Sunday, March 11, 2012

what's your picnic got?

this week has been pretty eventful!

after being away for 3 weeks for a camp, then in service training it's been really great to be back in my house, in my town and getting into a rhythm. I’ve added a third aerobics class and had 16 people at one of them last week (up from my usual 4! ) so that was very exciting. I've also started teaching at the student house called the dar talib. The dar talib is a place where students live during the week if they're houses are too far away to commute back and forth during the week. There’s around 73 total students, split half and half boys and girls, and now on two days a week i go down there and do some english classes. I've only been at it one week, but so far so good. My other english classes are going well, with sporadic attendance but general enthusiasm. I’m most proud of my woman's center ladies who are consistently coming to classes, and after only around 4 or 5 hours they were able to write simple sentences such as " it is a blue pen" "i am a student" and "it is my black book". It’s so cool to see progress, who knows what they'll be capable of after 2 years! 
I've also started an informal girls tea english class. I’ve found three or 4 girls who are really advanced in conversational english, and I wanted to try and give them a format where they can really relax and get more in depth english practice. Just like the dar talib this has only happened once, but I’m optimistic. 

last week I woke up on monday feeling listless and restless, looking out into my courtyard i realized it was a beautiful day, so i decided to pack up a bag and head to one of the mountains that ring my town. Peace corps tells us isolation and doing things alone is terrible and dangerous and essentially im going to get raped, robbed and murdered (in that order) but i decided to throw caution to the wind (not entirely, i brought my leatherman pocket knife, for security? when i told this to the ladies at the women's center they  laughed at me.... ) I set out eagerly with my headphones pumping some sweet folk/classical music and ventured up the mountain. let me tell you that there is no trail. none whatsoever. so i decided to scramble up the mountain in the best way i could, slipping and sliding on rocks (as the ground was moving beneath me i realized that maybe this wasn't the safest idea i'd ever had, but continued on- for those of you at home concerned i had told someone where i was going and had cell phone service the whole way). I’m estimating all in all my hike was around 4-6 miles but im not certain. At any rate, the view from the top was TOTALLY WORTH IT. i could see for miles. N'kob was a tiny blotch in the distance, the mountains were beautiful colors. I heard a hawk piercing the wind as it dove down right in front of me.  After a small photo shoot using my mini tri-pod i returned home and flopped in my bed exhausted, happy and fulfilled


On top of the mountain were these rock towers previous brave souls had made. i was tired so didn't make one myself, but next time I go up there, I plan to! 


I had a lot of fun with my self time function on my camera. 

reposing with N'kob in the distance

The view from the top- looking out over the mountains- sometimes soon i want to do a ridge walk along that line of mountains!

The view of town from above. 


after aforementioned hike i developed a strange pain in my stomach area from who knows what (we're thinking it is muscular, im like to agree)- but throughout this week because of lack of internet and an over active imagination i essentially convinced myself i was going to die in my sleep. So to say the least i was in a bad mood all week. we all get these in the states too. those days/weeks when you don't want to see anyone, you don't want to do anything, you want to just sit at home, drink tea/coffee, watch movies and read books. unfortunately things never really work out this way, and when it rains it pours. besides the fact that i added 5 new hours of teaching this week one day at the woman's center the ladies said "we're going on a picnic, want to come?" being the dutiful peace corps volunteer, i said yes (and being a peace corps volunteer hours later, i had to ask someone to clarify what exactly i had said yes to- someday  this say yes, ask what i said yes to later is going to get me in trouble). Saturday after my classes ended i was ready for a day of relaxing in my house and ... WRONG! instead i had agreed to be woken up at 6am to go have a picnic with a large group of moroccan ladies. when i drifted off to sleep saturday night, i was apprehensive and not too excited to be having to leave my house at such an ungodly hour. now i'm so happy i agreed, and woke up in time to make it. Moroccan's do not mess around with their picnics. thus the title of this blog post. In a smack down of picnics, Moroccans would win, and that includes those fancy new yorkers who camp out on the lawn at tanglewood, Moroccans got you beat. (sorry that's a very specific reference only some of you will get)....

so 6am i get a bang on my door and finish grabbing my things and scurry out of the house. im greeted by  a crowd of 12 women, standing in the grey light of the early pre-sun morning. we start walking to the meeting place, knocking on a door here and another there, acquiring more and more people as we go. we finally arrive to the determined meeting location and there is a formidable crowd of people. we start out walk across the mars-like rocks that litter everywhere. andas the sun rises the group stretches forward and back as we trudge across garden plots, goat paths, and fields. We finally arrive at a little valley where two argon trees grow and then people start to set up camp. People are pulling food, propane gas canisters, wood, spices, tea, water jugs, bread, dates, sugar, coffee, fruit, cous cous, flour and oil left and right. people start hanging their backpacks on trees, someone piles all the wood together then 6 or 7 girls get around to sorting all the various foods that have been dumped at the base of the tree. in 10 minutes or less the cous cous has all be put into two big bags, like things are together and a big pot of coffee has been put on to boil. This picnic does not mess around. I ate better out under these trees then I have most any day in country. The food extravaganza started with bread and olive oil, dates and a fig crumble thing that was very good, accompanied by coffee and tea. then the cous cous was started. cous cous here is an ordeal and take all day to cook. They’re cooked in a double boiler, with holes in the top pot to steam the cous cous. then you take the cous cous out and fluff it with water and oil,  and seasonings- put it back in and repeat several times for 2 or 3 hours. then you add meat and veggies to the water underneath, spice it, then continue to steam and fluff the cous cous. The cous cous we ate at 3pm was started at 9:30- an all day event. Ok. so after breakfast the ladies started making the abadir- ie the best bread i've had in this coutnry (besides mlwi) abadir is a traditional berber dish that is essentially a thick brown bread stuffed with animal fat, onions, peppers and spices. (vegetarian police beware, i ate this and it was delicious) it's also cooked over hot rocks. to me the abadir was the star of the day. 


first you make the circle of rocks, then light a fire over it to heat them. 

After the dough's been made, you stuff it with the fat and spices. yum!


 after you brush away all the ash from the hot stones, you knead the bread, add the filling, then dump it onto the rocks. 


after making sure everything is in order, you light the top of the abadir on fire, then cover it with paper and rocks, then build another fire on top- let it cook for about 35 minutes


lighting the top of the bread on fire

covering the bread with rocks and paper
It's done! the abadir emerging from it's earthy oven

ROCK BREAD!!!! 
water for the cous cous beginning to boil

water! 

the veggies for the cous cous to the left you can see the double boiler pot used for making the cous cous. water underneath, cous cous on top

fluffing the cous cous

first tea time! 

second breakfast that accompanied the abadir- cookies! 

cookies and freshly shelled almonds
 After the Abadir and cookie meal a group of the younger girls and myself went out on an adventure over to the mountain- we scrambled to the top taking pictures and chatting along the way.

from the top of the mountain

 We got back just in time for cous cous which we ate gathered around in circles squatting on rocks. It was delicious
PICNIC cous cous
everyone gathered around eating cous cous


 I was really tired at the end of the day so I didn’t get a photo of the process of making milwi- which we had for kaskrout (ie pre dinner carbohydrate snack time) but milwi involves making dough, forming it into balls. Flattening it really thin, folding it up like an envelope using lots of oil then cooking it in a  pan- it’s kind of like the most delicious deep fried tortilla you will ever have. After milwi and tea (this is around 5:45pm by the way) everyone packed up shop and quick as we came, we left and trudge back over the goat paths to n’kob (I estimate it was a little under a mile away from town) I finally crashed home at around 7pm. It was a long, but awesome day. Moral of the story, at first I did not want to go- but I’m really really glad I did.


Other then that things here are pretty ‘run-of-the-mill’ I have a class every day of the week now, im trying to keep my house clean regularly, and im really enjoying being here in my town. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures! I have internet this month so if you’re interested in a skype date let me know.

And as always you can send me snail mail to (hint hint):
maison des jeunes/dar shabab
kasbah ait atta
n’kob-zagora province
Morocco Africa