Breaking fast - day 13

This evening's lftour was spent with a family that has all four children active in our classes at the Dar Chebab. 

Note: pizza isn't a traditional meal on the lftour table. That's the product of Toby using the word "pizza" to practice counting in his classes and Alexis constantly saying she made pizza to break fast at home. 

Festival of the Mountains

All this week there have been nightly concerts at one of the public spaces in our town. Until last night, we weren't able to go because of our classes at the Dar Chebab, but we finally made it! Last night, the final night, was also the one that requires an invitation to attend. Conveniently for us, the association putting on the festival is based out of our Dar Chebab, so we were able to score these bad boys:

We showed up around 10 to find a mostly empty seating space, and still really had no idea what was in store. All we were told was festival and concert. 

There were a looooot of chairs:

Plus the 10 rows in front of us and full sections on the left and right. 

Before everything started, we actually ran in to the family of one of our English students. Turns out that she (along with a number of other students) were actually the back up singers for the pros!

Around 10:30 (scheduled beginning time), it filled up. Within a few minutes, all the seats were full and there was a huge crowd standing behind the entrance gate trying to get in. 

Concerts here are definitely a different show than a concert in the States. It was really more of a talk show where each guest performed one song. 

Here are some of the performers:

This dude had a lot of ladies yelling for him. 

It was an awesome night and we're lucky to have a site with these opportunities. 

In non-related news: we have asked one hanut owner enough times about cheese that he does now carry mozzarella! It's pretty expensive, but an awesome taste of home!

Ramadan 2015 - 10 days in

So Ramadan is still here. We're exactly one third of the way through, and it's still really hard and pretty easy at the same time. By and large, our bodies have adapted to the schedule. When we wake up (around 3 pm) we don't immediately reach for water or consider brushing our teeth. It's also now a lot easier to stay up until almost daylight, and be continually drinking water. 

What's the rest of Taounate like, you might wonder?

It's closed. During the day time, our usually bustling streets and the marché are empty. We once ventured out to check our mail (the post office is only open from 9-3) and it was an odd experience. 

This area is generally pretty full, but maybe that's not convincing enough. 

Here's a cafe at 2:30, which is normally the post-lunch rush and it can be hard to find a table. 

Needless to say, we avoid going out until after the sun's down. 

At night, however, it's a different story. This is the same area (from the other side) at around midnight. 

On top of the lack of people out and about, this is also our current weather situation:

While things are going really well over here, we both wish that we could have been back in DC for all the events that have happened this week. 

The first Peace Corps goal is to share transferable work skills to members of our community, which we work on daily at the Dar Chebab, and can be pretty easy to track. 

The next two goals are significantly less tangible. Goal 2 is to share American culture with the members of our community. This has been a lot of fun and, honestly, really entertaining. Alexis has had an American Culture class to do a little work, but we also just spend hours a week answering questions about life in America. It's awesome to feel mildly like experts about something we never studied. 

Goal 3 is the reverse. We're trying to share things about Moroccan culture with Americans. Obviously, this blog is our main method of doing that, but we've been trying to do more. Through various Skype and FaceTime sessions, we've been able to do a little work, and I think our active postcard sending has done some good. 

However! We need your help. What else do you want to know? What else do you want pictures of? You can leave us comments (I believe you must be signed in to a google account to do so) or you can reach out to us in any other way you can think of. Don't know us personally? Send us a letter!

Keep cool, everyone!

Breaking fast - day 5

Dates, mint tea, shbekia, fresh peach juice, lemonade, eggs, lemon custard, sllou, harrira (in the big soup pot), coffee (on the other table), milwi, butter and honey (both very fresh from the husbands home town), fried fish, and (not yet made it to the table) turnovers full of meat and some tasty sauces. 

And water. 

It's been over 12 hours and we're both still mentally enjoying it. 

Ramadan thoughts - four days in

In many ways, Ramadan is both more difficult and easier than we expected. 

Easier parts: 

The actual fasting. Going without food is pretty easy for the first twelve hours. The final couple hours are the hardest. 

Flipping our entire schedules. Conveniently, everyone in town does it, so it would actually be harder to stay on our old schedule. 

More difficult parts:

Water. Dang the water is difficult. What do we normally do when we wake up? Drink water. What can we not do now? Drink water. 

Remembering to fast. Once we get halfway through the day, one of us will think "oh. I'm kind of hungry/thirsty. I'll go get something." Then we walk into the kitchen and remember we can't and have to turn around and walk out. 

Preparing for fasting without sneaking a nibble. The last hour before sundown is used to prepare everything for the fast breaking, which means you're surrounded by food during the part of the day when you're hungriest/thirstiest. 

All in all, we're still really happy we're fasting. It's not exactly what you might call "fun," but it's a new experience. 

Everyone in the community is both shocked and entertained that we're fasting, and we keep getting asked about it (just to confirm). Tonight, right next to our house, we ran into a group of eight women who have been hanging out there every night of Ramadan. Upon hearing that we have fasted for all four days, we actually got a round of applause and they all yelled "very good!" and "bravo!" It's so great. 

Here's another food update:

Here's what's left of the kilo of dates that we bought. It's the first food that everyone eats to break fast at sundown. 

This is sllou. It's ground up almonds, peanuts (maybe?), sesame seeds, fennel, coriander, and a bunch of other stuff. As far as we can tell, it's always homemade and every family has a different recipe. We've probably eaten like three pounds of it. I want to call that an exaggeration, but I don't think it is. 

Breaking fast - day 2

Ramadan Karim!

The holiday season is upon us! For the last few days, the Calls to Prayer have been different in the build up to the holy month. It's been awesome to hear the differences, although we aren't sure what the different Calls each mean. 

Last night (June 17th) we got the official call that Ramadan was to begin today. Interestingly enough, this actually comes through a sort of air raid sounding alarm across town. We were fortunate to be with other people at the time so we knew what it was and not to just start panicking. 

Let me also say that we are in no way, shape, or form Ramadan experts. We're still learning things here, so sorry if information is incomplete. 

One of the many reasons that Ramadan is celebrated is to remind people that there are others who are less fortunate and as a chance for everyone to share their resources with everyone in their community (or so we were told by one of our advanced English classes). Last night, we were asked by a member of a local association to help them sort out food for donations. We spent a few hours sorting rice, garbanzo beans, coffee, tea, sugar, oil, flour, eggs, and other dried goods into bags that they would distribute to families across Taounate. It was a great experience. 

Our schedule will get a bit wonky now for the next couple weeks. The Dar Chebab is closed during the day and open after people break fast each night. So now, our English classes will be from 10:00 to midnight each night. While this seems crazy for some people (okay like for Alexis), it really makes sense with the community schedule. People spend all day resting, preparing food for breaking fast, and going to the mosque, then celebrating with family when the sun goes down (sometime around 7:30 or 8:00), then a trip to the mosque, then people go out to socialize. Everyone returns home before the first Call to Prayer (around 4:00 am) for another small meal, then off to bed and you start all over. Simply put, our schedules flip completely. 

Things that are not allowed during fasting hours:

Eating

Drinking (including water)

Smoking

Wearing make-up

Using swear words or talking unfavorably about other people 

Brushing your teeth 

Wearing Chapstick or lotions

... And other stuff that we'll learn along the way

We've been invited to break fast with approximately 10 different families, so we'll also have some different stories from those experiences, too, hopefully. It's normally done with a glass of milk and a few dates, followed by harrira (a tomato based soup with some pasta and garbanzo beans), followed by anything and everything you want all night. And, a lot of water to make up for the daylight hours. 

Here's our first sun rise!

Sometimes, we have couscous on Wednesday.

Why? You might ask. Yeah we don't really know either.

We mentioned before that one of our students invited us for a couscous Friday, and it was awesome. Yesterday, we saw her dad at his work (the post office) and he said we should come to lunch today. We're in!

Upon getting there, they asked us if we liked chicken or couscous more, and we obviously answered that we love all Moroccan food. 

Course 1: two chickens. I think we ate almost a whole one ourselves 

Course 2: beef couscous. 

Course 3: melon that was similar to cantaloupe and wonderful 

Course 4: coffee, shbekiya (little sweet pastries commonly eaten during Ramadan), and slou (a spice, almond, flour mixture also commonly eaten during Ramadan) 

So much food. 

And to think, tomorrow we won't be eating at all! (While the sun is up, that is.)

Big souk

One of the great things about Taounate is that we have small souks (markets) every day. Sometimes they're close to our house, sometimes they're by the Dar Chebab, but they're always accessible. And! We have a huge marché that has everything we need, pretty much whenever we need it. (Please keep in mind that this does not fulfill all of our American needs. You should me a souk with cheddar cheese and I'll never make a request again)

However, not all of the towns in our area have the same luxury. Once a week, on Sunday mornings, there is a huuuuge souk for everyone in the area in a small town called Ain Aicha. There are taxis that take you from Taounate right there for a reasonable price (7 dirham each way). 

We have been meaning to go for a few weeks, but either kept forgetting or the weather was terrible, but this week we really wanted to go. We mentioned to Anass and our friend Nasar yesterday that we planned on going, and Nasar offered to drive us there. (This is a huge relief because we also had no idea what we wanted to buy and were afraid of being shoved in a car with something too big or someone else's goat or something.)

It was an awesome morning! We got a bunch of fruits and veggies for like half the price that they are at the marché, a new pair of sandals for Toby, and a new (used) fan to help protect us from the Mosquitos and coming heat. 

Does anyone need large amounts of plastic? We know a guy. 

Souks generally look like huge Farmer's Markets, to be real. But the prices are better. 

We didn't have a chance to hit up the Street Meat this time, but next time, insha'Allah (if God wills it). 

So much produce. 

Toby buying 3 pounds of bananas and 3 pounds of peaches for 27 dirham = 540 ryal = less than $3 total. 

Donkey/mule parking lot. 

Need some blacksmithing done? We also know a guy for that. 

Men's sandal shopping. Here, we got Toby a pair of legit leather sandals for 80 dirham. Yep. $8. Thanks, Anass, for the bargaining help!

This is the owner of the fan we bought walking me it over to a cafe so we could test it before we took it home. It was very nice of him, but a rather entertaining part of the experience. Fun fact: when we got back to Taounate we saw the same fan at a store and asked about it. We paid 140 less than we would have in town!

There is also a nice little pedestrian bridge across a river in Ain Aicha. We all took a moment for a few pictures and confused everyone around us. 

On Sundays, bros wear plaid. 

Also, as of today, we have been in Morocco for five months!

Not your average couscous Friday.

As we've said before, couscous is a big deal here on Fridays. However, as Alexis is still working on becoming a full-fledged Moroccan wife/chef, we still eat our couscous with other families. This is also a pretty good way to meet other families and become Taounati (of Taounate). 

This week, our host-mom wasn't able to make couscous because she works as a cook for big events in town (weddings, new baby parties, etc). So, we accepted a couscous free week and ate lunch at home before heading out for the day. Or so we thought!

We went to Anass' cafe for some coffee before work and, right as we sat down, his best friend brought by a heapin' helpin' of fresh made couscous. We each had a little (I dare you to pass up a plate of Moroccan couscous), and were talking to Anass and Karim when another one of their friends came by. After a couple more minutes, we were sitting at our small cafe table and eating couscous with four people talking about what we know in Darija, teaching some English, and talking about Ramadan. 

Okay so it's not like a huge event or anything special, but it was really nice. It was also proof that the norm here is sharing and just general politeness. Karim and Anass planned on sharing their couscous with just each other, but upon seeing friends, brought out six spoons without even considering that we weren't hungry. 

Here's to more couscous Fridays. 

Bonus: here's a picture of one of our students making an awesome monkey face. 

Call to Prayer

Even before we came to Morocco, we were told that Call to Prayer would be a part of our lives. Some people said it would be a nuisance, others said we wouldn't even notice it, and some people were just curious about it. After almost five months, here are our takeaways.

It's exactly what it sounds like. Call to Prayer tells people when it is time to pray. There are five Calls to Prayer each day: before sunrise (right now it's around 4:00 am), sunrise, midday, sunset, and after sun down (which is at around 10 right now). The times are slightly different each day and are related to the time based on the sun. We rarely hear the first two. Sometimes if we're already awake dealing with a bug bit situation, we'll hear it. But it's not loud enough to wake us up. 

The midday one is a nice little reminder that the day is half gone. 

The sundown one is actually really interesting. It's cool to be able to track how sundown gets slightly later each night. We used to eat at around 7:00, which was around sundown. Now we eat at 8:39, which is also around sundown. I wonder what will happen as we transition back to winter...

And the late one we just hear because we're awake anyways. 

When we're out and about, we see foot traffic increase around the Calls to Prayer. Many people, almost only men, go to the closest mosque to pray. However, there are also people with jobs where they can't be gone long enough to go to a mosque, pray, and come back. In these instances, it's not uncommon to see a waiter or produce salesperson pull out their own prayer rug, find a good (semi-private) place, and pray. In our market there are also small rooms dedicated solely to being prayer rooms for anyone who would like to use it. 

On Fridays, the larger mosques (or the ones with more people who attend) add extra space outside to accommodate the influx of people, as Friday is to Islam and Sunday is to Christianity (as far as we can tell. That might not be 100% accurate) and a larger number of people pray at the mosques. 

During Ramadan, fasting is done while the sun is up. That means, between the second and fourth Calls to Prayer, We won't be eating, drinking water, wearing make up, or doing any number of other things. You might be thinking, hey Alexis and Toby, why are you fasting? Well, this is our first Ramadan! It is definitely going to be a challenge, and it will take some hard work, but we're both really excited. Also, we're excited to join in the cultural elements and experience breaking fast with our community members, other Volunteers who are fasting, and everyone in Morocco. 

Ramadan in Morocco (it can sometimes be different by a day or two in other countries) begins on June 18 and ends on July 18. Wish us luck!

Here's a short clip of tonight's sundown Call to Prayer out of our window. 

A big ol' thank you!

Recently we have been inundated with gifts from people back in the homeland (and France, actually). 

In the last two weeks, we got packages from Chelsea (a good friend and former co-worker of Alexis' back in DC), Alexis' mom and friends in Portland, Toby's parents, and Toby's Aunt Pam. We can now safely say that our dental needs are taken care of, we have the ability to make ranch dressing and cheesecake (separately), our mattress finally has a perfectly fitted sheet, the kids in our town have now experienced an American football, all of our peanut butter needs are covered, and we have a series of spices that aren't available in Morocco. 

As of right now, those are the packages we have received and we're incredibly grateful. It's little pieces of home that get us through some of the more challenging days, but they're also a great conversation starter with our new friends and neighbors. 

Are you concerned now that everything has been sent to us and there's nothing left to send? DON'T WORRY. We have our first Ramadan coming up, and we'll be looking to break fast in the most American of ways. By that I also mean we're looking for a way to get some sushi in our town... (Anyone up to sending that?)

We also still have almost two years here- so we're looking to stock up! Here are some more things we want (in no particular order):

Annie's Mac and cheese 

Maple syrup 

Christmas decorations (including a tree)

Swimming pool (only send it if it comes with slides and floaties)

Every dry-erase marker in North America

Enough furniture for the two empty rooms in our house 

A projector so we can use an entire wall to watch our terabyte of movies 

An air conditioner (yeah, central air only)

A masseuse 

A butler/maid 

Bacon

A Kitchen Aid stand mixer

A full time translator (Darija, French, English, Spanish, and German are all required)

American flag (we can get one in pants form here...)

Really just anything from America. If you think we might have it already, just ask!