Observations

Moroccans invented the fourth meal, not Taco Bell. They often eat anywhere between 9:30-12 at night. Most meals take a long time to cook. Couscous, tajine, the pressure cooker and even rice sometimes will take a good two hours to be ready. By 9pm, most if not all the family will be asleep, exhausted from the day’s activities and yet they still insist on eating ridiculously late. I’ve noticed that by 8 or 8:30pm the girls in my family are cranky and tired. That’s when we have most of the tears and arguments. You can see the tiredness in their faces. Simplest solution would be to have dinner earlier, but this either is too much of a tradition, too much of a routine, I don’t know. I understand that around dusk is when most people are out and about, sitting outside and socializing. So dinner won’t be prepared until after this, around 8 or so. It’s unfortunate because half the time the girls refuse to be woken up to eat dinner (who would blame them) but they are awfully small for their age. We eat lots of carbohydrates. Yesterday we had bread, bread, tea, couscous with some vegetables, bread, tea, and rice with milk. Change comes slowly and Moroccan has definitely showed that to me. I consider myself to be a pretty laid back and patient person, and I have even been tested. Hopefully with some more time, I can help instill a better sense of a well balanced diet. People here are not overweight or obese, but there is something to be said to have a nutritious meal.

1. Moroccans have a “Last Comic Standing” type of show out of Rabat, and it looks exactly like the one we have. They also have dance shows with dance groups competing against each other, as well as the table of judges that act and speculate like the ones we have in the US.

2. There is a huge discrepancy between the city and the country. The people look, act and of course speak different languages. What is painful to watch is to see how some of the people from the city acts towards their countryside neighbors. They look down at them, claim and celebrate their culture as their own but do not respect them.

3. There was a ton of trash in Ouaouizaght because it was much more of an affluent town and people had money to spend on candy and snacks and would throw the trash on the ground afterwards. The people of Tizguine have little money and there is little trash here, thus the area is much cleaner and prettier. Ouiouazaght even had a trash service.

4. Little girls are the same across the board. They play house and giggle. They can be mean to each other and exclude each other, they can be catty and deceptive.

5. Big girls are the same across the board. They size each other up. Gossip about each other and at the same time can find a great sense of comfort from each other.

6. I have watched more original episodes of Looney Toons than ever before. Voice dub-overs are hilarious. Somehow Smurfs have also made an impression in Morocco. Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony are also popular, it’s like I’ve gone back in time to the early 90s.

7. I don’t know when people bathe but my family is getting ripe… yet, I feel like an asshole when I ask for hot water for my one bucket bath a week.

8. We wash our hands before most big meals, with warm water. After the meal we use the soap. I don’t understand it either. Yet, for the most part, people seem to be healthy. At the same time, access to regular healthcare is unheard of. The father of my current host family passed away three years ago from cancer. It was too late by the time he went to the hospital in Marrakesh. I also see lots of lazy eyes, crossed eyes, clubbed feet, bad teeth, etc.

9. The dentist is someone in town with a pair of pliers. No medicine, no local anesthetics. Most people are out of work for a week or more. Most people are terrified to go to the “dentist,” I know I would be too. Lots of times the tooth gets to be so bad that it is the last resort. My first host mom had all of her teeth removed. It is an expensive process. They had the money for it. She now wears dentures and I am pretty sure she has somehow managed to start rotting them out too. You should have tried her tea. It was syrup. The outside of the glass would stick to your hand after she was done pouring. It was a little disgusting to say the least. She watched me brush my teeth everyday, I told her about it. Then she showed me her gums and I shut up. That was scary too.

10. So grandma put something into the water jug that we all drink out of. In the summer, they wrap an old, sewn-together sweater that they keep damp, around the outside of the jug. It keeps the water cool. She shows me a vial of red liquid and I smell it. It has the odor of barbque sauce, no joke. A little sweet, a little spicy. I thought it was going into the couscous. Once she opened it and poured some into the jug, a rich almost metallic odor wafted up to me. I have no idea what the stuff is but it makes the water taste terrible. They call the jug their “berber refrigerator” and insist that I drink from it. I thought I was doing good drinking buttermilk, I think I will abstain from the special water.

11. I haven’t used toilet paper in the past three months.