Week 1 of Ramadan

Amazingly, Ramadan is already 1/4 of the way over.  And a great week it has been!  Since Ramadan began, I've:

....had Najma-host sister and Mostafa over to break fast.  I cooked them Moroccan food which scared the bajeebies out of me, but they claim they liked it!  They did, however, make fun of me for using rotini noodles in the soup instead of vermicelli noodles. Oops.   

....helped 3 different girls in my community make chebekia (special Ramadan pastry).  It takes all day to make, and quite labor intensive!

....spent the night with my host sister Najma at her aunt's house in souk.  Her aunt is French/Moroccan and we had a blast together cooking, and after fasting, eating!  The next day my host brother and I taught their aunt, this little old Berber lady, the words to "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas.  Too cute!

....spent 3 lovely days with Meredith, watching Ellen and Friends in the morning, cooking in the afternoon, and eating in the evening!

....made my own chebekia!  Meredith and I were fortunate enough to have Najma-friend, Najma-host sister, and Aicha-neighbor come help out.  It turned out delicious!

....broken fast 2 times at my host family's house.  I made cinnamon rolls which went over very well.  I was lucky enough to be escorted back to my house both times by 3 host siblings.  Quite the entourage! 

....spent a few mornings teaching French to the women's center girls in my community.  I've been focusing on the girls who don't know any French.  We are currently working on the alphabet.  Especially vowels! a, e, i, o, u! 

....had Najma-friend and her mom over to break fast....another attempt at Moroccan food, but this time I made soft pretzels as well!  Najma's mom loves Chandler, and definitely paid more attention to my cat than to my cooking.  :)

And here are some chebekia pictures.....

Making the dough was pretty intense, but rolling it out and shaping the chebekia was fun!

Then you fry it, and dunk the fried chebekia in honey.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and enjoy! Or rather, wait until it's time to break fast.  Then enjoy! :)

Festival at Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa (aka Tazerwalt)

Now, I don’t know too much about blogging etiquette, but I must warn you that my next few posts will be out of order. Tara came to visit a month ago, and I will post that after I post this, which occurred before Ramadan began.  Sorry for any confusion. 

 

Last week was al-muggar (saint festival) at Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa, aka Tazerwalt.  Tazerwalt is a town 12km from Meredith’s site, and each year they host a huge festival in honor of Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa……a saint from a long long time ago.  He was a good person.  Allah blesses him.  And that is all I know.  I tried to get specifics on this guy to no avail. 

 

Anyway, Tazerwalt has a shrine to the saint, and each year thousands and thousands of people come from all over Morocco to visit the shrine and enjoy the festival.  Two years ago, there was a volunteer in Tazerwalt, and she set up a health booth at the festival to disseminate basic health information to the thousands of visitors.  This year, Meredith decided to do the same. 

 

Meredith spent the week leading up to the festival in communication with the local government of Tazerwalt as well as their health staff.  We were fortunate to receive support from both entities, which made setting up a booth much easier. 

 

Over a three-day period, we had 11 volunteers working at our health booth.  We spent our afternoons and evenings talking about dental health, sanitation, hygiene, and washing kid’s hands for candy.  Generally we had a good time and felt like we were getting our point across.  We also enjoyed walking around the festival after dark, eating camel tagine and sugar-coated chickpeas.  Delicious! 

 

11 volunteers working the health booth meant 11 volunteers staying at Meredith’s house.  It was quite the experience.  When we cooked I felt like I was in the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours, making food for that many people!  And sleeping…there were volunteers sleeping everywhere!  On the ponjs, on the bed, on the floor, on the roof.  It was also ridiculously hot, so I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I returned to my much more temperate mountain on Thursday.  But it was a great week, and we all loved having a chance to get some work done in summer!    

 

 

Pictures to come!!

Ramadan!

Well here we are again, almost a year since my first encounter with Ramadan.  And it’s back.  In some Arab countries, the start date of Ramadan is fixed; people know ahead of time when to begin fasting.  In Morocco, the beginning of Ramadan is decided the traditional way, by the moon.  We knew that Ramadan would start today (Saturday) or tomorrow.  So last night people all over Morocco went outside at dusk to see if they could spot the moon.  If the slightest crescent can be seen, Ramadan begins.  If not, one more day. 

 

Najma (host sister) and I went outside and spent a good 45 minutes looking for the moon, and nothing.  So, I went home, assuming Ramadan would not start until Sunday.  However, a couple of hours later, I received texts from 3 different people letting me know that the important people did in fact see the moon.  So Ramadan began today.

 

Fortunately I was prepared.  When Meredith and I were in my souk yesterday I stocked up on dates, chebekia (delicious Ramadan pastry), and the makings of harira (Ramadan soup).  So I made myself a few snacks in anticipation of my early morning meal and went to sleep.  At 4:00am this morning I had sahoor, the meal people eat before fasting begins for the day. 

 

You may ask, why in the world is Catholic Erin fasting again this year?  There are so many reasons!!!!

 

1. I LOVE Ramadan.  The food is phenomenal.  I could seriously eat Ramadan food every day of my life. 
2. I appreciate food and water so much more.  For anyone who has never fasted before, I recommend it, even just for a day.  The feeling you get after fasting is indescribable.  After basically being deprived of food and water all day, to be able to eat and drink whatever you want is just unbelievably amazing.  It shows how much we take easy access to food and water for granted.  I’ve never enjoyed food as much as I do after fasting. 
3. Did you know that 900 million people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water?  Fasting gives those of use who have access to whatever we want a chance to be in solidarity with the less fortunate.  It helps us to begin to understand their pain, instead of just feeling bad for them.
4. Living in a Muslim country, fasting lets the people in my community know that I respect them, their culture and their religion.  Every day people ask if I am fasting, and when I answer affirmatively, they get so excited!  I feel honored that they always include me in Ramadan activities, even though they know I am not Muslim.
5. It is fun!  I especially like breaking fast at my host family’s house.  We get all of our ftar (breakfast) meal ready a few minutes before the dusk prayer call, and sit quietly waiting for the sound of the prayer call.  And then we all smile, sit back, and enjoy the exquisite food before us.
6. I just need to reiterate the delicious food we make for Ramadan.  Today, I helped Najma make slou, an almondy-buttery-spicy-flour thing that is just so delicious!  Tomorrow morning I am going over to make chebekia.  And the dates, OH the dates!  It is date season so they are fresh off the trees of Zagora (a southern province).

 

Last year my first day of Ramadan was spent carrying a cat on 5 hours of public transportation and I was miserable.  I made a much better decision today, and stayed at home for most of the day.  I made an apple cinnamon cake to take to my host family, and started reading parts of the Quran (how can we respect a religion if we don’t understand it?). 

 

Two hours before breaking fast, Ijjou (host mom) and I went outside to pick prickly pears and figs off the trees.  We both just wanted to keep busy until we could eat.  I had a great ftar with my lovely host family, and now I am back home, thoroughly enjoying liter after liter of water. 

 

Ramadan Mubarak Said!

 

 

Coffee Drinkers Are Lazy?

So I've been thinking about this for a while.  In America, most coffee drinkers use a drip coffee machine, right?  Well, here in Morocco, I have a French Press.  I absolutely love it.  It makes great coffee, and is easy to use.  Or so I thought.  All I need to do is scoop 2 spoons full of ground coffee into the press, pour in boiling, wait 5 minutes, and voila!  Delicious coffee.  Even Starbucks personnel claim that French Press coffee is the best.  So why then had I never heard of, let alone seen anyone use a French Press before i came here?  

So then I started thinking about tea drinkers.  As far as I am aware, tea drinkers don't generally use some sort of drip tea machine.  They boil water, and wait for their tea to steep.  Sounds like the same process as my French Press to me.  Why not coffee drinkers?  The only thing I can possibly think of is that coffee drinkers are lazier than tea drinkers.  Or maybe they are just more rushed.  

Anyway, I woke up with these thoughts this morning.  Now I will finish my French Press coffee and make the trek down to souk before it gets too hot.

Summer Summer Summer

Summer in Southern Morocco means a lot of things.  Not one of those things, however, is work.  It means long boring days, it means talking about the heat with the neighborhood women, it means trying to stay cool by wearing soaking wet clothes, it means an overflowing toilet……….ok maybe I am getting a head of myself here.

The highlight of summer in Morocco this year for me was a visit by my dear friend Tara.  It was such a highlight, that I will blog about it separately.

Some summer events and happenings:

• Going to bathe, and discovering that my tap water is almost boiling.  Not bathing.  Going back at try again after dark, when the water has cooled off.
• Unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep in the heat.  Soaking my clothes in cold water and hoping I fall asleep before they dry.
• Going to souk at 6:30am in order to beat the heat.  Getting caught up in running errands, delaying my return.  Walking back up my mountain in the 10am heat, soaked in sweat.
• Excitedly checking my email to get updates from Steph, Megan, and Lissa on their weddin preparations! 
• Walking slowly to my host family’s in the afternoon, trying not to break a sweat.  Drinking tea and watching Arabic music videos with my host sister.
• Staying up WAY too late, trying to take advantage of the cool weather after 10pm.
• Teaching French to the Women’s Center girls starting at 6pm when the sun starts to think about maybe going down.  My house smelling a lot like sweat after they leave.
• Perfecting the art of iced coffee.
• Drinking the perfect iced coffee in the morning as I check email and see if Steph or Kristin have updated their blogs.  I love pictures of little Layla!
• Heading home the second I hear the Maghrib prayer call (indicating the sun is going down).  Don’t want to be caught outside when all the bugs and dogs and wild boars are around!

 

Last week, however, I had an event a little out of the ordinary.  As my most recent visitors can tell you, my toilet has not been, lets say functioning, as it should.  Having heard horror stories from other volunteers about toilet pits being drained in town, I was avoiding calling my landlord until it became absolutely necessary.

 

Finally on Thursday, I called and told my landlord, that “illa lmushkil d bitlma.  Ur i3dl.  Ur sngh ma tiyagn.” (There is a problem with my toilet.  It doesn’t work.  I don’t know what is ailing it).  He told me he would come check it out the next day.

 

So Friday afternoon he did some tinkering (smelly tinkering!) and told me that the pit is full.  Now, these pits last around 7 years, so I felt VERY unlucky to be here for the 7^th and final year of this pit’s capacity.  So, he told me, he would return the next day with a worker and they would dig a new pit.  Oh, and by the way, he told me I would have to provide tea and lunch for them.  And none of that crazy American food I eat.  Real Moroccan food.

 

Now, after my landlord left I was very concerned.  And really, I’m not sure if I was more concerned about the whole digging of pits process, or the fact that I had absolutely no food in my house, and no time to get food to make a Moroccan meal.  Literally, I had 2 carrots and half a cucumber.  So I headed to my host family’s to ask what to do.  My host mom offered vegetables, but didn’t have any meat.  She suggested I get up super early to go to souk the next morning and come back with food to make a Moroccan meal.  And they would even come over and help me if I couldn’t.

 

So Saturday morning I went to souk at 6:30am, and bought lots of vegetables and chicken for this Moroccan tagine.  Oh, and sugar, because Moroccans generally like LOTS of sugar in their tea, and I was worried I didn’t have enough.  By the time I got back to my house, the worker and my landlord were chilling in the shade.  Apparently the pit WASN’T full. (HAMDULLILAH).  It was just clogged.  When I travel for weeks at a time, and no water goes down the toilet, it becomes a problem.  BUT, a problem I can fix.  So I happily made them some sweet Moroccan tea, and they left on their merry ways.  But then I had all this chicken.  So I brought the chicken to my host family’s and we had a good laugh over my toilet story.

 

Needless to say, I now have a fully-functioning toilet, without the public embarrassment!