Hi Friends,
Just wanted to share an update in the form of a journal entry with you... This is a letter I feel inspired by and hopeful for as the new year begins. Happy New Year everyone!Hoping to offer more details of my life here.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Drinking instant coffee and snacking on chocolates, the women were quite chatty today. It was Morharram, the Islamic New Year. We greeted each other with a kiss on two cheeks and Sanna Saida and Bonne Années. There were about seven women in the room. The ladies were excited to host a party for Ashura, a holiday celebrated ten days after Morhorram, and extended an invitation to me. Rafissa was on the menu, a woman explained with her hands, as if touching the perimeter of a large round plate on the table before us. Then she brought a closed hand with all her fingertips touching together to her mouth, a common motion for eating. My Arabic is so poor that my conversations tend to include lots of body language, some French, and whatever translators were around.

 

I was surprised to learn Ashura was a holiday for adults as well. I thought it was a holiday for children since at school we usually made musical toys to send home on Ashura. Then the ladies began to explain to me. With their hands again, a woman described her jewelry. Another woman spoke in French and calculated 250 dirhams from a thousand dirhams. I was confused and finally said, “I need Anna to translate.” Anna is the director of the women’s center. She is Dutch and has been running the center for over 2 years. She is married and has two young children, is a trained nurse and speaks Dutch, Arabic, French and English, fluently.

 

I began to volunteer once a week after school since November in order to learn about the center and the women there. I was fascinated to learn about how a foreign woman can direct a local community center and actually make it work. The vision of this center is to create a place where women from all backgrounds in this neighborhood can be themselves and find ways to enrich their lives with different workshops. Exercise, language studies, sewing, ceramics, and a hair training salon are some courses members can take throughout a week.

 

The conversation moves into more spiritual matters as Anna mildly confirms with the women and then describes to me how Ashura is a time when people place curses or make animal sacrifices under the traditions of Folk Islam which is strong here. Another woman discusses the historical aspect of Ashura differentiating the Shiites and Sunnis and suddenly I find myself witnessing Christian apologetics in Arabic as Anna responds to a woman who kept repeating, “fancifiez…- fancyfier…- fansifiyer....”  I decided if I couldn’t understand, then I could pray for Anna and for the seeds of truth to be sown on fertile soil. Anna gently questioned the women but at one point had to say it was her turn to talk and for them to listen. They respected this and when she finished, the conversation broke in two. Anna quietly addressed one woman’s question and another woman turned to me though I understood nothing. The conversation came to an abrupt halt when someone entered the room making her round of kisses and hellos. Soon it was time to go. I thanked the Lord for letting me witness and be a part of this small community of women.  

 

I got into a white taxi headed back into the city. A woman with a baby strapped on her back got in after three teenage boys left acting strangely in the presence of a foreign woman. Arabic music played softly on the radio. Wind brushed my ears through the gap of my unshut door as the taxi sped toward a dusky sky. I suddenly looked up and noticed my taxi driver wore a white baseball cap that said NEW YORK on the back. A French sports magazine lay on his dashboard. Like reading my own name, I discovered I too am a part of this scene. This is my world - salted with the rich and poor, educated and uneducated, foreign and national, men, women, and children, truth and justice.

Over the summer I was able to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was able to take some artful pictures and hope you enjoy them!
 
Since the beginning of this school year, something has been missing ... Although I continued along this narrow path, I was carrying way too many megs in my memory and have finally unloaded them. Thanks for sharing the load y'all!

Please look in my photo blog for more cuties.   

Hi Friends,
I made it - caught my connecting flight in Paris and found that the boarding time to my connecting flight was reliably late... As I watched the landscape change from green to brown, blocked out the crying children aboard, absorbed the mixed Arabic and French conversations, and ate the brie but refrained from the red wine (heat and wine don't mix) ... I thought I was ready to be back... I got my bags, said my "salaam allehkum's" and sought my taxi. I was relieved to see that I didn't need to negotiate a price with a new sign posting all the standard rates.  Immediately a teenager came up to me as I approached the taxi stand and took my cart. I was happy to get such eager service from a taxi driver.

As I loaded myself into the car, the teenager turned out to be a porter and asked for a tip... Still relieved for a ride and a hand, I gave him a good tip, about $1.40 --for walking three steps and loading heavy luggage into a trunk. .I was still happy to be back so I didn't mind.

My taxi driver didn't offer much conversation which was good but then I noticed we were driving fast and found the odometer broken. Unfazed, I began to worry about something more threatening, getting my 50 lbs bags up my  never-ending steps and asked the driver to help me at the end... He refused but got a random worker in the street to help. I paid him and tipped him as well, even though he said no and a tip is unnecessary here for taxis. The man who helped me, took two of my bags and nearly sprinted up the steps. I was so relieved I offered to tip him but all I found was a bill that is about $8. This amount is equivalent to a half day's work for a handyman.

Though relieved of the task of transporting my luggage, I felt like I had committed the expatriot taboo- over-tipping like a tourist. Boo mary, boo...

The thing that gets me most is that I fell into the classic tourist trap that they do... they come up to you -- and I should have been more on guard... for any "Newbe travelers" out there- REMEMBER THIS: NEVER LET THEM IMPOSE THEIR SERVICE ON YOU - YOU GO TO THEM FOR SERVICE.     It's common sense but  being off guard and absorbing a place getting in the "tourist zone," they get us each time.

Revisited Beginnings
And for a great welcome my first day back, my good friend Derek met me for dinner at the panache place, the first place I ate at when I first arrived four years ago... I didn't even think of it when we decided to meet there...

The evening ended with a ride in mad traffic and rudeness, and a classic welcome from four large roaches in my hallway, of which my squealing attracted the attention of yet another helpful neighbor who happily whacked and shooed them away... And I did not feel obliged to offer a tip this time!!!

Thanks for keeping up with me! I will be off to the city of Fes tomorrow to stay with a family and practice Arabic... My fears of heat have rescinded. While the temperature will be in the high 90's, the humidity is low and therefore, more bearable. Thank God!

I am attaching an interesting picture I took one day... Yes, teachers and phonic spellers, be amused...
Much love and hope for a good beginning.
Mary