A Normal Day

We all made our way to Fez and opened up cell phones. I took the cell phone that my brother Dan gave to me and put it on the Maroc Telecom network. A minute/text message costs 1 dirham, which is ideal. The currency in Morocco is Dirham. The exchange rate is 1 US dollar for 8 Moroccan Dirham. So, I am kinda like Tevye, but I actually am a rich manJ

So I made my way with my roommate Ali (male) to our home-stay. Our host father, Abdul Rahhim el-Amouri is a biology teacher at the local high school. He says that his students are 17-18 years old. He speaks shwuye d’nkleezee (a little English) and is fluent in Daraja, French, and Arabic. And to think that I only am fluent in oneL His wife, our host-mother, is Fatima (after the daughter of Muhammed) She only speaks daraja and arabic, so there is a language barrier there that can be difficult at times. There are also 3 children that hang out around the Dar (apartment style living). Zacharia (who is from Rabat), Ahmed, and Othman. The three boys are nephews of our host parents and live in what appears to be the beds that Ali and I are sleeping in.

I will take pictures of the house and upload them to this. I have already updated on facebook. We are living in a daar (which is like an apartment). It is not one of the elaborate Riads that have multiple stories and that whole families live in. Instead, it has 2 bedrooms, a family room, a salon, 1 western toilet, 1 squat toilet (imagine that!) and a kitchen.

Instead of writing in the past-tense. I am going to write about events up to this point as I am getting far behind in my writing,

A little taste of my life in the homestay. Every morning, at 5:25, the morning call to prayer reverberates throughout the house. We are living close to a couple Mosques, so we get awoken. While Ali and I never speak when we wake up, I can hear him moving as his sleep is disturbed. I guess this alarm clock is great for some people as it is impossible to fall back asleep. Finally, we will get back to a somewhat restless sleep and wake up at 7:45 to get ready for class. Throughout highschool and college, I have woken up and taken a shower. However, the family desires that we take a shower every two days and at nighttime. So, that creates a problem for me as my hair is a bit longer. But I will get back to that later. And when I say shower, I mean washing your body with heated water in a shower/like room that does not have a spout. So, literally, you lather and then wash your body out with a bowl of water. Pretty interesting. I miss real showers. Squat toilets are also an experience, but it is not difficult to imagine.

The food here has been outstanding. Each day, Fatima has breakfast prepared for us at 8 AM. We quickly sit down and eat a meal consisting of zit (olive oil), khoobz (bread), zitun (olives), sometimes an interesting type of other bread or cake, honey, jam, and etay (mint tea). These meals are something to look forward to, but they are too much that early in the morning. After that, we meet with our neighbors, Sasha and Cindy, and walk to the taxi station 10 minutes away. We then grab a taxi and yell to him markez merikeen or centre d’american (the American center). If I jumped in and said to him “American Center” I would most definitely get blank stares. And I say him because there are not female taxi drivers.

We go to class from 9 – 12 for Daraja lessons. The lessons consist of sitting in a classroom with 6 other students and reading words written in their English pronounciation. There are two teachers, Mohammed and Leila, that we take turns with each class. The education is very speedy and people can easily get lost.

After class we take a taxi back to our daar for lunch. Taxis at this time are very difficult to find. After all, a taxi driver is self employed and is looking to get as much money as possible. People often triple up in taxis so therefore a driver wants as many stops to make more foloos (money). A taxi ride is 8 dirham and is divided by the riders in your party. Therefore, traveling in a group of 3 is ideal but undesirable for the driver. 8 Dirham is 1 American dollar. Therefore, it’s very doable to travel alone. While tipping is rarely done, when a taxi driver attempts to speak with me I have been tipping. For two reason, one maybe he will try to get me back next time, and second he will appreciate that American students are willing to speak the language of the area. Ali and I frequently talk with our taxi drivers. The ones that do not talk do not get tipped.

Lunch is the largest meal of the day and consists of olives, sometimes a meat, vegetables, sometimes fish, some sort of sauce, a soup, bread, couscous, etc. I have not had the same meal yet, but I imagine there can only be so many different choices! And, of course, each meal is eaten with your right hand. This sometimes requires khoobz scooping the sauce or picking up dry food (unless you run out of khoobz). Sorry lefties. The reason, beyond the left hand being dirty, is that the right hand portrays the hand of Fatima, which, like I mentioned earlier, is the most famous of Muhammed’s daughters. The hand of Fatima is holy and therefore you eat using it and not the unholy hand. I have also heard that when drinking alcohol or smoking your left hand should be used for these unholy activities. Each meal is finished up with a limon (orange) and/or banane (banana). Finally, we wash our hands off of the sticky food that we just ate.

After lunch, we make our way to the American Center and we either have a lecture or some sort of activity. Last night, Feb 8, we went to a Riad and found that it is available to all students from our university in Fez. There is free Wi-Fi there as well as food and drinks. Plus, it’s a bit closer to my home-stay than the café I have frequently been visiting with my friends from class. Don’t worry, cafes are very cheap and I can get out of there for $1.50 US. And, when you think about it, it’s 1 dollar an hour for internet at a cyber café. Go me!

After our lecture, we go back home and grab some dinner (if we did not get back earlier for tea). These meals are much smaller than lunch and consist of eggs, vegetable, khoobz, soup, and rarely meat. Therefore, the meal to look forward to is lunch. After dinner, we talk a little bit with the kids and then watch some magic performed by Othman, or study some Daraja. It is very beneficial having Ali around as he can ask questions in French and get answers in Daraja from the homestay brothers and father. However, the mother, Fatima, is very helpful as she focuses on helping us learn the nouns around the house. We then go to our rooms and study until 11 and then go to bed and start it again at 5:30.