Rockin the Casbah

Molly and I officially moved into our new place in Oudaya, aka The Casbah, yesterday. As Molly says, our apartment is the coolest site in Rabat. We are right next to the beach (I went down this morning for a little sun), the open courtyard is awesome, the rooms are spacious, and it is definitely unlike anything we could find in the states. We really love it and are certain we made the right choice. However, we do miss Nazha and the family, and Billy, Balia, and the hedgehogs. Nazha was even crying when we left. We hope to see them often and have couscous with them sometime soon.

School is going great. These Moroccans are so damn good at languages. It is really an ideal place to teach. I asked my students on the first day to write down why they are learning English; here are some of their responses:

• "I'm learning English because I love this language and want to speak it fluently and communicate with people too." - Mustapha
• "I'm learning English because I love it and I'll use it for sure in the future for my professional career." -Omar
• "I'm learning English because I want to speak many languages, and to have many opportunities in my future career." - Siham
• "Interesting language. I love this language." - Zakia

How many American students would say they love any foreign language?? These people are so motivated, and already speak several languages, so they pick up new ones very easily.

One of my favorite places in Rabat (besides our apartment) is an art gallery called Villa des Arts. I stopped by there after my first day of class while they were having an open gallery night. Even though I was tired, I was glad I did, because the place is spectacular at night - lots of little blue lights and illuminated fountains and twinkly music. Though it is not near as vast, it reminds me of the Getty in L.A., because the architecture is so cool - all white and very open. I saw some modern paintings by Moroccan artists that I actually liked a lot. If only I could remember their names.

Another favorite spot is the Cafe Weimar, inside the German cultural center. I also went there after my first day of teaching and treated myself to some delicious draught beer, the first I had found since coming here. And it was not even expensive - about $3. Molly and I have been back there a few times because the food is also quite good. We ate out a number of times last week because we had run out of butane for our stove and didn't want to buy another bottle before we moved. So we tried to live on raw foods at home, but ended up splurging for restaurant meals a lot (and by "splurge" I mean spend about $8 - 12). We found a wonderful place for tajines and couscous, and even wine (another first). I bought my first bottle of wine for our home yesterday which seemed like a rare treat. We started with cocktails on the roof, and then enjoyed a simple pasta dinner in our courtyard under the stars. We need to start learning how to cook some more interesting things, in the absence of Trader Joe's. Hopefully the lady downstairs, Khadija, will give us some tips. She seems very nice and speaks only Arabic, so we understand about 5% so far, but it will be good for us. We start lessons this week at the center.

I'm a teacher!

I have survived my first 3 classes as an English teacher! I am exhausted, but I had a blast. This is much more fun than writing Java programs. It is incredibly hectic at the beginning, since you get less than 24 hours to plan your first classes and every teacher is clamoring for their syllabus, books, worksheets, videos, CDs, and photocopies at the same time. But the fact that all these resources are available does make the lesson planning much easier. My first day, Friday, was my marathon day - I teach for 6 hours in a row. It was a bit nerve-wracking and I didn't sleep too much the night before, but I went in feeling prepared which helped a lot. And I brought plenty of snacks. Otherwise I teach 3 hours a day, and am off Sunday and Monday, so I have 3 more new classes to meet with this week. So far my students are great, mostly high school age, very interested in English and why I came to Morocco. I have intermediate and advanced levels only which is nice. The biggest challenge was having a blind student in my advanced class, which the administration had not bothered to warn me about. This requires a lot of extra effort, for students and teacher alike, since all writing or reading exercises need to be dictated or read aloud. I have asked the director for some guidelines as to what services I'm expected to provide in this case.

In other news, Molly and I have decided to take the apartment in Oudaya! We meet with the owner today to get the keys, but probably won't move till next weekend, since we want to prolong our stay with the family. Our new apt has an open courtyard in the middle, so when it rains, it will rain inside too! This could be a bit tough in winter but the charm compensates for it. There will be an old lady living below us who speaks only Arabic and is interested in meeting us and even giving us some cooking lessons! This is a big plus for us since our main goal is to spend time with Moroccans and learn the language. There are tons of other foreigners (especially Italian) in the neighborhood who speak French or English, in case we need a break.

The latest on Balia is that she spends the days tied up, which is sad but still better than getting hit by a car. At least at night she gets to run around when the guard arrives for his night shift. She seems to like him a lot so I think he treats her well. I took her for a walk with Billy yesterday and we had an unfortunate run-in with a notorious dog in the neighborhood whose owner lets him roam the streets even though he is quite aggressive (a Doberman mix, I think). Well he and Billy don't get along and before I could turn back to avoid him, he and Billy got in a big fight. Some men on the street helped me separate them, but man, that dog tried to bite Billy's ear off. Luckily he had no injuries, but Nazha said he has been bitten by that dog before.

I came home the other night and spotted something wonderful in the garden. No, not a gnome, but almost as good: a hedgehog! I found out the next day that Naguib, the dad, had actually purchased a male/female pair for the garden. He and Nazha are very enamored with them, despite the fact that last time they had hedgehogs, they slit their throats and used the blood as an acne medicine (I wish I were joking). But she assured me that this time they would keep them as pets. They have been crawling into the house as well and leaving droppings, so hopefully they don't wear out their welcome. Another reason Molly and I are keen to stay for a week is that it's fun to be on hedgehog alert each night! If we look down from the terrace, we often see them scurrying around the patio, and even hear them munching grass.

I added a bunch more photos to the Picasa album so check it out.

Fiesta!

Ramadan is officially over. Except for women who have to fast for a few extra days to make up for days they were on their period, when they are not supposed to fast or enter a mosque (!). It's nice to see people in cafes again. Molly and I are starting to learn what was and wasn't a "Ramadan-thing", ex. the medina is still quite lively at night; people don't have to go to the mosque every night, though they still have to pray 5 times daily and we get to hear the eerie call to prayer which makes me feel like I'm in a Dracula movie.

The end of Ramadan is celebrated with a holiday called Eid al Fitr, which is not quite the biggest holiday of the year but perhaps the most eagerly anticipated. After a month of fasting and little sleep, people finally get to sleep in and enjoy a decadent breakfast and lunch. We were lucky enough to be invited to join the family for these meals, though I was unlucky enough to have gotten some kind of food poisoning the night before! I believe the culprit was spinach that I had not washed thoroughly enough (too spoiled on bagged spinach, I guess). I had a rather miserable night and had to miss out on the breakfast (which apparently was a huge array of sweets and breads) but fortunately recovered in time for lunch. The main dish was an absolutely delicious combo of chicken topped with pumpkin sauce (akin to pumpkin pie filling) as well as a saltier sauce underneath. And of course the various Moroccan salads to accompany it. Dessert was buttered spaghetti noodles with cinnamon and powdered sugar. We all sat around a table and picked at these platters with our hands. Various members of Nazha's family were there - she has at least 10 siblings, so it was only a small portion of them but it made for a good crowd. There were a couple little kids who were quite adorable; the girl, Nargisse, spoke French and even some English, and told us some charming stories about how the end of the world was nigh. The boy, Yessine, was too young to speak anything we understood but enjoyed posing for pictures. There were several other hams in the family, especially her brother Hamid, who they call "the American" because he lived in New Jersey for several years. Everyone got a big laugh pretending that Molly and I were his wives (he is an older gentleman who already has a wife and kids) and they took a million pictures of us together. In the evening, they dressed us up in fancy kaftans, while Hamid disguised himself as a Saudi Arabian and pretended to bring us gold. Then the niece Samira painted on a beard and also impersonated a Saudi (they get a big kick out of this) and Hamid dressed up as her wife. Then he dressed up as a sheep. All of this was met with uproarious laugher, and reminded me a great deal of holidays spend dressing up and making skits with my dad's family in Texas.

I was worried about finding an apt when advertising on the internet is not so common here. Turns out the human internet works just as well - every local person to whom I've mentioned I was looking for an apt has known of some place for rent and been happy to provide an address or number. The other strategy that I was skeptical of but has proven fruitful is hiring an agent, someone who has the scoop on all the available places in a certain neighborhood. Some of the others from our school had used a rather notorious guy named Mokhtar. Today he showed us several places in Oudaya, which is the old Casbah and truly feels like a step back in time. The apts are not quite as clean and modern as where we are now, but they are definitely charming. Mokhtar's finder's fee is supposedly half of one month's rent though he has been known to demand more at the last minute. We will try to stand strong. But in general, the fear of being scammed and hustled at every turn is something that travel books for tourists implant in you for no apparent reason. In Brazil, I spent my whole vacation being paranoid about muggers and scams, yet had no problems at all. I should have learned from that, but still I came here expecting all Moroccans to be scam artists. On the contrary, nearly everyone including taxi drivers and medina vendors are genuinely friendly.

I sense the Balia story is not going to have a good conclusion; the nice thing about expecting the worst (a strategy I've nearly mastered) is that I am rarely disappointed. The collar I bought her has already disappeared, presumably stolen by some neighborhood jerk. I can almost guarantee it's for sale in the medina right now. She continues to wander the street though the guard seems to be doing better at keeping her in the immediate area. She follows me home whenever I stop to visit and sometimes I let her come in and play with Billy. This nasty lady who lives in the apartments that the guy is guarding saw me petting Balia and asked if she was mine; although I said no, she went on to complain vehemently about how she does NOT want a dog on the premises and the dog makes SUCH a mess in the yard and HOW can someone own a dog and leave it homeless all day. I said I totally agreed and would she please speak to the owner about it. I have my doubts that the guard is going to find an adequate solution.

A few other things which I haven't mentioned because they already seem normal to me but which might be amusing to my gentle readers:
- We wash the dishes with Tide
- We wash the laundry (and ourselves) with a big brick of miracle soap called "sabon al mengil" that removes all kinds of stains (such as beet juice) and is made of all natural things. It resembles the famous soap from Marseille. Count on getting some in your xmas stockings when I get back.
- Aside from the "pocket shot" of whiskey in a plastic pouch that I brought from home and shared with Molly on our first night, I have not had a drop of alcohol in 2 weeks! Due to Ramadan, even the supermarkets did not carry any. Although I've gotten used to drinking OJ at dinner, I am definitely craving some red wine and am hoping to stock up today at Marjane, the "Western" supermarket which is a good hike from where we work.
- Prices are weird:
$1 will get you about a week's worth of vegetables, a taxi ride across town, 2 illegally copied DVDs.
$12 will get you a decent dog collar, a pair of leather sandals (if you don't feel like bargaining), a simple dinner for 2 at a restaurant
$200 will get you a month's rent in a cheap studio, a small refrigerator, 2 bottles of vodka at a night club (apparently they serve in bottles)
$350,000 will buy you an apartment in an ok neighborhood that is a bit smaller than our house in Phoenix, which goes for about the same price, yet the number of families in Phoenix who could afford it is infinitely higher. So much for my idea of buying property here.

Dog Days

Tonight the city is celebrating the end of Ramadan. Halleluia, I say, because it's been a royal pain in the butt. Everyone is fasting during the day so cafes are closed and at night most restaurants only serve limited menus. Hence, all we've really been eating is pasta with vegetables that we cook ourselves. We had "breakfast" at 6 pm with the family on the first night we arrived, and it was delish - mainly sweets, followed by soup. Also our neighbors offered us some harira (traditional soup) one night. They are 2 Moroccan sisters who occupy the third and final studio here, very nice girls who taught us some more Moroccan words. Also, everyone is tired during Ramadan because they stay up till midnight to eat "dinner" and then get up at 5 am to pray. The one benefit is that things are lively at night due to the weird schedule - for example, I'm in the medina right now, which at other times may be too sketchy for women after dark. But there's tons of people out now and loud traditional music playing and stores are open.

Unfortunately, just as we were starting to feel like the luckiest girls in the world for landing this great place to stay at such a cheap price, we found out we will not be able to stay there longterm. So we are now scrambling to find apartments, which really sucks as I'd much prefer to live with a family than spend all my time by myself. But we can stay here a month or even two while we look.

To add to the reasons I want to stay, I found a girlfriend for Billy! She followed us home on our walk one day, and again the next day, and I told Nazha to come see how pretty she was (German shepherd mix, 1 year old) and she said "Invite her in!" So they actually took her in one night, which I thought was incredible though perhaps a bit irresponsible. Btw, what I said about Moroccans not having dogs is b.s. from the internet - nearly every house has one, mainly as a guardian, not so much a pet, and they definitely lack some understanding on how to care for them. Anyway, the family named her Balia, but she made too much noise so they let her go the next day. I figured I'd see her around though feared for her safety since I'd seen someone kick her before. Well sure enough, next time I walked Billy, she was crossing the street to see us and got hit by a moped. It was pretty horrible. She ran off but I worried she may have internal bleeding or broken ribs. The guys on the moped were not the typical neighborhood jerks and seemed genuinely sorry and tried to help me find her. I discovered her later near a busy intersection and miraculously, she seemed fine. But I was not about to let her go again so I brought her back home and took her to the vet the next day to get vaccinated (to help convince the family that she should stay, as they were concerned for Billy.) The vet was a cool lady, much better than mine in the U.S. and far cheaper. But the story continues...turns out Balia "belongs to" the night guard down the street and he wants her back. I am actually supposed to be meeting with him tonight; it's almost sure he will take her back though we will have to insist that he keep her in some kind of enclosure during the day, and we will keep an eye on her. That concludes the dog story, which has occupied a good deal of my time of late.

Otherwise, I've been delighted to discover the fresh O.J. and fish sandwiches here as good as in Turkey; less delighted by the beach which is rather small and dirty, though there are many more outside the city; impressed with the degree of organization at the school - the lessons are pretty much pre-planned for all levels so less work for us, it seems, though I won't really know until I get my class assignments which doesn't happen until...the night before school starts! That could be a long night.

I have to go stock up on food now because everything will be closed this weekend for the holiday. Eid said!

First Rabat, Then the World

Salaam Alaikum!

I made it to Rabat. I have moved here to teach English for a year, maybe longer. I'm not going to name the school so I don't get in trouble in case I need to complain about it. Classes don't start until Oct. 19 so I have plenty of time to settle in. So far I've purchased a stove top (the "kitchen" of my studio has only a sink and cabinets), won a battle with a street merchant who sold me a broken (i.e. stolen) phone, and learned how to say "the water is not hot". Still to do: get a real fridge to replace the "Ice Cream/Snacks" freezer that is currently turning my beets into beetcicles.

Aside from some bad advice on the freezer and phone, my host family is awesome. I am living in a studio within the walls of their family home, which is pretty fancy compared to most, I think. The neighborhood is called Les Orangers and is a 20 minute walk to the school. The house has a nice garden and terrace where Molly and I ate a pasta dinner last night. Molly is another American girl living next to me. We do most of our exploring together. She just spent a year teaching English in Russia. She also once had pink hair like mine.

The mom in our family, Nazha, is the best. She sneaks cigarettes even though women aren't supposed to smoke. She pretended like she was buying the cigarettes for us. She came by our room last night to chat for 2 hours. She is quite smart and opinionated. She really enjoyed my pictures of maple trees from Virginia.

Her daughter Zineb is 19 and very smart as well. Her English is good and she wants to practice with us. Otherwise, we speak mostly French with the family, though we are trying to learn some Moroccan Arabic from them. Their maid, Fatma, only speaks Moroccan so that is a good motivator. She is a sweetheart.

Best of all, they have a dog! This is very rare in Muslim society, as they are considered filthy animals. But they love this dog and are happy to have me walk him every day. His name is Billy, for some reason.

Hopefully next week I will do some site-seeing and check out the beach. Stay tuned...