Cooking Class

Cooking class begins! Learning how to make couscous.

Step one: Add all the vegetables

Step two: Add spicessssss.

 Step three: Wait around 3 hours while everything boils...

 Step 4: Enjoy!

 Now, to be fair, this is not as simple and easy as the process went.  There were a few steps in between that I skipped...

Pride and Prejudice

As part of the language program here in Fez, we have lectures every week on different aspects of Moroccan life.  Today we had a fabulous lecture on Islam in Morocco, which for me was a real education.  Like most Americans, my knowledge of Islam has been fairly limited.  I do my best to read and be knowledgeable, but when it comes down to it, I can name which celebrity is in rehab this week and who won last weeks Project Runway, but I couldn't tell you more than few sentences on the major religion of the country I'm living in...

In an attempt to pass on what I took from the lecture, I will do my best to summarize, but know all intelligent points belong to the lecturer (Niaz Ahmad).

A good starting point of understanding Islam in Fez is to start with a little history.  The oldest university in the world, Al-Qarawiyyin, is in Fez and is still a leading spiritual center for the Muslim world. The mosque associated with it is one of the largest in Fez and was built by a Tunisian Princess Fatimah Firiyyah. Upon arriving in Fez, sh actively scrutinized her funds, fearful of money that may have been obtained in a tainted manner.  Instead of spending her money on a palace or personal pleasure, she invested all her savings in the construction of the mosque that still exists today in Fez.  In the five pillars of Islam, one of the pillars is known as Zakat and it is the belief in giving alms.  This means, that each year Muslims should give 2.5% of their savings to the poor.  This money can also be distributed to travelers and those who have lost their high standing in society (like a doctor).  They belief behind this is that they have played an important part of society and should not be abandoned in a time of need.

In current day Morocco, this notion of generiosity is still very present.  For example, if you are on a train or bus and eating food in public, it is the norm to offer some food to those around you. 

Another pillar of Islam is the daily prayers.  The times of these prayers are timed with the sun, forcing people to be aware of the sun and the sky in their daily lives.  You must also perform ablution before prayer, making prayer time an opportunity reconnect with water, acknowledging waters purity and ability to maintain life on earth.  The fourth pillar is fasting during the month of Ramadan from dawn to sunset.  This is a way to practice self restraint, as well as staying in touch with the moon, as  Ramadan begins and ends with the cycles of the moon. 


As most current day discussion on modern Islam, our lecture did discuss a little about violence.  In taking into account violent acts today, it is important to always keep things in perspective.  Although violence has been a constant throughout the history of mankind, the 20th century saw violence and death in unparelled levels.  Between the Holocaust, Stalin, Mao and the dropping of the Atomic bomb over Japan, mass killings and genocide have become feasible. Technology, globalisation and imperialism have created a world where organized violence can occur on a massive scale.  Mass killings have occurred under the guise of many different beliefs and ideas in the past, and it is important to hold accountable the man and not the belief, for a belief cannotthe trigger of a gun.

This lecture left me in a state of reflection, forcing me to set aside my own pride and accept the fact that I too have fallen prey to generalizations, and in turn prejudice.  At the beginning of the lecture he asked us all to describe our experience with Islam.  As I reflected on the question, I realized my knowledge was limited to a few personal interactions, the classroom and of course what I hear on the news. Like any religion, there is a great complexity and beauty that extends beyond the doctrine and expresses itself in the people, history and culture. Throughout the rest of my time here I hope to observe without prejudice and without pride, comfortable with the fact that I have just begun to learn and that I have a long way to go.

 

 

a mad tea party

Learning Darija.

I have finished my first week of my five-week intensive Darija (Moroccan Arabic) course.  The first two days I honestly felt like a fish out of water; I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  I was placed in the accelerated beginner course because of my background in Moroccan Standard Arabic, and the majority of the course (and by majority, I mean all by about 2 sentences) was conducted in Darija or Modern Standard Arabic.  Having not studied Modern Standard Arabic for over year, I spent the first two days with the same smile I use during dinner with my home stay family (the smile that's a polite way of communicating that I have no idea what's going on).  On the third day, the clouds began to clear and I began to form my first basic sentences. My mind seemed to catch up to the rest of the class and by the end of the week I did not need my I-don't-understand-anything-that-you're-saying smile.  It was no longer like a mad tea party to me, I actually understood.

In addition to Darija class, we also have bi-weekly lectures on Moroccan culture. We had a very interesting one on feminist perspectives on the Medina in Fez.  When visiting the Medina in Fez, it is almost impossible to tell what the houses look like on the inside based on the outside appearance.  In fact, it is important to be humble in Morocco and so having a modest and almost shabby exterior is an extension of this belief.  On the interior however, the homes can be beautifully designed and decorated, a reflection on the introverted way of thinking.  The other lecture we had was on the challenges to doing research in Morocco.  Like any country, it is always important to know certain topics to avoid when dealing with acquaintances and for Morocco its: God, King and Country. 

With regards to my research, I am still not sure the Moroccan mentality surrounding Sub-Saharan migrants.  Here is a good link to an article about a Moroccan who is working with the migrants and has a video to show what the migrant camps are like.  This is based in Oujda, a city along the Algerian border, which I hope to visit.  However, the majority of my work will be with migrants in Rabat or Tangier.

Sub-Saharan Immigrants

On a future note: this week I will also be attending a Moroccan cooking class as well as visiting the city of Meknes and the Roman ruins in Volubilis.

A day in the Medina

Here are some photos from my visit to the Medina in Fez.

green eggs and ...

Yesterday I arrived in Fez and moved into my home stay.  After being met by my home stay sister, we walked down the street for what seemed like an hour (at least to me as it was boiling hot and I was hauling about six months worth of luggage).  I was prepared for the worst: cold showers, no western toilet, and a room hot enough to do bikram yoga in.  Boy was I wrong.

As I entered the top floor apartment, the room opened up into quite honestly the biggest sitting room I have ever seen in my entire life.  There are windows all along the wall looking out on the beautiful city of Fez and are always open, allowing a nice breeze to blow through the house all the time.  There were two gorgeous balconies off the main two bedrooms, a kitchen with a dishwaser, washing machine and two refridgerators.  My room actually has its own balcony so i can leave the door and window open and have a nice breeze.  I am living way better now than my college row house (which contained mice, water leaks and of the course the power outages and shutting off of water).  The family is very nice and I can communicate with them in French, but they mainly talk in Darija to each other, leaving me sitting there with a simple smile on my face as I have no idea what they are saying.

Last night at 8pm we found out the news that Ramadan has officially ended.  This means that the fasting is over and the next two days are holiday where people visit with family and of course, eat.  Being here for the last week of Ramadan has been a great experience.  Ramadan is not so much observable through the use of street decorations and commercial sales, but so present in the fact that nobody, and I mean nobody, is eating, drinking or smoking in the street from sunup to sundown. I did not fast and so when we ate we ate inside the hotel restaurant and did not drink water in the street.  However, each night we were able to take part in the Iftar (breaking of the fast) with the professors who gave us lectures during the day.  The fast is typically broken with a glass of milk, dates and other sweets.  Although sometimes we had fresh squeeze orange juice or my favorite, an avocado milk shake.  After that, soup is usually followed along with bread and then a meat course of some kind. All the food is new to me, with the exception of the bread.  I'm never quite sure what I am eating, mainly due to my lack of Darija skills.  Everything I have tasted so far has been delicious, and I am trying to taste everything in front of me. Sometimes my stomach needs some encouragement to do, as I am not used to soup for breakfast.  But in the end, my taste buds have not been disapointed by the endless use of spices, sugars and flour that Moroccan seem to effortlessly infuse together.

On a small cultural side note, I was watching TV with my home stay sisters yesterday and it was a cooking show.  The special guest was a man and the laughed and asked me 'have I ever seen a man cook?'  I just smiled and tried to think of how Anthony Bourdain would respond.

a tale of two cities

Today was a series of lectures on the Moroccan education system and language situation in Morocco.  I am going to focus on the latter.  To put it simply: Moroccan is the land of many languages.  Most people when they hear Morocco, they think Arabic, which is technically correct.  According to the Moroccan constitution: "Le Royaume du Maroc, Etat musulman souverain, dont la langue officielle est l'arabe, constitue une partie du Grand Maghreb Arabe."  Now this brings up so many questions for debate.  The first obvious one: why is it written in French?  The second being, Arabic is officially stressed as important (as the word appears twice in that one second) but what Arabic are they referring to?  The dialect here, known as Darija, is a blend of Arabic, French and some of the berber languages, but it is still a dialect of Arabic.  I have studied Modern Standard Arabic for four years in college, and being honest, I can't understand a single word that's going on here.  When I speak in my MSA, nobody understands me either.  Making matters even more confusing, there is not just Darija but there is also a Middle Moroccan Arabic that is supposedely some sort of hybrid between Darija and Modern Standard Arabic.  That's two languages, and two versions of Arabic.  They key different and what I find most interesting is that there are no native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic or Middle Moroccan Arabic.  Something for those linguists out there to think about.

Now, besides Arabic it is important not to disregard the language of French in Morocco.  It was the language of the colonizers, which in itself speaks volumes.  Most signs here are still in both Arabic (Darija) and French.  Science classes at the college level are conducted in French and the majority of important documents are also written in French.  People still speak and understand it, but there is a no push to be learning English over French.

 The other important language is of the Berber language, known as Tamazight.  Berbers have always had an important role in Moroccan life and there is a push to standardize the language and continue teaching it in schools.  This interest in keeping the Berber dialects alive is an interesting cultural quality of Morocco as most countries try and move to having a single language (I also heard that Princess Lalla Salma is of Berber descent, and Morocco is still a monarchy sooooo...)  Now I am no expert on the Berber dialects, and I know that they different greatly in different regions of Morocco. 
This was an attempt (and i repeat attempt) at trying to explain Morocco's language situation. I guess the diversity of the language situation is a pretty good way to look at Morocco: 


For me right now (especially since it is Ramadan) my mind is trying to wrap around everything Moroccan. There is so much information to absorb, so much information to learn and so many different experiences to have and all the while I am thinking of my American comforts that are no more (mainly air conditioning, my bed, a cell phone that was made in 1991 and of course, lattes)


As they say, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

stranger in a strange land

This year I will be working and studying in Morocco through the Fulbright Student program.  The first part of my adventure starts with a key aspect: language training.  I will spend five weeks in Fez studying Colloquial Moroccan Arabic (Darija) at the American Language Institute in Fez and living in a home stay.  After, I will move to Rabat where I will spend nine weeks studying Arabic at the Qalam wa Lawh Center for Arabic Studies. 

Following the language training, I will start my research project in early January and will stay through the end of September.  Immigration is a complicated and sensitive issue in any country and it will be no different in Morocco.  My project is to study the cultural and social factors that prevent immigrants from seeking medical care for tuberculosis.  Sub-Saharan immigrants typically arrive in Morocco seeking better jobs, fleeing war and poverty, or attempt to try to immigrate to Europe through the narrow Straight of Gibraltar. At the narrowest point, Africa and Europe are only separated by around nine miles.

Immigration has always been a strong interest of mine.  Having spent time living in Hong Kong and Brazil in elementary school, I remember what it is like to be a 'stranger in a strange land'.  Moving abroad is sort of like a riding a wave, the excitement and thrill of trying different foods, hearing different sounds and learning new cultures can be followed by the crashing feeling of homesickness where you feel like you are drowning in a world you could possible never fit into.  It takes an open mind, a welcoming culture and a good dictionary to fight the current and find a nice balance between the new world and the one you left behind. 

“Living the Moroccan Life” will be a unique experience as I try and stay afloat, swimming through the Moroccan culture full of souks, mint tea and a history as diverse and rich as its people.  I'll have the experience of being an immigrant from the West, bringing with me my Starbucks addiction, love of country music and the anticipation of working with immigrants from countries like Nigeria and the Congo.  My hope is to paint a more comprehensive view of Morocco, through the eyes of immigrants, locals and my own experience as a stranger in a strange land.