Every day is an adventure.

We are a couple of weeks into my Moroccan adventure and I can honestly say that it is getting better. There are multiple times a day I have to force myself to realize what I am actually getting to do. While I know that this phase will not last forever, it has been great so far. Today I watched my mother, Fatima, do some of the most extradinorarily simple things. She was able to conquer difficult tasks with such ease. I never knew hand washing dishes could be such a breeze, or cooking a meal, from scratch would seem so simple. I am constantly impressed by the Moroccan women I meet, and their ability to do so many things at once with such ease. In America, loading the dishwasher seems like such a task, much less washing them all by hand with only two buckets.

Today was also my second bucket bath since I have been here. Frankly, I don’t mind it one bit. If I could convince my family to let me use up so much water and buta gas to heat it up, I would take one every day. Its actually a really simple task. Boil water, add cold water to make it the right temperature. Take your bucket with water, smaller bucket and supplies to the bathroom/ bitlama. (Basically the bathroom is a room with the turkist toilet as a drain). You then get your hair wet, soap up, rinse, and repeat for your body. It uses WAY WAY less water than in that States. Today I took a pretty good shower/ bath for about 2 gallons of water. I cannot even imagine what my brother’s 20 minute showers at home use. After your done you just leave the bitlama and get dressed, feeling fresh and clean.

I have decided that I am an every day shower kind of gal, but since that isn’t a reality, I think I am going to be an every other day shower kind of gal. Washing your body is easy and requires little hot water to freshen up between showers, but my silly hair is another thing. After about 2 and a half days it turns into a giant greesy mess, which my hairdresser tells me is good for my hair, but not so good for my classmates or self image. Therefore I resort to being an every other day shower gal.

Other than that, Morocco is a great place. The langugage is difficult but the scenery and people are beautiful. Everyone has time to greet you and meet you. No one is ever too busy for a chat or an introduction. The families get to spend a lot of time together, granted, it is in front of the TV, but time together none the less. You are never too busy for a tea and bread break and dinner is made COMPLETELY from scratch. While I am sure I will get bored of these things once I am living on my own and don’t have children to entertain me or homework to do, it is quite awesome having this time for now. I am finally getting a good amount of sleep and that is a great feeling.

One thing I haven’t talked a lto about is the food. Moroccan food is different in some ways and the same in other ways, to American food. For one, they are both full of oil, which is bad for my friend Jessie’s face but the same as the States at least. We eat cous cous, rice and we always have bread. Tea, very sweet, is always a staple and it is served at every single meal which works out great for me, since I love sugar. Its not looking like im going to be loosing a lot of weight here, I am just trying to make sure I don’t die a carbohydrate induced death. We eat a lot of bread, cous cous, rice and sugar, mostly since they are cheap and easy to store without a refridgerator.

Our cook at our langugage and cross culture facilitators house makes good salads, so I do my best to stock up on fresh veggies and fruits while I am there. One thing I really like is the fruit for desert concept. I never realized that an orange or banana could actually curb my sweet tooth just as well as chocolate, I am going to have to bring this back to the states. Also, I am super glad I have weined myself off soda. I am down to a soda every couple of days, unlike the 44 ouncers I was having once a day at home. They are a lot harder to get a hold of and they aren’t cold, so it wasn’t really a hard habit to kick actually. Hopefully I can keep it up, we will see ☺

Life is good here, really good and I am hoping to find out more about my final placemetn soon, as soon as I do I will let you know.

Bslama.


My site mates at the weekly souk.


My host sisters and I.