Friday, February 25, 2011

Training...is it over yet?

It is Monday, February 14, Happy Valentine’s Day!  I am already getting ready to pack up for a trip up north for Post Pre-Service Training.  This means I have been in site 3 months!!  I am heading back up to the city Azrou, where I had Hub, close to the village I trained in.  Yes, I am going back to see my host family there and I cannot wait! I am excited to see everyone there and what the village looks like with snow…yes I will finally see snow this winter, possibly! I has been snowing there…don’t know what it will be like when I get there, but there will at least be snow on the mountain tops.  I feel like I just got back from out of town, but this month has been busy, and yes a lot has happened from my last post.  So I got to see the Super Bowl!! I am so glad the Steelers didn’t win! But I was even more excited to see live football.  The site we were going to stream it got blocked, but another volunteer is a computer guru and found the site…it was worth the work to see the game!  I may have said this before but one lesson I learned here is when you are invited somewhere…GO.  I went down out of the mountain with my counterpart and another woman of the association one day last week.  I did not know where I was going, just knew it was the “place” of the youth, something about culture, and “ahaydus/ahawaych” (traditional dancing.)  We ended up going to the culture center where the youth where going to show their talents.  It was basically a recognition/awards show.  Yes it was a real auditorium, in a newly built building and there was a presenter with microphones.  When we walked up to the place all the adolescence, mostly boys, where waiting outside to get in.  The best of the best were going to be there…such as government officials, Chief of Police, presidents of associations.  So everyone wanted to be in attendance and they all were waiting to get through the gate.  Unfortunately there was not enough room for everyone but many made it in.  No, I was not prepared for this, I had on my usual for when I come out of the mountain, jeans and a jacket…but at least I had jeans on.  I know that sounds weird…but it was the first time I felt conscious this close to home.  There were un-veiled women wearing heels, men driving up in their own cars, a woman with a stroller, women with real jewelry on…everything I am not used to around my village!  Anyways, we did not have to wait outside the gates; we were invited by the manager of one of the youth bands performing.  Yes I said band…they had an electric guitar, wood guitar, and an electric keyboard…I was so surprised.  It is an actual band and when they performed the entire audience, which was a lot of adolescence, erupted into excitement.  They were really good.  The show started with a young boy singing a verse of the Koran, local traditional dancers were there, and there was a hip hop artist.  No, I did not understand the hip-hop artist, because it was Moroccan Arabic, but he was good.  I did not know all this was going on in my region!  The band gave me their CD and I love it…plus they sing in Tashelheit so it helps me with the language.  The hip hop is in Arabic, but the beats are still awesome, hip-hop with an Arabic twist.  I have some websites I want to give you all to see the traditional dancing of my region and the hip-hop artist.  I do not know if the band has a website, I will find out and let you know. This was all new to me…I felt “honored” to be there.  It was interesting sitting next to my 2 Berber women, who know nothing but the traditional music, listening to hip-hop and a band.  They didn’t react much, just enjoyed the liveliness of the audience and me…I was quite shocked, honestly!  All I have heard music-wise since I got here is the traditional Berber, some Arabic, singing of the verses of the Koran and a little bit of “American” music from last year.  So to hear this stuff and it is Moroccan artist, I was really excited!!  After all this excitement, in the past few days, tourist started to come through my village and Morocco in general.  Tourist season is beginning!  I gave a girl from Japan, who speaks English, a private tour of my village and we went to my association…she ended up buying two bottles of rose water and a rug.  I was quite proud, plus it gave me some ideas for my work with the women, as far as marketing their product!  Our building is up on a hill, so tourists don’t want to walk up there, especially after they have walked through the valley of fields.  I will figure out a solution!
OK, now I am here in Azrou at training and I got to walk through snow! No, I did not make a snow angel but that just may not happen this year!  I got to stop and see my dear friend Annemarie in her site.  She is NE of Midelt on the north side of my mountain range, High Atlas.  She lives at the base of the mountain and the road goes for miles out into the middle of nowhere, then bam there is her village!  I love it.  Then we all went up north to a fellow volunteer’s house halfway between Fes and Taza.  She is Chinese-American so she had us all come for a Chinese New Year dinner and it was amazing! She made fresh potstickers, hot pot and many other authentic Chinese foods.  No, all the food is not available here in Morocco, certain spices and seasonings had to be sent from her family.  So that made it that much better! That was a good time and then we all came here to Azrou. Training has been ok, just a bit much sitting in chairs from 8-6 trying to stay awake.  I feel like I am in school again, trying to pay attention and not getting too distracted!  My fellow SBD PCV’s and I all presented our sites for each other which were entertaining at the beginning of the week.  My site was quite a hit!  They loved the pics and many confirmed that I live the farthest away from modernization.  Many other PCV’s have sites like mine, however the Small Business Development sector tends to have more developed/larger sites. But not I and I love it that way!   I took my language test and went up 2 levels, which is quite an accomplishment, if I could say so myself.  Not to brag, I just needed that re-enforcement of my language, since all I have heard that past 3 months is how I don’t know.  But anyways I am looking forward to seeing my original host family this coming weekend.  Also, I almost forgot to mention how I had a meeting last week, before I came to training, with my women about what they want from me.  I had my tutor come up because when my women get together and have someone to listen to them they get going and I cannot understand that much language, yet!  The meeting went well, but of course my counterpart’s son showed up and interfered, nothing unusual.  My tutor asked her to tell him to leave because it should only be the women, but she said to let him stay.  Finally, my tutor had enough of his distraction and made him leave.  He just continued saying they don’t know anything, they need me in there.  This is a pure example of life in general for women in Morocco, especially more conservative women.  All the men do is try to speak and/or act for them and get them all rowd up every time we have a meeting, but my tutor handled the situation and the meeting turned out to be positive and successful!  Their main ideas for me are to help them set up their association to be more attractive to tourists, possible signage down out of the mountain on the main road, and marketing with hotels in the region.  They also want me to get their Arabic teacher back because all my women are illiterate with the exception of a few.  When I said set-up the association that means hang the rugs on walls, because they are all folded on a table and get their rose water on display, they are all tucked back in a storage room.  I am excited to get back to site and start working on some projects.  I have some pictures of their products and how they do the natural dyes to post.  Also, I checked the websites I mentioned before and found out the band does not have internet exposure, I think I am going to help them with that. The website for the traditional dancing is in French and I could not find a video, but check it out to see how and where I am living…ahwach-tizouite.org.  The hip-hop artist has a few songs on it, my favorite is #3…mc-medaz-km.skyblog.com.  I am also going to post some pics of the event.  Otherwise life is well…I may check in before I leave training this week if anything exciting happens.  Peace!

On the left is Ayisha and the right is Moohou, my counterpart/president of association.  We are at the talent show and as soon as they saw people with cameras, they asked me where mine was...good thing I brought it.

Hip-hop artist

My new favorite band

So this is the traditional dancing of my region...the man in the middle leading is drumming and jumping up and down all at once...he's got talent.

Just to give you an idea of how they dance and move. I know this doesn't show much but I don't know how to explain it. Atleast you can see the dress.


So these are the youth of my village...showcasing their talents to be the next nationally known group of traditional dancers in our region!
This the rug of the girl that I took to the workshop.  That green is the color match from the dye we did at the workshop.  The rug design is common in the Ouarzazate region, but it is not our traditional design.

This is a rug full of the Berber alphabet. 

Ok so this is my favorite and least favorite rug.  This is a prime example of why I am here...quality and product development.  This rug has almost all natural dyes, from the fields of my village, besides the maroon which is on the bottom right hand corner. If you see the top is finished with the weave of orange and red, which are not in the rug.  Also, the lines are not even, but this is all potential work for me.  Also, that brown wool is camel wool...thought you all would be interested in that. Again, there is so much potential for them, I just need to enlighten them on new oppurtunities and possibilities, inshallah!
This is all natural wool, very finely spun. Beautiful, light and simple for shipping or carrying home in baggage.  I think I can work with this for tourists!
Another example of tying in the wool with a random color that is not in the rug...I have already got some of them to understand this concept. Just minor details they don't pay attention to, they are more interested in completing a rug...just part of the culture.
So this is what my women love to do, the "shag" rug!  They know what they are doing I just need to expose them to color theory and product quality. Again, they have the skill, they look past details that matter for sale, especially to tourists.
Here is my host mom, Kbira, and our rose water...1/3 of the shelves of it, along with a vat full of it.  I plan on helping them with the local competition of watered down rose water...because ours is pure!
These are our natural dyes, and my host mom.  Everything is from the fields in my village...walnut leaves, quince, pomegranate skins, onion skins, henna, roots called tabuyia found in the vicinity of rose roots, almond shells, coffee grounds.  Beautiful, huh?!?
This is the tabuyia, roots dug up from around the rose bushes.  I don't know exactly what this is in English...just know it is found near rose bushes, but it is not the roots of the roses.  I will figure it out.  They were starting a fresh batch of dyes the day I was leaving for training so I have not seen the finished product yet.  This takes hours alone...boiling water, putting in the dye agent, then letting the wool soak in the dye.
My host mom, again.  They are confined to these little pots to dye in so it takes that much longer...hopefully we can figure out a solution.
My counterpart, Moohou, and a lady of the vllage weaving.  I think her name is Leila, but she goes by the Berberized version and I always forget it.  In Morocco, you have to have a Muslim name by law, but alot of Berber's have their own version they go by.
All wool...many natural dyes, but I don't think all.   I love the color combination...they may be done when I get back...can't wait to see it.
My women in action!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Back to life...back to reality

It is just too cold at night here to be updating daily as I said I was going to try.  Mashi Mushkil, no problem, I still have some stories for you all since I got back to site.  Wow, being away from site for a week, speaking nothing but English and being in “modern” society can provide quite a shock when you step back into reality!  While I was waiting for the taxi to fill up for my first ride back up the mountain, the driver, who lives in my village, was talking to other boys about how I know Tashleheit, but all I know is the word for water and bread.  He also asked me how much I paid for the stuff in my bags.  Everyone always ask how much stuff is and I always say I forget or I don’t know it was a gift. But goodness I couldn’t even get up the mountain before he started nagging me.  I just love it though because when they think I don’t know they talk more and it is entertaining sometimes.  The point of that comment was to add that my taxi broke down about 7 minutes into the ride and I just wanted to say “that’s what you get for talking about me.”  However, it was rather cold waiting for another ride because the sun had gone down by then.  Also, side note, I said Tashleheit and before I have called the language Tamazight.  Well they are both the same, just different regions have different names for it…at the end of the day it is all the Berber language, with different dialects village to village.  On Wednesday, I went back down to town for souk with 2 ladies from my association but ended up losing them because the one mumbles when she speaks and I can never understand her.  However, had I stayed with them, who knows what I would be eating this week.  Also, I found strawberries, and I don’t know if I would have seen them with the women! Yesterday, Thursday, I traveled with my neighbor girl over to one of the villages across the river and on the way we saw the natural spring…it is so beautiful!  It is definitely like stepping back in time a little over there.  She even commented about how they live like the cave people when we were walking through the streets.  I don’t know if this was before or after we passed the little boy squatting in the middle of the street.  At first I didn’t know what he was doing but then I saw a fresh pile of poo next to him…he must of thought he was done and then had to go back down for more.  I mean it is not much different than my village. When I walk through the fields I see plenty of human feces and even some older compounds do not come equipped with a “bitlama,” hole in the ground.  I am glad I went along for the trip it is beautiful over there and I can’t wait to explore some more.  Today, Friday, I had Velveeta Shells and Cheese for lunch and an egg sandwich with Peanut Butter for breakfast…Thank you Dad!  I must say I never really ate boxed mac n cheese before I came, in fact I think I threw some away when I was moving out of my apartment in Cincinnati, but I have been craving it since I got here. Today I sat there and almost ate the whole pan; I had to force myself to put it back in the kitchen, knowing I would be sick later if I didn’t.  These small comforts are needed to remind me of home and I indulged!! I let some neighbors try the peanut butter and they were all hesitant but as soon as their tongue hit the spoon their eyes lit up!  In general many Moroccans won’t eat what they are not accustomed to, so I was not surprised many were scared to try.  I think that is all for now…I am going to read for a few then lay down for the night…it is getting cold and I need to get under the covers!