Gouda's Cheesewheel

Morocco March 28

Happy belated Easter to everyone. I would have completely forgotten it was happening at all were it not for Liz at school mentioning Good Friday (she goes to church here--with a bunch of immigrants, since no native Moroccan is Christian). Jessica also wished me happy Easter when she came over on Sunday to have my mother put her hair in braids. Word is spreading about my mother's services (for which they pay her, of course) and now all the girls in the program want braids. I bought a djellabah, but I haven't paid for all of it so it's on layaway. I'll go to get it tonight after I leave the cyber, I think. I wanted a purple one, but my mother insisted that another was more fashionable and well-made. It's a sort of dusty pink (the one shade of pink I like on me) with blue-green stripes (vertical). At her insistence, I'll probably buy a matching headscarf, but I'm not convinced on the shoes yet--if I find a pair I like, maybe, but most of them are made of leather and I'm not keen on buying any new leather. I've wanted to go back vegetarian a few times recently, but I think it would be weirder to change now than it would have been just to mention it at the beginning of the program. I'm pretty sure I'll go back when I get to the States, though. I rode a moped this weekend, which I thought might be prohibited by SIT's contract, but then someone told me it was only illegal to drive them. In any case, I was not driving--my host brother was--and I was only on it for about 5 minutes in the medina (not the street with cars, for anyone who might have been concerned). We went to Agdal (the westernized trendy part of Rabat--a little like Cherry Creek, for those of you who get that refernce) with my brother's friends. We watched the football game (Morocco won, whoo!) over mint tea and shishas (Lee, your ettiquette lesson paid off at last, but I'm not convinced I want to buy one). So that was my little taste of what male Moroccan youth do on a Saturday night. Today the SIT group took the train to Kinetra to have a discussion with Moroccan university students. The topic started out as "Popular Islam," but much like our last discussion with Moroccan students it migrated vastly over topics of democracy, foreign policy, religious freedom or imposition, and things in that realm; most of the students in our group are liberal, I think, and there was repeated mention that we are not necessarily in agreement with our nation's current foreign policy and so forth. At its hightened moments the conversation neared flat-out dispute, mostly as the result of one or two Moroccan students' comments or interpretations. The moderator (their professor) or one of the less impassioned members of our group were usually able to resolve this, but one girl in our group was very hurt and had to leave early (she is an ex-marine with friends who are fighting or have died overseas). She was actually doing a lot of the talking in the discussion, which is part of why she got so upset. All ended well, I think; the Moroccan students over all (who outnumbered us) were very friendly, and we exchanged many email addresses to keep in touch. In general I've been very well received here. Apparently other people's friends and relatives have been concerned about anti-American sentiment, which didn't even occur to me before and which I don't think any of us have sensed much (it vaguely pops up in formal debates like this one, but otherwise people will not assume the worst of me because of my nationality; being a foreigner in general seems to have much more bearing, regardless of what country you come from). In any case, I need to register for classes and head out to get my djellabah. Hope you all are enjoying the springtime, I know I am (soon it will be warm enough to swim in the ocean). Kristin, I sent you a card a while ago, so I hope it gets there. August, I miss you. Please finish that letter/email that claims to exist somewhere in space.

Love to my loved ones,
Greta

posted by Greta @ 1:23 PM