Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Foreigner and The Field

In theory, there is a lot going on with the coop/work right now.

1. The women are busy creating products for our display at Cafe Clock. 
          Estimated delivery: mid-late June. 

2. Spinning wheels have been ordered and are being made. 
          Estimated delivery and training: early July

3. Funding has been requested and is waiting approval for three projects:
         A. Inspiration board for the new coop building 
                  - In hopes it will be up for our grand opening in late June.
         B. Camera for the coop 
                  -To be used in conjunction with training for the coop as they become members of     
                      www.theanou.com in mid June.
         C. Women's Empowerment Camp
                  -I'm hoping to organize a two-day women's empowerment/life skills camp for 25 women in   
                     early September.

As you can see there is quite a lot in the pipeline, but there's not actually a whole lot for me to do right now. Needless to say, I've got quite a bit of time on my hands and am doing my very best to keep busy. 

Four months left until my departure from Morocco, so I've been sorting through my house trying to get a feel for how much packing space I'll need and deciding which community members will get what. Numerous people from the community have already approached me about getting my belongings/furnishings when I leave. It's slightly annoying, because it makes me wonder how many people are genuinely my friends and how many just want a free load of things when I go. Are they counting down too? I'd like to think not.

With all this downtime, I thought I'd give you a glimpse at 'A day in the life of Miriam' (when work is scarce). 

Most days, I wake up and head straight out for a run. It's been incredibly windy here for the past week or so and that means major dust storms. Running is pretty difficult when it's a haze of dust blowing in your face, but running keeps me mentally healthy and without it I start to get cabin-fever. 

After my run/battle with dust, I come back to my house and have what's known by Peace Corps volunteers as a 'whore bath' over my kitchen sink. This entails me stripping from the waist-up, leaning over the kitchen sink and splashing water and soap all over my upper body. Don't judge, it works. 

I then make myself a mug of coffee using a stove top coffee maker like this: http://www.espressoplanet.com/espresso-coffee-machine/hot_to_use_stove_top.html

I also make myself a smoothie. During March/April strawberries were in season and made their way to Toon Town souk each Sunday. I stocked up on a couple kilo's of strawberries, knowing they'd be non-existent pretty soon. So my freezer is stacked with strawberries, for now. 

My smoothie consists of the following: 
   2 Strawberries
   1 Orange
   1 Banana
   1 Danone Activia Yogurt
   Splash of milk
   1 Heaping tablespoon of Anutra (http://www.anutra.com/1.html) or Flax Seed

I then take my coffee and smoothie upstairs to enjoy while catching up on e-mails/checking the news/writing new blog posts/etc...

If the weather is decent enough (and not too windy) I then put a blanket out on my roof and read for an hour or so. Then comes lunch, for which I either head to someones house for, or make a salad at my place. Most of the time my salad is lettuce-free, since lettuce is pretty hard to find around here. For protein I top my chopped veggies with either a hard boiled egg, lentils, or when I feel like splurging-a tin of mackerel. 

After lunch, I visit with various community members and drink enough tea to put me into a sugar induced coma. Yesterday's community visit was with my landlord's family. I take my veg/fruit peeling to them each day and they feed it to their cows and mule. While dropping the bag of scraps off yesterday, my landlady invited me in to sit with her as she sorted through a large (very large) sack of wheat. After and hour or so of sitting with her making small talk she let me know that I have never been to the fields with her and that I should go with her today. 

The field is not too far from our houses and now that it is harvest season, she goes daily. I agreed to go with her, but told her I was going to run home and grab a notebook and book first. When I returned fifteen minutes later their mule, who I named, "Daisy" was tied up in the alley outside their house. Poor Daisy, I swear I don't think she had ever been groomed in her entire life and judging from her withers, I'd say she is up there in her years. She was looking pretty meskina (poor little thing).

For the record, I began coming across as crazy when I got there and named the mule "Daisy" -animals don't get names here. Then seeing the state of her coat, I continued my crazy antics by asking if there was a brush for the animals. Mama (the landlady) kind of ignored me the first few times I asked, but when she knew I wasn't messing about, she disappeared and came back with what I am assuming was the brush they use to clean their 'hole in the ground' aka squat toilet. I am also assuming that she 'washed' it because it was dripping wet. Sometimes it is better not to ask questions, right?

Raja, the landlady's daughter joined us and we hoisted her up onto Daisy. Mama tried to insist that I too, should climb on, but poor Daisy, how could I? So I walked with Mama and we made our way to the fields. Upon arrival, Mama took the makeshift blanket saddle off of Daisy and I removed the bridle  and Daisy immediately dropped to the ground and rolled, twice. When she was done itching herself, Mama tied rope around one of Daisy's feet and then staked the other end of rope to the ground. 

Mama and Raja made their way into the tall wheat and I stayed with Daisy, letting them know that I was going to brush her and that I would join them in a bit. I literally pulled clumps of what can only be described as "dingle-berries" from all over Daisy's body. Poor girl, it has been hot for weeks now and she still had a full winter coat. She let me brush that entire winter coat out and while I know that she enjoyed it, I am pretty sure she was giving me this look that said, "what the hell are you doing?!" the entire time.

All the while that this was happening, other people in the fields were staring and watching me like I was a four-eyed monster. Some were calling out to Mama, asking what I was doing and laughing at me. I continued my 'craziness' by joining Mama in the field, and going on to tell her how Daisy and I shared a dialogue in Tamazight, that included Daisy thanking me for brushing her and telling my how clean she felt. Mama was bent over laughing at me and asked me if I want to take Daisy to the hemam (public bath house) with me next time :)

Raja accompanies Mama to the field most days and brings her homework with her. Yesterday's homework was reciting the Koran. So, I sat down next to Raja and listened to her recite the Koran, while Mama continued to make fun of me for being 'friends' with Daisy. 

Not too long after I sat down, two women and four small children came through the field. When they got close to us, I heard a little voice shout out, "Mama ur righ ad zri, gwidugh n Taromit" (which means, "Mama I don't want to pass, I'm scared of the foreigner". This made me laugh out loud. The Mom realizing that I understood also started laughing and then there was Mama calling out to me to make sure I understood, repeating what the little girl had said, while also hysterically laughing. It was pretty hilarious. 

I stayed for a little while longer and then announced that I was going to visit my host Aunt Baha. I said goodbye and then headed over to Baha's. Baha was sorting through sesame seeds when I got there. In case you can't imagine what that is like, I've included a picture. I sat with Baha helping her sort out the bad sesame seeds from the good ones (I'm not sure this is necessary and if anything all it does is give you a stiff neck), drank tea, ate bread and jam and watched her Turkish soap operas (dubbed in Arabic) with her for an hour or so. 

I then headed home, made dinner and watched my UK soap operas :) 

And that's it a day in the life of Miriam x

Neck-Breaking Work-Sortin Sesame Seeds
Daisy, looking at me like, "What the hell did you just do to me?"
We snacked on the solid parts of young wheat while in the field
Raja reciting the Koran 
Mama hand-cutting the wheat...and making fun of me

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Trials and Tribulations of a New Coop Building

This past Saturday we had our first coop meeting in our new building. In the past, the women purchased their own wool, weaved their own carpets and then 10% of the sale went back into the coop account. Now that the ladies have a communal workplace and looms, they decided to buy a collective supply of wool using the coop's money. It was decided that they will each put an equal amount of time into making carpets from the communal wool purchase and that once sold, a third of the money will go back into the coop account, a third into the purchase of new wool and a third to the ladies who worked on the carpet/product.

One (such as myself) would assume that seeing as they have a new building and work is progressing, that the women of the coop would be happy and pleased. One would be wrong to assume.

I was informed at the meeting that now that there is a building, three of the twelve women have decided to leave the coop. Why? Because, it is simply too much work to go back and forth to the coop each day! When I suggested that they continue to work out of their home on their individual carpets, but not take any revenues from communal products, I was told this wouldn't work as then every woman would want to work out of their home and no one would come to the coop. Tell me again, why I went to Midelt countless times in the dead of winter to get them this building, which they asked for?

???
Rabha then went on to let me know that she 'ur eejbee l'hal' (she doesn't like the situation). When I told her not to worry, that there are plenty of other women in Tounfite, who would love to join the coop now that there is an actual workplace, she corrected me and explained that she knows that, but what she doesn't like is the building. When I asked why she doesn't like it, she told me because the Governor has only agreed to pay for it for one year and so now the coop has a 'mushkil taxatar' (huge problem). I told her that worrying about a year from now, won't help anything and that if the coop works hard for the next year, then it will be able to pay its own rent in the future. She didn't like that, shook her head and told me I need to find them money to buy horizontal looms, she seems to think if they have horizontal looms, then the building problem of the future will be solved. Logicnotsomuch.

You should know, that I recently wrote a grant for two spinning wheels for the coop. Upon hearing that spinning wheels exist, Rabha insisted that the coop must have them. The grant was fully funded and Rabha has ordered two spinning wheels for the coop. When I went to the new building, which Rabha made the final decision on and moved into without my help, I realized that there is next to no space for two spinning wheels. When I asked her where she planned to put the spinning wheels, she pointed to the narrow walk way in the middle of the room. I then went on to ask where more looms would go, she told me that if I found them money for a bigger building it wouldn't be a problem. Ha.

It should also be known that when looking for a building for the coop, there was a small (but larger than what we have now) house, which was even less money than what our budget allowed for. The house would have provided a display room for finished products, a room double the size of the building we have now for looms and other equipment, along with a small kitchen and bathroom. Rabha (without asking for any of the women's input) vetoed the house, because it didn't have enough windows. She even told me that if we moved into it, we would spend all our money on lightbulbs because there isn't enough natural light. I laughed at her when she came out with that.

The building we have now is located on the main road through town and next to a stream of mechanic garages. Which means men. So, although the main door to the building is glass and allows for natural light, the steel door remains half closed, so that the men can't see what they are doing...there is also no toilet, no running water and no kitchen. Okay, enough ranting.

While three of the women have chosen to break ties with the coop, the other nine (eight weavers as Rabha doesn't actually weave) remain dedicated to their work. The purpose of our first meeting was to divide the new communal wool purchase evenly among the women. Using the scale which the King gave us, the wool was weighed into eight even piles. The women then gathered their pile, slung it on their backs and set off home, to card, wash and spin the wool. Once they finish those processes, they will return to the coop to begin weaving their first communal products.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep my cool and not get too frustrated by all of Rabha's unrealisitc expectations for me during my last four months here.
Weighing the wool 
Dividing the wool into eight piles
Making sure the piles are even

Setting up the new looms
Taking the wool home to card, wash and spin
Bslama "Bye"

Friday, May 25, 2012

Pa-Pow!!! We have a building at last!

Oh we Fancy...
Our lil women's space
What, what's that you see?????

It's Cooperative Chorouk's very own building!!!

Located on the one and only road in Toon Town and decked out with the three looms, His Royal Majesty King Mohammed VI,  gave us late last year. It is finally all starting to come together :)

We plan to have a grand opening sometime next month, during which we will invite all the local government officials to celebrate with us. Tea Party Style.

I've requested funding to purchase some materials to make an 'inspiration board' and hopefully I will be able to get that all together before the grand opening ceremony. The 'inspiration board' will be a large cork board where I can hang pictures of Rabha and all the officials she has met with over the past two years, along with the certificates the cooperative has acquired. It will also include a display of potential new products with dimensions and color schemes. Next to the inspiration board, I am hoping to get a chalk/white board so that the ladies have a central place for cooperative related items (i.e., upcoming events, orders, etc...).

It feels so good to finally see the fruit of our labor and I am excited at what we will accomplish during my last five months here in Morocco!

Miriam x


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Craft Fair Frenzy

The final two Marche Maroc's (Peace Corps sponsored craft fairs) took place over the past month and our coop attended both with much success.

The first was in late April and took place in Fes. I let Rabha know in advance that I wouldn't be riding the bus with her to Fes ( I normally accompany her to all the fairs) as I wanted to encourage her independence as much as possible. The grant for this fair provided transportation and hotel costs for two women from the coop, so she wasn't exactly traveling solo. The other lady that went with Rabha is also called Rabha. Rabha and Rabha both made it to Fes and I was there to greet them and show them the way to the hotel. 

Volunteer travel and hotel isn't covered by the grant and so to save a bit of money, I stayed in Sefrou at Jo's house. Sefrou is 30 mintues outside of Fes and only a 10 dirham cab ride away. In the past, I have always been at the fair in the morning to help set up our display, but seeing as the ladies will be doing this without me soon, I kept my presence to a minimum as I wanted to make sure they could do it with no hiccups, while I'm still here to help if there were any. They were fine and did an excellent job each day.

I was house cook in Sefrou...Shepherd's Pie for 8
Damage Done
Just a short hike from Sefrou 

Our sales were below average, but not too bad. More importantly, we secured a very exciting display are in Cafe Clock for the future. Jo organized this fair and managed to get the support of Mike, the owner of famed restaurant, Cafe Clock. Cafe Clock is in the Fes medina and is a must-go-to for tourists. It's listed in every guide book and on every travel website. Clever girl that Jo is, she managed to get Mike to donate a room in Cafe Clock for a showroom of samples of the craft fair products. This opened a few days before the fair and was manned by Peace Corps Volunteers who sold the samples and gave directions/marketing material to tourists who entered the restaurant. 

On the final day of the craft fair, I went by the showroom to collect the products we hadn't sold. My timing was lucky as Mike was in the showroom when I got there. After introducing myself, I asked if he would be interested in displaying a few of our carpets. Excitingly, he offered up an entire room in the restaurant for the coop to display its carpets. We agreed that he would sell them on commission and that I would create a storyboard about the women and their work in Tounfite. Seeing as we were headed to Rabat for the final fair, I asked if it would be okay for us to come back by after Rabat with our display. He agreed and that was that. 

Both Rabha's were very excited with the news and personally I was ecstatic :) This is exactly the collaboration we needed, an in-country sales outlet that Rabha can manage herself. 


Flyering for the fair Moroccan style...
Dinner in Fes
Our new messenger bags!
Ruth (who is a Brit too!) modeling our new bags
Rabha & Rabha 
Rabha at breakfast
Tariq (SBD program manager), Rabha, Yanyi & Jo (pcv fair organizers) 
Artisan Certificate Time
Crowded beach in Rabat
With big smiles, we headed on to the Rabat fair. I had Rabha travel alone to this fair, which was a step more complicated as I didn't greet her at the station. I told her to take a petit taxi to the hotel, which she did with no problems. Not all artisans are as capable as Rabha. In fact, I had to go to the bus station the next morning to pick up Marisa's ladies (Marisa was seeing her sisters off in Casablanca). They were so timid, they literally stepped of the bus and didn't know what to do next so they stayed put next to bus for an hour and a half while I searched the waiting area of the bus station, unable to find them! Shwiya b shwiya (Little by little).

This fair was a little different as it was held at the American Club. The American Club  is a US passport secure restaurant and garden area for Americans in Morocco. Most attendees were Embassy workers headed home for a visit and in the market for gifts. This was the best fair ever for us. We sold ALL of our stock! Incredible. 

Incredible, but with one small problem...no stock to bring to Cafe Clock on our way back! Mike was gracious and agreed to hold our display room and I've promised him a delivery in the beginning of June. He was just as pleased as we were that we sold all the stock, as it proves we will be good business for him in the future. 

The ladies are hard at work resupplying our stock and Rabha and I will be making a trip to Fes in the near future. I've already told her she will be doing all the talking (Mike is British, but his employees will translate for us) as this is her coop and her responsibility. I can tell she is nervous, but I will be there to work out any issues so it will be just fine, en challa (God-willing). 

Closing/Certificate Ceremony at the American Club
Ambassador Kaplan, his wife and our Country Director Peggy, with Marisa's artisan
Ambassador Kaplan, his wife and Rabha

Until next time,

Miriam x

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Incredible Edible Cheesecake

Mmmmmm...Cheesecake. If you know me, you know that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I'd much rather do dinner all over again, or a big stinky cheese board.  I guess that is one of the ways in which the great Kingdom of Morocco has changed me.

I’m pretty sure that it all boils down to (no pun intended) the five million cups of sweet green tea I’ve consumed over the past nineteen months. Thanks to those five million glasses of sugary goodness, I now get random cravings for something sweet. And crunchy, the lack of texture to food here (everything is pressure cooked to the consistency of baby food here) leaves me pining for some kind of crunch when I eat. And salads, and broccoli…mmm yes, there is lots of eating to be done when I depart this country.

Back to the cheesecake, some time before the day camp we put on, I stopped by my host family’s house for tea. While sipping on that sweet green tea, Baha produced a magazine turned to the page of a picture of a giant pumpkin cheesecake. And as the culture is here, she didn’t come straight out and ask me to make the cheesecake, instead she asked me to translate the recipe (the magazine was an old issue of Country Living or something like that, left behind from a previous volunteer, for Yassmine to enjoy the pictures) knowing full well that I would offer to make the cheesecake with them.

And so on my next trip to the (not so really) big city of Midelt, I purchased the items necessary to make the cheesecake. I made an executive decision though. If I was to make a cheesecake, it would be much filthier than pumpkin flavored. Chocolate-cookie-crust with a coffee-cream-filling. Yep, that ought to do the trick.

The afternoon before the day camp, I returned to my host family’s to make the cheesecake. Before the kitchen action took place, I explained the condition of making the cheesecake. We would bake it that afternoon, but it wasn’t to be eaten until the following afternoon, when I returned from the day camp. 

Jokester that she is, Mamksu giggled her way through telling me, “mashi mushkilinu mish shan agadar addiddu jaj n tellaja d additsh shwiya” which translates to, “it’s not my problem if a mouse goes in the refrigerator and eats a little.” To which I playfully responded, “mish shan agadar additsh l’helwa qbl adaydugh nk adbbi affuss n agadar taxatar” which made us both laugh even harder. I told her that “if a mouse eats some of the cake before I return, I will cut the hands off of this big mouse.”

Alas, the cheesecake was fully intact upon return. Max and Patrick joined me that evening and together with my host family we celebrated the day camp’s success by devouring that chocolate-cookie-crust cheesecake with a coffee-cream-filling in its entirety.


Mmmm Mmmm Good. 


Electric Sunset Leaving Mamaksu's
Miriam x


P.S. There were lots of pictures to accompany this post, but my computer crashed as I was writing this entry and all of my pictures were lost. :( BooHoo. 




Monday, May 7, 2012

The Hoax Wedding

Every year a group student nurses come from Canada, with their professor to expand their studies, volunteer and get a taste of Morocco. They stay in Midelt, which is just a couple hours from me, for two weeks. This year the group consisted of four young women and every year as part of the experience, a Moroccan wedding takes place. Seeing as there were no male prospects for the role of the groom this year, Bill the Peace Corps volunteer in Midelt was asked to be the groom.

I was on FaceBook when he was asked and so I was the first person to know that he would be taking part in this staged wedding. When he told me he was getting married, I typed a message to another volunteer, Jo, who was also on Facebook at the time. I started by saying, "Bill is getting married" and had full intentions of expanding and explaining the situation, but when she assumed it was a real wedding, I let the fun begin.

Bill knew that Jo thought is was going to be a real wedding and together we decided that we would see just how far the rumor would fly. It was shortly before April Fools Day and I thought we would hold it up until then, but Bill suggested we that we wait until Marche Maroc in Fes at the end of the month, to tell everyone the truth.

I attended the "wedding" which took place at the new weaving school in Boumia, which Bill helped to set up. All the students at the school came to the "wedding" along with a few of Bill's friends from Midelt.   It was pretty entertaining watching the whole thing and a real effort was made to show the Canadians every aspect of a Moroccan wedding.

Bill and the Bride emerged from one of the classrooms in full costume. Bill in a jellaba and cape, the bride in a fancy kaftan (fancy jellaba). As they emerged, the drums and singing began and for about an hour they were stood in the center of a crowd as we all sang, clapped and danced around them. When they were finally seated a plate covered in henna leaves topped with four dates and three candles appeared. The dates were a representation of how many sons they would have and the candles, girls.

Next a platter of dates and warm milk arrived and they linked arms to feed each other the dates and to take sips of the warm milk. We were all served lots of tea and cookies and henna was put on the hands of any ladies who wanted it.

Once word got out to other volunteers that I had attended Bill's wedding to his Canadian sweetheart, I received many calls and messages from inquiring minds who were surprised to hear that Bill had been wed...and did Peace Corps know about it.

The truth came out in Fes that the wedding was a hoax...I guess I got them pretty good!

Miriam x

Me and the Bride & Groom
Wedding Guests
Henna Hands
World's Cutest Baby. Ever.
Rabha, Me, Hayat, Bill and the Canadians