Friday, March 26, 2004
tomorrow i leave for a week of village stay in the middle atlas mts. (so charlotte doesnt worry too much about my absence from the electronic world). we are going to have homestays with families there which should be fascinating and challenging especially linguistically. it is a berber (or amazighi to be politically correct) village where berber is the main form of communication and many people may not speak arabic (or french or english) at all. [side note- berber tribes were the inhabitants of morocco before the arabs arrived, but they have all been long converted to islam].
we had a crash course in tamazight (the dialect of berber that they speak) this morning where we learned important phrases like "my name is..." "do you have goats and sheep?" and "i dont want meat" (they threw that in for me and the other vegetarian girl). i will report more when we return.
on an unrelated note, id like to introduce you to another member of my host family. my oldest brother, mohammed, lives in france with his french wife but has been visiting for almost a month. he is 23 (by the way mom is 37, you do the math...) and we have been hanging out a lot. by hanging out i mean he takes me out and pays for me which is cool and and questionably sketchy. but he is married and even though polygamy is practiced in morocco, it is illegal in france.
and one more note. today i took my second surf lesson. and yes, i managed to stand up. where else can 6 american kids learn to surf from a man named hussein while listening to the call to prayer and with a rainbow in the sky?
we had a crash course in tamazight (the dialect of berber that they speak) this morning where we learned important phrases like "my name is..." "do you have goats and sheep?" and "i dont want meat" (they threw that in for me and the other vegetarian girl). i will report more when we return.
on an unrelated note, id like to introduce you to another member of my host family. my oldest brother, mohammed, lives in france with his french wife but has been visiting for almost a month. he is 23 (by the way mom is 37, you do the math...) and we have been hanging out a lot. by hanging out i mean he takes me out and pays for me which is cool and and questionably sketchy. but he is married and even though polygamy is practiced in morocco, it is illegal in france.
and one more note. today i took my second surf lesson. and yes, i managed to stand up. where else can 6 american kids learn to surf from a man named hussein while listening to the call to prayer and with a rainbow in the sky?
Sunday, March 21, 2004
in west hartford and providence being jewish is something so normal that you dont have to give it much thought if you dont want. that is not the case in morocco. for those who dont know, moroccan jews were once approx. 10% of the total population, and in individual towns and cities even up to 40 or 50%. many of the jews left with the establishment of israel in 1948 and most of the rest after indepence from france in 1956. there are now skeleton populations of jews (less than 500) in a couple cities, like rabat, and a couple thousand in casablanca.
my friend lizzie and i discuss frequently how being here makes us identify much stronger as jews here than at home (her homes being brooklyn and macalester) and we decided to go in search for jews and go to the synagogue in rabat. however last minute our quests took different turns and saturday morning she ended up at a golf tournament with possibly the most powerful jewish couple in morocco and i went to synagogue alone.
i had been to it once before, on a weekday just to see and find out about it. its a totally unmarked building and the first question they ask is "are you jewish?" non-jews arent allowed in. in arabic i thought i learned that services are at 8:30am and they get about 150 people on shabbat morning.
arrived at 8:25 and tried to say shabbat shalom to the man i had followed in. he mumbled at me (assumably in french) and pointed me to the womens section. alone in the womens section and with less than 5 men in front of the ugly lace curtain i wondered if it started at 9am.
at 8:40 prayer began and i realized i was siddur-less (praybook). snuck into the men's section to grab one. a man peeked back through the curtain and spoke in french. he spoke no english but seemed surprised when i asked if he spoke hebrew. in hebrew he offered me the correct siddur. 5 minutes later a man who spoke english came back to make sure i was jewish and kindly asked if a had a place to stay for shabbat, i said i live with a family.
then i was alone in the womens section trying to follow along with the unfamiliar tunes until finally at 9:45 two older women came in muttered shabbat shalom, sat down and practically fell asleep.
after than more women trickled in and more men, but i dont think there was ever more than 30 total (dont know where 150 came from) and i was the youngest by at least 40 years. eventually (through a mix up with the bathroom) they learned i didnt speak french and one woman asked in hebrew, "are you also israeli?" i chatted a little in hebrew with her (and realized how much of it i have forgotten).
overall it was a sad and alienating experience, although i am glad that i went. most of them spoke neither english or hebrew and it felt really weird to try to converse with them in arabic. maybe it would have been better if i spoke french. but no one offered me back for lunch, althouh one woman did offer me a place for passover seder, and they didnt seem to care so much that i was there. and it made me realize that in 50 years there will probably be no jews left in morocco. it seems their children and grandchildren are all abroad and probably wont see morocco as their home.
sorry this was long and not too exciting. i know my mom will want to read it.
on an more fun note i am about to go take my first surfing lesson!
my friend lizzie and i discuss frequently how being here makes us identify much stronger as jews here than at home (her homes being brooklyn and macalester) and we decided to go in search for jews and go to the synagogue in rabat. however last minute our quests took different turns and saturday morning she ended up at a golf tournament with possibly the most powerful jewish couple in morocco and i went to synagogue alone.
i had been to it once before, on a weekday just to see and find out about it. its a totally unmarked building and the first question they ask is "are you jewish?" non-jews arent allowed in. in arabic i thought i learned that services are at 8:30am and they get about 150 people on shabbat morning.
arrived at 8:25 and tried to say shabbat shalom to the man i had followed in. he mumbled at me (assumably in french) and pointed me to the womens section. alone in the womens section and with less than 5 men in front of the ugly lace curtain i wondered if it started at 9am.
at 8:40 prayer began and i realized i was siddur-less (praybook). snuck into the men's section to grab one. a man peeked back through the curtain and spoke in french. he spoke no english but seemed surprised when i asked if he spoke hebrew. in hebrew he offered me the correct siddur. 5 minutes later a man who spoke english came back to make sure i was jewish and kindly asked if a had a place to stay for shabbat, i said i live with a family.
then i was alone in the womens section trying to follow along with the unfamiliar tunes until finally at 9:45 two older women came in muttered shabbat shalom, sat down and practically fell asleep.
after than more women trickled in and more men, but i dont think there was ever more than 30 total (dont know where 150 came from) and i was the youngest by at least 40 years. eventually (through a mix up with the bathroom) they learned i didnt speak french and one woman asked in hebrew, "are you also israeli?" i chatted a little in hebrew with her (and realized how much of it i have forgotten).
overall it was a sad and alienating experience, although i am glad that i went. most of them spoke neither english or hebrew and it felt really weird to try to converse with them in arabic. maybe it would have been better if i spoke french. but no one offered me back for lunch, althouh one woman did offer me a place for passover seder, and they didnt seem to care so much that i was there. and it made me realize that in 50 years there will probably be no jews left in morocco. it seems their children and grandchildren are all abroad and probably wont see morocco as their home.
sorry this was long and not too exciting. i know my mom will want to read it.
on an more fun note i am about to go take my first surfing lesson!
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
ive just returned to rabat, and i am still recovering from a fabulous trip with our whole group that was officially entitled the "southern excursion" but i like to think of it as spring break. some of it was too wonderful to put into words, but i will try.
we started out heading east and crossed through the middle atlas mts where we were lucky enough to have some barbary ape spottings. also really exciting was the appearance of snow as we climbed higher up and we stopped the bus for a brief snowball fight.
the second day we began in the snow covered mts and we drove south until we hit the desert, the landscape contrast that we went through in one day was pretty incredible. before the trip i was excited to go to the desert because i have always enjoyed my time spent in other deserts (and desserts, sarah b) but i was not prepared for how cool this would be. the desert in morocco is no ordinary desert, its the sahara. we ditched out tour bus for 5 landrovers and began off roading across the sand to the foot of the dunes, which was probably the best car ride ive ever had. we learned a bit about the town that lives on the edge of these incredible red sand dunes and explored the dunes themselves on camels and foot, including an early morning hike where we watched the sunrise from one of the highest dunes.
although i wasnt ready to leave the desert, our schedule brought us back west, through the winding roads of the high atlas mts, and eventually we hit marrakesh, which is one of morocco's most famous cities. although it has become quite touristy it still lived up to its reputation. we wandered through the souks and djema lefna, the center square full of everything from snake charmers and story tellers to fresh squeezed oj and snail soup. i rented bikes with a couple of friends and we tried to explore the city further luckily without hurting ourselves or anyone else (although i was nearly crushed between a horse drawn carriage and the sidewalk...crazy moroccan traffic).
finally our travels ended in essouaira, a beautiful, calm beach town. the official group trip ended on friday but most of us opted to stay the weekend. without the group we had to move into cheaper hotels but it was great to live at a more relaxed pace, hanging out on the beach. several of us took a small pilgrimage to a nearby village, diabat, because lonely planet guide book told us jimmy hendrix lived there for a time. however once there the locals informed us that he stayed only one week but that salt n pepper still visit from time to time. it was still beautiful and worth the trip.
stretching vacation to the last possible minute, 8 of us came back via the "mumtaz express," a bus that left essouaira at sunday at midnight and brought us back to rabat at 7am monday, with time to spare before our 8:30am arabic classes.
in conclusion, it was a great week that really gave me a better sense and appreciation for the geographic and social diversity that morocco has to offer and i am excited to continue exploring the country.
we started out heading east and crossed through the middle atlas mts where we were lucky enough to have some barbary ape spottings. also really exciting was the appearance of snow as we climbed higher up and we stopped the bus for a brief snowball fight.
the second day we began in the snow covered mts and we drove south until we hit the desert, the landscape contrast that we went through in one day was pretty incredible. before the trip i was excited to go to the desert because i have always enjoyed my time spent in other deserts (and desserts, sarah b) but i was not prepared for how cool this would be. the desert in morocco is no ordinary desert, its the sahara. we ditched out tour bus for 5 landrovers and began off roading across the sand to the foot of the dunes, which was probably the best car ride ive ever had. we learned a bit about the town that lives on the edge of these incredible red sand dunes and explored the dunes themselves on camels and foot, including an early morning hike where we watched the sunrise from one of the highest dunes.
although i wasnt ready to leave the desert, our schedule brought us back west, through the winding roads of the high atlas mts, and eventually we hit marrakesh, which is one of morocco's most famous cities. although it has become quite touristy it still lived up to its reputation. we wandered through the souks and djema lefna, the center square full of everything from snake charmers and story tellers to fresh squeezed oj and snail soup. i rented bikes with a couple of friends and we tried to explore the city further luckily without hurting ourselves or anyone else (although i was nearly crushed between a horse drawn carriage and the sidewalk...crazy moroccan traffic).
finally our travels ended in essouaira, a beautiful, calm beach town. the official group trip ended on friday but most of us opted to stay the weekend. without the group we had to move into cheaper hotels but it was great to live at a more relaxed pace, hanging out on the beach. several of us took a small pilgrimage to a nearby village, diabat, because lonely planet guide book told us jimmy hendrix lived there for a time. however once there the locals informed us that he stayed only one week but that salt n pepper still visit from time to time. it was still beautiful and worth the trip.
stretching vacation to the last possible minute, 8 of us came back via the "mumtaz express," a bus that left essouaira at sunday at midnight and brought us back to rabat at 7am monday, with time to spare before our 8:30am arabic classes.
in conclusion, it was a great week that really gave me a better sense and appreciation for the geographic and social diversity that morocco has to offer and i am excited to continue exploring the country.
