Great Weather Again!!!

I hope that everyone is doing well wherever you are. I am doing pretty well here in O-ville, and other than the sinus infection I seem to constantly be fighting off, I am in good health and spirit.

Culture is a wonderful thing. I may have already said this, and certainly will say it much more in my two plus years here as a volunteer, but it truly is special. I have been placed in a very rural conservative setting. This of course has its ups (and downs). One of these ups is the maintenance of what I like to call “purity of culture.” I didn’t really notice until the other day how incredibly “pure” my village is compared to larger towns and cities.

My example is this: I have a souk (market) town approx. 7km from my village, walking of course. So this is about 1-ish hour from me. I recently met a current volunteer from that town, and he explained to me that he has had a difficult time learning the language. It may well be possible that he just is not great at learning languages, or did not put forth a good effort, I don’t know for sure. BUT, he told me that in his town 60 percent of people speak Darija (Moroccan Arabic), and the rest speak a mix of the local dialect of Tamazight. Contrast this with my village, where around 95 percent of the people speak in the local Tamazight dialect.

The reason in difference is that the souk town is the biggest town around for about 15km, and sits on paved roads that go from the big city (60 km) to smaller cities (30km from here). This allows a penetration of Darija from travelers and sellers. This particular region sits at the crossroads of the three main languages of Morocco (Tam, Tash, Darija), and since Darija is the national language, every person is taught this in school, and Tashalheet and Tamazight are not written languages.

In addition to the above, 95% of television programming in Morocco is in Darija, and roughly only 1 hour is given per day to the other Berber languages (15 minutes or so a piece). Most every family here in my village has satellite TV (the town received electricity in 2002), and therefore they see Darija whenever watching the TV.

As I said, I live in a conservative place. It is rural, and going out at night almost never occurs. This is partly because it is dangerous (dogs and wild pigs), but more-so because there is no reason to go out past dark here. Women here are covered except their faces and hands/feet. Men and women should not be alone together unless family, or if a large age gap exists. The language reflects this incredibly. The word for my friend here is “amdakal”. This is for male friends. I make it feminine by adding “T’s” to both ends creating “Tamadakalt.” If I tell people that I am talking to a female friend, it automatically turns into a girlfriend with romantic implications. So when I try to say I was talking to a female friend who is a PCV here in Morocco, it can be difficult to explain that “yes in fact I have female friends” and “No, they are not my girlfriend.”

So as I said satellite TV is ultra prevalent. I can turn on the TV, watch CNN international, Travel channel, discovery, BBC, Al Jazeera international. Every country in the NAME region (North Africa Middle East) has a channel, and I can see channels from Saudi Arabia to Tunisia to Morocco. I watch a morning show/soap opera (well my family does) that is out of Mexico (dubbed). There are also music channels with pop music from Europe and the NAME region (MTV arabiya). Needless to say, the onslaught of outside cultures and pressures exists. Sometimes I see things on the TV that are completely risqué for the culture norms here, and I wonder what my family thinks about all of this pressure. Generally, refer to the movie “Footloose” to see this is action.
So as I said, the purity of this culture, and the culture in general (language, norms) is slowly dying. I can’t help but feel sad to know that the culture is changing, but at the same time I know I cannot act innocent as if I am not a part of that change due to any sort of influence I have here or wherever my final site is located. As I said in the beginning, I feel kind of fortunate to be able to see a place that is more pure, and less influenced by the outside world. I am sure I will talk more about this in the future, because it is quite important to me.

So the weather has finally broken, and we got our first nasty spell of rain, hail, and cold weather. (Cold being about 50ish degrees during the day.) But I did wake up to see a rainbow today, and seeing pea-sized hail falling for 10 straight minutes was pretty nifty as well.

The language learning continues, and is going well I feel. I feel like I have gone from being a newborn to being about 5 or 6 now. Hopefully the rate of growth continues, and by the time I leave I can be on my way to becoming mostly fluent. As many of you know, I am hardest on myself, and constantly am asking myself what else I can be doing.

My family is adorable. They treat me so well, the food is great, and they try to make me feel at home. Sometimes they try to help too much, and really kind of smother me, for example when turning the light on for the toilet outside or getting the water kettle to wash my face/ brush my teeth. I have come to learn that Moroccans have little, if any, private time, and for an American who has their own bubble and personal space and distance it can be difficult at times. Sometimes I really do feel like I am 5 all over again and cannot go places on my own without a battle and most certainly an escort. So as I said my family is adorable, and my host sister and mother seem to always be happy and chipper. This is always good to see. My brothers are at school during the week 30 km away, and so it is just my father, mother, and sister. My father is ill so much of the typical work done by males is done by my mother. I try to help out where I can by getting water from the spring, or helping to graze the sheep/goat, or feed the hens/rooster.

Overall, it is still funny to think that less than a month ago I was back in Ohio doing the complete opposite of what I do here.

Oh yeah, on April 15th I find out my final site placement. It is determined by the following:
- Interview about technical skills
- Adaptability in training
- Language Learning
- Technical Background

I am quite excited. While I am open and receptive to wherever I might be placed, I certainly enjoy the seclusion and experience I have had here in O-ville. So hopefully the match my program manager makes is a good one, and I look forward to that day. I like training and all, but am ready to be out on my own.

I leave this post with a quote from the autobiography of David Attenbourough, which I am currently reading (Thanks Danielle for this book!). For those that do not know D.A. by name, he is a famous British naturalist, and pioneer of television nature shows (like going to places and filming). He narrates many a nature show, including the famous BBC version of “Planet Earth” (the American version has Sigourney Weaver narrating… same video though). This man is probably one of my heroes, and this quote just says a lot for me (specifically the final portion):

“I did not make them (videos) because I had some premonition of an eco-disaster. I did so because I know no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating the natural world and trying to understand it.”

Much Love!
Me!