This weekend the 5 of us headed out for our first adventure together. We went to Essaouira http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/753 which is an old hippie resort on the Atlantic Coast. I think that we all thought that we died and went to heaven....it was so beautiful and peaceful. We stayed in a riad (fancy house/hotel) and ate and yes, drank and walked around the town at night. The town is full of old men fishing in their jellabas or sitting at cafes for hours.....women dressed both in traditional and very modern dress, lots of French tourists, narrow windy streets etc. It is supposed to be a very windy area and is very popular with windsurfers but it was calm when we were there. Temperature was mid 60s and sunny. I felt like I had come home there.....even thought of buying a little flat if I can ever sell my condo.....it would be so easy just to stay there for weeks and months on end.

lobbypool

the alley to our Riad

riad lobby

To get there we took the train from Rabat to Marrakesh (about 4 hours) and then changed to a lovely bus (3 1/2 hours) (after a quick coffee with a friend at the train station) which took us to Essouria where we were picked up by a man with a little cart who took us through the narrow streets to our hotel in the medina (old city). We walked around the town, ate fish at a fish stand and took off our shoes at the beach. The next day we tried to go to the Mellah (Jewish quarter) and see the synagogue but never made it. .  That is reason enough for me to return which I will many times since it is an easy ride from the town in which I will be living. Like all of Morocco, Essouria has a very old and venerable Jewish population and still has a somewhat functioning synagogue (so does Marrakesh).

Then on to Marrakesh where we realized soon after arriving, that the Marrakesh Marathon was taking place the next day.  It seemed like everyone was staying at our hotel and the place was filled with tall, skinny Kenyans.  Since it was the same hotel that I stayed in last year, I knew my way around and could guide us to the medina and the famous Jamaa El Fna Square which was crazy Saturday night... so crazy that I didn't take pictures of the square until the next day when it was calmer.  I don't think that anyone (except me) was prepared for the rush of people and the total insanity of snake charmers, African dancers, fortune tellers, families filling the food stalls, and ofcourse the constant peddlers....I thought that it was invigorating but something that I don't think I will repeat each weekend.  Since Marrakesh is a short distance from Asni where I will be living for 2 months, I think that I will be making lots of treks in.


Since last year, our hotel acquired a night club which we attempted to enter and then left quickly when we looked around and saw that the club was filled with about 80% men (and it wasn't a gay bar.....just the Moroccan culture) and so much for a religion that doesn't drink :-) After the peace and quiet of Essouria, Marrakesh was an interesting change.  On Sunday, three of us went to the Jardin Marjorelle which is a beautiful garden that was given to the city of Marrakesh by Yves St. Laurent who, along with his partner, adopted this beautiful red city. 

All in all I think that we did well negotiating everything (with a little local help), but everyone came back sick and is now recuperating.  This weekend is Mohammed's birthday (even though he didn't celebrate birthdays) and so we have a three day weekend.  We may go to Fes, still planning.

Jardin Marjorelle

Kotubia mosque which we could walk around but not go in since we weren't Muslims.  Only one mosque in Morocco is accessible to non-Muslims and that is the new modern one in Casablanca.

So tomorrow I will try and write more about my life here.  We have classes in the afternoon and also time to prepare for the work with our students the next day.

I'll also try and give you some idea of what my classes and students are like.  Now it is time to go to bed.  Tomorrow is another day inshallah.

Teaching update

So now I have completed my second day of teaching and although I panicked because I only had one student come in at 9:45 when the class was to start, I forgot that this is Morocco and everyone arrives late. So by 10:30 I had about 10 students. I had diligently prepared lessons on comparatives and superlatives for my intermediate students but we spent most of the time just talking. They are so eager to speak and practice their English. I have several male students in their 20s and a young woman in her twenties and then several women who are in their 40s. Despite the generation and gender gap, they get along well. This is modern Morocco...no head scarves, discussing rap music and how to raise children. Marie (the other volunteer at Feminin Pluriel)and I split up the students from yesterday and she has the more elementary students. So I get to try and discuss things with my students like the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius(we were doing a section on weather).

I really love the house that is our base. It is in a very upper class neighborhood in Rabat and feels more like France than Morocco. When we take a cab to the medina, it reminds us where we are. I will try and take pictures of the neighborhood tomorrow. The five of us have formed a tight group and I am now thinking of extended my stay another week...and also some of the women are going to visit me in Asni when I get there.

We are all going to take the train to Essouria on Friday and then Marrakesh on Sat night. Somehow I have become the expert and was in charge of making all the reservations...It is about a 3 1/2 hour train to Marrakesh, then bus to Essouria for another 2 hours. Then back to Rabat on Sunday afternoon or evening to get ready for Monday classes.

Despite the fact that we have had two classes in Darija (Moroccan arabic), I seem to be unable to retain much except Shukran (thank you). Here in Rabat it is too easy to resort to the French..and my studying of Berber has come to a halt for the time being.

I am now going to have another volunteer in my assignment in the High Atlas! She is another American who will be joining me two days after I get there. We talked on Skype tonight for an hour or so and it looks like it is going to work out well.

Have to go to sleep. Tomorrow I have a meeting with three of my male students in a cafe in Rabat and then some of us are going to go to a lecture in French at the Feminin Pluriele on proverbs (?).

My beginning of my first adventure

I made it here in one piece with all my luggage. About 20 minutes outside of Rabat is the house for my first volunteer assignment. It is in a lovely area called Agdal which is mostly embassies and embassy staff. Needless to say, it is spotless. And the house has a beautiful yard in which to sit and contemplate the day ahead. There is a lovely mall about 100 yards down the street with a grocery and bank.

The inside of the house is as beautiful as the outside and since there are only 5 of us, 3 of us have our own room and two share. The rooms are set up with bunk beds and can usually accommodate up for 4 in a room. We meet and eat in the typical moroccan living room which is set up with couches around the area.

Here is the group sitting around last night in the freezing cold. The house is heated but it is still very cold. Not sure how I am going to survive in the mountains if I am freezing here in Rabat. We will see. Out with the long underwear!In my group for my stay here,Americans are in the minority (sort of). There is Marie who is going to be here for 9 weeks is a college student and lives in Dallas but is a refugee from Rwanda and has half of her family living in France. There is Gwen who is an 18 year old from Toronto who has been wanting to do this and explore since she was 15 and was just waiting to be old enough (she is here for 12 weeks). Mary is also from Toronto is is semi retired and has done several volunteer assignments working with children (her background is as an elementary school teacher) and she is here for two weeks like me. Alana is the quintessential New Yorker and since retiring from Verizon (I told her about all my phone problems the last few days) she has been doing volunteer work teaching English in over 15 countries since 9/11.

Our leader is Mohammed who was a Peace Corps volunteer for several years before he became director of this program when it opened 7 years ago. He is very approachable and has an infectious sense of humor. And then there is Kadisha who is the program manager/house manager. She is a woman who represents the new Moroccan woman.....she is young (in her 30s), single (she says that she wants to wait before she is ready to settle for a man telling her what to do :-), college educated and like Mohammed was connected with the Peace Corps for many years.

the end of yesterday and the beginning of a new day

I didn't write anything yesterday (although the posted date says Friday, it is Saturday here) because it was pretty boring. I spend several hours of the day dealing with technology problems with my Blackberry and Verizon, only to finally figure out the problem myself (after much expense of calling Verizon on my Moroccan cell phone). Roy agreed to be my guinea pig in the US so I tried Skype and various mobile devices with my Luddite ex-husband. He was a good sport about it though. Couldn't call anyone on the west coast since they were still sleeping.

And then I spent the rest of the day trying to create some lesson plans for my first volunteer assignment. Those of you who are teachers can probably identify with how hard it is to prepare lesson plans when you have no idea of the English level of your audience. Particularly when you aren't a teacher to begin with. Oh well, guess I will just have to see what happens. One more adventure awaits.

And I went to bed early to get ready for today. I was then suddenly awakened by very loud and expressive noises of a personal nature in the next room (don't let kids see this part) which went on at about 15 -20 minute intervals from about 4-5. Then silence. Then a door close. Then lots of noise outside as about 15 men in business suits got into cars and left. Someone told me that they were very strict about this activity in hotels in Morocco and that the police monitor it constantly. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I am now awake and listening to the call to prayer and ready to begin my first day at my first volunteer assignment. Talked to the director of the program yesterday and he seems very nice. Guess what his name is? You've got it ...Mohammed. The name is so popular that they even use it when you are calling a waiter (instead of garcon or sir or whatever). I guess I will have more on him later either today or tomorrow when I get the lay of the land.

my journey with phones,trash and shopping

So today did not start out very well. I assumed my Moroccan phone was written in Arabic although it did look a little strange to me. Guess I figured that it was block Arabic or Berber (which is written like hieroglyphs) but it definitely wasn't English or French. Even though my instructions for the phone were in French (and hence mildly understandable), I couldn't figure out how actually to use it and it was sending texts in what looked like gobblety gook. So, I thought, no problem, if it is Arabic or Berber I will give it to my friend to translate and easily change the language to one that I could understand. Not so simple however. He said....oh just change the "parameters" (pronounce para-meterrrrrs) in the phone. What the hell is a "parameter"? Well in French it means the system utility. OK. So, I said to him, just change the language from Arabic to French. To which he replied "what crazy language is this phone written in?" Well guess it wasn't Arabic after all. After many hours of work with the nice man in the store, the two of us figured out it was Greek and he marched to the medina to find someone who could speak Greek and change the system on the phone to French and then I could take a lazy "cop out" and change it to English. So much for the morning. So now I have a cute fully functioning Moroccan Samsung pink phone where in order to text I have to figure out the letters and numbers (I'm spoiled by my Blackberry) and hence another visit to a friendly Moroccan to explain to me how to do that.

Well it isn't India, but considering that it is the country's capitol, it is surprising to find so much trash in the streets.

That being said, this one isn't a picture of trash, just a Moroccan version of a really basic flea market as opposed to the markets in the souks (outdoor markets) in the medina (old city) which are a little classier than this but not much...still has lots of old used junk.

Shopping: Bought myself a jelaba (robe with the pointy hood) in the medina. Pictures tomorrow if I can get someone to take my picture. Not super flattering but warm and comfortable and covers a multitude of sins. It is definitely the rage here in Morocco.

Why can't I understand what everyone is saying?

So today I am going to finally begin this blog. Sorry, but no pictures in this one. I will summarize what has happened so far and I the title is misleasing, I actually CAN understand most of what is being said:

I met a lovely Moroccan woman on the flight from SFO to NY (and on to Casablanca). Actually, I met her son who asked me if I could look out for her since it was her first trip to the US and she didn't speak English. Ok, no problem...she's Moroccan and I would get to use my French. I was excited. Only problem was that she didn't speak French, she spoke Spanish! That was good when we got to NY and she needed to transfer terminals and pick up her bags and run them back through security, but didn't help our many hours of time together. But we persevered and with her little bit of French (I got to be the expert on this one...what a thrill) we found out a lot about each other's lives. Anyway, we traveled together across the continent of the US and the Atlantic and arrived in Casablanca (otherwise known as Casa here) where her other son picked her up.

When I landed in Casablanca I was so happy to be back. I knew the airport and jumped right into speaking French and they actually seemed to be understanding me. I am getting pretty adept at explaining what I am doing here.

Highlights of today:

• Slept on both planes and then for a few hours in Rabat. I am good to go!
• Negotiated the train from Casablanca to Rabat easily even with two "grands baggages" and a bag and a backpack. For anyone considering this, the train was every bit as easy as I was told. And the people....how kind and helpful they were...One woman even thought I was French!
• My French is holding up. Had a long conversation with a man in a store who is a professor of Pedagogy at the University here and he gave me all the reasons why I should be studying Arabic instead of French and why the educational system in Morroco is poor because they try and teach too many languages. He also took the opportunity to tell me that the rest of the world is suffering economically and politically because of the policies of George Bush. Ofcourse I told him we were kindred spirits on this one.
• Bought a Moroccan cell phone (see note below) and had a wonderful conversation with the store owner about Barack Obama. Do I have political liberal written on my forehead (in French)...I think so.
• My hotel in Rabat is very nice and is a section of Rabat that I had not visited last year. It is very neighborhoody (I'll take pictures tomorrow) but still walking distance to the medina. Hotel is empty and I had the whole restaurant to myself for lunch. There is an OAT tour group here and I actually met some of the people at JFK but I haven't seen them.
• The weather is magnificent. Sunny and warm. Just like the weather I left.

Negatives:

• My US cell phone isn't getting or receiving calls or texts. Ofcourse the Verizon site doesn't address this, it just gives a US # to call. Will address this issue tomorrow I guess.
• The instructions for my Moroccan cell are available in French (good) but on the phone all the things like Options etc are in Arabic. You can't even guess with Arabic...it just looks like it is from some alien world.
• Although the French has been great, I sure could use some Arabic (see above). Guess that guy was right....listening to the TV or trying to figure out signs is a bit intimidating.
• The guy at the front desk in the hotel is a bit overly flirtatious. This could be a good thing if I was interested which I am not. Anyway, not offensive, just difficult to read. Moroccan friendliness and sense of humor or.........
• Always a negative is negotiating dinners by myself...room service or venture outdoors from my warm comfortable bed....ah, such questions
• No call to prayer...guess that I am too far from the nearest mosque. I miss that. It would have truly felt like I was back.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. Others will be shorter and with more pictures, inshallah. If you get bored you can just shut off your computer. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was so easy?