Wide-eyed in the Land of the Far West

Arid hills of the Middle Atlas

Greetings from the land of the far west, Morocco. According to history--and I am paraphrasing what was said to me, which was probably paraphrased from some historian and to that I´m adding a few colorful details--Arab explorers sometime around the 7th and 8th century AD weary from the unrelenting Saharan sun and exhausted from crossing the arid rocky terrain of the Middle Atlas upon seeing that they were met with an ocean said to themselves, “That's it, the end of the world.  This is as far west as we can go.” One of the Arab explorers followed, "Yall can go back, but there's no way in the Islamic version of hell that I'm crossing the Sahara again." So he and others stayed.  After having a very nice tajine cooked most undoubtedly by a local Amazigh guide, and of course having a bit of tea, they, without asking the local guide for the name of the place, decided to call their newly discovered territory Al-Maghrib, the land of the far west or land where the sun sets.

As you have noticed from my blog title, I have adopted a Moroccan name. Yousef, whose English equivalent would be Joseph or in Spanish José.  I was donned the name by my host dad and mom from my training site. They thought that Jonathan was a little too difficult to pronounce and thought that a more appropriate name for me would be Yousef. Other Moroccans have complimented me on the name saying it is a good name so I decided to stick with it.

Peace Corps Director David Lillie

So here I am already three months in and done with our Community-Based Training(CBT). I swore in not too long ago at a really fancy hotel ballroom with amazing panoramic views of Fez. The event was quite memorable. It had the feel of a commencement ceremony. Two trainees from our language groups presented speeches in their respective Moroccan languages kind of like the speeches given by our salutatorian and valedictorian. They were selected by our Language and Culture Facilitators (LCF) or what you could consider to be the faculty.

US Ambassador to Morocco Thomas Riley and Nancy Riley

In addition to the faculty, the administrators were also present. Our Country Director, David Lillie, was the master of ceremonies, and the keynote address was given by the ambassador who also conferred upon us the title of Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV).  Many of our host family members made it to the event, applauded our achievement, and at the banquet incessantly and emphatically demanded that we sit, eat, and drink much like they had done for the last couple of months. It was a nice cap to the 11-week training period.

Training

The pace of the training was somewhat exhausting, but I actually wish there was more of it especially language. We had a Moroccan Arabic textbook that was made by Peace Corps Morocco staff and volunteers, which I thought was really good in terms of its methodology and its substance.  The LCF's knew that at the end of the training we would be to some extent on our own getting to our sites, doing a bit of shopping, searching for lodging, and getting acquainted with our counterparts and ministry delegates, so they wasted no time on theory and taught us whatever was necessary to survive those first few months.

The language training is an intensive curriculum that packs in the equivalent of two to three semesters of language courses into 11-weeks.  We covered the imperative, past, present, and future tense forms of verbs, how to use articles properly, possession, common adjectives, a huge laundry list of vocabulary, and a load of stock phrases used by many Moroccans.  

I remember past tense took an entire semester at my old high school. Note however that I said covered and not learned. Some were able to retain more than others, but I think we are all going through the process of defragmentation at this moment. We got so much information in such a short period of time and miraculously much of it is stored somewhere in the brain, but it’s like you need to reorganize your brain or review the information so that you can begin to put all pieces together.

At times, it felt like I was cramming for a final exam everyday. I placed my Moroccan Arabic textbook under my pillow as I had done prior for previous college exams, but this time around the process of learning by osmosis did not yield the same results. Perhaps Arabic script does not diffuse or is not absorbed as quickly or maybe my brain does not have the adequate receptors to properly retrieve the information.  Some volunteers broke out flashcards, played Arabic charades, and others closed their eyes and meditated on some of the common phrases like Buddhist monks. I saw a lot people slap their heads and faces, pull their hair, and forcibly squint their eyes in utter frustration. I did and am still doing a combination of all those things. It would be interesting to find out if any of the latter physical methods work better than others.

I once saw this documentary on how the brain works on Discovery Channel, which I greatly miss, about how information is stored but how it takes different triggers like a smell, sound, touch, or some visual association to restore it from the depths of one’s mental archives. Our LCFs did a pretty good job of trying to create situations that would help us associate words with actions through various mock plays, dialogues, drawings, or simply going to the store and trying out all our new vocabulary with the mul hanut, convenience store owner. When I am scrambling for a word, I usually flashback to those situations and in some cases can come up with a word or two that can explain my latest predicament.

In addition to the language lessons, we were given an overview of Peace Corps’ approach to community development and how it pertains to our particular focus. Peace Corps Morocco has at this moment various sectors: environment, health, youth development, and small business. According to the director and if I remember correctly there are either 200 or 300 volunteers in Morocco making it one of the biggest programs worldwide. Morocco also has one of the longest running programs since Peace Corps’ inception, and the small business unit is the newest addition to the PC Morocco portfolio. Per the Moroccan government’s invite specifically the Ministry of Tourism and Artisana, the unit was created with the directive to foster the growth of those two sectors with a special interest in handicraft and textile production. Our program managers provided us with a brief overview of the sector, which according to them contributes to nearly 20% of their GDP. Quite an astounding figure I thought. So as we muddled through our language lessons, we were also given a lot of information to prepare us for our role as small business development volunteers.

All in all, training was a blast. There were plenty of awkward moments of complete silence with host families and many others filled with laughter like when I introduced Sumo wrestling to my host kid brother. My host mother cooked some amazing meals like a delicious oven-cooked chicken with a parsley and lemon glaze and a bunch of other seasonings and with a ton of olives. For someone who enjoys olives, Morocco is about as close as you can get to olive heaven. The chicken was served in a large platter with the whole chicken in the center and a moat of chicken broth and green olives all around it. Absolutely delicious!

Not so delicious was the steamed sheep’s head we had for leid sghir, the dinner to break the Ramadan fast. The sheep’s brain was served on the side. My mother gave me the honorary first try at the brain. I can’t say that it tasted anything like chicken. It was more like a bland, white spongy mush. With a little cumin and salt I was able to take a few more bites. One of my host sisters played with the sheep’s ears as though they were conversing with one another. After the games, everyone sunk their bread bits into the head and began to take it apart. My host father took a jaw and began gnawing at it. I was also given one of the jaws, which I gathered was a precious portion as it contained some of the best meat, and just followed my host dad’s gnawing example.

During training there was still time for fun. I was able to take a couple of hikes, one near Azrou, my seminar site, and another in Ain Leuh, my community-based site. The view from the summit of the Azrou mountain ridge was absolutely breathtaking.

You could see miles and miles of rolling hills, clusters of cedar trees, narrow plots of green, recently plowed plots waiting for the winter rains, grazing pastures, and a concentrated bunch of apartment buildings sprawling out from the slope of the mountain and extending throughout the valley.

You try to capture everything within the expansive view, but you find yourself so inept in doing so that after a while you give up and just begin to marvel. Aside from the hikes, volunteers organized movie nights, dance-offs, a talent show, and various exercise groups did everything from yoga to intense aerobics. There was a little bit of everything for everyone. I led a number of yoga classes, which were quite spiritual I might add. A group of us would go to the roof of the auberge (youth hostel) and go through an hour long class as the sun would rise over the mountains. It was an awesome way to start the day.

The swearing-in ceremony was kind of a bittersweet moment. You’re excited to have reached this moment with your fellow PCVs, but sad to see them go. Also, the (LCFs) that we clung to no longer would be there to clear up those incidences when we meant no offense when we accidentally called a man a woman and vice-versa. I met some great individuals and we shared some great moments. Now the fun really begins in my new city, my new home in @#$%^& (Sorry, Peace Corps policy does not allow me to disclose).

Thanks for reading.