...I didn't know what to expect. The first part of this trip is to learn the dialect and, as part of my 1-month course, get shacked up with a random, generous Moroccan family for its duration in order to expand and solidify the learnings of the day in class.
But what kind of family would I get paired with? Would it be a "traditional" family, consisting of an elder couple and a few young kids? Would they be well off? What would their occupation be? I wondered these things a lot through my first day of class a couple days ago (not surprisingly, I didn't get a lot out of that class). The spectrum of options being so varied, I figured that I could end up on one side of it with someone connected to the government (which would be professionally rewarding), or - on its other end - someone far removed from it (which may be a little more rewarding in other ways). (Which would you prefer? Which do you think would be better?). I thought I would end up with more of the former for some odd reason...
I ended up with the latter. My new Moroccan family's great, and it consists of 70-year old Samiya and her 31-year old son, Ihssan. We live near the old "medina" (city), which was constructed as a fort centuries ago, complete with outrageously large adobe / rock walls and buttresses. Now, this part of the city hosts the "sooq" (market), which is a sort of tiny maze for which Morocco's city of Fez is infamous.
This area isn't the "Embassy" part of town, where most of the other foreigners reside, for which I'm thankful. Samiya and Ihssan aren't well off, but they have a pretty decent place complete with a couple western-style bathrooms and enough rooms to host a lazy American with his own room as well as a handful of family or friends. Neither of my hosts work in the sense that we've come to understand it, but they do their own things on the side. Samiya's husband passed away when Ihssan was younger, but he left them with a couple of small barber shops to manage (one of which I took advantage of yesterday morning with an owner's discount!).
After my afternoon class, Ihssan and I tool around the old medina with a group of his friends, who include guys called "It's my life." (where do you think he got that monicker?). We talk, but mostly I listen since the brunt of the conversations are in the Moroccan dialect. Most speak a decent amount of English, so I don't feel too out of place and, most importantly, their patience in dealing with a foolish "ajnabi" (foreigner) is a gift for which most of us Americans can't appreciate due to the cultural differences (which include what else, do you think?).
Whatever those differences may be, they probably don't include the spectrum of Rap music. Last night, we spent a few hours "man-dancing" on the streets to Lil' John, Dr Dre, Snoop and Cypress Hill. Sad part was, they knew more words of the songs than I did...
But what kind of family would I get paired with? Would it be a "traditional" family, consisting of an elder couple and a few young kids? Would they be well off? What would their occupation be? I wondered these things a lot through my first day of class a couple days ago (not surprisingly, I didn't get a lot out of that class). The spectrum of options being so varied, I figured that I could end up on one side of it with someone connected to the government (which would be professionally rewarding), or - on its other end - someone far removed from it (which may be a little more rewarding in other ways). (Which would you prefer? Which do you think would be better?). I thought I would end up with more of the former for some odd reason...
I ended up with the latter. My new Moroccan family's great, and it consists of 70-year old Samiya and her 31-year old son, Ihssan. We live near the old "medina" (city), which was constructed as a fort centuries ago, complete with outrageously large adobe / rock walls and buttresses. Now, this part of the city hosts the "sooq" (market), which is a sort of tiny maze for which Morocco's city of Fez is infamous.
This area isn't the "Embassy" part of town, where most of the other foreigners reside, for which I'm thankful. Samiya and Ihssan aren't well off, but they have a pretty decent place complete with a couple western-style bathrooms and enough rooms to host a lazy American with his own room as well as a handful of family or friends. Neither of my hosts work in the sense that we've come to understand it, but they do their own things on the side. Samiya's husband passed away when Ihssan was younger, but he left them with a couple of small barber shops to manage (one of which I took advantage of yesterday morning with an owner's discount!).
After my afternoon class, Ihssan and I tool around the old medina with a group of his friends, who include guys called "It's my life." (where do you think he got that monicker?). We talk, but mostly I listen since the brunt of the conversations are in the Moroccan dialect. Most speak a decent amount of English, so I don't feel too out of place and, most importantly, their patience in dealing with a foolish "ajnabi" (foreigner) is a gift for which most of us Americans can't appreciate due to the cultural differences (which include what else, do you think?).
Whatever those differences may be, they probably don't include the spectrum of Rap music. Last night, we spent a few hours "man-dancing" on the streets to Lil' John, Dr Dre, Snoop and Cypress Hill. Sad part was, they knew more words of the songs than I did...
What a FANTASTIC experience already!
ReplyDeleteSo happy you are blogging. My only advice to you is that you not think you HAVE to blog. Just do it when it feels right. Otherwise you may burn out.
Keep the stories coming as you have time but most of all soak it up!
Man dancing? You MUST get that on video and upload to youtube. Priceless Olmsted experience....
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