8 March 2012

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!!!

Today was accidentally busy. Normal class. I woke up thinking that I didn’t do A LOT of Arabic HW that I had, but luckily I was wrong. It’s due tomorrow, and I should be doing it right now... I also wake up without an alarm at 6:40 every morning. It’s weird, and I don’t like it. I guess waking up early is better than late, but I wake up VERY early. Especially compared to my classmates- someone told me that they wake up at 8:10 every morning, and that is usually when I am listening to my iPod walking thru the Medina (definitely one of the highlights of my day). We had class after lunch (I am now really getting sick of the lunch here… I think they rotate thru 3 meals every week). We had class that went longer than it was supposed to- rude. My friends really wanted to go to the “SlutWalk” but I was wary. I agree with the message of course, but I do not like that it’s called Slut Walk. We had an hour and a half until the village orientation, and I wanted to walk around, so I went with them. Creating the craziest scenarios- I was a little nervous, but I went anyway.

The “slutwalk” was supposed to start at 17:00, and it was only like 14:30, so it wasn’t as crazy as I was expecting. I think it was actually more of a women's rights fair, and the organizers of the walk just planned to meet and start there. There were a few tents up and these HUGE marionette puppet type things... Similar to the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park, but probably 500 times bigger. All of the signs were in French, Arabic, and Tamazight. I was with four girls who were really into it, so I let them take the lead. Megan saw “her shopkeeper”- I guess someone who she buys things from, and started talking to him. He was with two men who spoke English very well. One of them was actually a “brother” of someone who is in the Journalism program. He was VERY tall and attractive. He said a lot of cute things about the holiday, and said “of course [I] support this- my mother is a woman!!” Amen brotha. Someone else came up to us and just started to talk NON-STOP in English. It was too much for me, so I started to drift away. As it got closer to 5 more and more people showed up. It wasn’t just women, but there were a lottt of them. There was higher concentration of women than I have ever seen here so far. I wondered the intentions of the men who were there. I am sure the majority of them supported the cause, but you had to wonder. There was also a wide range of women; old, young; wearing hijab, not wearing hijab; old women not wearing hijab, young women wearing hijab etc. It was also interesting because at one point, the unemployment protests intersected the women’s rights protest- that was cool to see. We left at 5 to 5, and stopped in at a café for a pizza (I picked the wrong slice… it was like a hot dog and olive pizza lol) and coffee. We were late to the orientation by even Moroccan standards (15 mins) and I came in PANTING because the stairs and croissants combo is really starting to get to me. Maa shee mushkila (not a problem). Some people missed the orientation, but I am glad I didn’t!

I was VERY nervous to go to the village, but after orientation I am now VERY excited. I know that we will be busy the whole time, and it is going to flyyyy by (like everything here- hello it is the end of week SIX???!?!?!). Some highlights from the meeting include:

o Working with an NGO (Joudour- ‘roots’ in Arabic)

* We are going to do: tree planting (just like Oprah!!), teaching the village kids English & learn Darija from them, play sports - “handball”, which is apparently a combination of basketball and soccer- cool.

* The organization also: holds classes to help children who dropped out of school catch up on the years that they missed before they re-enter the school system (HELLO EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO BE DOING), summer camps (HCDC 2.0?!?!?), and microfinance etc. I really think that this organization is going to be a great resource for me, and I look forward to talking to them to see if there are any volunteer opportunities for the summer.

o Sara’s (and Ethan’s old) Arabic teacher, Abdelaziz is coming with us. He rocks, so that will be fun!

o We are going to Chefchaouen (I prefer to spell it “chefchowin”). Fadoua says it is her favorite place in Morocco, and she knows everything, so it will be great!!

o WE ARE GOING TO SPAIN!!!!! For three hours to renew our visas ha ha…

o The olive oil is apparently delicious, so I will eat a lot of it.

o Things I have to remember to bring: flashlight, towel, and iPad- fingers crossed theres weefee at one of the hotels we are staying at, but if not NBD… Off the grid for 10 days will be a learning experience and potentially fun. Aunt Mary won’t believe it if I survive. I have been looking at the books in the CCCL “library”. Someone took Freakonomics, so I might be stuck with Bridget Jones’ Diary….

o We are also going to Abdelhay (our Academic Director)’s country house, which is apparently BEAUTIFUL, and they have an olive press. Olive’s are not in season, so we won’t see it in action, but he makes so much during the season that we are definitely going to have some VERY delicious oil when we eat there for lunch.

o I think that’s it… I will post my itinerary in the next post.

(Sophie/Peggy, do you like the bullet points???)

Wish me luck on my Arabic test! Maa salema!!