Yalla Yalla! 11/6/09
Ssalam Aulekum from the red and rocky interior of the Sinai Peninsula!
Just thought we would let you all know that we, and most of our luggage, have made it safely to our final country, Egypt. We arrived in Cairo late last night and directly got on a night bus to arrive here in Sinai surrounded by the beautiful red-jagged scenery soaked in religious history. We are sleep deprived, but getting psyched to wake up early tomorrow morning to hike Mount Sinai in time for the sunrise.
Last time we wrote we where just settling into Morocco, getting comfortable with our families and learning the streets of the Medina. Oh how much we have done and the experiences we have had since then. We got to know our families and began to participate more actively in their lives. Some of us spent days learning to cook with our host moms, went shopping with our siblings and were even able to attend a Moroccan wedding. We became (perhaps too) familiar with Moroccan Tagine, a traditional stew, and came to look forward to Couscous Fridays. We even think we got pretty good at identifying what we where eating. Meat was no longer just meat, but beef, lamb, and camel, and chicken was no longer just chicken but chicken, turkey and pigeon (mashi keef keef—not the same, as our host families would claim when questioned as to the kind of animal we were eating).
As our stay progressed it also became easier to cope with the language barrier, though still a hindrance in fully understanding the culture. In response to kul, kul (eat, eat) we could now say shabaat! (I’m full), though sometimes it was still mashi mushkeel, kul, kul (not a problem, eat eat). Some of our other favorite phrases include: Wash nowenek? (Can I help you?) and Shnoo hadek? (What’s that?). And so we slowly learned Darija.
Our home-stays were an excellent companion to the course that we took while in Morocco taught by the wonderful Fatima Amrani. The Sociology and Anthropology course on the Moroccan family and culture was an excellent venue in which we could all discuss and compare our highly individual experiences immersed in Moroccan culture. We spent our days discussing the structure of the family and had heated debates when it came to comparing the tradition in the US to that of Morocco. What was so wonderful about this course was that we could intimately connect with what we where learning. Professor Amrani even took us to a women’s shelter one afternoon where poor women and housewives could come to learn a skills such as clothing design and construction or cooking in order to have the necessary background to enter the workforce.
Bruce’s classes in Morocco were also given a more personal connection as we watched our Muslim families in action. Mosque visits are not a possibility in Morocco for non-Muslims (except for the Hassan II Mosque which we toured in Casablanca), so most of our observations occurred within the families. A few of us who had the language skills, ventured to discuss religion and perception with our host families, eye opening experiences that where then shared back in the classroom. As we travel we continue to compare Islam, Christianity and Judaism across the Middle East, exploring how history and culture play a role in practice and perception.
But our fun did not stop with Host families and Class. Most of us volunteered at a Boy’s Orphanage for an afternoon or two in the Ville Nouvelle keeping the children active with all those camp games we learned as kids. A group of us also decided to take a cooking lesson for some much needed group time after being spread out through the medina, so we are experts at Chicken Tagine. Yum. A group of us girls had a Belly Dancing lesion through our favorite Café in the Medina, and took a weekend trip to Ashile on the northern Atlantic coast of Morocco for strolls through the quiet white washed streets and some time lounging in the hot Moroccan sun on a secluded beach. Between all this we managed to shop, get henna (temporary body art), go to concerts, continue exploring the medina and spend time with loved ones who where able to visit. Overall our time in Fes was incredibly busy and fruitful.
And then we left for Moroccan excursion, looping the country from dessert to ocean coast. Our week and a half road trip was not without obstacles, but we made it through with memories that will last a lifetime. We stated our tour off right with a drive to the dessert where we spent the night in Berber tents in the Sahara, awoken early in the morning with a Berber wakeup tent poke to mount our camels and ride off into the dessert for sunrise. And so we watched the sun poke out over onto the Sahara, the rays turning the sand gold.
And we continued on to see the Gorges of Todra, Ait Ben Haddou UNESCO sight where we had tea with one of seven families living within its walls, we toured Kasbahs and saw Atlas studios where films such as Jewel of the Nile, The Mummy, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven where filmed. Ironically enough, we were filmed there as well. Look out for St. Olaf students if you happen to be flipping through your French Canadian channels and there is a documentary about Morocco on. Dang, our 15 minutes of fame are being eaten up by these documentaries.
Then we bussed through the gorgeous high Atlas Mountains, where there was some definite bumps and scrapes on those tight turns. We had a free day in beautiful coastal Essaouira where we explored the ports, and ramparts of the Medina before we moved onto Marrakech where we spent a couple of days exploring the city, visiting the girls of a boarding house, and having lunch with Toria, the boarding house director-- a strong and fabulous woman. Then we travelled to Rabat and Casablanca before we boarded our plane to Madrid. L ‘Hamdullah (thanks be to God) our flight to Cairo was canceled so we spent about twenty-four hours in wonderful Spain.
In Madrid we toured the Reina Sofia and saw Picasso’s Guernica, we went to the Prado and saw Bosch, El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. All of a sudden Term in the Middle East was European art studies, only for a day. It was a nice little break in our Middle Eastern adventure and we were all grateful for our time in Europe, and Annette, St. Olaf Alum turned Madrid tour guide. Then up in a plane to where we are now, eleven hours away from the great climb, Inch’Allah (God willing).
So far there have been many times on this program where we have had to stop and ask ourselves, “What is this life I am living?“
It’s a pretty darn fabulous one.
Till next time,
TIME 2009