Finding a Home in Morocco…

The past two weeks have been great for my language, but bad for my nerves. I recently began a comprehensive housing search in my community. You would think that with 40 duwars (communities) and 20,000 people…there has got to be a dream house (or apartment) waiting for me. Right?…well, things aren’t always as they seem. I guess I will start from the beginning…I’ll warn you know, this is a long story!

Two months ago, as part of my training, I visited my site for a week so that I could get accustomed to the language (which varies depending on the region) and my future community. This was also an important time for me to get as much information from the volunteer that I would be replacing. When I returned to my site, for the long haul, the previous volunteer had left and I was on my own. During that first week, I tried to learn as much as possible about the community, from another volunteer’s perspective, before I was left to fend for myself (and trust in my language skills). One of the things I inquired about was his housing search. At the time, he was living in a house that was surrounded by the sbitar and the elementary school (two important places of work for health volunteers), but was fairly isolated from the larger duwars and there weren’t many neighbors around. Although the lack of neighbors was a downer, the real let-down was when I entered the house. I was greeted by a dog, a pet, and a ton of trash and dog waste all over the garden that was in the middle of the courtyard, and a house that (in general) was in disarray. I should explain that the volunteer was 5 days away from leaving the country and had a lot of packing and cleaning (obviously) to do. So I did not see the house in its best state. Also, I quickly realized that the kitchen AND the outside of the bathroom did not have a door on it…which was concerning because the flies go crazy (in the summer) and the snow can be a bit of a nuisance during the winter…not to mention the wind that sweeps across the mountain top EVERY afternoon. As I mentioned before…I didn’t see the house in its finest state and I was not impressed.

So I left my site visit, and retuned to my training site, expecting to find my own new house for my Peace Corps experience. The former volunteer has mentioned that he had not put much energy into his house search and quickly settled on the house used by the previous volunteer (I failed to mention that the two previous volunteers had lived at this same house…so this house has become associated with Peace Corps volunteers). So I was excited (and determined) to search throughout the entire mountain top…well, really the five or six duwars, which are in reasonable distance to the sbitar, the suok, and the government buildings (schools, associations, commune, etc.). I was really excited to conduct my first ‘international housing search’ and to test out my language skills.

So, once I came back to site, to officially begin my service, I took a few weeks to get accustomed to the people and my new schedule…and then I got down to business. I began to ask anyone and everyone that I knew about houses that were available on throughout the mountain. I quickly realized a few things about my community that never quite struck me before.

1.) To my surprise, a lot of the women that I asked has no clue about housing option in their duwar (town) or outside of their duwar. At first, I thought this was strange, but then I realized that the work of the women (for the most part) is in the house (preparing meals, doing house work, harvesting crops and storing them so that they can be used to make bread or other meals, etc.). Also, women spend a large chunk of time, each day, in the fields. During the summer months, the women in my host family go to the fields three times a day to weed upcoming crops, harvest wheat and barley, and to help prepare the newly harvested fields for the next crop (corn…yum!). There isn’t much time for the women to travel from one duwar to another, unless they are going to visit family or (on a rare occasion) are going to suok. On the flip side, men are typically the travelers who go to suok to purchase food and products for the family. Also, it is perfectly acceptable for men to take tea breaks to go to the nearest hanut (local store) to sit and chat with other men about…well, stuff. Also, in Morocco, families are based on the paternal lineage. When a man and women get married, the wife moves into the house of her husband and becomes a part of her husband’s family unit, which likely includes the wives and children of her husbands’ brothers (who also incorporated their family into their family unit. Therefore, when looking for houses…it is almost certain that the house will be owned by a man, even if the head of the family is a widow. Does it sound odd? If so, take a second look at the typical family (and work/family balance) structure in the U.S….you may find more similarities than you would have expected.
2.) I learned that there is a completely different concept of knowledge in my community (granted some of my perceptions of this may be blurred by my language skills). As I asked around if people knew about available houses and homes, I realized that I had to be very clear about what I wanted. I quickly perfected the phrase, “ihssa ad kruie yat tadart, digs lbit lma, lbit n lhit, lbit n tefeza, d lkuzina. Awd, digs aman d bula. Is imkin?” (I want to rent a house that has a bathroom, a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen. Also, it should have water and electricity. Is it possible?) The first time I asked about a house, I failed to mention my need for doors on rooms or privacy, not having other people come in and out of the house, etc. So, as the weeks went on, my “renting” vocabulary became very polished. Anywho, each time that I would ask someone if they knew of a house (with my running list of necessities), people would say “yes, I know of a house”. I would get exciting, we would arrange a time to see the house (usually the next day), and then I would come and would realize that there actually wasn’t a house, or it didn’t have electricity or water, or that it was a group house and I would be sharing it with five other people…more like a dormitory (no thank you…2 years of being an RA and I’m over dorm life!). To get to the point…I learned that people are very willing to give information…so willing to help, that it may not actually be the type of help that you need (but the effort is appreciated).
3.) I also learned that things don’t always happen as they do on the home&gardening channel. Just because you set out looking for your “dream house”…it doesn’t mean that you will find it (or find it for the right price…and trust me there is a “right price” according to Peace Corps).

So…where does this leave me. Well, it leaves me without a house (as of yet). I’ve searched around the mountain top for houses, apartments, and even caves (just kidding, I’m not that desperate). Ideally, my “dream house” would be a house that is surrounded by lots of neighbors (that I can get to know and can call on for help when I see my first scorpion…which hopefully won’t happen), a house that has a lot of windows (so I can absorb the sun in the cold cold winters), and place that I have enough space and privacy that I can have a refuge. In some ways, I don’t think I’m asking for too much…but then again, I have to put everything in perspective. There are over 100 teachers that are renting houses in the mountain top (that’s for over 20 schools) and that’s a lot of houses that are already full. There isn’t a huge real estate market in rural Morocco…so houses aren’t exactly built to sell/rent, I have to rely on someone having an extra abode. And, the concept of privacy is very different here…so me finding a place of refuge (just me) is going to be tougher than expected.

With all of that said…I’m up for the challenge. I’m ready to start week three of the housing hunt. I don’t know how it will turn out, in the end (which will hopefully be soon), but I do know that it takes more than a couple of windows, some privacy, and neighbors to make a house into a home. The home is a place …where the heart is (just kidding, that’s a little too cliché). A home is what you make of it…and Morocco is already my home…I just have to find my own mini-Morocco (and add a little bit of USA). I’m exhausted from biking from duwar to duwar (sometimes realizing there is no home to be seen), but my language has improved greatly and I have met some amazing and extremely helpful people along the way. This isn’t the way I would have planned my housing search…but God’s plan is always better than my plan…that’s why I’ve come to expect the unexpected.

Hopefully, in my next email update, you will get a chance to see a picture of my fabulous new home! Until then…wish me happy house searching.

Sidenote: It is not a Peace Corps requirement that a house has running water…however, there is a river nearby that has varying levels of water each year and would require water treatment (by moi) and I would like to go without constantly carrying my water to my house (every day)…call it “Posh Corps” but that is my personal requirement.