A Weekend in the Blue city

This past weekend the crew and I traveled to one of Northern Morocco's most famous vacation spots, Chefchauoen.  The views and the sites from the Blue pearl, as it is known, are among the most unique Morocco has shown me.  You won't find a city that looks quite like Chefchaouen anywhere else in the world.  With its blue walls and unobstructed views from near the top of the Rif Mountain Range, it was an experience I will never forget.  Additionally, about 45 minutes to an hour outside of the city is a breathtaking hike (about 2 to 3 hours there and back) to a waterfall.  I'm sure there are tons of great hikes in and around the city being so high up and close to the mountains but I was only there for a weekend so we wanted to pick the most memorable one we could find.  Accommodations were a lot better than expected in all honesty.  AirBnB is my savior as we found a beautiful little house at the top of the city with a fantastic view and only paid 30 bucks for the whole weekend!

Some things to keep in mind about Chefchauoen for interested parties, it is the weed capital of Morocco and because of that it is extremely touristy.  Marijuana probably is not the only reason but it is probably one of the primary reasons and while we were in the city walking through it we probably got approached by dealers at least 2 to 4 times on any given walk.  Also you can sometimes see the fields on the drive over from Tetuoan or Tangier.  Now because the city is so touristy it is not the best place to buy souvenirs in the souq because they jack up the prices like crazy.  I just noticed the prices of hats, bags, and the like on the street and knew it was only going to get worse from there.  As if that was not enough evidence of the impending price surge I also noticed multiple shops selling postcards; the international symbol of gift shops.  No other place that I have visited in my almost two months here have I seen a shop selling postcards.  So shoppers and knick-knackers beware, Chefchauoen is out to empty your wallet.  Not actually.  The people are very kind and are just trying to make a living but prices there are just higher than other places in Northern Morocco.  Knowledge is half the battle.

Knowledge is also winning the battle against my sanity this week.  It's probably been the hardest week of the program in awhile.  At the same time it was very rewarding though because I started practicing for our Oral exam next week to measure the progress we've made in our speaking and it was so much easier than the first time around.  For the first time in this program I can see my progress and it's very motivating but I still feel like there's so much more work to be done.  I take that as a sign that I'm in the right business if I can make this much progress in something over an entire summer and still want to push further and develop my skills to an even higher level.  It's been a very fulfilling realization for me.

Discussions get better each week with this week's discussions ranging from how Oil shaped the Gulf to Guantanamo Bay and Contemporary poetry.  I am always interested in what topics are book picks to discuss although sometimes they seem pretty grab bag.  What's more interesting is to see what articles our teachers pick for us to delve into each week and this week it was Guantanamo.  I wish they would focus more on news relevant to the Arab World because whenever I find myself in a discussion about issues in Morocco or the Arab World I feel unprepared and our News class could easily fix that issue.

I did lead a discussion about Tamazight (berber) culture in Morocco and efforts to give the Berber people more access to education and a more significant political voice.  Naturally I drifted more towards talking about language issues specifically and effort by the Institute for Amazight Culture to create a written form of Amazight to be used by all Berber people in Morocco across the 3 different dialects.  I really wanted to visit the Institute while I was in Rabat but time got away from me.  The most difficult aspect of Berber issues is that there are so many different tribes and groups that it becomes difficult for them as one to voice their concerns.  It's even more difficult when they don't have a language they share as the different dialects are not mutually intelligible.

The majority of grade school education in Morocco is done in either French or Arabic so when Berber people enter school and don't speak one of those languages they quickly fall behind.  Since Berber life is centered around the family and supporting the family many just drop out and help on the farm or around the house.  Additionally, they may sell jewelry or fabrics in a souq to make money for the family as well.  

There are a lot of movements and efforts today to expose Berber culture to the general public in Morocco but when I was trying to do research on Berber culture and social life all I found were mostly articles about the conflict between Berber culture and Moroccan culture or other topics about the problems facing Berbers.  I think this in of itself is causing the problem because no one actually takes the time to try to learn what Tamazight culture is like from the people.  While they are in the minority, there are a decent amount of people that speak both Amazight and Arabic and even French who are willing to introduce people to the culture.  If we could tap into that we could make some serious headway into ending this intercultural conflict.

Sorry this post is not as meaty but as always, I welcome suggestions on what to write about. 

Until next time,

Johnny M.  

  

Christmas in July

Life here is astoundingly different post Ramadan which is something that everyone told me before I came, during the flight, and throughout the month of Ramadan itself.  But as with most things, it's one thing to hear about it and expect it and another thing entirely to experience it firsthand.  This past weekend was Eid-al Fitr which is the holiday that marks the end of the month of Ramadan and for some reason Morocco was a day later than the rest of world.  I still do not understand why.  From what I was told, I gathered that a religious authority looks to the sky on the 29th day of the fast and if he sees the crescent moon then Eid is the next day.  If he does not see the crescent moon then everyone has to fast for another day.  Since we can predict the moon cycle I assumed that we would know for sure when Eid was going to be but that was not the case.  There must be something else that goes into deciding when Eid is but despite all my questions I do not have a clear answer. Nonetheless, waiting one extra day after being in the thick of it for a month was not the end of the world but this is coming from someone who was not fasting for the majority of the month so I'm sure my friends and host family here were of a slightly different opinion on the matter.

Irregardless of the day Eid happened to fall on it was a wonderful day of celebration and time with my new friends and family.  More importantly, after waiting for a month I finally feasted upon some authentic Moroccan couscous!  And I'm not going to mince words here, it was pretty damn glorious. My host mother allowed us to assist in the cutting and skinning of some of the vegetables but I'm not going to steal Rashita's thunder because she killed the couscous game that day.  She also made a tomato-based sauce with some paprika and other spices to drizzle over the couscous.  It was perfectly moist and the flavors of the chicken and the sauce really meshed well and I loved the texture that the cabbage and carrots added to the dish.  Overall, one of my best culinary experiences in Morocco to date (Get it? Dates, morocco, trust me I'm a riot...)

Also, you're probably wondering at this point why the title of my blog is Christmas in July (unless you're muslim and have experienced Eid before and know about Christmas) and I am now going to tell you.  The entire day reminded of Christmas.  There you have it folks.  Only kidding but what an explanation that would be.  Anywho, on the morning of Eid people wake up and go to the mosque and eat a breakfast that consists almost exclusively of sweets.  Children and adolescents on Eid also receive presents and money from their families after the events of the morning most people proceed to adventure from house-to-house of their extended family to eat more sweets and drink more tea and coffee.  My roommates and I completed this "house crawl" of sorts to two houses, one in the old medina, and one closer to where I live in Northern Tangier.  In between houses we had a particularly interesting experience with a Taxi that I will never forget for as long as I live.

Most taxis in Tangier drive around major streets when they are vacant and search for eager people yearning for adventure but there is another kind of taxi, one that is considerably cheaper, a good deal more dangerous, but quadruple the excitement.  These taxis have a predetermined route with two major stops and when they reach the main destinations anyone standing around immediately rushes to the doors shoving and pushing any stranger out of the way to obtain a seat.  I honestly have never seen anything like it.  No one got overtly violent but there was definitely some horseplay going on. After about 20 minutes of waiting we were about to give up but then one last taxi came down and one of my roommates grabbed the handle of the moving taxi and hopped in pushing up against the door on the opposite side of the car in an attempt to leave space for all four of us in the back of the cab.  It was an ingenious plan that somehow managed to work and within a minute we were on our way to stuff our faces with more pastries and cookies then our bodies had room for.  I will say that I slept well that night but I unfortunately had to wake up at around 7:30 the next day for our day trip to a neighboring beach town.  Not the worst reason in the world to wake up early.

But early morning beach soccer with no breakfast is not the easiest thing to do in the world but I made it work.  And after a long game I had the freezing cold water to remind me where I was.  We went to an Archaeological museum set up in an old Berber city which was a little more interesting than I am going to make it out to be, but not a whole lot.  I liked what the museum had to offer which was ruins of a roman-era city and really fascinating construction plans and replicas of the city itself but the presentation of the museum left a lot to be desired in my opinion.  There was a lack of any discernible organization and if I didn't have someone from the school telling me what we were walking through this small paragraph about my visit might not exist and then you all would be sad because you all love hearing me talk so much.  It's ok guys I get that a lot.  It's ok to feel sad sometimes. I'm here for you all.

This week's discussions have been pretty on point thus far.  On Monday we had a listening about Moroccan music and I learned a little from that video but most of it was not new unfortunately.  I really want to learn about some popular Moroccan bands of any genre and I have been exposed to bits an pieces of the music culture here but I want more.  We read an interesting piece a couple weeks ago in class about the spread of Hip-hop from the Bronx to Morocco over the past 20 or thirty years. Basically the way things get to Morocco from the U.S, at least for a long time, was through France. Now the relationship is more direct with social media and the increase in programs such as the one in which I am currently participating.  What I'm trying to say is I want Moroccan Hip-hop and my current attempts to learn more about specific types of Moroccan music have been futile.  But I'm nothing if not persistent, and impatient, sometimes I think one may cause the other but I'll let you all decide which because I'm a man of the people and a people of the man.

Discussions on day two got a little more serious where we talked about issues of social and personal freedom throughout Morocco in addition to reading an article about why American journalism sucks. While I am not of this opinion, it was clear that this author was and I think he had some good points. The discussion about personal freedom was not as in depth as I would of liked but we only had about 40 minutes with that teacher before he left so I could always pick it back up in office hours. The discussion essentially consisted of a story about women being objectified and another story about gay people being out in the open in Fez.  Other than making sure we understood what the article was saying, we did not talk much about the issues inherent in the article which was disappointing but we had an article about sexual harassment to read tonight for homework so details on that discussion to come hopefully in the next post.

The journalism article basically attacked American Media as a whole for not producing quality or accurate news about subjects in the Middle east or outside the U.S. in general.  There was a lot of criticism about the 24-hour news cycle of sources like CNN producing "garbage" news as well as richer and more well known outlets catering to specific groups of people.  I do not know much about how journalists actually do their job, particularly foreign correspondents but I do know that it's hard to provided news to a country where the majority of people don't care about Foreign policy, at least as much as they care about other issues such as economic reform or social equality.  The article also stated that American was a place that prides itself on and preaches Freedom of the press while censorship still exists.  That is a point that I don't hear very often and I assume the author was pointing to the fact that at least some news papers are owned by wealthy businessmen who could conceivably affect what gets printed and what does not.  I am sure those people exert their influence but I also feel like the alternative is to be like Morocco and have the government own the majority of the papers.  Personally, I choose the former of the two options.

Well, food for thought by the pound tonight ladies and gentlemen.  As always comments and criticisms are always welcome.

Until next time,

-Johnny M.

The Art of Linguistic Roulette

So many different languages are tossed around in daily life in Morocco that I turned it into a fun little game I like to call Linguistics roulette.  This game is particularly enjoyed by the taxi drivers of Tangier.  Some of them speak Formal Arabic, Darija, French, Spanish, and English, and some of them speak a wild combination of any of the aforementioned languages.  The most common combination in Tangier I have found is Arabic, Spanish, and French.  When in cabs I find myself inadvertently switching in a lot of Arabic for the Spanish I am trying to produce.  It is a great brain exercise and it will allow me to become more fluid in both languages over time.

Morocco definitely gives you plenty of opportunities to hear various languages and because our host brother has a different person, or people, over for dinner every night we get plenty of practice hearing a lot of different accents and languages.  I think there have only been one or two dinners in the month that I have been here where a new person did not join us for dinner.  Our dinners usually take around an hour and a half and we talk about everything.  Some family – friendly topics are discussed but that usually only lasts for about the first 15 minutes or so and then it deteriorates into god knows what. 

The topics we discuss in class are among the same lines in that we just seem to talk about anything and everything.  In the past week, we have discussed the differences between Greek and Middle Eastern theatre, the relationship between Islam and international politics, the Iranian nuclear deal, and the conflict between formal Arabic and the various dialects across the Arab world.  I felt engaged in all the aforementioned topics but most especially in the theatre and language discussions respectively.  My interest and passion for discussions of language was obvious but my involvement in the theatre reading really surprised me. 

Mom, this paragraph is for you.  I assume most of you know about the classic Greek tragedy, which focuses on the destiny of the hero bestowed upon him by the Gods.  Well, Egyptian theatre is all about choice and about the main character being a hero because he can make the tough everyday choices and change his destiny.  The concept of free will that exists at the core of these plays is challenged a lot by so+*me authors like Vonnegut and believers of fate but I sort of like the idea of a hero simply being a guy who can make tough choices.

Speaking of tough decisions, traveling to Al Hoeceima this past weekend was full of them.  Not really but sometimes smooth transitions between paragraphs are few and far between.  Deciding between taking a 6 hour taxi or bus through the mountains was annoying, nonetheless.  We ended up choosing the taxi because it was cheaper but the ride there definitely left room for improvement in the comfort department.  The city itself was kind of disappointing in all honesty because I had heard that it was a beautiful beach town but the only impression I got from it was a smaller Tangier where I did not speak the language of the majority of the people.  We did do a 13 kilometer hike through the mountains where I experienced some of the most beautiful scenery in my life so that was definitely the highlight of the trip.  The pictures I took are breathtaking and can be found on Facebook for those who want to see.

Back to the language issue, the majority of people there spoke a type of Darija I had not heard before or the Berber language, Tamazight.  Both of which proved problematic for me, barely able to understand even the Darija that is spoken around me every day.  You'd also be hard pressed to find people who even understood the Fusha or formal Arabic that I speak best.  But being exposed to a new dialect really opens the door for incredibly enriching cultural exchange, as my language partner told me.  That was part of a bigger conversation we had about issues between the various dialects and Arabic and the Fusha that is taught in schools.  I told him that to bridge the gap between all of these Arab countries that essentially speak different languages, Fusha is not sufficient and he agreed. Then, I moved on to discuss improving the quality of translation systems between different dialects and make them more accessible to everyone.  He then responded that he believed that solution would allow for better cultural exchange in addition to methods such as watching movies or reading magazines and newspapers from the target country.  Overall, one of my favorite discussions of the trip so far and very productive at the same time.  

In my opinion, the discussions I have had with people in Tangier have been very interesting and very beneficial for both me and them.  One night, a college-age girl and her brother came upstairs to our apartment to study with us.  Her being a student and English and us as students of Arabic produced a mutually beneficial study session.  We talked a lot about our studies and why we studied the languages that we did and I just had to applaud her courage for coming upstairs and talking with us because those sorts of interactions with the people are what sets this program apart from others with similar goals for the participants.  

In one of my classes last week we had a great conversation about whether or not money could buy you happiness which I feel I have talked about a lot in my two study abroad experiences.  The reason for this is because conceptions of wealth and possession are slightly different in every culture. While, of course everyone would like to not worry about money in an ideal scenario, some cultures (notably Western culture) places more emphasis on material possessions.  Going off of that, these discussions are probably important just to show people what is valued in other cultures and that it is not always money.  

Anyway some meaty fixings for the brain with this post so comments are welcomed, encouraged, and desired.

As always thanks for reading.

-Johnny M

A Weekend in Rabat

I'm gonna be real.  Rabat was kind of boring but I have many more interesting things to talk about so bear with me for the time being.  There were some interesting things about Rabat that I will delve into now but the fact that I found it less exciting than Tangier coupled with the lack of things to do during the day because of Ramadan made for a sub-par experience.

We stayed in a hostel right near the old medina a about a kilometer away from the water.  It was my first experience in a hostel and it was basically everything I expected and nothing more.  The only thing that was provided by the hostel was sheets for your bed but no pillow case.  I can go into more detail on that if people desperately want to know but complaining about something I paid total of 15 american dollars for is not the best use of my time in general or in this blog.  So onto the city itself.

Rabat is about the size of Baltimore surprisingly enough.  It is much more city-like in comparison to Tangier.  I say that because it is much denser and more congested where as Tangier is bigger and wider in just about every sense imaginable.  There was one main street that I heard people talk about/actually went to so my knowledge of the layout is to an extent basic.  Nonetheless, I was happy to be able to walk along the cornish near the water and through the old medina.  The souq in the old medina was much more established and rustic than any souq I have seen thus far in Tangier.  It was clear that people had been going to this souq every day for many years.  What was more interesting was seeing how quickly the medina and the area surrounding the towering walls of it were cleared out in the hour leading up to Ramadan.  I mean, our walk through it began around 6:30 and then we spent some time on the water and the return walk around 7:45 was an entirely different experience.  By that I mean everything was closed and the population went from hundreds, thousands even, to maybe twelve.  This was not a surprise as much as it was impressive how quickly people could clean-up and rush home to break the fast.  Then again no one wants to break the fast by themselves.

Things seemed to exist much more in isolation in Rabat than in Tangier.  I think this may be because we did not have the chance to visit the less urban parts of Rabat and see the more residential areas. However it seems to me at least that Tangier is much more open and community-oriented.  People congregate and converse even in the middle of city and Rabat just didn't portray that same sense of community to me.  Again, I think I need to spend more time in Rabat to get a better feel for it and explore more of the city.

Now for the part everyone has been waiting for, FOOD!  I for whatever reason thought that the food was going to be really spicy.  Maybe it was wishful thinking or cultural naivete but the world will probably never know what I was thinking when I arrived in Casablanca. Jet-lagged and without comfortable sleep for more than 48 hours.  I did a food project on Morocco not too long ago and got an A so one would assume these would be things I would know.  One would be wrong on this particular occasion.

Moving past my digressions, the food is very eclectic (European and in particular Spanish influence in Tangier)  and I cannot find many words to generally describe the flavors I experience.  Especially since when I gave my host family Old bay the mother tasted it and reacted in way that I interpreted as "yeah, I could see myself cooking fish with this" which I then used as a basis for the question "what is the moroccan flavor?"  Well for starters, it's good.  Unfortunately for Ramadan, every dinner is more or less the same consisting of Harira, which is a tomato-based soup sometimes consisting of beef and usually containing noodles or rice.  Hard-boiled eggs are also a staple of any Moroccan iftaar.  I like to take the hard-boiled eggs and place them in the Harira.  Word to the wise if you find yourself at Iftaar in the Maghrib.  Additionally, there are always a helpful serving of dates. My host brother told me a neat story about how at the first iftaar, the first thing that was eaten was a date so he always starts with the tamr.  I now find myself doing the same thing because I enjoyed not only the story but the sentiment as well.  

In addition to all the delicious options I have listed there is always a sea of bread waiting to be devoured.  I could spend honestly an entire blog post just discussing and describing in detail the different kinds of bread I have seen and our eaten and the various iftaars I've attended.  

There's never a dull a moment at our family dinners as we have four  CLS students in a our house unlike most other families.  James and Aaron live in the apartment with the family and Derek and I live in an apartment upstairs  complete with a bathroom, balcony and small kitchen.  In addition to discussing everything from US foreign policy and politics to education systems in Morocco we also usually have a new person at the table just about every night.  The rotating guest is a great way to get different perspectives and advice on Tangier as well as to improve my listening skills.  Listening to different speakers often forces you to become efficient at adapting to different accents and registers.  

I have more topics to discuss but I will save them for the next post.  It has been so long since the events I'm writing took place that I'm on a completely different outing at the current moment.  The next post will discuss my trip to Central Morocco and more interactions which the people of Tangier.  

As always thanks for reading,

Johnny M.