Before leaving school on Tuesday, I threw together a loose plan to get away for the weekend by myself. One of the staff, an American guy, tried to help me by giving me his friend’s number who was traveling to Chefchauoen that week, but not only did I want to go somewhere I hadn’t been yet, but his friend was leaving that day or the next and I wanted to spend Eid (which was the next day) with my host family. My B1 teacher, Sarah, took me to a bookstore where I could find index cards to make vocab flash cards over break. We have learned a ridiculous amount of new vocab and this is the only way I’ll be able to keep up. I was relieved to have a break but still overwhelmed by the thought of all of the things that needed to get done and the idea of traveling alone on such short notice. I decided to not worry about it that night and met up with some school friends for dinner. The little market in Youseffia was alive and bustling with stalls selling piles of coal and men sitting at stone wheels sharpening knife blades for the next day. It was like Christmas Eve when people rush out to get whatever they need for the holiday since everything would be closed down on Eid. I wanted so badly to wander around and take pictures but I had to run home and get ready for dinner with my friends. While eating I talked with a guy named Zane who I hadn’t really met yet since he had just started classes a week or two ago. This really is a small world because I found out that he is from Bloomfield Hills and graduated in the same high school class as Kelsey at Cranbrook! So that was cool, and the evening lowered my stress level to a manageable level. When I walked part of the way home with Ciara, she told me about a blind girl at our school who is from the US. This girl sounds really cool and it blows my mind to think that despite not being able to see, she is still able to travel to a foreign country, learn a foreign language, and I believe she even has a boyfriend here! She is no stick in the mud, that’s for sure. Later that night when I returned home, Nadia agreed to walk around the market with me so I could take pictures of the hustle and bustle, it had slowed down a little since before, but I got a few good shots and that’s all that matters. I loved the excitement in the air and wanted pictures to remember it by. When we got home They got out the henna and I got to try to henna my own hands. The left hand turned out nice, but the right hand looks really weird and we were laughing pretty hard about it. On top of it being weird, I put it on too thick and it dripped down the side of my hand and it made it look even more odd. Oh well… next time I’ll be better :P
On Wednesday the family was up bright and early and Nadia woke me up to tell me that a student from my school was here to spend Eid with us. They told me earlier that it was an American girl but all the American girls I knew were either already with host families or had plans already so I was curious to find out who this mystery American was. The school is pretty small and I was surprised to not even have an idea who it might be. Nadia rummaged through her closet and threw a pair of soft pants and a matching kaftan at me… I guess this was what I was wearing hahah… They were a black velvety material with gold stitching decorating the edges. I put a belt around it and it was actually quite pretty and very comfortable. When I came downstairs Mohammed and his wife Sana (I think that’s her name, I have the worst memory in the world!) were already there and so was Tanja (I spelled her name Tania earlier.. Oops), I guess somehow someone thought Tanja was an American despite her thick German accent… easy mistake to make ;-) …I was very happy to see her and my curiosity was satisfied.
Mama Kaltoum had a huge spread of wonderful baked things for breakfast, we feasted on the little fried crepe things, the spongy honey pancake things, the “Moroccan Chips”, coconut cookies, apricot wafer cookie things and a bunch of other random carbs. Unfortunately I was immediately sleepy again after eating all of that and we weren’t supposed to commence the sheep slaughtering until after the King killed the first one so we lounged around like a bunch of bums and I tried very hard not to sleep. The king finally came on TV and to my amusement he looked even more tired than me. We watched him praying at the mosque with a bunch of other important people and the poor guy could hardly keep his eyes open. The hair on his chin looked like he hadn’t shaved in a day or two and he had dark circles under his eyes. I mentioned this to Mohammed who told me that if he had the chance, he would go up to the King, shake his hand and just say “THANK YOU.” I asked him why and Mohammed proceeded to tell me that he knows people close to the King and they say that he rarely sleeps. The only times he really gets a half-decent rest is when he is being driven from place to place. He also told me that the King had recently (I think it was recent) gone to a little town that was behind a bunch of mountains that few people even knew about and had found that they were dying out because their living conditions were so bad. Apparently he immediately called in aid and set up military hospitals. He also found the officials who were supposed to be helping these people and made them live under those same living conditions for a week! Apparently this lit the fire under more appointed leaders to stay involved in the needs of the people and not sit back and enjoy fat paychecks for nothing. I must say that despite some unfavorable views I have heard about the King, I have seen how much Moroccan people respect him and love him and how much he is actually working to make life better for the people and I am impressed with his work ethic. I don’t agree with him on every aspect of his reign but he does seem to be helping this country way more than hurting it.
After watching the king kill two lambs (one for him and one for poor people), Baba Ali and Mohammed got dressed in their “killer clothes” as Mohammed called them, then proceeded to the roof to do the deed. Tanja and I reluctantly followed them since they wanted us to see it. We kind of watched and made faces at each other, the worst part was watching them slit it’s throat and see the life fading from it’s eyes and body. I could only watch for a second and had to leave. I had pet those little guys that morning and now I was watching them die… it wasn’t pleasant at all. I came back up to see how they prepared it and was a little grossed out when they poked holes in the skin at the ankles of the lamb and started blowing air into it’s carcass to separate it from the body and make it easier to skin. Whenever they would do something especially gross like breaking a bone, Tanja and I would cringe and make noises to which Mohammed would say “Don’t picture it as your leg” or “Don’t think of it as your arm,” he also said “It is not pleasant but it is time for us to be selfish.” I could understand that I guess, that was how they get in the mindset to do icky work like that. Sana came up to help them and I had to chuckle a little to see this dainty little lady walking through puddles of blood in her little heels and movie star sunglasses. Nadia held the other sheep behind the door in the laundry room because the sheep are not supposed to see each other killed. I think it knew what happened because it kept trying to get out and see the deck where it had been, either that or it just really wanted it’s friend back. Either way it was a little heartbreaking and I almost teared up a little when Tanja and I were petting it to calm it down and I realized that I was telling it “shhhh… it’s okay, it’s okay”…I was lying to the poor sheep! But what was I supposed to say?! … “shhh, calm down honey, we’ll kill you next and eat you for dinner, don’t worry!” Ahhh… This is NOT my kind of Holliday. Not cool.
I had to leave for a while when they brought out the other sheep to kill, I knew I wouldn’t be any help and I had already seen one die. That was enough. Tanja stayed up there so I just went to my room and studied to get my mind off of it. Nadia came to check on me and asked if I wanted to come up, I said I had seen enough and thanked her. She understood and motioned that she was staying downstairs to bake bread so I went down to keep her company. When the lamb was done, they came down with a tray of freshly cut meat that Mohammed cut into small pieces and wrapped in fat to make shish kabobs. It looked delicious but when Baba put them on the coal grill, the who entire room filled with smoke from the fat and I had to run out of the room because I couldn’t see and my eyes were stinging and streaming with tears. Nadia came down to make sure I was okay and I said I would just wait down there until they were done cooking the kabobs, it was really kind-of funny that they cook them inside the kitchen and everyone just chills in there not being able to see each other hahah… When I came up, Tanja said her eyes didn’t sting because she wears contacts, apparently they protect your eyes or something? Weird. Soon after the doorbell rang and in came a girl who they referred to as “The Korean” hahah… I don’t even remember he name because they called her that almost the whole time. She had lived with them in the same way as me a few years ago and comes back every Eid to see them because she works in Morocco now.
Over dinner, Baba Ali and Mohammed joked that this was the United Nations since we had almost every continent represented: America, Europe, Asia and Africa! Baba Ali dubbed himself Kofi Annan. I purposely didn’t ask what parts of the lamb we were eating because I knew from seeing the meat raw that it wasn’t the main part of the lamb that I’m used to eating. They were some strange looking cuts so I knew I would be better off just eating it and trying not to think about what it was. After I had eaten a few bites, Tanja asked what we were eating and I cringed as Mohammed informed us that we were currently eating the liver and we would eat the heart next! Woo Hoo! My favorite… I love eating the hearts of adorable little animals that I had pet that morning and told that everything was okay and not to be scared. Ughhhh… I must say that for being a meat lover, this was the closest I have ever been to becoming a vegetarian. I politely tried three bites of the heart, my parents always taught me to take three bites (the three bite rule!) before deciding not to eat something. They seemed to be very exited about eating heart as well so I couldn’t just NOT try it.
After dinner we went downstairs to the salon, ate fruit and talked. Mohammed told us how Eid is becoming way overdone and less of what it should be. He said that wealthy and well off families are supposed to buy a lamb and keep just a small part for themselves while giving the rest to the poor. Now, he said that EVERYONE feels the need to buy a lamb because it’s a status thing. If the neighbor has a lamb, the others want two lambs, it has become a competition for some people and many of them keep most of the meat for themselves because they spend a fortune on the sheep and need the meat to feed their own families. He said that some wives even urge their husbands to sell their TV or furniture to make sure they have a lamb on Eid. Gee… this reminds me of a little holiday we call Christmas in the states hmmm? Yes, I do believe we have the same problem in the US. Everyone wants to keep up with the Joneses ;-D
We also watched a protest on TV in front of the parliament building and it actually showed the police beating peaceful protesters. Mohammed exclaimed his surprise at them actually being allowed to show that on TV and my jaw was on the floor. They even had a full interview with the protesters who explained the situation. I had read that not long ago they would even chase tourists who took pictures of beatings and try to make them delete the pictures or hand over their camera. This is a very good sign that Morocco is slowly becoming more accepting of opposition. It’s only a matter of time :) Mohammed and his wife left, Mama Kaltoum and Nadia got out the henna again and had me henna Tanja’s hand and the Korean as well since apparently I’m good at it. I was surprised I had any cred after the horrible mess I made of my right hand. I made sure to make them much more simple and delicate this time, It’s also a lot easier to do it on someone else hahah so there were no catastrophes this time.
On Thursday, I had lunch with the family since I have a hard time passing up couscous. I was a little apprehensive though because I had heard that the tradition is to eat the lamb’s head the day after Eid. My fears were realized when I sat down to see the lovely mound of couscous and veggies along with more strange looking meat. Luckily it was easy to eat around and they were satisfied with me trying one small part of the brain since mama Kaltoum doesn’t even like it. She smiled slyly and started cutting another part of meat for us that was actually normal! I almost cried with happiness hahah… It was very good and all traces of vegitarian thoughts were wiped from my mind. Baba Ali got to chow down on his prized lamb brain alone and apparently this affected his brain because he found a funny looking bone in the pile of couscous and started pretending to tell the future with it. He said that I would leave them in a day since I we all knew I was leaving the next day to travel, and he said that the Korean would go back to her home etc… We were cracking up because he predicted things we all knew would happen, and he did it VERY accurately! Hahah… Gotta love him.
After eating I went to the train station to buy my tickets to a little seaside town called El Jadida. I decided on that town because it was closer than Agadir and easier to get to. I didn’t want to worry about such a long trip and changing trains AND busses when I was traveling by myself. Mama Kaltoum said it was a nice quiet place and Baba Ali said I had to visit the old Portuguese City that it was known for. I met Valeria and Lavenia outside of the train station and went down to the Medina to shop. We found that most of the big stores were closed for Eid (the country basically shuts down for 5 days) but there were people selling things on tarps and lots of food vendors with rickety old cotton candy machines, carts piled with snails and boiling pots for escargot on the fly and people making chips that smelled fabulous. It was a whole different feel from the Medina on regular days, there were lots of people but they all seemed so carefree compared to the normal desperate hustle and bustle. People strolled up and down and vendors didn’t care if you bought things or not, people were there to enjoy the holiday. We didn’t find much we wanted to buy but we did find a guy selling gorgeous scarves for very cheap so I got like 5 or 6 of them for less than 10 dollars. I have decided that I’m going to decorate my room (my apartment room) with them when I get back.
After a while Valeria felt sick and we got some tea before they headed home and Mourad came out to shop with me. I looked at lamps and these cool little stool things but I was just checking prices because people were not bargaining well that day since there was less competition for prices. Mourad agreed that they were not giving me good prices so I kept it moving. We went to an internet café and he helped me book my hotel in El Jadida then we walked around for a while just enjoying the night. So many people were out just wandering around so it was really nice to get some exercise and fresh air while people watching. He also feeds my need for a lively debate and conversation on politics and current affairs. I was ready to go spend some time alone though and I was getting really really excited to embark on my adventure the next day. He thought I was crazy for wanting to go alone but I didn’t care what he thought. Not in the least bit.
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