Odds and Ends

I haven't blogged in a while. For over a week we had no internet, and then after that I typed one blog about learning the language but somewhere in between my computer and the world wide web, the contents were lost in cyber space, probably due to a bad internet connection. So I gritted (grit?) my teeth and wrote it again only to have my computer decide to do something to the file so it's not able to be opened. So I haven't written a language blog again yet because it doesn't seem like it's meant to be.

I'll say this about Arabic: I've had 4 full weeks of learning Arabic and am doing very well. I can say very simple paragraphs and convey ideas to my family without too much effort. More importantly, I am understanding more and more of what they say and using fewer and fewer hand gestures. This is great. I think of vocabulary like an arsenal. Every time I speak and am able to pull a word from my head it's like one bullet. The smaller my vocabulary, the sooner I run out of bullets and have to use miming or just forget about it. So now I'm getting the grammar, but more more importantly, I'm building my vocabulary. I have another few weeks of language training before they send me into the unknown.

Speaking of my permanent site: The way Peace Corps works is that you spend the first two or three months training in one city and go through a series of interviews with Moroccan staff and they choose to place you in a different part of the country after training, where you live for two years, serving the people of those town. I have now had two interviews with the PC Youth Development Moroccan staff about where I might be placed for my permanent site and I have a feeling I have secured myself a spot in the desert. I don't know for sure but they asked me what my preferences were and I told them Preference #1 was I wanted to be in an Arabic speaking region. I had joked with my family before I got here about the Berber languages but that is actually a real possibility. But I would really rather stick to Arabic, and not Tashelgheit or Tamazhit. So I told PC that I would go anywhere, as long as I could continue learning Arabic. They seemed fine with that, because most Youth Development sites are Arabic. It's more the health and agriculture sectors that learn Tash or Tam. Then I said my #2 preference after Arabic was that I didn't want to be cold. I told them that I would rather have heat any day than cold. And they said "So what about the Sahara?" and I said "fine with me." So then I talked around with other trainees and most of them had preferenced NOT being in the heat. They even had a section of a questionnaire that said "what's one thing you can't live without" and one of my training site mates wrote "mountains." So I really hope that I do get a southern province like Zagora. The YD volunteers there are learning Arabic and it can get to 140 degrees in the summer outside during the day, and doesn't drop below 50 or 60 in the winter. I'd take 120 degrees over 20 degrees any day. On October 29th I'll find out my permanent site for the next two years

Talk of Taxis:
Last weekend I went to Fes just for fun, but the harrowing 90 minute taxi ride leaves much to comment on. The taxi ride to Fes is the scariest thing I ever do. I should probably not even tell you about it. It's always an old-ish (1990s) mercedes benz sedan. And a full car, according to Moroccan law, is 4 in the back and 2 passengers in the front, plus the driver. And no it's not a bench seat. So that makes 7 per sedan. What's a seat belt?? A taxi driver will not leave unless it has six passengers, unless you want to pay for an extra seat. Tight squeeze to say the least. The roads, at least, are in good condition, but most of the way it's two lanes and they, of course, pass people.(Though most taxi drivers do a good job of making sure they can see when they pass.) But what stresses me is that they'll pass somebody but just chill out in the left lane for a good while until they see that there's on-coming traffic. I don't know why they don't just get back over right away. And sometimes they just cruise into the left lane for sport. And in the case that there are three lanes- the middle one seems to go both ways, though I think it does have an assigned direction. Red lights are a good suggestion, but they function more like stop signs. I can never sleep in these taxi rides. I keep my eyes wide open and say "mashi doble, aafak" which means "do not even think about passing while we're on this curve!" (ok, it doesn't really say that, I can only say "no pass, please. But my intonation gets the point across.) My comrades always sleep through it. I'm just too much of a control freak for that.

Fes was very fun. We roughed it a little. It was a fine hotel. It was only 50 d's a person (about $6). There was no shower, but there was a toilet and sink at the end of the hall. Also I have about a billion ant bites in various clusters now. My blanket? Maybe. I didn't feel them biting me so they are not fire ants or anything but I'm definitely going to check my bed next time I stay in such a "budget friendly" hotel.

We spent hours wandering the twists and turns of the old medina and visited the tanneries where leather is dyed and stretched. I bought some earrings since I left all mine in the states. I am not so good at bargaining but I'm getting there. It's incredible what a difference speaking Moroccan Arabic makes in the prices we're offered. For example, Hannah, another PC Trainee whom we met up with in Fes, wanted to buy a leather purse outside the tannery. We talked to the shopkeeper in a little Darija (Moroccan Arabic). She asked how much the purse cost and he said 500 Ds. (or $63) And Hannah was like "no way, jose" And started bargaining. And after walking away a few times and always being called back by the shop keeper, she got him down to 350D ($44). Still expensive for a PC volunteer but it's a nice quality leather bag that she'll have forever. So she said "ok that's fine." So then we were talking with the shopkeeper, completely in Arabic, about how we're working in Morocco, about Peace Corps and that we make Dirhams, not dollars. and when Hannah got to the register and paid, the shopkeeper gave her back 50 D, and said 300 was fine. So he pulled his own price down! I'm sure that's unheard of, and I think it's because we were speaking his language-- not even modern standard Arabic.

As soon as I find an internet connection fast enough to upload photos in under a few hours, I will post photos to my facebook of all this and then post an open link here.