Saturday, August 16, 2008

New pictures added to last post on 13-Aug.

Added some more of my house.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Happy Living on my own!!

After 5 months (exactly) of living out of a suitcase…I am here, in my own house, and although my clothes may still be in a suitcase….I’m here to stay!

Moving in and renovating...


Pre-construction mess


It took 8 kilos of plaster to close up the cracks so the scary scorpions
and spiders wont enter my house

Courtyard


My bathing/water area where I fill water every morning

My finished kitchen!

Me with the stove and the buta. Buta gas tanks are kind of scary to workwith!

Dinner in the Kitchen

Pictures in the Living Room

Living Room with the only seating in the house-a Ponj

Living Room


My bedroom with the amazing mosquito net




Lessons I learned riding my bike to souk on Friday:


  1. Don’t ride your bike to souk.

  2. Walking 5km up a mountain is very different than riding a bike up those same 5km.

  3. If you just moved into a house and need to bring up a lot of groceries, biking may not be the wisest form of transportation.

  4. It actually takes longer to go up the mountain with all of the groceries, biking 2 meters, stopping, biking 2 meters, stopping, getting off to walk the bike, than if you just walk.

  5. It is also much more tiring this way, on and off the bike, walking the bike.

  6. If you absolutely positively HAVE to take the bike to souk, arrange the timing so you will be back home before 10am, so you are not “biking” up the mountain in 120 degree weather.

In other news….while I was vegetable shopping, I spotted this red apple that looked suspiciously American. I ask bulxdert (veggie man), “mnkshk iga tfahad?” (How much is this apple). He responded, “Gwad?! Gwad iga winm! Win tamazirtnm. Iga delicieuse! Azzgag delicieuse!” (This? This is yours! It is from your country! Delicious. Red Delicious!). And I about passed out and paid 6 times more for this apple than the others. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the fruits and vegetables here……apples, oranges, figs, peaches, pears, plums, EVERYTHING….but it was nice to have a little piece of home!


1 week later……


Well here I am…5pm on a Thursday, trying to move as little as possible to avoid sweating too much in the heat. But I could not care less about the heat. I am in my house! I can walk around dressed however I would like! I can make peanut butter (thanks to Tara and Doris) and jelly sandwiches! I can eat dinner at 7pm and go to bed at 10pm (whereas at homestay, dinner was at 11pm)!


As usual, today I woke up at 5:15am to wait for the water to come on. Fortunately I did not have to wait long, filled up the 100L jug I have, and went back to sleep. When I woke up again, I headed to the sbitar for the morning, where we were quite busy! Lots of discussions about post-natal diets for mommy and baby. The cycle of information that affects the people here is fascinating. For example, people are often in a difficult socioeconomic circumstance; therefore, breast-feeding would be an easier and less expensive option. However, people received information over the years that formula was better; consequently, many women opt to feed their babies’ cow’s milk and soup since formula is expensive and breast-feeding is “bad.” So when mom comes in with a baby who is not growing, it takes a complete realignment of the mother’s post-natal diet understanding.


The same applies for the mother’s diet. Somewhere along the line, people were told that a woman cannot eat regular food after giving birth. This lack of nutrition often causes sickness in the new mother and consequently the breast-feeding baby. Since most women are illiterate, all of this information is passed by word of mouth and occasionally a visual aid. I am lucky to work with a trusted midwife at the sbitar. Women come to her with a variety of questions. However, she has been here 10 years and was just given the opportunity to work in Taroudant, where her family lives, so she will be leaving in a month! L


So after my 5km hike back home in the heat around noon, I made my token PP&J sandwich, and went for a visit to my host family’s house. At around 3, when they were about to have lunch, I headed back home to get lost in some fabulous writing by Barack Obama.

And time to post!