Village Life

This is copied from an email I sent on March 15th, 2009.

Since my last update, lots has happened! We just completed our first week (of 8) with our Host Families. I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful they are! But let me start from the beginning:

Sean and I are in a small village in the foothills of the High Atlas mountains (the exact location is secret because Peace Corps doesn't want us to spread the word about our exact locations for security reasons). It is so unbelievably beautiful here! As I mentioned, it has been an especially wet winter, so everything is green. This provides a spectacular contrast to the red earth (similar to Sedona). We discovered that the green fields everywhere are wheat fields, although they look more like impossibly verdant meadows. There are steep narrow paths crisscrossing the mountains in the foreground, and when you look up, you are astonished to find looming, completely snow-capped mountians. And then there are the poppies! Oh, my the gorgeous, red-orange poppies! Ahh! I'll have to figure out how to post photos soon!

And I haven't even mentioned our host family! Our host-mom is named Fatima, and she is shy and laughs a lot. Our host-dad is named L'Houssein, and he looks ancient, although I'm discovering that people age quickly in Morocco. He is a farmer, so he isn't around much during the day, but when he comes home in the evening, he always seems to be in a good mood. He sits with his arms folded across his chest, smiling, and nodding, and occasionally saying something that everyone is the house finds very funny (although I usually don't understand, which of course, everyone thinks is even funnier.) We have two host sisters, Fadma, who is from L,Houssein,s first marriage and seems to be near the age of Fatima, and Houda, who is 12. Fadma is very outgoing and is always laughing and trying to get me to understand what's going on. Houda is simultaniously spunky and shy, and also very smart. She helps us out a lot with the language and pronunciation. Actually, the whole family is very smart, and they are all very close and affectionate. Moroccans in general seem to be very affectionate and friendly. The traditonal greeting are very long and involve asking about each other's family as well as repeating "How are you?" in several different forms as well as the same form over and over again. Imagine:

Amber: Peace be upon you.
Fadma: Peace be upon you, too.
Amber: Are you fine?
Fadma: I am fine, thanks be to God. Everything is good. I am good, thanks be to God. Are you fine?
Amber: I am fine, thanks be to God. I am good, thanks be to God. Are you good?
Fadma: I am well, thanks be to God. I am good. Everything is good. How is your family? (Usually they ask about each member individually and the whole process repeats itself).
The whole process is accompanied by lots of smiles, laughing, nodding, and a combination of handshakes, hugs, and kisses. It's great!

Everyone is very neighborly, and greets everyone else on the street, or from the roof (Moroccan roofs are like American front porches). Also, there are donkeys and sheep everywhere. It's very funny, actually. So, on our host family description, it said "no pets", but when we arrived, we were greeted by 2 rabbits, a cat, 3 turkeys, a donkey, at least 8 chickens, 3 ducks, and 7-8 sheep. No pets! Hah! It's great, though. They live mostly in our small front yard and in the courtyard. Oh, our house is the most beautiful house I've ever seen! It is made of adobe mud brick, but it has an open roof in the center. There is a stairway that goes up to the roof from the center courtyard. There is also an entry courtyard (where the animals stay) separated by a huge ornately carved wooden door. There are several rooms that branch off from the central courtyard, including our bedroom, a traditional kitchen, a modern kitchen, a sitting room, and a few other rooms. The Turkish toilet is in it's own little chamber in the entry courtyard. We also have our own private Hammam (steam sauna/shower) in the backyard, which I had the delicious privilege of using for the first time yesterday. Very nice!

Oh, there's so much to talk about! Let's see, the food is great, although I did get mildly sick a few days ago. My family was very sweet and considerate and prepared special food for me to recover, and I'm perfectly fine now. We live right next door to three other volunteers, who each have their own families. Most of the families are related, so we visit each other often. The kids are great, and we play a lot of cards and they help us with the language. Mostly, there's a lot of laughing and they make fun of us a lot because we don't know how to do anything (speak, wash our clothes, eat properly (with your hands), use the bathroom, etc.) but it's very fun. During the day we go to madrasa (school) and learn language for the first 4 hours or so, then cultural/practical stuff in the afternoon. We have the evenings with our families to practice and hang out. Today was our first day off, so the volunteers in our village made a trip to Ouzoud Cascades, which are the largest in the country. They are amazing! Now, we,re all in the cyber catching up on emails and buying a few things at the hanout (store).

Kulshi Bixr (Everything is good!)