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.