Donkies Have Napolian Complexes

Greetings! I know it has been a long time but I did warn before that I might only have the chance to write once a month or so. That is my only excuse.

Here are a couple more cultural differences I think you guys might like.

Donkey is the most common mode of transportqtion in my site. Even the
nice ones are nasty and try to kick you. I think it's because they're
short and have long sticky out ears.

My site is just north of Jerassique Park and south of Tattoine. (Truly, Tattouine is even on the map, look south of Fes)

Morroco is is not the country time forgot, time remembers it well and plays cruel games with it. Half the country follows daylight savings time and half do not. This is not location specific, it depends on the person. My tutor follows it and her mother ( who lives in the same house) does not. My site has solved the problem by not following time at all. They keep time based on a very simple system of the sun and their moods. So largely it amounts to, 'It's tea-time-ish b/c I'm thirsty-ish'

This leads into the concept of Morrocon Time in which you tell people to meet at 2, the punctual few will arrive at 4 and the rest will trickel in over the next hour or so.

I once was a shower daily type, now I bathe twice to three times per week. Mostly b/c a 'bath' involves boiling a kettle of water on the propane stove, putting it in my bucket and adding cold water until it doesn't cook me, and then sitting on my stool to have a bucket bath.

B/c the hot Moroccon sun beats down on the chateau (water tower) all day there is no cold tap water in the summer.
Ramadan begins in early August.

And now, intrepid readers, I shall share annecdotes of my life here in the desert lands of Errachidia.This will be rather scattered b/c I have a months worth of experiences to share with you. Bon Chance!

Looking at the mountains around me everyday I often find myself humming the Indiana Jones Theme because the scenery around me really is just like the Raiders of the Lost Ark (pretty sure that was filmed here so that makes sense)

My site is amazing, I have both electricity and running water but
I'm a million miles from the main road. There a three roads that lead
to my site and all are an hour walk, and two cross the river which is
a trickle now but during rainy season will be unpassable. Actually,
all three of my roads are dirt roads so come rainy season I might be
stuck site side. I told the powers that be that I could not function
as a human or PCV without a bike so they double timed it and my bike
arrived at my site before I did. Really happy to have it but they
didn't take the time to look it over well and I got a semi broken
bike. Bummer.
I told the great-and-mighty-daddy of my plight and he told me that the gear cable
was either too loose or too tight so I fussed and tightened and
loosened and kind of traumatized my family here b/c girls aren't
supposed to do mechanical stuff. In the end they called the neighbor guy over and he made me stop doing that mens-work and worked on the bike for me. I contemplated going all feminist-anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-too, but realized it was much easier to let him do all the work while I sat and handed him the tools.
It would seem my rear derailer is ninty percent kaputz so I was emensly glad when he fixed it to having one rear gear that works. It's the 2nd gear which is a bit tough to use on my offroad road to and from the highway but at least it works.

I spent two days at the sbitar-clinic (where I'm technically based out of) and I have had the revelation that I probably won't be going there very often.
It's not that they aren't kind and welcoming and all; b/c they are
really great. The staff is made up of a female doctor, a female nusr,
and a male nurse. I don't think I'll be going there a lot b/c they
don't need me. I spent both days consolidating the birth control boxes
so that each box has a three month supply in it. Wee. This, on top of
the fact that it's a twenty min bike ride to sbitar from site, my
mokadem has asked my to teach in site, and I have been given my own
classroom at the school all add together to say I will be teaching
health outside of the sbitar. BTW mokadem is the tribal leader, my
mokadem has been very kind and offers his assistance in anything I
need or want.
Oh, that's something else you don't know. My work here is very self
directed. I have no schedules or set places to be and the only people
I am responsible to are the duty officer, I have to tell him where and
why I'm going places so incase of rampaging ninja monkies I can be
found. And I have to write a quarterly report to the PC powers that be
to tell them what I'm doing. Otherwise I'm on my own. I set my work
schedule, I find and make my own work, I set the time table for when I
need to have certain things done. This is the ultimate independent
study project. It's exciting and scary all at once.
I really do feel that in many ways I'm doing an anthropological
study, except I'm also trying to introduce new ideas which is very un
anthy of me. My site is going to be very challenging. I am the first
PCV to be set in my site (other PCVs have come in and taught
toothbrushing and handwashing in the school but I'm the first to live
and work the full two years in site) This means that I'm not living in
anyones shadow so I don't have t overcome a bad image, nor do I have
to live up to anyone; on the flipside, they have no idea why I'm here
and I have to start from the very basics of what the PC is. I see a
lot of projects I can and want to do but before I can do them I have
to learn the language and get to know the people. More importantly I
need them to know and trust me.
The most challenging part about my site is that they have a lot of
needs but no resourses and no idea that life could be different. They
all have tv and dish so they see the outside world but there is a
disconnect between the outside world and their world. Right now,
before I can do any of the projects I want to do I have to get them to
see the importance of education. I've translated the proverb about
giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish and the few people
I've built relationships with so far understood when I told them so
that's a start. Now I just need to get everyone else to see that I'm
here to help them help themselves, not give them stuff. Their thinking
I'm here to give them stuff is definatly the fault of foriegn
visitors. Ppl come in from Europe and hand stuff out to people so
often that now they assume ppl who come to see them are there to give
them stuff. One of my host family's visiting family members has had
this trained into her so well that she walked into my room before she
left and asked me for my sunscreen and was kind of annoyed when I said
no. I don't think she understood when I tried to tell her I couldn't
because she WANTED it so she wouldn't get darker, but I NEED it b/c I
burn and get sick. I don't think they get sunburns so I'm pretty sure
she thinks I was lieing. Later I told my sister that the sun hurts me
and makes me sick if I get to much and she nodded and smiled but I
don't think she knew what I ment. That's OK, in two years I'm sure to
get at least one sunburn, then they'll understand. I think that's all
for now friends, I'm off to meet new people and butcher their
language.
Frogs are everywhere! I think after the plague in Egypt they didn't just vanish, they packed up and moved to Morocco. They are forever getting into the house (I usually have three or four living under my bed) It's comical that they get to my house at all b/c they come from the river and have to cross the road to get to me. It's like Frogger! I don't mind the frogs in my room at all, actually, b/c they eat the flies.
The flies here are dreadfully annoying, they dive bomb you and fly into your mouth as you're talking and they land on my glasses (while I'm wearing them)and leave little fly foot prints on them. What's especially gross is that I have to look at their nasty fly underbellies while they walk on my glasses. I'm being flashed by flies!
I have been promed that by mid -July it usually gets hot enough to kill the flies; 'though I'm not sure if that is good or bad. Rumor has it that July through August it's usually 120 degrees. Yikes! It's been in the mid to upper nines the past couple of weeks; one day it dropped down to the eighties and I was so cold I actually had to pull out a sweater.
Moving on. I feel very much like I'm living in one of those re-enactment settlments. A couple of days ago I was making myself a cup of tea but there was no milk in the fridge so I went into the back and milked a gless from one of the family cows. And a couple of days later I was making biscuits for the family and I needed butter but we were out. Fortunatly the cows had already been milked that morning. I had to pour some milk into a jar and make my own butter so I could make biscuits! Hee hee hee, it's rather fun actually.
On a similar note, I bought a glorious thing at souk a few weeks ago. I am now the proud owner of a lfrwaka and my life is so much easier! What is a lfrwaka you might ask? It is a wash board, and I don't know how anyone servived before their creation. My clothes are cleaner then I think they have ever been (even with a washing machine) and it requires half the time and a billionth the energy to wasdh my clothes. I'm sure, once I know what I'm doing, it will use less soap to; but I can build to that shwea b shwea (little by little)
So I have been absoluty terrible about the picture taking and what not but my friend Milo (I shall refrain from using real names so that should I choose to take artistic liscense no one is angery) is much better about being a shutter bug. Incase you didn't see my mom's comment on my last blog his photo bucket is http://s289.photobucket.com/home/megraves84/recentuploads?view=slideshow.
To take a slightly more serious tone for a bit. My mom raised a concern on one of my phone calls home about Morrocan men. She said that she was reading about how terrible they are on another PCV's blog. While I like to give you guys tales andlists of all the defferences about life her, really the people are very similar to Americans. And, hust like in America, the lound and mean 2% are making the quiet and gentle 98% seem bad.
Yes, I too have experienced sexual harrasment (only from middle and high school aged boys)nothing profain and I have never felt in danger. The two occasions that I found most shocking were the twelve year old boy in one of the large cities who said 'sex sex sex sex sex' as Milo and I walked past.I ignored him. The other was a boy from a high school near my site who told me I was 'always welcome in his room' I laughed in his face. I am also proposed to on a daily if not weekly basis, oh Hashuma! (shame) :P
These are dar and away the minority here, men in Morocco are very respectful and very halpful. At the place where my dirt road and the main road meet is a small community. Once I reach there I can get a taxi or bus to anywhere I need and so I don't need my bike anymore, it going from being vital to being annoying. The parkinglot guard somehow knew this telapathically and gave me the key to a small shed where I can leave my bike once I reached there. No charge, he just told me it was no trouble and he was glad to help.
Because my bike got to site before I did the Powers That Be left it at another PCVs site so I could pick it up at my lesure. The PCV in question had to go to PC HQ around the time I arrived so he left his key with one of his Moroccan friends so he could let me in to get my bike. This guy not only helped me get my bike but then invited me over to his house to meet his family and have tea. After tea he borrowed the PCVs bike so he could escourt me the 17 km bike ride to my house, just so I would not feel lonely.
I went over to a friends house the other day and by the time I got back to the place I leave my bike the sun had gone down enough that seeing the dirt road was difficult. I had forgotten my head lamp at home so the taxi driver who had taken me to the parking lot followed behind me so I could have his head lights to get home and he would not accept money for the kindness. All of these guys just say 'mashi mushkil' (it's nothing)
I usually get to the parking lot at the same time when I am going to my tutor's house so I often get the same taxi driver to the city. Everyone else who rides the taxi is always very excited to talk to a foreigner which is lovely but I often don't understand them. I only speak french and tashleheit and a lot of ppl here speak arabic too. Since this guy knows me he always tells them when they speak arabic 'no, she only knows tashleheit' (I can't tell the difference between the two) He is also able to feild a lot of the questions they have about me wich makes my life easier. For axample, some ppl here don't like the French, he knows who these ppl are and if they get in the cab and give me a dirty look he always says, shes American and she's teaching the kids to be healthy. Then everyone in the cab thinks I'm just wonderful. This guy also charges me half the usual fare to the city.
Oh the terrible terror that is Morrocan men. No, I want to put all your minds at rest, I am very safe here and the people are very kind. I do drink a ton of tea though, good heavens; the usual introduction goes something along the lines of, hello, how are you? Is everything well? are you well in every way you can be well? Are you rested? Have you adjusted? (they ask eachother this too so I'm not actually sure what ae are adjusting too) are you having a fine time? Oh thank God, thank God. What's your name? It's nice to meet you! come in for tea. No? But you must, tea keeps you alive! (I usually accept the tea) And after the first glass I say safee (done) and as they pour me another glass they say you will enjoy another one. tea is usuall three cups (the idea of the first cup is strangers, the second is business, and the third is family is more true then you think)So on the whole, nobody should be fretting about me.
Speaking of family, my entire site is one family, seriously everyone hase the same last name. And I have totally been accepted with open arms. Some ppl already call me xalti (pronounced like the H in Hannuka Halti) it means aunt on the mothers side.
And now I have to head out, hopefully it won't be so long untill my next post. Toodles yo.