Monday, January 23, 2012

Hello All!

So I’ve been borrowing an internet modem stick from a friend this week, so if you’ve seen me online more regularly that’s why. Before I left for Morocco I told myself I wanted to go internet free in my house for a whole year. When I worked at nature’s classroom I had no problem being disconnected with no cell service and no internet available. The difference between then and now is at Nature’s Classroom I was surrounded by an amazing group of like-minded supportive people and friends, in short I had a wonderful community available to me day in, day out week after week and a beautiful property to go on hikes on, with no one else around for miles. In that situation not being connected was more often then not a blessing; instead of us all sitting there checking our facebook’s over and over again in the living room we played games, colored, wondered at our incense convection currents, watched planet earth and narrated the days adventures with the assistance of the guitar. Here in morocco when I’m at home in my house, I’m alone. I have a pretty great community in my town, but it’s sort of an adventure in itself, and nothing like the communities I’ve experienced at camp and Nature’s classroom, this community is a learning experience and isn’t as ‘comfortable’. For the reason having the internet here is a solace, those communities I’ve left at home, those relationships that are so important to me are sitting across an ocean, but also at the end of my Maroc Telecom USB internet modem. So long story short, I plan on purchasing my own modem by the end of the month and staying connected, even though the service is pretty terrible. A part of me feels like this is selling out, and missing out on a learning opportunity, but another part of me is really excited about al the skype conversations and facebook chats I’ve had in this past week.

This week was long, and not too productive. I got a really bad congestion/sinus problem that rendered me spending all day in my bed last Sunday, and into Monday. Being sick sucks everywhere, but it was sort of a hard time here, being alone in my house, noone to talk care of me, no one to make me soup and nowhere to buy it. It was hard not to sit there and sort of wallow in sadness. I found moments of happiness  last weekend when I was sickest where I ate the luna bar mama crunchy sent me, which meant I got to eat without cooking (if you read this btw thank you so much! ) , and watched the big bang theory non stop. Even with those things it was hard to bounce back from, and the sinus headache that has stayed with me all week hasn’t helped much with my mood.  But these are the trials, and honestly, minus the buying soup at the supermarket thing, there’s no difference from being sick alone in morocco and being sick alone in America, I’ve just never lived alone, so it ranks as a new experience for me.

Even with my sinus headache I ended up at a pretty cool event down at the gardens this Thursday before my English class at the woman’s center. It took forever to figure out what people were trying to tell me, but what I ended up figuring out was go to the gardens, around 3, there will be cous cous. Because I was sick and cranky I was a tool and didn’t bring my camera, but I’ll paint  a picture instead. I found myself at a little gathering of ladies, who were all sitting around drinking tea and drinking the sour milk that goes with cous cous. To the right there were three huge couscous pots cooking on coal fires, when I say huge, I mean these pots were almost waist high. I got handed a handful of cous cous and ate it , acquiring a huge group of children, who laughed at my attempts to eat it successfully (there was a lot there!) and grilled me about my name, where I was from, whether or not I was muslim and the variations of names from Arabic to engilsh (ie zara=sara youssef=joseph miryem=mary) mostly they were disappointed because there aren’t that many equivalents. I tried to tell them more common names were Barbara, and Ashley, which they found amazing. Then a girl I’ve befriended and a group of her friends went for a little walk around the gardens. After our walk, my hair became the main event, and it was a good laugh me making my hair into all different sorts of configurations and sending the kids in all directions squeeling. Finally it was time for the main event, the cous cous was done, and women walked around bringing big plates of it with veggies and a small amount of meat on top to the different groups of people that have formed. I got to experience trying to eat cous cous with my hands for the first time, and I would say it was mostly unsuccessful. The trick is squeezing out some of the moisture, then gently moving it around your hand to make a ball, I think I squeeze too much, but it was fun, and really delicious. I ate a ton of cous cous then made my way to my English class, which as you could imagine was poorly attended because of the allure of free couscous. Turns out it was a prayer for rain, who knew! Next time I know never to leave my house without my camera.

The other thing that happened unexpectedly was the talent show I ended up at at the dar talib, or student house. The dar talib is a place where students who live too far away from the town schools come to live during the week, so they don’t have to make the long commute from home. I really didn’t want to go anywhere on Friday when I was on my way home, but was cornered by one of the guys who is associated with the dar talib. I showed up and found out it was a sort of event, I got almonds and tea, and met some of the girls who live there. Finally we decided on nights I will go to the dar talib and dar taliba to do English clsses and help with homework and the like. Very exciting.

Finally because of y ill ness last weekend, I didn’t do my weekly shopping at the Sunday market. Because of that I had next to nothing in my house. I’m lucky my host sisters brought me one of my favorites, milwi, which is like a delicious, crispy and greasy tortilla, without that milwi I would have been pretty hungry all week. I used up the little I had left in the house , but I was ready for souk (market) this weekend. It ‘s always exciting to have food in the house, but it especially was this week. I was really excited to start trying out some recipes and experimenting with different ingredients as well as my new pressure cooker. I had soaked and boiled some chick peas last week, and then got sick and never used them. So today I decided because it’s been so cold out ( 45 degrees inside most morning when I wake up!) that I would try and make some soup. I was really happy with the result. Here’s the recipe:

Michelle’s Moroccan chickpea soup

1 large onion
5 cloves garlic chopped
2 tomatoes grated
½ c water
2 c chickpeas
¼ kilo pumpkin
seasoning: salt, pepper, curry, basil, paprika, and a pinch of ginger.

Sautee the onions and garlic in the pressure cooker, add the other ingredients. Wait until the pressure cooker is hissing (heat up on high)  and then cook for 15 minutes over medium heat. After 15 minutes turn off the heat and either release the pressure yourself or let it sit and release itself. This is the point where you wouldn’t want to open the lid, or you might blow things up, like your face or your kitchen, the whole pressure thing about pressure cookers. Once the pressure is relieved, open it up, I then added a dash of vinegar and blended it until smooth

Once the soup was done I used this recipe I found online for fried chickpeas, really easy! Though I would suggest a smaller amount of oil rather then a large amount, a little goes a long way. Once they were done I salted them and used them to garnish my soup! A great trade off for a sort of bread product or something of the sort.



Sorry this post is more or less picture free, but here’s what my soup looked like, that’s the orange tree in the background.  I've started decorating my house, so maybe i'll post some pictures of that tomorrow morning when i finish. Hope everyone is well. There’s also a new feature on the right side of my blog if you want to follow it by email, if you tend to be a forgetful type and don’t remember to come to my blog often, please subscribe by email as well! I don’t really know how to send it out to you all by email, so this is my best option for you forgetful types, I know how it is, I’m bad at remembering to check people’s blogs as well. 

Friday, January 13, 2012


Hello all.

This is my weekly dose of internet, but hopefully by the end of this month/beginning of the next I will have an internet modem stick and get to watch as things slowly load from the comfort of my own home!

I have moved into my own house! It’s a lot bigger then I had wanted/expected, but I feel really blessed/spoiled to have my own place I can leave my dishes out and not worry about what anyone else is going to say. I’ve settled in pretty well, got a few decorations up and I’m enjoying the music I can blast all the time and the messes I can leave without worrying about anyone else’s happiness. Having a courtyard is really great, I love having an outdoor space. Especially because inside it hasn’t gotten any warmer then 55 degrees in about a week and a half. (it’s a lot warmer in the sun outside, more like 65-70 so being able to sit outside is a really great feeling. ) At night it drops down to 45. 45 feels really cold when all you have is a sleeping bag and a blanket, this weekend another blanket is a necessity purchase. I’m trying not to cave and buy a hot water heater or space heater. We’ll see how long I hold out. So far my home is furnished sparsely, mostly out of necessity. There aren’t really that many stores in my town, and most of them carry the same things and the same goes for the weekend markets. There is literally no place in town to buy a refrigerator- so I was told to wait on that, as you read above it’s cold enough most days that I just leave my stuff out and it doesn’t spoil, I won’t need a fridge until the end of February or the beginning of march. I’ve been buying things as I need them and so far it’s worked out pretty well. These pictures are of my house unfurnished.

I had a brief stint this week where I was a cat owner, remember those two small kittens from my host families house? I decided to bring vache (the boy) back with me. He spent two days crying non stop, and using my bed as his own toilet. Seeing as I’m not a huge fan of cats to begin with, I decided that his life was better off with his sister/family/not with me so I returned him. Evidently his sister had spent those same two days crying, so it works out best for everyone. Big sigh of relief on that one. I’ve found the hideouts of the puppies that are in my town though, and if their spirits haven’t been broken by the beginning of February I might see if one of them wants to be my permanent friend. Problem is people in morocco do not like dogs, and especially don’t have them in their houses. As long as they don’t bother anyone they’re left alone to roam the street, but mistreatment of dogs (rock throwing, kicking etc) is both pretty commonplace and accepted behavior, it breaks my heart. But I also know I can’t afford the time or money to save every puppy I see. Having a dog has big old pro’s and big old con’s- so I’m weighing my options at this point.

This weekend was a very exciting time here in nkob! There was a big festival where I got to listen to traditional berber music, see tradition looms, grindstones and other sorts of good stuff. I got to go on a walking tour of a couple of the kasbah’s turned hotels in town which was very cool. Also there was a marathon and a couple of other smaller running races for the younger generations. There was music, and running and dancing and food and more or less everyone in town showed up. All of it was hosted in and around the dar chabab/youth center where I work so that was really cool too.  I felt very special being invited to all of these different events and activities. I’m pretty sure this festival is one of the most exciting things that happens for a while around here.  I’m hoping to run the marathon next year, we shall see! I started with my first ‘for exercise’ bike ride and jog around my courtyard yesterday. I am incredibly tired right now, but it was worth it.

So since my last post not much has happened. This festival was a time were I felt like I was part of what was happening here in town, people invited me places, I felt less like someone who was here and not just being invited out of pity or anything like that. It felt really nice. I felt more like a friend/member then some foreign creature people were nice to because they felt bad. Being an outsider is hard, and between language and culture it’s hard not to feel like a total outsider sometimes. It usually doesn’t bother me/ I don’t even notice, but it was cool to feel like I was part of it all. I forsee that happening more and more as I stay here longer, at least I hope so.
I’m eternally grateful for the small joys and kindnesses I find along the way here. For example on my bike ride, the way out of town I felt disheartened, out of shape, bummed out. I stopped at where I decided to turn around and listened to a few songs on my ipod while taking a sip of water then headed back. As I was changing the playlists on my ipod a kid stopped and asked if I was going to nkob, I told him yes and he asked if he wanted to bike with him. I said, no, it’s ok I’m not very good right now, but he insisted and we ended up biking back the 1.5kilometers back to nkob, and my bike ride went from a bummer to a total bright spot in my day. Had I listened to one more song or one less song I probably wouldn’t have run into this kid and my ride would not have been as rewarding. Small things like this happen all the time, that I like to think of as little nudges that I’m doing well here, I’m heading in the right direction. I’m thankful I’ve always been the type of person to find joy in the small stuff.


So there it is. This post is really picture heavy bc I’ve had such an eventful few days! Woot!



 a space i like in my house. to the side of the courtyard. 

 my non fruiting orange tree in my courtyard. birds love it. i am constantly cleaning up bird poop off of the leaves and the cement. 


my big cement salon! i have set up camp almost exclusively in this room. it's pretty great. i'll post a picture of it when i've decorated some more. 

courtyard to the kitchen. 




 my kitchen, with the brand new sink and counter. pretty snazzy. 

one of my three roofs. 

the second of two roofs, this one is above the big salon, it's probably where i will sleep come summer time.  


 a traditional nkob rug loom


 ladies in wedding garb sitting on the curb. waiting for the races to finish up. 


something i would NEVER do in america, but is totally acceptable here. socks and sandals. 

a guy in traditional garb smoking a cigarette. 


"a berber bride"


 me playing with the traditional grindstone. if you wanted flour this is how you used to do it. also this is probably my favorite outfit at the time. i wear it a lot. another totally acceptable wardrobe choice is wearing the same thing all week- a practice that was not difficult for me to adapt to. 


 the kids finishing up their race. 

 a view over nkob. i love the colors of the houses. 


 another view over nkob


 main street from above. 


 main street from above 2

 traditional music in practice. 


 a sunset over the crowd. i swear to god this is what it actually looked like. it was gorgeous. 


the sunset again. i couldn't pick what one to use, so i decided for both. this picture also shows how all the ladies carry around their babies. i love it. the just kind of bend over, place the baby on their back, and then put a blanket over their backs, tie it on the front then place a series of other fabrics (blankets towels etc) depending on the weather and the event. it's wonderful.