Oh Kids, and Cats, and Houses

Hello Again Everyone

I hope that everyone back home is doing well. Despite what you read and may think in this post, I am doing quite well. I just had a not great thing happen, and it was not fun at the time, but it was a good learning experience. What is that you ask?? Here is the story, I will try to be as succinct as I can be.

I was standing the other day talking with a local guy that I usually talk with. He owns a chicken shop, and I was talking with him, and there were about 4 other people there with us. I was facing the back of the shop, and there were two people in front of me. There were two people behind me.

So as I am having this conversation, I feel something on my back-pack (on my back) moving. I quickly turn around, and find that the small compartment has been opened. At the same time I turn around, the kid (12-13 years old) turns and runs away. I walk out of the shop to see where he goes, and then I make sure that I have everything… which luckily I did.

I am pretty flustered by now, and I don’t totally know what to do. I want to find this bonehead kid, but know he is long gone. So I leave, and go to see my site-mate, to see if she is around for her advice. She is not home, so I text her and go back towards the chicken-shop. I stop and talk to a few people, trying to be as normal as possible, and then from the corner of my eye I see the kid back in the chicken shop. I sneak up behind him, so he does not see me, and then when he turns around, I start talking to him.

Now a lot happened in a short time. About the time I start talking to him (actually I was being firm and probably yelling) he is kind of cowering in this corner that I backed him into, as if I am going to lay into him and beat him up (which crossed my mind, but I know better.) I am yelling at him “Where are your parents?!?!?” repeatedly. I get this out about three times, and the chicken-shop owner, afraid that I was going to hit him, tries to get in the middle to make sure this does not happen. The kid/boy/thief took the opportunity and ran away again.

I then told the other people there that I was not going to hit him, and talked to them for a little. I left, walked around, talked to my site-mate, who then gave me a bit of advice, and I went back to the shop and had a few questions for people.

I mainly wanted to know where this kid’s parents lived, and also I wanted to ask if any of them saw anything happen. So I go back to the chicken-shop, and ask what they saw. All four of the people tell me they saw nothing happen. I understand the two people in front of me, one talking to me, the other working on getting a chicken ready. The two behind me also claimed they saw nothing. I completely did not believe them however, and so I told a couple of them that “God sees everything” and “may God cover your sins.” The reason I used these phrases is that the chicken-shop owner is very-religious, and has tried on occasion to discuss religion, something I do very rarely, even back home. I could tell by his reaction that he was hiding something, and this was frustrating.

I begin to ask the two people left in the shop where the kid’s parents were at, and told them that I needed to talk to them. I was told by one of them that it was no problem, and they would talk to the parents. I told him that would not work, and I was the one that needed to talk to them, and now. He said okay, and we would go sometime. I said that we needed to go now, and his response was again that he would go and talk to them. I could tell I was getting the run-around at this point. I then said that I either needed to see his parents right now, or else I had to go discuss the matter with the Gendarmes (Police). They both then asked what I was going to tell the parents (because they did not want to be viewed as an accessory), and I knew I was beat. My language, while good enough to this point, is not good enough to pick out the exact words I would need for the situation. I was frustrated, but then decided that I would get my host brother to come and help, since he is also fluent in English. Like I said I was getting the run-around big time.

So I get my host brother, and we get back to the shop, and this time the kid is there. I approach him and start asking him “why?!?” The kid looks like he wants to cry and scared all at the same time. He tells me he was “just playing,” and he is sorry. I explain to him that I will never trust him again and that I will always view him as a thief. He tells me he is not a thief, and apologizes again. I also ask him why he ran both times earlier, and did not apologize at those times. He tell me he was scared, and thought I would hit him. I tell him that I came to Morocco to help people, and told him “why should I help people here if they do things like this to me?” The kid just looked down at the ground and apologized again. I told him it was finished, but I would not trust him again, and we parted. I them talked to the chicken-shop owner via translation about how no-one saw anything happen. So that is the story. In the end I was glad I talked face to face with the kid, because if I had talked to his parents or the Gendarmes he would have been beaten. I did not want that to happen.

The most frustrating parts for me are the following:
1. How everyone said they saw nothing happen.
2. How no-one seemed to want to help me, and instead gave me the run around.

If you look back at my post about the sheep, once again, people tend to just turn away and pretend to be blind to things that occur. They feel that it is better for them to stay out of peoples business than to get involved, even though they should help out other people. There is a sad learned helplessness that seems to be prevalent here, and it is frustrating to deal with, whether it is about safety, or whether it is about the environment.
After all was over, I talked with my host brother, who tried to explain to me that this is the way that people here in Morocco can be. I already knew what he was talking about, due to the sheep situation, and also another similar story from another volunteer. My host brother said that people are like that here, and that it is bad. To me it is so frustrating that people can be like this, whether it is here or in America (yes this can happen in some places in America as well). I learned a fair bit from the experience, more about people here than anything. It was not so much the actual kid opening my back that was the worst part, it was everything in the middle that made it ultra-frustrating and annoying.

I will leave you with some happy stuff. I have now moved into my own house, and this is exciting. I am now looking for another cat, as I was told (not to my surprise) that the cat is now accustomed to the place where it has been. But I have a cat in mind, and so I will have a cat within a few days. I also had a great weekend, saw some other volunteers, and am excited about work prospects. Much love to you all and I hope to hear from you soon. Despite this not so happy story, I am incredibly happy and love the people here. I just understand that like all people, they have their shortcomings once in a while.

Album of Choice – Ratatat - “Classics”
Book currently reading - “Life of Pi” – Yann Martel

Much Love! (Expect pictures soon)