped inside a large tent encircled internally with couches and pillows. The castle and the land overlooked the surrounding mountains and valleys, such beautiful views to behold.  I can not even describe their beauty.

As we were driving to Ifrane, we road through the countryside passing through mountains and overlooking valleys.  It was seriously beautiful.  Staring out the window of the car seeing men herding sheep, while listening to the Koran being sung, playing on the cd player...It was just so surreal.  I felt pulled back into biblical times, yet I was in a vehicle instead of riding on a donkey…but don’t worry there are people riding donkeys to work too.  

Once in Ifrane, we went out to eat at a very westernized restaurant.  We walked around, seeing European style homes and gardens, with well tended, green grass.  Sam and I spoke French a lot which was really cool. I am beginning to feel so much more fluent.  When you think about what to say, it is a struggle but the more I hear it around me and just respond, the more words are just coming out randomly and I am communicating in another language.  Sometimes I go to ask something and I just ask in French and it feels as normal as ever.  

Later, we hung out around the house and went onto the roof, at night. Sam and I sat on the roof wrapped in a huge blanket-like rug and talked about the beauty of culture.  We talked about how culture is similar to the evolution of a landscape because it grows and is cultivated, yet changes based on certain variables.  It evolves and multiple things impact it.  Olive trees have been growing here for thousands of years, sheep herders have been a part of this land as well.  This culture has grown from a long time ago.  And today it rests the same, yet changed by a myriad of things.  It began with herding sheep and the Koran, and even today involves the two, but in a whole new reality. We see that there is modernity and wealth, yet we still see the patterns of Morocco from each time period being woven into this culture.

A Culture of Sharing, but can we all learn to share the world?

June 8th, 2014

Today I woke up and had my first successful poop. It was interesting. It makes me want Turkish toilets. Its so much easier to squat because everything just comes out right away.  I also realized that eating with your hands is much more amazing than with a fork. It’s similar to being barefoot in the grass.  You feel more connected.  You enjoy it more.  The food tastes better when eaten with the hand.
Food is eaten off of one big plate in the center of the table. Its really cool because it is a communal plate and everyone eats with their hands.  Everything is about sharing in a way.  Rooms are shared. No one has their own room.  There is just one big living area with a couch lining the walls and a table in the middle.  You sit on the couch and eat.  You push the table away and sleep.  At night, everyone sleeps on the couches as if it is their bed, head to toe.
The act of sharing is very central here.  Nothing is yours.  You are not as attached to your things as we would be.  Of course this must be taken loosely because people still have their own dress or something like this.  But in general, if you leave something about, it is not yours, it is everyone’s.
Another aspect of sharing is public utilities in the neighborhood.  There is a public oven where people can go if they do not have their own oven.  You bring your baked goods, pre-made, and then they bake it for you there.  Similarly, there is a public shower known as the Hamam.  It is were everyone goes to bathe.  Yes there is water and they can wash themselves at home from a bucket, but the Hamam is a group activity, a place where everyone can go and use the facility.  They go together and wash one another, men and women separate.

Arabic Words

Coolee- eat

Baraka- that is enough

Today we walked around the town of Azrou.  It’s beautiful.  It’s full of browns and tans, the streets and the buildings.  The houses climb up the mountainside and the mountains themselves tower over and around the place.  As you go down toward the center of town it becomes very chique with cafes and little boutiques yet still with its own Moroccan accents.  The view is beautiful.  Walking around in the day was incredible but in the evening as the sun was settings between the mountains all of the people came out of their houses and the town came to life.  Kids played soccer in the streets, mothers and babies were walking around, men sitting at cafes talking and drinking coffee.  The sun is hot during the day, so life, even business, can sometimes start later in the day and go all night, explaining the idea of dinner at 3 am.  More beautiful than people coming to life, a land full of green trees and tan ground slowly turning golden.  The evening prayer call sounds and you truly know youre in an incredibly beautiful place: a picturesque world.

Anass, his brother Amine, Sam, and I walked until the sun had set and then sat at a café to enjoy Poms, a Moroccan apple soda.  We talked about politics and the view that the world has on the Muslim world.  We talked about the congruity between religions and how through time it is politics that has corrupted these things.  It is believing the words of our government that has led us to make assumptions about one part of the world when we wont even take action in other areas of the world if it doesn’t benefit us politically (par exemple North Korea and Nazi Germany).  

I also realized through listening to Anass talk about politics in his third language (English) that the only thing stopping me from being fluent in French is that I have doubts that I am fluent.  In the U.S. we think that it is necessary to perfect something before trying it.  We teach language as something to be practiced after you have learned it.  Anass speaks with confidence even though he makes grammar errors.  He keeps talking.  He doesn’t stop and think.  He gets his point across and I completely understand him.  My French isn’t as expansive as his English but I know the rules of grammar and how to speak already with structure.  It doesn’t matter.  Just speak it.  So that’s what is happening, what has been happening, and what will continue to happen.  I feel comfortable and ready to speak French whenever because I know the language well.

Tonight for dinner we ate some amazing food.  It was like spaghetti noodles, chopped up with cinnamon, sugar and a ground up nut paste.  It was delicious.  Every bite I couldn’t help to continue exclaiming…mmmmmm!!!

Meeting the Family

June 7th, 2014

We traveled by train from Rabat to Meknes, taking a cab from there, an hour to Azrou.  This is where Anass’s family lives.  It is a small city surrounded by mountains where much of the merchandise sold in the market is handwoven or crafted there.  The ride to Azrou was incredibly beautiful, passing through the countryside of Morocco, seeing sheep wandering the fields filled with olive trees.  It was really mind blowing to be in a country where this actually exists rather than to just hear about it or watch a movie.  Life never stops being surreal.

We are staying in the home of Anass' mother for the week to travel back and forth to other cities.  Today we hung out around the house, danced, washed our hair, and Sam and I talked a lot about life, as we tend to do. Later in the evening, the kids were all on the roof hanging out.  The roof is an open one, where they hang their clothes, grow plants, and have the toilet.  It overlooks the city and is quite beautiful.  The girls talked and danced, and played, while Anass and his brother talked to one another.  Anass has 4 siblings.  Hooda-26, Sarah- 23, Amine- 21, Selma- 12.   He was not raised with his family, but rather by his aunt who now lives with the mother because she has Alzheimer's.  She doesn’t remember them and after dinner each night she says "thank you so much for the meal" and tries to leave.  They are so sweet with her and joke around with her and she laughs a lot. It's really nice. She is the cutest lady, always smiling and giggling.

Arabic Word

Amtee- immediate aunt

Adapting

June 6th, 2014

Morocco is amazing.  It's beautiful and picturesque. Rabat is by the Atlantic ocean.  There are short, strange shaped Mediterranean trees and markets full of hand crafted clothing and rugs, raw meat hanging (still in full body), spices piled high; beautiful.  The smell and atmosphere reminds me of Ghana.  I feel like I am home. But its more beautiful, breathtaking, and picturesque in a good way.  There are white buildings, some blue.  

Here, life is not based around time, but around meals.  People don’t wake up or sleep at a time.  They just go around meals.  When everyone is awake, it's breakfast time. Even if its 3 am, dinner will be served. Even if you have tea at 11 pm and you think "well we are full in the belly, lets sleep!" you have to wait up for dinner because you didn't eat dinner yet.

The toilets here are Turkish. You squat over a hole in the ground, and then use water to wash yourself rather than toilet paper. Its really cool because although I've been tired and cranky, the things here that an American would feel they “have to deal with” are not so hard for me because of my previous experience with Africa.  It's so cool. All the things I found hard about Ghana are so much easier here, so it's a relief. I feel accustomed to it, in a way.  Also, it makes me realize that I am someone who is willing to try to make things work. Should I freak out that its difficult to go to the bathroom, or should I just go to the bathroom and see how it works? It is all about going with the flow, learning to adapt easily to the things that vary in life.  No two worlds are the same, but in the end, you are just having a bowl movement.  The fundamentals will never change.  

Another thing that is necessary to adapt to is the family dynamic in Morocco.  Family is a very important aspect of life, to the point that when greeting people, whether they are a merchant in the market or your neighbor, you always ask "How is your family", and say things like "God bless your parents".  The families are very loud and dynamic. They shout all the time at one another and their humor is making fun of others. You have to have thick skin.  But they love each other. Its like my big family, chaos always.

Rachida is my Moroccan name that Anass' aunt gave me in Rabat. She was an adorable little lady who loved me and wanted me to come live with her. It was given because my name Rachel is hard to pronounce but it means one who is mature and who knows what she wants from life….Each name has a specific meaning.

More cultural ideas:

• Everything is done with particularity.  Things are always done exactly in a specific manner.  Every food preparation has something specific to it, and they will always do it in this way. This seems to be a part of the traditions of this culture.  These methods have been passed down and done in this manner from grandmother to mother to daughter.  One aunt was cutting a watermelon and before cutting it she rolled it around several times.  Sam said that they always do this before cutting watermelon. 
• After buying rice or grains, the women will sit and go through every grain to throw away any bad piece of rice. This can take hours, but it must be done.  

As far as my French progression is going, its amazing to be in a country where their second language is French because I feel so comfortable communicating this way.  There is no embarrassment because at least they can understand me better than if I talk in English. It is making the transition into French so much easier cause I feel confident that I can communicate, not worrying if I said something wrong, or didnt pay perfect attention to grammar.

Arabic words

Shweeyah- a little
Shoomah- you should be ashamed
Chokran- thank you
Gleh- watermelon

Rabat, Morocco

June 5th, 2014

Today was a continuation of flights, and then a train ride from Casablanca to Rabat where his aunt lives.  We arrived late that night and stayed up late while Anass caught up with his aunt and cousin.  Sam and I helped his aunt prepare a dinner made up of diced onions and peppers mixed with ground beef and spices to make sausages.  She showed us how to mold the sausages with our hands in a certain way.  We ate the sausage with bread, using the bread as a utensil.  Food is either eaten with hands or with bread.  We also had Moroccan salad which is cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions with salt and vinegar and parsley.  Its delicious!
I was nauseous trying to eat because it was a new flavor to adjust to.  The spices here are really strong and not the flavors we eat at home.
From eating I was exposed to many aspects of the culture.  They seem to be very forceful about food.  They wouldnt let us stop eating.  Even if you have something in your hand or in your mouth, they point to the food and say "Cooli" which means eat.  Even when you say you are full, they make you keep eating.  You cant argue with them because you dont speak their language.
Other things that I learned about the culture from observing and having Sam explain to me:

• They are very loving and welcoming.  Greetings are always filled with kisses, in the same way that one does it in France but sometimes they will keep kissing you for several moments on the same cheek.
• They are a very open community.  They want everyone to be a part of it. For example, Islam is very open to people joining.  The process is very simple, and just involves you wanting to be a part of it and professing it in front of two witnesses.  

My notes are not very in depth because I am really only getting exposed to everything on the surface.

• There is much about the concept of hierarchy here, in family and life and age.  The older brother wants something, he tells the younger to do it, and then she tells the even younger to do it.  Whoever is older is always right. Whoever is the man is always right.  Unless one of the women is older than him.  
• Another interesting thing is that there is no such thing as someone not knowing something.  If someone asks you a question, you dont think that you dont know, you will have an opinion or you will have an idea.  You will always try to give an answer. This is both good and bad.  Because of this people are opinionated and will always try to get you to do something their way.  And everyone tries to be involved in every decision made.  

These are just a few things I learned in my first days here

Traveling

June 4th 2014

Today was an exhausting day.  We flew out of Montreal at 10.45 pm.  We then arrived in Paris, just to take a plane to Lyon and then another plane to Casablanca, Morocco.  Throughout all of the plane rides, I was feeling nauseous, tired beyond belief, and cranky.  I felt this sense of dread for having decided to leave for so long. There is something about traveling.  It is exhausting and can make you feel insane no matter how amazing your destination will be and no matter how much fun you will have.  After this and my first days of Ghana, I will never expect to be happy about leaving home from the get-go.  I will always cry within the first 48 hours of leaving.  Take away all my comforts and I will freak out, give me back sleep and food and I will be fine.  In addition, it really does take a few days to get used to being across the ocean in an entire new world.  It takes my body a few days to recover and to get acclimated.
On the opposite side, this trip was much easier for me because I wasn't alone or in charge of the details.  I went with a friend (Sam) whose husband (Anass) is from Morocco.  Anass was leading the way and taking care of everything so I just had to go with the flow.  I feel more at ease this time around because I am not such an outsider trying to figure everything out, there are people explaining everything to me and helping me adjust.