"Cultural Days", January 10, 2011

Recently, I visited a fellow PCV at her site (not too far from the sand dunes) and I found myself staring at one of her walls. She had a make-shift 9 month calendar and each day had an item or two written on it. Some days said "sbitar(health center)" other days said "meet with tutor", "health club at school" or "english lessons". All of these made sense- most of the labels were pretty common for health volunteers. But then i saw the words "community" written on several days and I had to stop and ask my friend what this meant. She told me that these were days that she simply had to be seen out and about in the community, whether she went to the hanut (local convenience store, on a much smaller scale) or whether she hung out at her host family's house for the day and simply relaxed (as people usually do during the winter months, when there is less work in the fields. After I asked her this question, I instantly felt silly because I too mark my calendars with "cultural" days. I guess I was just curious to see what a "cultural day" was to her.

For me, cultural days vary depending on the season and what I need to get done. Some times (like today) I wake up and know that I'm not going to any schools, I won't talk "business" with any community members, and i won't have any official meetings (although every meeting, even a random introduction to someone as I'm walking through the egran-fields- could be a crucial point of contact). Some days I have every intention of getting "work" done, but it turns out to be a cultural day--these days can be hard to deal with because my western trained/outcome-focused education like me to have measurable results at the end of everyday, but somehow I always remember that that is part of the "experience" and I need to go with the flow.

Some days, I schedule nothing more than laundry (which takes forever-especially when I have to walk my stuff down to the river and then walk it all the way back to my house to hang it on my clothes line) and going to the hanut. This may seem like a very lazy day (and sometimes it is, which is ok), but there is alot hidden within these tasks. First, you have to realize that I am "on radar" every time I open my door. Some sees me, sees what I'm wearing, and sees what I'm doing every time I step out of my house. Sometimes, people even see what I'm doing when I'm in my house. Some of my bolder neighbors (in particular a set of brothers who are about 9 years old) love to look into my bedroom window to see if they can find my cats and see what I'm doing inside. It didn't take me long to commission my host father to make me two pairs of blinds. One day (when I first moved in) I was watching a tv show on my computer and I looked up to find several of the men, who were working on the house next door, peering into my living room trying to figure out where the voices were coming from (since everyone knows that I don't have a tv). This is the long way of saying, almost everything I do (including just being here) is a kind of work. This is something we hear alot from Peace Corps staff because it is important that we don't forget that "simply living in Morocco is a job....even when you don't consider our "actual" jobs".

So, with that said, some of my favorite "cultural activities" are:
-playing soccer with a group of kids. the teenage boys have never let me play with them, however, I have noticed that (during the past month) whenever I have joined a soccer game (or just passing around the ball) with younger kids, the teenage boys all of a sudden want to play or take a strong interest in me playing. My goal is that I can gain enough street-credit that the teenage boys will let me play with them next Leid Kbir (which will be next November).
-washing my clothes or blankets at the river-this is a good one. It usually takes hours to wash even a medium size load of clothes. Sometimes I go to the river to help other women wash their clothes, even if I don't have anything to wash. There is a huge sense of community and helping family (even distant family members). Since I don't officially have a family here (although I have a few that have adopted me and try to keep me in the know), a good way to gain trust and become more involved in the community is to take a communal role, like helping to wash each other's clothes
-Working in the field. This is a huge one. During the summer and fall, women (of all ages-include elderly women) work in the fields twice a day (morning and evening) to groom and water the wheat, corn, and barley. There are also big harvest days--everyone helps and then they throw a big party once they are done harvesting and grinding all of the crops (they usually make a soup-like material or cous cous out of the corn/barley...the wheat is used to make bread).
-Henna parties, where we all decorate our hands (sometimes feet) with traditional and modern henna
-coloring sessions and cooking sessions at my house
-Simply letting the kids come into my house and chase the cats around. Nina and Apollo (the cats-which everyone gets a kick out of the fact that they have names)shun me for hours after they have been tramatized by the kids bombarding them with attention. It's a great cultural activity because my community members don't see cats and dogs as pets or members of the family. They have tons of animals around the house/barn (chicken, cows, sheep, goat, etc.) but they aren't part of the family unit and they don't have names. Today some of my neighbors laughed at me when I was trying to calm down a distressed donkey and I referred to him as "Sidi Aserdun" (Mr. Donkey). The kids have gotten better with the cats and many times, when I'm out on walks, women yell out to me "Mayd skart Apollo and Nina?" (How are Apollo and Nina?) before they even ask how I am doing.
-sitting on the cliff by the river, hanging out with the girls/women in my host family

Now that I think of it, I do at least three of these things everyday...and I do them all in another language...so yeah, it is work. It's hard work, but it's also the coolest job that I have ever had. It's great that I get to learn about another culture, about health problems and potential intervention tactics, and a new language...but I think what I like most is that I'm learning how to be a part of a community (other than the one I was born into). The more I hang out with my community members, the more I realize they are just like me, or my uncle, or my neighbor back home, or whoever. I get paid (granted I get paid VERY LITTLE) just to live life. That's pretty cool

Oh and what did I do today....the quick answer. Study the language, wash my laundry, wash the dishes, clean the bathroom, play with the cats, make lunch, write some Peace Corps emails, go to the hanut (which turned into visiting one of my favorite families, plan a henna party for Wednesday, was convinced by my neighbor to run through the fields with her to get her run-away donkey, update my blog, plan an agenda for an upcoming PC meeting, and enjoy the company of my two cats...and I'm exhausted!