to live is to fly

new beginnings/what comes next

2010-01-20T14:56:00.003Z

Well, travel, computer troubles and an assortment of unforeseen circumstances brought my entries to a halt, unfortunately. I'd hoped to do a more reflective and ceremonial ending to my time in Morocco...but instead I've just started up a new blog, here, that will be in part about my readjustment process to the States and my attempts to import what I learned and the ways I changed into my American life. It's mostly recipes and photos, but also some thoughts and reflections and, in large part, a sort of love song to my Moroccan way of life (wherein spending five hours on a meal is an everyday thing and time is nothing if not elastic).

Thanks so much for reading these two-plus years! Hope you continue to visit me at http://imiksimik.wordpress.com.

Llah Yarham Lwalidayn!!

home stretch

2009-11-12T11:16:00.002Z

N.B. My computer has lapsed into a deep, deep sleep (probably due to two years of heavy use in a dusty village), so blog entries will present a challenge from here on out. My official close of service date is a week from tomorrow; my last day in my village is Monday. The volunteer who's coming to take my place arrives Sunday. The past week has been a whirlwind of packing, shipping, cleaning, crying, tea, couscous, biking, talking, and planning. Leaving a place is never fun, but here, the idea of leaving a place "for good" just isn't something people are used to. "When will you return?" and "But how long will you BE in America?" are the most frequently asked questions of me these days, and it's hard to respond because I don't have the answers yet.

I feel like I'm moving too fast right now to really ponder and reflect on what these two years have meant, and it might be a while before I really realize their full impact. At this point the most I can do is try to get as much done and see as many people as possible before leaving...and then deal with next steps, with reflections, with processing it all later.

Nearing the end

2009-10-30T09:37:00.004Z

Three weeks to COS!

I'm in the process of uploading a last album of photos - highlights from the past 10 months or so - if anyone wants to browse (my picasa albums are on the right hand side of the blog). It should cover all kinds of exciting stuff, from trainings and exchanges between my association and at least three others, my parents' visit last spring, camps (though be warned, there are just a few...for lots of camp photos check out the YouTube videos I linked to here), hiking Lake Ifni, several photos of my house, photos from the ceremony in which the weavers were presented their very first profits, a business training I helped out with in a friend's site, our epic bike trip over the Tiz n Test pass, a trip to the magical Portuguese cistern at Al Jadida, a moussem in Taroudant at which hundreds of camels were slaughtered (yeah I know), Easter eggs decorated with henna, my ladies' first trips out of their region, to Fes and the Taznakht area, and a bunch of random photos of my site on those days that made everything look particularly gorgeous. I'll do my best to caption them...enjoy!

into the great laugh of mankind

2009-10-21T16:47:00.003Z

...title from the title of a Sufjan Stevens song that sort of captures my mood at the moment. My life looks like the routine of the past two years, if you can call it a routine, but recently the patterns have been subtly shifting and everything is louder and more complicated and better in a lot of ways. Time is just flying! But a few thoughts:

For some time I've been toying with the idea of starting some kind of blog or website that highlights interesting, clearly written articles, podcasts or essays about the Islamic world for the average American nonspecialist reader. So much of the information out there about Islam and the Middle East is biased or full of jargon or overly complicated, and while I am definitely not an authority capable of explaining it all or understanding the subtleties of every bias, I think an online community might be a place to start. I think a huge huge HUGE problem our country faces is simply a lack of information about the populations and countries of our world that doesn't typically get a whole lot of coverage in high school history classes, particularly the Islamic world (which is as diverse and varied, by the way, as the "Christian world," if you want to think of it that way).

Anyhow. I don't know if I will ever get around to creating such a website, or how it would look if I do, but in the spirit of the idea, I just wanted to share with the brave souls who are still following this rambling epistle two years later a few interesting pieces that have caught my eye/ear lately:

1. The Pew Forum: Mapping the Muslim Population
Did you know there are more Muslims in China than in Syria? Or that one in five Muslims lives in a country where Islam is not the majority religion? Or that not only are not all Muslims Arabs, but that not all Arabs are Muslims?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life just published the findings of a comprehensive study on the world's Muslim population, and it's as good a place as any to start forming an accurate picture of the Muslim world.

2. Afghanistan is confusing and sometimes I wonder how on earth one should even approach its myriad problems. Obviously nobody has all the answers, but lately I've seen and heard many coherently articulated descriptions of the challenges there and how they might be addressed in the New York Times Magazine and on the websites of the inspiring Shuhada Organization and Afghanistan's National Solidarity Programme.

Today I finalized the host family for the volunteer who will replace me - a really lovely, welcoming family with a beautiful home! I'm so excited for my replacement. I should find out who she is on Monday - when, coincidentally, I'll be in Rabat for the last time for a GAD (gender and development) meeting. By the time I get back from the meeting I will have TWO WEEKS left in this place where I have been living now for nearly two years. Sometimes I feel like I know it so well - and sometimes I feel like I've just begun to learn my way around.

The weather is finally turning, and it instantly brings me back to last fall - a time when I felt I was FINALLY finding my footing here and understanding how on earth I could find a way to fit in to the development efforts already happening in this wonderful community I now call home. I recently picked the last fruits off of my pomegranate tree, and already its leaves are turning golden and falling to the floor of my peaceful little courtyard.

On a less sober note, on the list of Things to Do Before I Finish Service is "make pomegranate chutney" - which I finally did!!!! And it is delish. Especially good with chicken salad on a sandwich, or to spice up an otherwise ordinary grilled cheese sandwich. So here are the recipes for THOSE, if you can get your hands on some pomegranates, which you should if you are at all able...

Chicken salad, adapted from my Great Aunt Marguerite's recipe

Combine
2-3 cups of cooked chicken pieces (I usually use 1/2 to 1 kilo of chicken, and my preferred method is to cook in oil, broth, and some herbs and spices and maybe some plain yogurt in a tagine for about an hour)
Pomegranate seeds (1-2 pomegranates)
Grapes, seeded and halved
Walnuts or nuts of your choice
Cilantro and parsely, chopped

Mix with about a cup of plain yogurt, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper, and spices of your choice (I usually use turmeric, curry, and ras al hanout). Chill till ready to serve, and if you wish, serve on a bed of fresh lettuce.

Pomegranate chutney (ever so slightly adapted from my godmother Tona's amazing incredible Peach Chutney recipe)

Remove seeds of two medium to large pomegranates
Place in large saucepan

Add: 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/8 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/6 cup chopped onion, about an inch of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped, and dried/ground ginger, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon to taste (I usually do half to a whole small spoonful of each), and a spoonful of salt.

Measure about 2 cups of sugar (or about 2 cups worth of honey and sugar if you want to use less sugar) and set aside.

Mix about an ounce of powdered fruit pectin (half a standard size packet) into the saucepan (which now has everything but the sugars), stir well, and place over high heat.

When a boil is reached, immediately add all the sugar and stir. Keep at a rolling boil and stir constantly for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and skim off any foam that may have formed on top.

Continue stirring for 5-10 more minutes.

Let cool and store.

for breakfast lunch and dessert

2009-10-11T22:50:00.001Z

...lately I have been eating pomegranate seeds and plain yogurt and just a drizzle of honey all mixed up together, and I can't believe I ever ate anything else for breakfast, lunch, or dessert.

That's all.

odds and ends

2009-10-10T15:50:00.002Z

I am moving out of my village in 36 days.

New word: Moroccracy (Morocco + bureaucracy)

The weather is still way too warm for mid-October, but I think I can finally safely say that an entire summer has passed with NO SCORPIONS in my house. This has certainly made my life easier, but I'm afraid it's made the blog a little boring with no updates to the scorpion death match column...sorry about that.

According to a handout Peace Corps gave us, I am supposed to be feeling:

"Fright, Confusion, Alienation, Anxiety, Panic, Giddiness, Impatience, Obsession with planning and scheduling"

I can't say honestly I'm feeling much of any of that. I'm sure as departure draws nearer I'll get anxious about how on earth to pack all my stuff into the one suitcase I've promised myself will be my limit. I'm happy and trying to savor my last days in this place, but I'm not sure it borders on giddiness. There's a lot to squeeze in but honestly I have faith that somehow it'll all get done.

I have probably jinxed myself. I'm sure now I'll wake up tomorrow morning fraught with confusion, panic and giddiness...

Happily, I can add one more "indicator" to my list of Visible Changes since I arrived: a large group of weavers is planning to TRAVEL to visit another group of weavers in an adjacent region! (They're going to see the group that generously came to us to conduct a two day training in new techniques and quality control last June.) This is a major change: not only is it unusual for more than two or three weavers to travel somewhere, but the entire idea of the trip came from the women themselves - not from men and not from me! I guess a year ago this would seem like such a small step, but living here for two years has changed my perspective so much: in visual terms (because I'm a visual learner), it's not that my perspective has shifted laterally so much as it's way zoomed in, so that the things I notice and appreciate are very different. The difference between a small step and a big one is really in the eye of the beholder, I think.

So, on the cards for the next few weeks: visiting aforementioned weavers with the ladies, a final jaunt to Rabat for a Gender & Development meeting, and then my FINAL TWO WEEKS in Morocco. It's so weird to be counting the time not in months but in weeks now.

I'm keeping a running list of the things I'll miss. At the top: the kids in my host family, the bread my host mom bakes on an open flame in the traditional clay oven, the city walls of Taroudant, the High Atlas mountains in the afternoon light, the Anti Atlas mountains in the morning light, whitewashed courtyards in the evening light, the sound of old men talking to donkeys, the sounds of women weaving, and the sight of rosy pomegranates outside my window.

The view from Fes, two years later

2009-10-02T15:37:00.004Z

Nearly two years ago, after a long journey, I arrived in Fes for my Peace Corps swearing-in ceremony. It was cold and rainy; it was Thanksgiving; though I'd visited my village - my new home - for a week or so as a part of training, I still had no idea what my future in Morocco really held.

Fes is totally unlike the southern province where I'd spent my first three months in Morocco. It's got an enormous, labyrinthine medina, the oldest university in the Arab world (founded by a woman, no less) and a cosmopolitan Ville Nouvelle - a relic of French colonialism - to complement it. It was the last time my entire training group would gather before heading our separate ways. I was simultaneously overcome with all kinds of emotions and questions and excitments and fears - and numb to it all, a bit shocked that we were really about to leave the relative security of the training environment and strike out on our own at last.

I'm in Fes again for the first time since that rainy November and things couldn't look more different. I'm here with two brave young women from the group of weavers I work with who traveled by themselves to Fes - a part of the country they'd never been to, and a 16 hour bus ride away - to participate in a business training and craft fair. They're bringing products improved by exchanges with other weavers and natural dye experts. When I first met them they were reluctant to go to a craft fair just 50 kilometers away, and here they are in Fes - finding their way around, meeting people, and experiencing a wholly new part of their incredible country. I'm so incredibly proud of them, grateful for the opportunity (the event was organized by fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and partially funded by USAID), and relieved they arrived safely.

Like the Fes of two years ago (which I explored from the same hostel I'm staying in right now - talk about deja vu) - I'm both filled with emotions and slightly stunned by it all. I can't believe how far I've come and how far they've come. Two years ago, one year ago, six months ago, if you'd told me this is where I'd be this sunny October I never would have believed it. It's hard to believe I'll be leaving soon. I'm definitely ready to head back to my American life, but it's hard to wrap my head around wrapping all of this up.

It's always strange to re-visit a place filled with such intense and brief memories, especially when the return is on the cusp of another enormous transition. I like to think that comparing the beginning and end of this experience against the unmoved backdrop of such a magnificent ancient city will provide me with some kind of heretofore undiscovered perspective or deep realization...but for the time being, I'm content to just accept my days in Fes as, at the very least, a beautiful set of bookends to an incredible experience.

Murals from Camp

2009-09-21T15:41:00.004Z

Here are the murals created at our camp this past August with the help of local Roudani artist Soufiane Ait Ben Hmad. They were painted on the walls of a local community association and elementary school.

I helped paint this one, which depicts mothers sending their children to school and the importance of education:

These next two were completely designed by campers (there was a contest to come up with designs on environmental themes, and these are from the winning groups):

This mural is about the effect of HIV/AIDS (SIDA, in French) on a society; in Arabic in the corner it says "United Against SIDA":

Another mural about the importance of education:

And, finally, one last mural depicting environmental themes:

Lovely Days

2009-09-21T15:03:00.006Z

Some days I just can’t help but think that this is the greatest job I’ll ever have because it allows me to live such a beautiful life.

In the past week I’ve broken the fast with at least five different families; each one was delicious in a different way, whether because of homemade shebekkia (a traditional Ramadan sweet), an avocado and apple smoothie, amazing harira (traditional Ramadan soup) as well as askif (traditional Berber, country Ramadan soup), or bread baked in a clay oven. I played tennis twice and zipped around my favorite Moroccan city by bicycle. I joined a large extended family as they gathered for one of the biggest holidays of the year, and helped a local community organization pass out Ramadan gifts to local families.

I discussed a friend’s upcoming first-ever trip to Fes, and ran around to various printers for three days until I managed to make a set of business cards for the weavers I work with. I bought new (well, old) shoes (hence the photos...most Moroccans buy new outfits for the end-of-Ramadan holiday, but I'm more than content with a new pair of used shoes) and hung out with friends, old and new, American and Moroccan, in three villages, a town and a city. I watched the sun set over ancient earthen walls and happened to walk past my favorite vegetable stand just in time to buy their last bunch of weekly spinach.

I made plans for the future: for next week, for next month, for what happens after Morocco, and for what happens after that. As much as I can’t wait for all those things to happen, right now I’m just doing my best to savor these lovely days.

new kitten heels = audrey hepburn = holly golightly the film character = holly golightly the recording artist playing in the background of our post-spinach-omelette-photo shoot = one lovely morning

Photo credits = Matthew Heller, who has been subjected to more of my cooking than probably anyone else on this planet and still has the patience and good nature to take beautiful pictures of my new shoes.

In praise of yoga

2009-09-02T18:08:00.008Z

There are a lot of stereotypes out there about Peace Corps and Peace Corps Volunteers, and I am happy to confess that yes, I do make granola, and yes, I do a lot of yoga.

Without yoga, my service - now rapidly drawing to a close - would have been quite different. I taught simple yoga classes to my weavers when I was just getting to know them as a group, and it served all kinds of purposes: discussing good posture and stretches after hours of weaving that put stresses on their bodies, practicing my Tashelheet, getting to know them in a fun, non-work atmosphere, and providing something new and interesting during a crucial few months of transition as their project slowly morphed from a structured educational environment with a regular teacher to a small enterprise model in which the weavers work more independently and earn profits directly related to their work and efforts.

On a personal level, I never would have been able to stay in shape (physically, mentally, or spiritually) without my trusty podcasts from Yoga to the People (you can find their podcasts on iTunes). I started doing yoga back in college, but until I started these classes I didn't realize how amazing it could be. It's like I finally found the perfect class or style or sequence or what-have-you and now I can't imagine life without it! (Ok, I know, I sound like a zealous religious convert, but I'm hoping that will sound out-of-character enough to convince you how great this workout really is.) Doing an hour of this stuff makes any bad day a good day and any good day a great one.

At this point I should pause and say a HUGE thank you to my dear friend Ethan, who tipped me off to Yoga to the People in the first place : )

I guess my posts are starting to sound like a long-winded Oscar speech...but as long as I'm here, I just want to say many thanks to all of my yoga teachers, past and present! My life in Morocco just wouldn't be the same without you...

Two years in texts

2009-09-01T20:24:00.000Z

I send more text messages in a week in Morocco than I did in my entire life in America. With volunteers, I use texts to communicate the good, the bad, and the logistical; with Moroccans, texts often require a creative transliteration of Tashelheit and Arabic with the occasional French or Spanish thrown in for good measure. Looking through my phone’s inbox I was tickled by all the memories and struck by how apt a narrative they form all their own, so I thought I’d share a few highlights. Most are anonymous to protect the innocent. Many have comments, but some speak for themselves:

Favorites from Maroc Telecom (phone service provider that texts all of us a little too frequently…there’s nothing like the sinking feeling of reading one of their messages when you think you’ve gotten a beep from a friend or coworker):

Protegeons notre environnement. Maroc Telecom, partenaire de la Fondation Mohammed VI pour la protection de l’environnement

Hmm. That’s nice. I’m…impressed? Nonplussed? Happy to hear it?

Pour un geste de generosite, envoyez vos SMS au n 620 pour contribuer a la sauvegarde de la ville d’Al Qods et au soutien de sa population (10 DH HT)
9 September 2008

I’d be interested to know if similar messages are common throughout the Arab world (Al Qods is the Arabic name for Jerusalem) – I would bet that they are...

From friends:

OH MY GOD POMEGRANATES IN SOUK
31 July 2009

Ahh, the joys of eating seasonally

WOW ur girls are 33/100 of our fair…tbark allah i may have to buy a competitively priced carpet…
6 March 2009

From a fellow PCV, reporting that women from my community had traveled independently to a local craft fair in a regional capital for International Women’s Day

Omg I’m at a Moroccan mtg and one of the things on the schedule is to verify a quorum
21 February 2009

Some things are just too good not to share

oh my god the moon
9 February 2009

The moon really is stunning some days, isn’t it

Just saw an interview w/the dalai lama during which he said abt himself “not best dalai lama. [pause] Not worst dalai lama. Popular! dalai lama. VERY popular dalai lama.” and thn nearly laughed hmslf off his chair. Thght y’all might like that…
21 August 2008

oh man they’re watching titanic upstairs i recognize the strings over slow motion montage of ship filling with water. oh our morocco
25 June 2008

True fact: many Moroccan apartment buildings are constructed with a ventilation shaft ensuring that every sound in each unit is heard in every other unit, including the sounds of Titanic and tea being poured.

True fact: Moroccans love Titanic with a fervor that is eclipsed only by their love for Celine Dion

um race festivities over…awarded certificate unclear what for. stood on pedestal until asked to step down…
26 April 2008

From a friend who was lauded publicly simply for being The Foreigner who participated in a local running race

WHAT?! OH I’M [expletive]. I KNOW I’M NOT CUT OUT FOR SCORPIONS!
7 April 2008

I just had to bail out of a mving taxi b/c it was abt 2 drive straight into a wall. Now, it was going at a crwl but the brakes weren’t rspnding. It was like the Titanic. I shld have known aftr hearing Celine…
3 March 2008

Lovely Qoo I rwcall my most cherished memory
25 January 2008

From a friend, quoting directly from the lettering on her host sister’s pajamas.

my gendarme’s phone plays “tainted love” and he types with an unlit cigarette in his left hand. there has to be a camera somewhere…
5 December 2007

From coworkers:

…it does not matter one hour does not make change…

In response to a text I had sent inquiring whether a particular event was taking place at 5 pm “old time” or “new time” (i.e. with or without regards to Daylight Savings Time, which is very casually observed here)

I had to share the good news, my women just sold their 1st 2 rugs for 1100 d’s to french & I wasn’t even here! They were made out of natural & henna dyed wool
3 April 2009

From a fellow PCV encouraging women in her community to use natural dyes for weaving. One of the best parts about working with Peace Corps is the access it provides to a network of volunteers, many of whom are doing similar work – practically speaking, the PCV who sent me this helped me set up my own natural dye training, and in terms of morale, it always helps to hear encouraging success stories from others.

Wach ghat tji 3andna nhar lhad rah twahchtak
6 November 2008

From one of the weavers I work with, texting me at the end of a long month of travel to tell me that they missed me : )

From family:

Just hang on…the sun will set today…I guarantee it!

From dad, on a particularly trying day

UNC wins! UNC wins!
6 April 2009

From dad, on the day UNC won the NCAA championship (after I’d stayed up all night with a friend searching for the game in vain on every satellite station known to man…how is it that two separate European basketball games were aired at the same time NOBODY was carrying the NCAA championships??)

ANNY!!! READ!!! Got a phone call from an American who saw your luggage in Agadir airport! It’s in “special” back room for “unclaimed luggage.” His emai *some text missing*
19 January 2009

Yes, in case you were wondering, it’s not uncommon to find *some text missing* from what is, more often than not, the most crucial part of an incoming text message. The event referred to is described in more detail here

NC officially goes for Obama!!!
6 November 2008

One of the best moments of my life I think

As my dad said to me once, “Trudge on, McDuff”…
20 August 2008

Sometimes you are very sick and in very low spirits and you just don’t believe you will ever get better. There’s nothing to do but, you know, trudge on.

This is big. Imagine. Now we have to weather all the republican propaganda crap
4 June 2008

Just after Obama won the nomination

However, we DO know that only 23% of white male Catholics who’ve had two years or less of college, live in small towns of less than 10,000 located by a river (unpolluted) and hunt quail, not deer and drink only domestic beer – will vote for Obama…
22 April 2008

Before Obama’s nomination, during the final throes of the battle with Hillary

He is a companion to sooth you to sleep – an Easter mouse!
19 March 2008

Dad trying to make me feel better after I had a little freak out about the mouse in my house. For the record I conquered my fear of the mouse in my house. But the very next day I did go out and buy a Western style bed so I’d no longer be sleeping at mouse level...

OK, did you hear this Buckley quote – “I’d rather be governed by the 1st 2000 people in the phone book than the 2000 people on faculty at Harvard.”
27 February 2008

In memoriam of William F. Buckley, Jr.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference –Frost
5 November 2007

I’ll let Dad have the last word.

I couldn’t have made it this far without these little bits of text to carry me, move me, push me and pull me through it all. Thanks to all the anonymous and unanonymous senders of the above and all the other messages that help me get through the day.

Summer 2009: Recap

2009-08-30T13:39:00.007Z

This has without a doubt been one of the most eventful, meaningful, challenging, incredible summers of my life and I'm just now getting around to processing it all. I've just returned from our official Close of Service conference in Rabat - kind of surreal - and it's becoming apparent that the next three months will be even crazier than the last three! So a brief attempt to at least go over some highlights of the summer, with apologies for it all taking so long and promises to include some more thoughtful reflections on all of the following soon:

June: stepped down from the chairmanship of the Peace Corps Morocco Gender & Development Committee. I still have one more meeting to attend with this incredible group of people who have made my service especially meaningful and enjoyable - but now I'm mostly just tying up loose ends with my GAD projects and passing them on to newer members.

Just after, I traveled to work at a summer camp organized by two of my stagemates for the youth in and around their villages. It was incredible, and you can get a glimpse of what it was like here.

And THEN, moving into July, after the camp we trekked out to Lake Ifni - an absolutely gorgeous alpine lake in the High Atlas:

Inspired by the first youth camp, a friend and I decided to organize our own camp in our region. It came together very, very, very fast and was a whirlwind and a huge learning experience and a totally inspiring event all smushed together. It deserves about three entries to itself...but in the interest of time, I'll direct you to view yet another awesome video that gives a sense of the activities we organized. Check it out here.

In the meantime I took some much needed vacations to the beautiful beaches of Taghazout and the quiet mountains of Imlil - both are lovely places with good scenery and, even more important, cooler weather than my village. The locals say this summer was even hotter than last summer. I kind of lose track of the temperature once it hits 110 degrees Fahrenheit...

Not long after the second camp ended, two friends and I decided to ride our bikes to Marrakech through the Tiz n Test pass - the highest pass in Morocco at about 2100 meters. I think it may have been the most challenging physical task I've ever undertaken - cycling through the High Atlas makes for a lot of climbs, some that went on for 10 or 20 or more kilometers at a time - but it was beautiful and enthralling and definitely worth it.

And now Ramadan has started once again and our COS conference is behind us! Hard to believe. The weavers I've been working with have been on a break for the summer and are starting up work this week, despite the challenges of working during Ramadan, because they've had numerous commissions come in over the summer, which is great! I'll spend the next several months trying to tie up loose ends in site and prepare for my replacement. Then November 20th I'll leave Morocco (for now) and begin the next step. Still working out exactly what that will be...

new favorite tashlheet word

2009-08-03T08:49:00.008+01:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but if not, it's such a great word it deserves a repeat.

"Izuzwa" (ee-zoo-ZWA) means "cooler," as in the weather.

Unsurprisingly, it's almost always used in a comparative sense: "It's hot here, but izuzwa there," or "yesterday was so hot, but today the weather's izuzwa a bit..."

Even if it didn't roll off the tongue, izuzwa is music to my ears...

A cool summer menu

2009-08-02T22:28:00.011+01:00

The only food I can think about these days is cold food.

So as soon as I returned from a few days of much-needed vacation up in the gorgeous mountains of Imlil, I set about filling my fridge with cold, easy dishes to eat for the rest of the week.

My first favorite summer dish is my version of the “Salade Marocaine” that’s more or less ubiquitous in tourist cafes and Moroccan homes alike. The typical Moroccan salad includes diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions lightly dressed and mildly spiced – often with parsely, cilantro, or bell peppers thrown in for variety.

My version starts with the same basic idea with the addition of several crucial ingredients that make me feel cool and happy – most importantly, mint and fresh melon.

Summer Salade Maroc-Anny

For the salad, dice the following:
2 tomatoes
1 medium to large onion
1 melon of your choice (I like honeydew)
1-2 sweet bell peppers
1 cucumber

For the dressing:
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons your choice of vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Juice of one lemon, one lime, and one orange
One inch of ginger, peeled and grated
Mint and coriander to taste, roughly chopped
Salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

Combine, chill, and serve cold.

If you want, you can take a bit of the bite off the raw onion by chopping it first and letting it stew in the dressing while you chop the other veggies and melon.

Easiest Fish Ever (this one is dedicated especially to my fellow volunteers)

When you live far from the ocean in a rural village and are looking for a fun new protein source…my latest kick is simply to get creative with the tinned mackerel that’s in even the most sparsely stocked hanuts out here in the bled.

This recipe is adapted from the book Flavors of Morocco by Ghillie Basan (which is awesome, by the way, and has resulted in my first real attempt and success at cooking any kind of serious meat dish). Call it a poor girls’ (or a poor Peace Corps Volunteer’s) chermoula sauce (a traditional Moroccan sauce served with fish).

To make it:

Place a tin of the nicest canned mackerel your butahanut carries in a bowl.

Add to this:

2 cloves chopped garlic
1 red chile pepper, chopped into small pieces. If you want more of a kick, include the seeds. If you don’t have a fresh red chile ask your local spice guy for whole soudania peppers – they’re a handy substitute
Chopped cilantro to taste (non-negotiable)
Cumin or ras al hanut to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of a lemon or lime

Mix them all together, chill, and enjoy! Also yummy as a sandwich filling.

Three Li’l Pigs Mackerel

You don’t like cilantro? Or you live in America?

Do the same as above, only instead of adding the chermoula sauce, simply add to your mackerel a tablespoon or so of the Jamaican Jerk sauce from the Three Li’l Pigs Barbeque restaurant in southwestern Virginia. It’s not because I am related to the owner or anything like that, it’s just that this sauce is the best way to eat fish in the world.

Jealous? I guess you have to come visit me, because I have plenty of marinade just waiting to be used.

Cold Brewed Coffee: Spiced and Iced

Last year the New York Times ran this article about cold brewing coffee which is one of the most brilliant pieces I have ever read. I promise I am not being facetious…

I adapted their recipe and make it Roudani style (Roudani being the adjective form of Taroudant…). I start with coffee beans finely ground with generous amounts of powdered ginger and cinnamon. Then I mix three parts water to one part coffee and let it sit in the sun for 6-8 hours, then chill it in the fridge overnight. To serve, pour through a fine sieve and add cold milk to taste.

Not fun enough? Blend that with a cup of vanilla yogurt and a handful of ice cubes for a frothy frappy treat…perfect for a summer day.

And my final, super easy (we’re talking 120 degree afternoon, need some cold protein dinner easy) cold dinner dish:

It's-120-Degrees-and-I-Need-a-Refreshing-Dinner-but-Have-No-Energy-for-Anything-Elaborate-Hard Boiled-Eggs:

Hardboil some eggs. Slice them up and top them with a drizzle of olive (or argan) oil, salt, pepper, cumin, and some finely chopped herbs. I like basil and parsely myself…

on goals two and three

2009-08-01T18:10:00.003+01:00

When people back home ask me my opinion of Peace Corps as an organization, I often tell them that although my service in Morocco has given me a better sense of the very real challenges and problems Peace Corps volunteers and staff face, it’s also deeply strengthened my belief in the importance of all three of the Peace Corps goals – much more so than I imagined when I joined.

For those of you who don't know (and for most of you, well, why would you), Peace Corps has three goals: the first is more development oriented and has to do with providing technical assistance to countries that request it. The second and third goals are more cross-cultural: helping people in other countries understand Americans and American culture, and helping Americans better understand the people and culture of other countries.

I remember sitting through staging in Philadelphia, reading about those goals and telling myself that as nice as goals two and three sounded, my true purpose in joining the Peace Corps really lay in that first goal of technical assistance. I knew I wasn’t going to save the world, and I harbored no illusions about the limitations of my own experiences and abilities – but I truly believed that if I did my best, through that first goal I could make a positive difference, no matter how small, in my assigned community.

For most of my first year of service, I lamented the fact that I couldn’t find any artisans, had no “real work,” and didn’t feel like I was doing any technical development at all. I resigned myself to being a “goal two and three” volunteer – essentially a goodwill ambassador from America to my community. Which wasn’t totally uninteresting – I live in a remote village that had never interacted with a foreigner (excepting the Syrian irrigation specialist), let alone a white, single American woman. I believed that building friendships, dispelling stereotypes, and helping people put a face and a personality to our almost impossibly diverse, varied, and sometimes contradictory nation were all good things – I just wasn’t sure I was convinced exactly how urgent or even important they were. I was frustrated that Peace Corps threw three goals at us with very little discussion of their relative importance or relevance to one another. In my own mind as well as among many of my fellow volunteers, there was a sense that the first goal of Peace Corps was the real deal, while the others were “fluff” goals – put there for PR, an excuse to keep us out in our villages and discourage us from even thinking about requesting a site change.

My first insights into the potential for Peace Corps’ cross cultural goals emerged through the World Wise Schools program, a project within Peace Corps through which I've been corresponding with students at my former high school about my experience. Over the past two years or so, I've been lucky enough to exchange thoughts and ideas with over 150 different students via email. I spent two full schooldays with them when I went home last Christmas, and we didn’t have nearly enough time for all the conversations we began. Their questions often provoke me to reflect about my service in new ways, and their wonder and surprise at so much of what I tell them reinforces the importance of what I’m doing. Many of them have told me that they want to become Peace Corps Volunteers when they finish college. I genuinely believe that this correspondence enables me to share a unique perspective about the Arab and Islamic world in a way that I never could have otherwise. Writing to these students gave me a sense of purpose on the days when it felt like anything I attempted in my Moroccan community was futile – and gave me the sense that I could at least translate that frustration into a lesson, something productive, to share with my community back home.

[I am thrilled to report, by the way, that at some point about halfway through service, that year of integration and “intentional relationship building” started to pay off and I found myself with more goal one-ish, “technical development” type work than I ever dreamed of those first few months in site.]

Even so, over my second year of service I’ve developed a much deeper appreciation for the importance of those cross-cultural goals and their inclusion right alongside more straightforward development objectives. Part of it comes from realizing that even the most sincere and conscientious efforts to work towards sustainability provide no guarantees (call it the internalization of a long term sense of “insha’allah”), and from wondering what the end result of my efforts will be if, say, continued drought empties out my village’s population, or if all my weavers get married and move away in the next few years. And part of it, I’m sure, comes from realizing the limitations of my influence as a facilitator and catalyst in my community; as an outsider, I can suggest new ideas and create opportunity, but it’s not my role to step into that opportunity – at some point, it’s up to the men and women I work with to take matters into their own hands.

Despite all these misgivings, though, I’ve come to think of my efforts here not as “bettering” the world, but as broadening it. As the only single white non-Muslim woman here, I am a concrete representation of diversity in my community. It’s made me realize how easy it is to take diversity for granted back home, because it’s more or less one of the organizing principles of American society. “Diversity” has become such a hackneyed catchword in America, but in Morocco I’ve grown to believe that it’s not only a good component of a society but an essential one as well. A broadening experience is necessarily a bettering one, on some level. It’s not always easy or pleasant, but it speaks to a higher purpose than I realized before I came here. That’s why it really hit me when I heard my teenage host brother explain my presence in the village to a group of visitors at a recent wedding. “She’s like our sister, because she lives with us and speaks our language,” he explained, “even though she isn’t our sister...She’s our American sister.” When relationships expand to transcend local ties and family bonds and cross nationalities and ethnicities, it creates spaces for new thoughts and ideas. I believe that those spaces are where tolerance and peace truly reside and grow. In a country like Morocco, where family ties are so important, what could be more compelling and essential?

The scholar Robert Wright has written extensively on a phenomenon within the history of all three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) in which scriptural interpretations have become more tolerant and peaceful when those religious communities are participating in a more interconnected and “globalized” world – dating from the expansion of ancient empires and trade routes to globalization trends today. Over time, he argues, a more interconnected world leads humanity to interpret “God’s will” to be more and more compatible with the principle that all people, everywhere, deserve respect, despite their ethnicity, nationality, or faith.

With this in mind, in a world that’s borne witness to such deadly clashes between people of different faiths in recent years, the virtues of being even a small part of a movement to continually broaden the experiences of so many at home and abroad feels quite different all of a sudden. Far from “fluff,” footnotes, or afterthoughts, those cross-cultural goals are more vital and pressing than ever before.

the only good thing about this kind of heat

2009-07-24T20:51:00.000+01:00

is how fast laundry dries.

taking a moment for...

2009-06-21T21:46:00.002+01:00

Currently appreciating:

The amazing ability of rural taxi drivers to back long distances at great speeds down long earthen alleyways without ever scraping against the wall

How whitewashed earthen walls of the homes here look blue in the early twilight

The usage of "bladi" and "rumi" to indicate (very generally) local and foreign products or ways of doing things.

"Bladi" means "country" in the same way the English word does - it can either mean a particular country, like Morocco and the US, or region, as in "I'm from basketball country," or rural, as in "I live in a village out in the country." "Rumi," believe it or not, dates back to the use of the word "Roman" to indicate outsiders, invaders, or Christians. Its usage is a little less charming when it refers to me ("tarumit" is the female Tashlheet version that kids yell at me sometimes) as opposed to, say, mass-produced chicken eggs (vastly inferior, we're told, to the traditional rural country style bladi eggs) but still tickles me when I hear it.

Lastly, how when I go to chat with my host mom mid morning I'm always offered a snack of her delicious perfect wholesome flatbread straight off the fire...gonna miss that one a lot.

my latest favorite smoothie

2009-06-21T21:38:00.002+01:00

My latest concoction uses date paste, which is glorious even if I'm not wild about dates. My guess is that it's probably readily available at whole foods and health stores in the U.S...but it's great as a non sugar sweetener and a healthy and filling addition to a fruit smoothie.

Blend:
One banana
One cup yogurt
Several frozen strawberries (obviously use fresh ones if they're still in season where you are! They're long gone here. You can also use strawberry yogurt)
Generous spoonful or two of date paste (it's super thick, so it helps to actually add it a little at a time to the blender)
Generous spoonful or two of honey

YUM.

You can also experiment with adding avocado to this mix. That seems really weird at first to Americans, because we're so used to using avocados in savory guac style dishes and not sweet liquid smoothies...but try it!! You definitely need to be sure to add enough sweet ingredients to the mix, but it's absolutely lovely.

Natural dyes link

2009-06-14T09:55:00.002+01:00

Anyone interested in more information about natural dyes or in art & chemistry in general, check out my aunt's blog on chemistry and art here!

I guess on some level I was destined to work with natural dyes at some point. Before organizing our workshop I'd almost totally forgotten my award-winning (well, minor award-winning) sixth-grade science project on natural dyes (not making this up).

I'm in the final evaluation and reporting stage of the grant that helped pay for these two workshops and I'm still pretty happy with the results. The women are almost finished with their first all-natural carpet and I've just commissioned another one. When I explained what colors and designs I wanted for the latter, I told them to use mostly natural dyes but that it'd be ok to use a synthetically dyed black wool for some very small border details. They vehemently told me that was a bad idea and when I was protested they actually demonstrated why the black dye was inferior and could potentially bleed into the natural dyes around it...thoroughly chastised and very proud, it occurred to me that as unquantifiable as that sort of thing may be, the fact of the weavers lecturing me on quality control was a pretty satisfying sign of success in itself.

The next day I went into town to buy them some dyestuff for a black dye they could apply themselves to mordanted wool (ensuring its fastness) and adjust the strength of to their preferences. The next step: encouraging them to go into town to purchase the dye themselves.

This actually isn't as hard as I thought it would be a year ago, but there are still huge geographical, cultural, and logistical factors involved that create barriers to women's freedom of movement. It's not always what you think - as far as I can tell, it's less that women are specifically banned from going into town and more that the cultural atmosphere makes them much more comfortable and less open to questioning or criticism when they stay at home. It's not that going into town to shop is against the rules so much as it's miles outside of their comfort zone. Having dealt with life as a single woman living alone in this culture for over a year and a half now, I can definitely sympathize.

One of my biggest hopes, actually, is that a paved road is scheduled to be constructed leading all the way from town to the village - meaning that regular, cheap transportation (a twice-daily bus, from what I hear) will come with it. This is huge. If I ever doubted the importance of nitty-gritty, physical infrastructure development as an essential counterpart to educational, capacity-building, "people-focused" development efforts, those doubts have definitely been laid to rest. Having cheap and readily available transportation could make a huge difference in my site - not just to our weaving association but to village kids who want to attend middle and high school in town, local businesses, and more.

nostalgia/senioritis

2009-06-09T12:35:00.003+01:00

Just finished up another great workshop with the weavers - this time a two day introduction to some new weaving techniques and design motifs, plus some quality control and general advice, courtesy of a wonderful weaving association near Tazenakht.

Yesterday I stepped outside just after sunset and saw the grey-blue High Atlas mountains silhouetted against a dusty orange sky and it really hit me how soon my time here is going to be over...a really incredible feeling of nostalgia and appreciation that I have to admit is much heightened, and maybe totally owing to, the fact that I'm leaving in just five short months.

As impatient as I am to leave in some ways, the swift passage of time these days helps make good moments even sweeter: yesterday I refilled my big butagaz tank and before I'd even paid, two nearby teenage boys loaded it onto a bicycle and wheeled it home for me. Today I hiked into souq to catch a taxi into town - there are always more passengers than places in these taxis and the result is a mad scramble to pile into a car, with shouts and elbows and bodyblocking all around. But without my even asking, two different men "blocked" for me and made sure I got a seat so I didn't have to throw myself into the fray. Despite the frustrations I've met with here, and the things that still confuse or anger or trouble me, I'm constantly reminded that I've become part of a community that accepts and takes care of me, despite vast differences...which is an incredibly powerful and reassuring thing in this world.

Favorite images of the week: an old fashioned Singer style foot pedal operated sewing machine that says "MADE IN THE USSR;" two men riding their donkeys home from souq with large fleecy sheep poking their heads out of the large woven saddlebags.

Internet back, for real

2009-05-29T08:45:00.002Z

Ok, so after many headaches and dead ends and ridiculous looking but ineffective antennas, I have finally arrived at an internet solution...hopefully this means from now on I'll be able to return to some semblance of regular posting on this blog.

It's been a busy time - to follow up on the recent natural dye sessions we're planning another workshop next week, which we're all looking forward to. My parents came to visit for a week, which was wonderful but quite a whirlwind: we visited my own village and weaving association, Taroudant, Tiznit, Meknes, Volubilis, Moulay Driss and Rabat. It's always a treat to travel through this country with people who don't live here - you get to see things with new eyes again and remember how new and exciting and new everything once was.

Speaking of, any foodies out there who end up traveling in Morocco should check out Riad Maryam in Taroudant and Riad Bahia in Meknes, which both serve some of the best food I've eaten anywhere, let alone Morocco.

More updates soon, inshallah. And photos! Soon. Really.

natural dyes!!!

2009-05-07T13:11:00.005Z

Internet's still down, but I just wanted to share that we had an incredibly successful natural dye workshop. The weavers I work with are even more excited about natural dyes than I am, if you can believe it, and less than a week after the training they started making and using their own dyes. It's incredibly exciting to watch them take control of their supply line, creative expression, and product quality all at once - it's simultaneous economic and personal and creative empowerment.

Above is a photo of me and the incredible, amazing Amina Yabis, an outstanding Moroccan role model who traveled 15 hours from the other end of Morocco to lead the workshop. In the background you can see some of the new colors the weavers are now using in their work! Hopefully I can post some photos of their new and improved products within a month or two.

We're planning another workshop in a few weeks - an exchange with an established women's weaving cooperative - which will hopefully provide even more ideas for new designs, motifs and techniques, not to mention a sense of what it means to be an independent women's cooperative. Between then and now I'll be traveling with my parents, who are coming to visit next week! There are just about six months left of my service here and I can't believe how quickly the time is slipping by.

back from outer space

2009-04-25T11:56:00.003Z

Well, not really. Internet's been down for over six weeks now!! And I've just been grabbing whatever minutes I can at the cybercafe here and there, so haven't really had time for a real update. But some exciting news items which will hopefully soon be expanded upon:

1. Work: I got a grant to hold two workshops for my weaving association; they'll cover topics including natural dyeing (so the women can color their own wool and have more artistic/logistical control over their supplies) and new weaving designs and techniques. These start next week with a natural dye workshop and I am really excited about it!!! (Triple bottom line anyone?)

2. Adventure: I celebrated Easter with my dear friend Kate who graced me with her presence for the second time in Morocco, this time for 10 whole days!!! Easter highlights included a massive national transport strike that sent food prices soaring and yogurt supplies dwindling, a service at a local French Catholic church (frequented, in the past, by Jacques Chirac, who sadly made no appearance at this year's Easter Vigil) and a spectacular Easter dinner including Lamb of God crepes (lamb sauteed in rosemary and sage butter wrapped in wheat dinner crepes).

3. Yogurt: Kate brought me a YOGURT MAKER which is possibly the greatest thing in my life right now.

It's been a very fast and crazy spring and things show no sign of slowing down...I expect things to be busy from here on through my official close of service in November. Anyone out there who wants to visit and hasn't gotten around to it yet, you have seven months to make it happen!!! Anyone and everyone is welcome to my little earthen house. Pomegranates off the tree in just a few months!!!

P.S. Apologies for the gratuitous amount of exclamation points herein. The coffee plus the time stress of internet cafes has me a little jumpy!!!

changes & updates

2009-03-25T08:48:00.003Z

So I've been having some, um, connectivity problems. A few weeks ago the internet stopped working - so when I paid my bill the next day I asked if there was some kind of problem with my account. I was told everything was fine and given a number to call for technical support. A week later, with no change, I found out that in fact my internet was cut off because apparently I have only been paying half my bill for the past six months. (I should explain that my typical bill paying experience is: 1. Walk into internet company office, 2. Ask how much I owe for the month, and 3. Pay what they tell me to.)

But that's ok. Insha'llah it'll get sorted out today. Maybe.

In the meantime I have been hosting lots of folks from around the region, appearing on surprise documentary film interviews (anyone detecting a pattern? Apparently March is my surprise interview month), applying for a grant to organize some workshops for my ladies about natural dyes and some new weaving designs and techniques, and working on this, our brand-new website for selling carpets!

So take a look at our stuff, and forward the link on to any textile-lovers or carpet-importers you may know! Things are getting exciting around here. Last Sunday the weavers took home earnings from their carpets for the first time. It was an incredibly fulfilling moment, one I'm still trying to find the right words for.

But in the meantime, I need to hit the road so I can do some bureaucratic wrestling with my local telecom company...

Also,
GO HEELS!!!

snippets

2009-03-16T09:28:00.002Z

Internet has been down lately so I don't have a lot of time for a full post, but two items of note:

1. I'm pretty sure someone called me "Copenhagen" the other day while I was walking through town.

2. Also while walking through town I came across a plastic food tray (very common element of your typical Moroccan tea service) that said, three times, "Unimpressive" on it in English.

Anything but...