OH BABY!

        Monday (the 22nd of November), was a tiring day. I was exhausted and in no mood to go to class. It was a bad Arabic day for me too for some reason. Despite all the studying and the massive amounts of vocab I had learned over the weekend, I had a hard time putting even three words together. I've decided that my brain must have been in overload mode and going on strike from learning for the day. I did get some rest though and I decided to take Mourad up on his invitation to a "Baby Party" that evening. I'm not exactly sure what the actual name is for this type of party, but I had heard about it from Khadija when she was telling us about culture and traditions in Morocco. It's like a baby shower that tons of family and friends attend... and I heard that when Moroccans throw a party, they do it big :D I thought it would be a good cultural experience and a welcome break from studying while I knew I would have to practice some Arabic there so it was an easy decision. He met me in Yousseffia and we walked all the way there since we had plenty of time and the weather was nice. I asked him how long we would be there since I didn't want to be out too late because of school in the morning. He said that we could stay as long as I liked but probably about 2 hours or so. This must be what they call "Moroccan time" because the party started at 8:00 and somehow I didn't leave until almost 1:00 a.m. 

        As we got got closer to the house we saw cars parked everywhere and the amount of children playing in the street increased as we neared the door. Mourad was immediately tackled by a little girl who was the child of a cousin I think, and after receiving a plethora of kisses she happily skipped away. We walked past the door of the house and over to a big tent set up on the side of the road (on the sidewalk) where men were setting up chairs and instruments and I got introduced to more cousins than I could count. Many of them started speaking Arabic with me and were confused when I didn't understand them, Mourad said that I looked Moroccan to them. Since nobody was sitting yet, we went into the house which was apartment style and many levels where I think various branches of the family lived. After about four flights of stairs I was kissed and hugged by a line of random ladies that were leaving a small room, after passing them, we headed into the room and I met Mourad's mom, sister, aunt and some other random old lady. The brought out tea and I attempted to speak with them while Mourad went to the corner of the room to "ooh and ahhh" over the new baby. Before I had time to object, the baby was given to me and I was told to kiss it. I gave it a fake kiss and played with it's tiny feet for a minute and handed it back... baby's scare me. I must say that this baby was absolutely angelic looking and beautiful, I could look at it all day.

        After a little while, we went back downstairs and Mourad told me to go with his sister and mom. I didn't want to be away from him, but I did it anyways since I knew he probably wanted to hang out with the guys and even in family parties the men and women keep pretty segregated. I went and sat with his mom and all the old ladies. It was really rather boring since his mom only spoke darija and my darija is limited to a few numbers, "okay," "thank you very much," "cold," and "lets go." So we were more amused by watching the little boys take turns bravely running up to the microphone, saying something, and running back to the group to giggle and look around to see people's reactions to their antics. Unfortunately for the boys, the old ladies were indifferent and not very reactionary so the most attention they got was when their fathers would run into the tent and scold them from time to time. Mourad poked his head in to check on me every once in a while and I smiled and nodded like I was having a great time but secretly hoping he would give me a reason to get up and walk around. The tent began to fill up around 9:00 and the band set up at about 10:00... I was sitting for a loooong time. The band was very good; I learned later that the singer was a good friend of the baby's father and had come from Spain with the family to celebrate with them. The family with the new baby is from Spain... sorry, I forgot to mention that. I was surprised to see a few ladies get up and dance, and these women shook their stuff if you know what I mean :-P ...I had more fun watching a little boy near the front look in amazement and confusion at one rather large lady's rear as she danced near him like it was the strangest thing he had seen in his life. Hilarious! Some of the men got up and danced together and for a few short minutes the parents of the baby danced with the singer. It was very fun to watch. I also wondered what was going on when many of the women, old and young, would run up to the singer with 20 DH bills and stick them in his collar! I learned later that this is just a sign that they really enjoyed his singing... not some indecent proposition ;-)

        After quite a bit of this there was a break where Mourad's sister came and rescued me. We went to a little room in the house littered with shoes, clothes, kaftans, purses... I think they must be using it as a changing room for the party. She got me water and I talked a little bit easier with her than I did with her mother because she knew a little more Fursa and a little bit of French. Every once in a while, a family member would pop their head into the room and say hello to us and try to converse in whatever language came to mind, I had a few people come in and say "hola!" to me which really caught me off guard. When I commented on how beautiful one woman's Kaftan was, Fatiha (Mourad's sister) offered to give me her Kaftan but luckily at the time I didn't understand what she was offering and didn't take it with me. Mourad informed me later what she was trying to do and I told him to thank her for me but I couldn't possibly take something like that! Yikes! I started to get restless and wished I knew where Mourad was. It was getting really late and I wasn't sure if I could find a taxi very easily if it got much later. Eventually Mourad and his cousin that he calls "The crazy one in the family" waltzed in and talked for a while until someone said that we would eat soon. I turned to Mourad and said that I needed to go and I needed sleep to which he looked confused and asked if I didn't want to eat. It's almost unheard of for someone to visit a Moroccan home and not eat, but I had already had a full dinner with the Marouazis and was not hungry at all. I also felt bad eating and leaving right away. Mourad decided that this was a good time to tell me that the party goes on all night and nobody sleeps... wow! I told him that I had to get sleep for school and I really had to go but somehow, a little while later, I ended up in the dining room crammed between his sister and a large boisterous aunt with a Tagine and bread in front of me. I took a few bites and ate slowly to make it look like I was eating more but I was being watched too closely and my cover was blown by the boisterous aunt who ordered someone to bring me a plate because she thought I didn't want to eat from the same dish as all of them! I was SOOOO embarrassed because that was NOT the impression I wanted to give them. I knew the food was hot and good and I'm used to eating out of the same tagine as my host family but my limited darija and acting skills failed to convey to them that I had already eaten and really wasn't hungry! Boisterous aunt took it upon herself to carve up my meat for me and pile it on my plate while continuously ordering me to "eat eat!". Finally when the Tagine was finished and all scraps were stuffed in bread and the ladies' purses (I kid you not... they put leftovers in their purses!), Mourad leaned forward and with a mischievous smile, he informed me that it was time for the second course! I laughed and sarcastically said "Oh good! because I'm so so hungry!" ...I didn't think he was serious about the second course thing... but he was... and boisterous aunt made sure I ate it. I almost thought that I would die from my stomach exploding.

        Finally when they were done force feeding me the third course of fruit, I was given a gift box full of cookies and was able to escape out the door. Mourad's uncle or cousin and another girl were kind enough to drive me back to Yousseffia and despite my protests, Mourad walked me to my street to make sure I was safe. I did some homework and went to sleep around 2:00... what a night.

        On Tuesday (23rd) I was strangely alert and able to function. We also had a pretty interesting conversation in class about drugs and alcohol since we were learning food and drink vocabulary. Our teacher, Hassan, is really good at talking about interesting subjects in Arabic but in very simple vocabulary that we understand. It is really helping me learn more vocabulary because I can hear him say things in context. He told us that many Muslims believe that alcohol is forbidden, a small amount think it's not forbidden, and a good amount of them just don't know or don't care. According to him, there is room for interpretation or misinterpretation because the matter is rather unclear in general. He doesn't drink because he believes that the prophet specifically instructed his followers to steer clear of things that intoxicate (alcohol, drugs etc..) mainly for health and self control reasons. He says that the teachings are more specific that say Muslims are forbidden to enter into prayer while intoxicated because they are unable to think clearly. This makes more sense because if Muslims pray five times per day, they wouldn't have much time to actually be intoxicated if they did drink. Very interesting stuff...

        I really didn't do much that day other than catch up on work and I stayed late at school to talk to my crazy family on skype for a little while. I'm still unsure on whether I should forgive them for going to Florida to see my Nannie and Pappa without me. It's just not cool people :( ...It was so good to talk to them and hear their voices though, it has been weird to not talk to them much while I'm here.

        On Wednesday (24th) we had yet another good discussion in class but this one included everything from why they don't eat pigs to how many Muslims believe in evolution, or at least some sort of man existing before Adam and Eve. Forgive me if I completely mess this up, but they think that the Angels were begging God not to make Adam which leads them to think that there must have been man before Adam. I'm sure I'm missing part of the story here but that's about all I got from it. That evening I went out with Mourad to meet up with his cousin and his cousin's wife for the evening. They would be leaving for Spain in a few days and wanted to meet me since they hadn't gotten to really meet me at the party for their baby. The four of us plus their 6 or 7 year old boy and the baby crammed into their little car and I attempted to speak Arabic with the wife. The Arabic was immediately deemed useless when she didn't understand a word I said. Mourad said that she doesn't speak Fursa and only a little Darija because she is Spanish and not Moroccan. So I wracked my poor brain for all the Spanish I had learned when I was little so that I could talk to her. I was surprised at how much I remembered and even more surprised at how much I understood. I never thought I'd say this, but thank you dad for speaking Spanish all the time, listening to Spanish music and programming your navigator in the car to speak Spanish. I am very grateful now. I found out that they live in Toledo and we realized that we had very similar taste in actors since she LOVES American films... her favorite is Denzel Washington! New Best Friend!
        We went to the Mega Mall for a while and just talked about a million different subjects in a million different languages. We would go from Spanish to Arabic to French and then their little boy would throw in a little English here and there because he was VERY proud of the fact that he is in English classes. I got along very well with the little boy and we would take turns tapping each other on the shoulder and pretending it wasn't us. That's always a fun game ;-D We talked about religion a little bit and I learned that the wife is not Muslim but is studying it because she wants to be Muslim like her husband. It was interesting to hear her point of view though I had a feeling that she was trying to convince me that Muslims are not bad people which is not something I need to be convinced of after living with and becoming friends with so many of them :) After talking for a while, another cousin and his wife showed up and we all walked around the mall for a little bit then they decided we needed to go out to eat (even though it was 9:30). I told Mourad that I wasn't hungry but I would tag along as long as I didn't get home too late. Silly me, when we got to the restaurant I was force-fed yet again. I should have expected it though. Mourad told me that I should order something or they might order something for me. I ordered a chwarma because it was the cheapest thing on the menu and I had a feeling that I would not be allowed to pay. I still got a salad in front of me somehow because I guess the schwarma wasn't enough food for me. Even though I insisted that I had already eaten dinner, they must have been convinced that I was really starving. The shwarma wasn't very good and they passed around my plate so everyone could try it and agree on how bad it was. This launched a debate on who makes the best shwarma, I insisted that it was the Lebanese and Mourad's older cousin said that Turkish shwarma was much better. We agreed to disagree and they commenced the great fight over the bill. There was money thrown down by all people and when change was dispersed, Mourad and I got ALL our money back and eventually with much bribing of the waiter, the older cousin and his wife ended up paying the whole bill. It was quite amusing. They got me home at a decent hour this time so I was able to get a little more sleep... yayyyy :D I really do love Moroccan families, they make anyone feel welcome and like part of the family. They are so much more strongly connected and involved in each other's lives which at times is a little overwhelming but very cool.