Flashback to the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) 2008. I am working the register at The Bath and Body Works in south county mall and boy do we have a sale. People yelling, lots of excitement, excessive lines and pure chaos occuring all around me.
Flashforward to Thursday, October 7th 2010. I am helping out the women of the co-op as they are making Argan oil, well more watching than helping really. All the sudden I start hearing women talking about bleach. At first I think they need bleach, so I offer, I was wrong. Next they start talking about 5 dirhams, I tell them I have none to give them. This was not what they were after either. Then we head into my house where my friend Aiesha proceeds to tell me that I can use bleach to clean my bathroom. I tell her I cleaned by bathroom yesterday, again, this is not what she was after. After about 20 minutes of confusion, my host mother comes over to me and very slowly tells me there is a man selling bleach for 5 dhs if I want some. Confused and falling for peer pressure, I hand over my 5dh and follow Aiesha outside.
As it turns out this bleach man had caused a village/ co-op uproar. All of the women frantically collecting dirhams, looking for plastic bottles and spreading the good news about the "sale" on bleach thanks to the man and his donkey cart. This is "Black Friday", village style.
After waiting in a bit of a line and bargining to get a plastic container from him (for an extra dirham), I am successful in my black thursday purchase and I am the newest proud owner of 5 liters of bleach.
Granted, I have no idea what i am going to do with 5 liters of bleach, that is after all, a whole bunch of bleach. Even with bleaching my well water (so I dont get some crazy bacteria growing in my tank), using it to do some minor cleaning and donating a bunch to the co-op, I haven't even used 3/4 of a liter since June.
I really have no idea where this bleach came from. I asked the women, they have no idea either. Needless to say, I think I will be continuing to use the regulated/ controlled bleach I purchase at the store for my drinking water and perhaps we will try out the new bleach on my brown socks.
Life is quite different here in the village, but in many ways the same. Instead of running out to get the newest video game or gadget for the lowest price, the women instead find bargins on bleach. Something I don't think many Americans even think about trying to save a few pennies (dirhams in this case) on.
I am thankful for the patience of the women in the co-op for explaining what was happening and even happier now that I have this mystery chemical to clean my bathroom with.
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