3 Week Update

 

Bexir? Labas? Alhamdulaah.

 

Things are going well over here in Morocco-land. As I write this post, I’ve been in Morocco for 15 whopping days. Feels more like 15 months though. Most of my time has been spent in my CBT (Community Based Training) site, where I’m learning Darija with 6 other trainees. I’m incredibly thrilled that I’m finally learning Arabic and I’m setting my language proficiency goal quite high. Over the past two weeks, I’ve watched myself transition from making a complete and utter fool of myself in front of my wonderful homestay family to a somewhat coherent oddity that spews out random Arabic words. I wish you could have seen my gestures for “diarrhea” (which luckily has not yet inflicted me). 

 

Speaking of bowel movements, I’ve finally reached the point where I can use a squatty potty and wipe without toilet paper. Squatting is not the hard part, wiping without some good ol’ TP is also not the hard part. Squatting while wiping, however, takes a huge toll on my flexibility and maneuverability, though this difficulty is diminishing with time.  

 

And with time I am also becoming much more comfortable with my very jovial and very welcoming homestay family. They stare at me a lot, which makes sense given that I readily acknowledge that I’m strange. My strangeness aside, I think they like me. We joke a lot, we laugh a lot. I say funny things in Darija that are not supposed to be funny. I make my young homestay sisters (there are three) call me Monsieur Adam, Mister Adam, Hajj Adam, or Sir Adam; otherwise I will not respond.

 

As for food, it’s a little blander that I was expecting. We eat lots and lots of bread. Unfathomable amounts. Usually with a tajine of potatoes, carrots, and ful beans. There’s usually a chunk of meat in the tajine, but I steer clear of that. Whenever there is bread, there is also tea. Not green tea, not black tea. Absinthe tea, aka winter mint. (Apparently, “Moroccan Mint” tea is green tea with mint, but my family never serves me that). Moroccans like to add tea to their sugar. Adam likes no sugar in his tea. I told my homestay that I prefer my tea without sugar; they said “mashi mushkil,” no problem. They’ve served me one cup of tea without sugar. Since then, they put a little sugar in the teapot before they bring me my tea, hoping that I won’t notice. I guess they’re trying to fool me into thinking I’m drinking sugar-free tea?

 

My family grows the absinthe tea leaves in their small garden next to our house, along with a variety of other herbs, veggies, and fruits. The produce in Morocco is absolutely splendid. My CBT village has copious fields of fruit and vegetables. Figs, olives, almonds, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, apples, dates. All my favorite fruits growing at my doorstep. Most of these fruits are not yet in season, but the minute figs starting sprouting, you better believe I’ll be out in the fields stuffin’ my belly.

 

Whenever I roam through the fields, I usually get invited to someone’s house for tea. The people of my village are incredibly and particularly friendly, and luckily, they don’t treat me like a tourist. I cannot wait until the day when I can fully communicate with these folks. Being Arab will hopefully assist me in integrating into my permanent community. Most people here ask me if I’m Muslim or Moroccan. To avoid explaining my peculiar background – although I don’t have the language skills to do so anyway – I usually simply reply “yes” and proceed to tell them that my father is Egyptian.

 

Life in Morocco has had some rough patches that require adjusting. No contact with friends and family is tough, language overdose is quite draining, and getting acquainted to life without a bathroom sink is offsetting at first. There are days when my brain simply does not want to tackle Arabic; there are nights when my brain forms sentences only in Arabic. For the most part, however, I’m very pleased with my Peace Corps experience so far. Training has been organized well, the staff is friendly, and the country and program directors are extremely personable. Most importantly, training is shaping up to be very effective. I’m so excited to see how the next two years pan out. Every step of Peace Corps – from first applying to sitting in my homestay in rural Morocco – has been full of suspense and the unknown. This is frustrating at times, as I’m often impatient, but the outcomes are always worth waiting for. 

 

Bsllamah!