Seeing With New Eyes

At first,I want to say that nothing too thrilling or adventurous has happened recently. But then when I think about the last week or so, I'm reminded of the exciting new things that I'm experiencing here in Morocco. Learning Classical Arabic, going to Casablanca for the weekend, meeting up with several friends, going to the 3rd largest mosque in the world, buying a bike, and finding a group to play futsal (soccer) with, are some of the highlights over the past 10 days. I'll start by describing my typical day as an Arabic student...

My alarm goes off on my cell phone between 6:45 and 7:00 in the morning. Wishing, more than anything, that I could go back to sleep, I make my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower, grab a quick breakfast, consisting of coffee and milk, pastries, bread, olive oil, olives, bread, and more bread. I make my way to school around 7:30am. Because I live so far from ALIF (my school- Arabic Language Institute in Fes) I invested in an old mountain bike to get me to and from school. The first few days I made the walk, but it took nearly an hour each way. I have a two hour class in the morning and another two hour class in the afternoon, which means that I make 4 trips to and from school every day. When you do the math, it adds up to almost 4 hours of walking and about 10 miles (16km or so). So I decided to purchase a bike. The bike gets me to school in a quarter of the time (about 15 min each way). It saves me about 3 hours of walking and more time to study, read, eat, sleep, socialize and do homework for the afternoon class.

After my first class, which goes from 8am-10am, I usually come home and sleep. If I'm not too drained, I will read some and catch up on school work for my GLT classes for APU. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I play futsal with a group of students from ALIF, as well as local Moroccans. For those of you who don't know, futsal is soccer, but played instead on a basketball-like court, with smaller goals, and most often a smaller, heavier soccer ball is used that doesn't bounce as much as normal soccer ball. It is as hot as you know what. There is no shade and our game from 12:00-1:30 is scolding as the sun radiates off the cement. I bring 3Liters of water and it is gone before I get back to class at 2pm. In the afternoon, I return back to ALIF for my second class of the day. Learning Arabic is both invigorating and difficult. I feel like a 2nd grader, as I am learning a completely new alphabet. Furthermore, Arabic is written and read from right to left (with numbers being the exception), making writing challenging, sloppy and fun, all at the same time. I have really enjoyed it so far, but it is without a doubt, a hefty task ahead of me. The slightest change in pronunciation of a particular letter can change the whole word. For example, the word "Ha-Saw-D" means "harvest" whereas "Ha-Sa-D" means "jealousy", or "Sai-EED" meaning "Mr." and "sAh-YEED" (with more of an umpf on the "Ah-Y") means "happy" . There are several sounds in Arabic that are not comparable to any sound in the English language. This makes it difficult not only to say, but also to hear the difference, distinguish the sound, and identify what that sound/letter is. Despite the minor frustrations and completely new set of vocabulary and sounds, I'm really enjoying this stage of learning. I find it fascinating the links between Arabic and Spanish (if you know anything about the history of Spain and the Arab conquest, this makes perfect sense) as well as the commonalities between Arabic and Swahili (having spent some time in East Africa, I've picked up a bit of Swahili and there are definitely some overlaps that can be traced back to the Arab influence in Eastern Africa).

When class ends at 4pm, I usually ride my bike home, to be welcomed by Mounia and the extended family. The afternoons and evenings are social time. After a long day, I'm thrown into a whirlwind of chaos. Every day, there are different people coming in and out of the house. There are kids some days, aunts and uncles the next. It's hard to keep track of everyone and their relation to the family, but it is getting better with time. In the evenings, we often go out for an evening stroll into town along the promenade. There are hundreds, if not, thousands, of people out walking along the promenade every night between 8-11pm. Families are walking with their kids. I've been voted as the designated "dad", the one who pushes Medi (almost two) in the stroller all night. The funny thing is that this stroller is anything but new and is in desperate need fixing, or better yet, replacing. When you push the stroller, it turns sharply to the right. So the whole night, I'm having to push the stroller to the hard left, just to make it go straight. If you can picture myself pushing this stroller with a little boy in it and a couple Moroccan women, I'm sure it turns some heads among the locals. Mounia and her sister told me (they were joking of course)just to tell every one that this is my child. But when I thought about it, I thought it might have some negative, and more importantly, false, implications. I would rather not have people thinking that I came to Morocco and had a baby... that's just not the image I'm going for. But it's fun joking with the family!

Dinner is served any time between 10pm and midnight. It consists of coffee and milk, bread, bread, and some more bread. Sometimes, a light pasta, which includes spaghetti noodles and bland tomatoe sauce, is served. Dinner is always very light, because lunch is the main meal of the day. Evenings end with homework, studying, and usually a small dose of the news- Al Jazeera in Arabic. I retire to bed anytime between 11 and 1, to get a few hours of sleep before I start the day again.

Here's a short story of something I experienced a few days ago.... On Monday (or Tuesday... i forget), I was riding home on my bike after my last class. I saw a woman standing on the sidewalk and a man approached her looking infuriated. He began yelling at her, then slapped her across the face.. hard. It wasn't just a slap, but a SLAAP. I slowed down almost to a stop to looked back. My immediate reaction was to go over and yell at the guy. I was faced with a decision in which I didn't know how to act. I felt so bad for the lady. As I was way past the scene, still looking back, a guy on a moped stopped. I dont know if he saw the guy actually hit the woman, but he stopped, and I figured better he than me. I had no context to the situation, so I dont know what the problem was. It was a horrible situation (obviously more horrible for her..) and it was painful to see. I was faced with a decision that was beyond me. The fact that this happened in public took me by surprise. There is a powerful paradox in Morocco of shame and honor. In general, Moroccan women live a life that is honorable to her family, in fear of shame, whereas men can do things with no shame. I can explain this better and give examples if you ask me, but for sake of this, I'll leave it a bit more vague. The other afternoon however, that woman's honor was completely humiliated and turned into shame, while the man hit her without any shame, but in honor instead. I did not know how to process this. To my surprise, there were three things that stuck out to me as I tried processing this. 1- As I read that night some of my academic material for my work in Morocco, I read, "When a wife errs, it is also part of the culture for a man to beat her- an act considered abuse in Western societies." (Njoku, 2006: 103). 2- I told Mounia this story. Her reaction wasn't what I was expecting, "That is life" she said. She told me I shouldn't have done anything to interrupt the fight, and reacted as if this was a normal everyday occurrence. I saw not a single trace of sympathy for the woman. And finally 3- I talked with a male Moroccan friend about this. He said, "NEVER get in the middle of a fight between a man and woman (here in Morocco)". In my eyes, this incident was much more of a one-way street, as the woman showed no sign of retaliation. But my friend told me that if I were to do anything, both of them would instantly turn against me.

These weren't the answers or reactions I was looking for. This experience threw me a curve ball and I'm still trying to make sense of this. Through my Western eyes, this is completely wrong and abusive. Through the eyes of a Muslim Moroccan lady, this seems to be no big deal. I'm seeking to understand this situation through a Moroccan lens, but it isn't clear. I am reminded of the words of Marcel Proust, who says, "The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but seeing with new eyes." After all, I guess that is the purpose I am here, not just do discover a "new land", but to develop a new set of "eyes" to see the world. Please hear me out... I'm not justifying abuse by any means!!! However, I am trying to understand the reason for Mounia's reaction so that I can better understand the lens in which people make sense of the world and the people in it.

Well, it's time for bed. I have a test tomorrow and a big weekend ahead of me, as I have a friend from South Africa visiting Morocco and coming to Fes for the weekend. I have recently uploaded photos on my Flickr website from my weekend in Casablanca, particularly of the Hassan II Mosque, the 3rd largest in the world. It is one of the most remarkable works of architecture that I have ever seen. It was built about 15 years ago, and is said to be able to fit Paris' Notre Dame or Rome's St. Peter's Basilica INSIDE it! They estimate the price to build the mosque is anywhere from US$800 million to $3.2 BILLION!!!! If you ever get a chance to visit Casablanca (or Morocco), it is a must-see! Also, I have attached a link of some other pictures from Tangier, Fes and my homestay family. For those who do not have facebook, you should be able to access the pictures from this link....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2086295&id=56904198&l=cd8adc54cb

and my Flickr page....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryansworldadventures

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog! I hope this finds you well, and I'd love to hear from you! Assalaam Aleykum! (Peace be upon you)

Ryan