Eid Mubarik

Hello All!

Here is an update on my past few days:

On Monday, as previously mentioned, we had the day off for the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday (Eid). I spent the morning hanging around my house then headed out with two girls (Beth and Charley) from my program, along with Beth’s host mother and two brothers (one ~18 yrs and one 5 yrs). We drove to nearby Chellah, the Roman ruins of the town Sala Colonia. We didn’t have a guidebook with us and with no descriptive signs on the site we ended up enjoying ourselves quite a bit by making up the history of the rooms of the ruins. It was beautiful and presented a landscape view of the green countryside, something I am not used to seeing living in the middle of the medina.

We left Chellah and went over to Beth’s house for a special Eid tea. Beth’s host brother played guitar and we attempted a group sing along to the few songs he knew how to play (Jason Mraz, Shakira, and Beyonce to name a few). Unfortunately the sing-a-longs were caught on Beth’s host mom’s camera, so hopefully they will not make it up on youtube. I went home around 7:30pm and having called my host mom to tell her I would be having tea at someone else’s house so there was no need to wait for me, I expected my family would have finished tea. But of course, 5 minutes after arriving, the table was set for tea. Food can never be avoided in this country! After tea my host mom presented me with a traditional Moroccan shirt she had sewn for me as a gift for Eid. I expressed to her how beautiful it is and that I love the colors. She then told me “You will wear this to school tomorrow over jeans”. So I did. I was slightly embarrassed to stand out so much, but when I told the other students my mom had made it for me, they were impressed.

Tuesday marked our first day of regular programming. I took a bucket shower in the morning, then headed to Arabic class at 8:30 (secular time). Arabic ends everyday at 11:45 (again, secular time) and then we walk over to the CCCL for lunch followed by our required module class of multiculturalism and human rights, then our field studies seminar. I was very pleasantly surprised (and slightly intimidated) at the academic level of the class and all of the students’ points. We discussed the pros and cons of various political systems, specifically monarchical and democratic types, and whether it is possible for Morocco to ever become a democracy. In the discussion we talked about all the problems we have observed so far in our stay in Morocco (of which, unfortunately, there are many). Going home and seeing my host sisters asleep on the couch in front of the TV, I was struck with a weird feeling. I had spent the past 4 days immersing myself in this family and culture. I was entirely focused on observing their way of life and adjusting that I had no time to analyze. So after a class of discussing some large issues Morocco is facing (of which TV time was mentioned…) I felt as though I was being two-faced, almost as though I was hiding something from my family, talking about them from behind their backs. Abdelhay reminds us often not to use the homestay as a laboratory, but as it is my only real view of the culture so far, it is hard to not think of my family when we discuss these issues. I attemped to talk about some of the issues brought up in our readings (the Casablanca and Marrakesh terrorist attacks, their viewpoints on the king…) but the conversations didn’t seem to go very far (“God does not want us to kill…”, “The king is very handsome…”). I imagine this is something I will continue to struggle with…

We had the same schedule Wednesday and Thursday, minus our field studies seminar. On Thursday, we had a guest lecturer come to our human rights module- a Yale political science professor and SIT Morocco (my program) graduate. She is on sabbatical this year and back to Morocco for the fourth time for research (this time on the February 20^th movement). She also talked to us about her experiences here as an SIT student, about the sexual harassment (sounded worse back in 1994) and her experiences doing her independent study project on prostitution in Morocco (no longer possible as a topic…). In the afternoon we had an assignment for our field studies seminar, where my group was to observe a certain aspect of gender dynamics. We chose to ask various store vendors who purchases more items, when, and how. Being the only French speaker in the group, I approached 6 or 7 vendors, telling them we are students with a project so could we ask them a few questions. All of them either didn’t speak French or were completely unwilling. We then settled for sitting in a café and observing who was purchasing what items. We didn’t notice much as traffic was low but there were definitely more women doing the purchasing.

Tomorrow I have an oral presentation in my Arabic class (“Garcon! I would like an orange juice, please. Here, money. Turn left”), then we are going to learn how to make a special kind of sweet/dessert-like couscous, and then go home for couscous Friday round II. AND THEN I’M HEADED TO FEZ, because I can do things like go to Fez for the weekend. A (big) group of us are taking the train staying at a riad hostel for two nights. I’ll be sure to post a trip review once I’m back!

Enjoy your weekends!

With love,

Karin