I just returned from a week-long stay in a rural village in Morocco’s Middle Atlas mountains. Rural really is an understatement here. If you travel by donkey, the village is a good 30-minutes away from the nearest road, two hours from the nearest “hospital” (i.e. a poorly stocked health clinic that opens only on Wednesdays), and if you’re lucky enough to have wheels, it’s an hour’s ride to a respectably-sized city. The village also lacks running water, but electricity via solar panels (thanks to the efforts of local charitable organizations) gives families an extra two or three hours of light after sundown.
Despite this, I had a rewarding and essentially educational week—probably my favorite experience in Morocco thus far. I could easily write a blog entry for each of the seven days I spent in my little village in the Atlas, but I’ll shorten it to three instead and get some of the more amusing observations off my chest.
All in the Family – My rural home-stay family is the #1 reason things went so smoothly. My home-stay father, Seehr, was 28; his wife Khadooj a few years younger than that (as you can imagine, the average age of marriage is very young and some of the older women in the village had children when they were 15 or 16). Thus my relationship with them was one of both brother and son. They themselves have two sons aged 6 and 4, plus Seehr’s 17 and 15 year-old brothers, and his mother, also lived with us.
They were the perfect Brady Bunch family, a description which most of my American classmates echoed about their families as well. There was never fighting or stress among the family members (after all, what drama can you have in the middle of nowhere?); the kids were active and highly imaginative, the Atlas mountains their playground though having few toys themselves; and the food was always fresh and delicious, having been picked and prepared that day. Comparing them to my dysfunctional, stressed-out, fundamentally cynical Rabat family, it’s easy to see what Shakespeare was talking about when he wrote about the utopian Pastoral versus the sin and sanctimony of urban life.
Even better, my family was just like me. What I mean is that they were just as concerned about respecting me, making me feel comfortable, not offending me culturally, etc., as I was about them. There was awkwardness at times, but it was a mutual, shared awkwardness—for example, when it came to gift-giving and greetings, neither Seehr or I knew what was culturally acceptable or appropriate for the other, so we approached these nuances with a light-heart and an open-mind.
Finally, because I spoke their language (Darija) and they didn’t speak a word of mine, I was, linguistically-speaking, in a position of power—a pleasant contrast from the rest of the country, which caters to French-speaking foreigners and ensures they rarely have to speak the local tongue. I’m patting myself on the back here, but it was nice to be the one doing the translating for once. Were I able to stay there, I could see myself becoming fluent after a few months.
Comments (21)
Nice site. Thanks.
free alltel ringtones
Posted by: free alltel ringtones at April 13, 2008 2:07 PM
Nice site. Thanks.
free alltel ringtones
Posted by: free alltel ringtones at April 13, 2008 2:08 PM
c811t
Posted by: ma289zda at April 26, 2008 2:25 PM
Good site. Thanks!
valium overnight
Posted by: valium overnight at April 27, 2008 11:46 PM
Good site. Thanks!
valium overnight
Posted by: valium overnight at April 27, 2008 11:46 PM
Very good site. Thank you!!
lorazepam no prescription
Posted by: lorazepam no prescription at April 28, 2008 2:02 AM
Very good site. Thanks!
buy vicodin without rx
Posted by: buy vicodin without rx at April 28, 2008 4:01 AM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
purchase alprazolam
Posted by: purchase alprazolam at April 28, 2008 7:24 AM
Cool site. Thank you:-)
purchase alprazolam
Posted by: purchase alprazolam at April 28, 2008 7:25 AM
Useful site. Thanks:-)
oxycontin no prescription
Posted by: oxycontin no prescription at April 28, 2008 9:36 AM
Very good site. Thank you:-)
valtrex side effects
Posted by: valtrex side effects at April 28, 2008 1:35 PM
Very good site. Thanks:-)
hydrocodone
Posted by: hydrocodone at April 28, 2008 3:32 PM
Very good site. Thanks:-)
hydrocodone
Posted by: hydrocodone at April 28, 2008 3:32 PM
Useful site. Thank you.
buy hydrocodone
Posted by: buy hydrocodone at April 28, 2008 5:24 PM
Good site. Thank you!!
propecia side effects
Posted by: propecia side effects at April 28, 2008 7:17 PM
Good site. Thanks!!!
TRAMADOL HCL
Posted by: TRAMADOL HCL at April 28, 2008 10:59 PM
Good site. Thank you!
no deposit casino
Posted by: casino online at May 1, 2008 7:39 PM
Good site. Thank you!
no deposit casino
Posted by: casino online at May 1, 2008 7:39 PM
Useful site. Thank you:-)
vicodin without a prescription
Posted by: vicodin without a prescription at May 3, 2008 8:35 PM
Very good site. Thanks.
vicodin
Posted by: vicodin at May 4, 2008 5:04 PM
Very funny pictures http://groups.google.us/group/rr-hotsexmovies ">may hentai porn kgen
Posted by: Jvbidlsz at May 12, 2008 1:57 AM