Chemicals!!

The rainy season strikes again - everyone is sick, and the locals are telling us that it's either because we aren't wearing gloves when it's raining, or because we're dumping hot water down the drain, thus angering the drain-djiin.

There were only 3 teachers to actually make it to the elementary school yesterday; and all three were mildly ill. In the middle of math class, the elementary principal walks in. She is fantastic. The whole sixth grade choruses 'Goooood moooorning' in a sufficiently adorable way to diffuse whatever irritation she might have from their latest misdemeanors, but she reassures them that she's only here to bring me some Vitamin C.

She pours me a cup of water and hands me a dissolvable bright orange tab, which immediately begins fizzing once dropped in the water. She doesn't realize what a gift this is for the science class. I yell 'CHEMICAL REACTION,' and the whole sixth grade bounds out of their seats to watch the Vitamin disappear in the cup of water, staining it fluorescent orange. We spend the next 10 minutes discussing reactions, chemical solutions, and the importance of vitamins to the body.


I love my job.

Taboo Subject

I had a sick day today. My stomach is suffering from too much Morocco.

There's no way around it; this country is just hard on the digestive system. Chemically, I wonder what the exact issues are, but even the locals report trouble more frequently than I'm accustomed to. Everyone who visits here gets sick, it seems... foreign bellies just aren't ready for the dense, delicious traditional cuisine.

After several months here, I had considered myself immune, but I realize that my diet while living here has been fairly basic. When I cook for myself, I usually eat sandwiches with delicious khubz bread, or some combination of the endless yogurt products. Since last month, I have been determined to prepare real Moroccan cous-cous correctly, and this weekend I tackled my first tagine. I made a tagine with steak pieces and potatos, carrots, zucchini, turnips, and a couple other vegetables I don't know the English names for. It actually turned out quite well, and the seasoning was decent. I made this for my Moroccan friend and her mother, who I hosted at my house yesterday after school for only about 5 hours. We had a lovely time together, and I got some ideas for next time I make tagine.

However, my body maybe doesn't like this frequency of eating traditional Moroccan cooking every day. I stayed home from school, since I wasn't really able to be vertical safely, much less move around to teach.

It entertains me that, though digestive sicknesses of all kinds are not considered delicate conversation topics in my home culture, here people are quite matter-of-fact. A friend and co-teacher who called me asked straight out, "Do you have diarrhea? Are you throwing up?" I guess that's the result when the digestive system presents such a regular interference to daily life.

I'm going back to sandwiches.

Open Doors

On Monday, my best Moroccan friend turned 22, and celebrated her first birthday. Birthdays are not typically celebrated here, and it seems that many locals don't even keep track of their age. At the most, they can often recall the year they were born - it took some basic math just to figure out her age for Monday. She loves American gatherings, and this seemed like one of the best opportunities. However, at the time it was supposed to occur, the country intervened, as usual. It was re-scheduled, but then transportation ran late, and her family's business making leather jackets was involved, and the party finally did happen the next night. Myself and two of my American girlfriends arrived and met a room full of Moroccan women in beautiful caftans, dancing away to fun Arabic music. We had delicious cake, and it was good to see her and her family.

At my own place, we've had guests all week. My roommate's best friend from CA is visiting, and 3aisa's girlfriend is staying with us for a few days while visiting him from America. I've been meeting with several girls who are visiting the city, to help show them around. They are expert travelers, and amazingly insightful and inquisitive girls from America and Australia, so my week has been a time of forging new friendships and playing hostess, which I love, whether it be in my city or my house, or just in this new culture that I have come to love.

Glad to Be Home

I have returned to Fes from my week out of the country. My passport is stamped and so the Moroccan government will allow me to stay for another 3 months. While out of the country, I had a great time being able to talk to people without worrying. However, I was unable to talk with many people because of the language barrier, so returning to Fes was a nice change. My French and Arabic may be poor, but they are miles ahead of my Slovene.

Slovenia was beautiful, with tiny steep hills everywhere, covered in green, and a house or two perched at the top of each hill. It looked like a cartoon illustration from a Dr. Seuss book.

Back in my city, I immediately set out to explore. Well, ok, I took a nap first. I spent the night before in the airport. When I finally did set out to explore, the beautiful blue sky let through enough sunshine to make me think spring was here. Everywhere, people who have been huddled in their houses returned to walk the streets in the Medina. Women donned their fashionable satin djellabahs instead of the bulky fleece winter ones, and the street vendors seemed to double by the hour.

I went to the Medina with the intention of getting a birthday present for a Moroccan friend, who is celebrating her first birthday this year! She is my age, but has never had a birthday party or anything to celebrate this date. In the Medina, I was immediately invited to sit and have tea with one of the elderly shopkeepers, who then walked me to another store to show his new set of paintings, and then wanted to introduce me to his daughter, who is learning English. She works at a preschool across town, so he called his son or nephew to watch his shop and took me across town to meet his daughter. She was not working at the time, so I saw the school, and we returned to the Medina, found her and the rest of his family, and ate tagine together. One of the younger relations and I discussed common messages in the Bible and the Qu'aran, and one of the boys taught me a lesson in Berber drumming. Insha'allah Hannan and I will meet up this weekend to practice our various languages together.

I love this city.