visitors

sorry it's been so long since i've posted... the past couple of weeks have been pretty full. matt was here for a little over a week and our dear friend alex joined us for a long weekend. pretty awesome time all around. i think it may be a trip that is better to show rather than tell. and thanks to matt's web-savvy ways i can do just that.

the selected photos: http://flickr.com/photos/mattewing/sets/72157600060717395/detail/

and if you're so inclined, the whole set: http://flickr.com/photos/mattewing/sets/72157600059890357/

the highlight of the trip was probably the three days matt and i spent hiking in the atlas mountains. we did a sort of village to village trek with a wonderful man, ali, and his donkey. i loved ali. really i did. i mean, i guess i still do. and i think he loved us. well, he loved his job anyways. he sat on his donkey swinging his legs and singing berber songs as we huffed and puffed behind. sometimes he forgot about us and rode away leaving us dumb and lost. but he always came back. and we had mandatory tea stops like 3 times a day. i think they were more for him than us, but were well appreciated just the same. oh! and get this. he thought matt was my LITTLE brother. what. haha, i guess he thought that my ability to butcher his language was a skill that came with age.

anyways, aside from our endearing guide the trek really was wonderful. the mountains were totally breath-taking and it felt really great to get a few days of fresh air. and of course to share some quality huffing time with my favorite big brother.

we had a lot of fun in the city as well. did some good wandering and exploring and saw a pretty sweet soccer game. the game was sort of an intense experience. people are really into soccer here. like, the field was lined with armed cops holding riot shields and people were throwing lit flares onto the field. but marrakesh won, so there was no violence after the game. just celebration. we walked back from the field alongside a parade of loud, crazed marrakeshi boys on motos and/or running alonside their friends on motos.

we met alex in casablanca. our first night was a very typical matt-alex evening: drinking cheap beer in a seedy bar discussing american politics. sort of felt like home for a bit. i mean, aside from the old man singing arabic love ballads and the fact that we had olives as a bar snack. anyways, the next day we got ourselves into morocco mode and had some fun adventuring in casa and marrakesh. did the sights, met some interesting people and made sure that they both left with their bellies full of yummy moroccan food and tea.

i was very sad to say good bye to the both of them, even felt home sick for a bit. but don't worry, i'm back in gear and happy to be settled into my marrakeshi routine.

moral of this post is that morocco is a stellar vacation destination, and i can be an awesome guide. promise. come!

passport blues

as many of you known i've been going through a bit of a rough time lately. through some dumb moves on my part i had my bag stolen. left it on a chair while dancing at a night club with some tourists i had just met. in it was: my passport, my wallet, my camera, my phone, my house keys, and last and barely least my favorite black hoodie. pretty much everything important in my life.

and of course it was like the one weekend that both of my roommates and all of my american friends were out of town- fulbright conference/ american school spring break.

pretty shitty situation all around. i'll spare you the details of the epic 24 hours that followed but will say that they included sleeping at a stranger's house, hours in the stupid police station, some public tears, and a very crazy maura.

in retrospect, now that i have things somewhat under control, i can appreciate that some parts of the experience were actually sort of funny. well, ridiculous anyhow. most notably was the morning when i woke up on a couch in the same room as a 90 year old man.

i had met his son, racheed at the police station in the middle of the night the evening before- where i went when i realized i had no way to get into my apartment and the hotel of my new friends would no let me stay without a passport or any id. anyways, racheed had let me sleep at his father's house and that is where i woke up. very confused.

i was stifled under about 10 blankets because he had kept piling them on top of me in an attempt to be hospitable. i should preface any more talk about racheed by saying that he is pretty crazy in a sort of endearing way, and had also spent the night drinking beers instead of sleeping because he was "so very very worried." so yeah, after being shaken awake after about 3 hours of sleep, i battled through the blankets and found racheed and his 90 year old father hovering over me like i was a baby bird coming out of a shell or some sort of strange specimen they had just discovered. after orienting myself a bit i noticed that they had like 3 clocks in the room all saying different times.

me: "racheed, what time is it?"
racheed: "can't you see? its 11:30."
me: "ok. why does that clock say its 7:15?"
racheed (looking at the clock): "yes ok, its 7:15 then. really, does it matter?"

after a moment of thought i decided that all things considered, no it didn't really matter.

clearly i wasn't in the mood for small talk or hanging around. now that i was awake i was pretty desperate to try and get in my apartment and go to the police to get things figured out. racheed however had a very different plan in mind. first he insisted that i take breakfast with his father. fair enough, they had put me up for the night, it was the least i could do.

his father is a very round man with spikey white hair and at this point is wearing a tad-too-small sweat suit. and he sort of has a old man baby face if you can imagine. as racheed said himself, "yes, baba is 90. i know you probably can't believe it because his face is so pretty. baba! your face is so pretty!"

this sort of precious man's breakfasting position of choice seems to be a queen-like lounge across the couch, head pearched on one hand. he popped olives and figs in his mouth and sort of stared at me while i drank the coffee i was given. meanwhile racheed is pacing around the room and rambling on about god knows what.

after finally convincing him that no, i did not want to meet or marry his nephew, nor did i want to have tea with the neighbors, nor did i want to go to his sister's house, or to see where he worked racheed took me home. the rest of the battle is somewhat boring, but nonetheless frusterating. including some long long hours at the police station, a battle with a drunk racheed, and some wonderful neighborhood cooperation to get me back into my apartment. but do not worry, i am safe and unharmed and little by little things are getting worked out. right now i'm in casablanca waiting for the consulate to open so i can get the passport figured out.

and don't worry, i've also been scolded for my trusting, forgetful ways. the moroccan response in general has been sort of refreshing if blunt. most of the people i have told have said something to the effect of, "yes, there are theifs. but really it's your fault. why would you leave your things like that?" fair enough. lesson learned.

lost in translation

today a student of mine wanted to teach me a moroccan proverb. we were doing a lesson on vegetables. so she told me with wide eyes and a genuine smile, "in morocco we say that life is like an onion. you peel away the layers and at the end it's still bitter and makes you cry." i sort of looked at her blankly, not really sure how to react. you try and decipher that into something that's not totally depressing.

ha, and also today i was greeting a woman who apparently likes to do two kisses on each cheek sometimes instead of one. i had no idea this was like something that happened, so i turned and ended up kissing her on the lips! i of course turned red and she pinched my cheek and patted my head like i was a five-year-old and laughed sort of with me, but more at me.

misunderstandings all around. keeps things interesting.

i've been trying to learn arabic. sort of. i'm not in a class so my learning has been totally haphazard and random. i've got the bare-bone basics down, and the rest is just through interaction. the guy who works at the kiosk across the street has been eagerly trying to get me to increase my vocab. now he only lets me tell him what i want in arabic- so i know the words for toilet paper, milk, and ground coffee. not really a hot conversation topics.

anyways, i'm continuing to enjoy my time here. and as you may have seen from my last post, it looks like i'll be staying next year. maura ewing, fourth grade teacher. i haven't totally committed to the school yet. but in my mind i'm pretty set on staying. huzzah!

-maura-

huzzah!

i'm staying

busy bee

recently i've been working on my old lady skills.

first of course is the rustic sort of culinary projects i've told you about. i can't quite decide if i feel like a gramma, a crunchy hippie or some sort of pioneer woman when i soak my chickpeas over night, strain them for stones and bugs, sort them for bad ones, take off the peels and theeeeen add them into soup (complete with rachel's awesome home-made veggie broth). maybe none of the above. maybe just someone without a whole lot of money but pleanty of time on her hands. and besides, food tastes way better when you've spent that much time with it (:

i've also been mastering the fine old lady art of embroidery. i've been exchanging english lessons with this wonderful woman, hajiba, for moroccan style embroidery ones. i use the term mastering loosly... dabbling might be a better word. every wednesday i go and spend a few hours with her in her workshop and she guides me through the impossibly intricate patterning. she has a few other students also- three moroccan girls. the workshop space also serves as a gossip circle for the four women. the language barrier prevents me from understanding most of the good stuff, but now i have a good goal for learning arabic...

my days have been filling up nicely lately. i've got some new tutoring clients and i've just started volunteering at this pretty awesome woman's empowerment association in town. i'm teaching both the staff and a group of young girls english lessons. i'm especially excited to be working with the girls- they are all girls who have stopped school and are at risk of becoming house servents- this association is working with them to get them back in school and also does vocational training. pretty awesome place. i'm really happy to be able to do something that feels useful there, and to have students who aren't totally spoiled rich kids.

yes, yes, all of this recent activity has severely cut down in my aimless wandering and exploring time. i think i'm pretty ok with that.

ok, thats all. hope you're all staying warm.

maura

address

i finally figured out my mailing address:

56 Derb El Hammam
Riad Laarouss
40000
Marrakesh, Morocco

if you're inspired to send snail mail i promise to be an awesome pen-pal.

life here continues to treat me well. my roomate, rachel, and i have gotten quite into cooking delicious dinners lately. it's a fun challenge to find stuff in the market and figure out what to do with it. though morocco is not-so-vegeterian-friendly in general, there are tons and tons of wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables all over the place literally for pennies a pound. so, with a little experimentation with mystery vegetables and spices and some help from the internet we've done pretty well for ourselves. we've also had lot's of fun inviting people over for dinner partyish gatherings. i really love the moroccan sense of hospitality- it's totally normal to invite people for dinner even if you've just met. we've had some of the most interesting people both moroccan and foreign and off all ages over to our little abode. the most notable was this british artist who we met in a cafe. he had lots of crazy stories about his youth as a struggling starving artist, but made it clear those days were behind him. so, we of course googled him the next day and he's totally famous! he was in all these british journals as like an in vougue celeberity artist. and to think, he was eating lentils with us in our tiny kitchen. next time he comes back we're all going to have a meal in his fancy pants riad he's recently bought in central marrakesh. crazy world.

so, i am seriously considering staying for another year. all of the teachers at the american high school are deciding whether or not they want to come back in the fall, which means that several positoins are opening. i could probably get one seeing as i'm here already and know some people who are working there. i really am happy here, but am also sort of petrified of missing some sort of boat back in the us if you know what i mean. the decision has been plaguing my thoughts recently... i think i'm waiting for some sort of religiousish sign or something (coming from a borderline atheist). anyhow, any input or words of wisdom would be much appreciated at this point.

i miss you all. do keep me posted on what is happening over there.

maura

spring is in the air

hello,

sorry i've been so bad at keeping this up, as you probably know i'm not really a blogger at heart... anyhow, life in morocco continues to treat me well. it's starting to really feel like summer here, the saharra sun has definitely put some renewed life into the city. the streets are buzzing even more than usual and everyone seems to be in extra good spirits. ha, yesterday the guy who i buy oranges from told me that if i stayed in morocco i would get some color in my skin 'ench'allah' ['if god wills it', or in this case more like 'i hope to god'].

let's see, what is new... well, last weekend i spent a couple of days in the atlas mountains visiting my roomate, jordan, in the village where he is researching. beeeautiful! it felt so good just to get out of the city and breath some fresh air, and the atlas really are breath taking. the village itself was really amazing as well. it was wonderful to have jordan as a sort of tour guide, he's been living there off and on throughout the year and really has done a great job of immersing in the community. we spent the first day pretty much going from house to house drinking tea and eating cookies, soup etc, talking about the weather and catching up on gossip. well, jordan did all of the catching up- i myself had no idea what was going on because everyone was speaking berber. but jordan did some good translating so i caught the juicy parts. the hospitality in the community was really amazing, it seemed like every time we left one door someone would come along and invite us into their house- and it was almost impossible to tell who lived where because everyone was in everyone else's house. oh! and i met jordan's new baby goat. don't worry, he's a vegeterian, the goat is purely for bragging purposes when he's talking with the other men. but he was so cute i almost wanted to bring him back to marrakesh with me... also of note, i went on a hike with a boy, mohammed, who looked like he was about 10, and got absolutely burned. not only was he like half my height, but he was wearing plastic sandals and yet still hiked me into the ground. he was jumping from rock to rock and laughing as i was huffing and puffing behind. i think i was border-line crippled yesterday i was so sore, but the view at the top was totally worth it!

so yeah, i really enjoyed my time there. hopefully i'll get to return for a longer stay... there is some talk of exchanging english lessons for room and board, so that is possibly my plan for the summer... we shall see. speaking of bartering, after i leave this internet cafe i'm going to talk with a woman about exchanging english lessons for morrocan style embroidery ones. sweet deal, huh? i'll let you know how it goes.

ok, i have to get going. hope things are going well on the other side of the ocean.

best,
maura