Stories: Salaam!

Salaam!

During CBT in Ouiouazaight in the Azilal Province, Joseph and I were walking home from school together one evening. It had been a long day and we wanted to stop and grab something to drink at one of the local hanuts. Joseph and I lived farther away from the other kids in our CBT, past the souq area and slaughterhouse. This area was frequented by huffers, potheads, and the local crazies. On our way home we always kept an eye out for the local crazies because they would instantly target us and try to come over and talk to us or demand money. He saw us enter the hanut and followed us in. We had dubbed him “Zabadaga” because when he would approach us he would salute us and then yell out, “Zabadaga!” and thrust his hand out for a D (dirham). Zabadaga went straight up to me and started asking for money. There were maybe another five people in this small closet sized area, overflowing with goods. Joseph and I both had on bookbags too, which adds a new dimension to movement. I had been consistent with refusing to give beggars money. I was going to live there for two months, give beggars some money one time and then they come to expect it. This time was an exception. The man was in my face and I could smell the fig wine on his breath, see his rotting teeth, the yellows of his eyes. I just wanted him out of my face. I reached in my pocket and produced a coin, placing it into his dirty outstretched hand. His reaction was the catalyst to the chaos. He immediately started kissing my hand and then pulled my head down to kiss me on my forehead. Mass confusion. Other men at the hanut instantly started to pull the man away from me. It wasn’t sexual in any way, just elaborate and fast and I didn’t really know what was going on. Well this freaked out Joseph. He just wanted to get out. In his effort to leave he turned quickly, running into the man behind him and swinging his bookbag into the wall of stuff. Knocked off balance he falls back into the wall yelling, “Salaaaaamm!” arms outstretched, trying to hold back the falling goodies. It was hilarious. He tells me later ,that he had panicked and couldn’t think of any other word in Tam except for Salaam and that was what came out of his mouth. Salaam means peace, so appropriate I guess, but just watching Joseph’s face was amazing. Joseph has also told a group of people “LLaysHel” as he was leaving, which is a phrase used for beggars meaning “may God be easy on you” instead of the usual “slama” (bye).