Ouazzane and my Rural Homestay

From July 8-12, I was on an excursion to northern Morocco with my program group. 5 days is a lot to cover, so I'll be breaking this blog up into sections, most likely by city. FYI.

So we left for Ouazzane on Saturday morning at around 8:30 am. We got to Ouazzane a little before noon and ate lunch at the home of our program coordinator, Farah. We all napped and then left for our homestay in Taouniya, a village a few kilometers outside of Ouazzane.

We stopped at a women's NGO outside of what we all thought was the village where we met some members of our family. (My 16-year-old sister, Faiza, came to pick me up.) We then all walked about 2-3 miles to the village to meet the rest of our families.

When I say we stayed in a village, I mean we stayed in Rural-ass, Morocco. There was electricity, but we needed to go to a public fountain for water. The toilet was "Turkish style"- a hole in the ground. A lot of my friends have Turkish toilets in their homes in Rabat, but I have been spoiled with a western toilet. (Yes, it is a HUGE deal.) It was a bit scary and strange, but I now feel like a citizen of the world for having used one! Most of our families were farmers, so we got to spend a bit of time on the farm. It was a lot different than farms in the US. A bunch of the families all shared land (or so it seemed). There were no silos or big barns or tractors. Donkeys were used to help with difficult jobs (such as carrying water and a lot of crops at once). There were cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, and a few horses. I got to ride a donkey :-)

The oven was made of stone and it was outside of the house. In order to heat it up, Faiza and I took the donkey to collect a bunch of sticks and hay, brought it back, and then put some in the oven and lit it on fire. We made bread for dinner. (I kinda destroyed mine, but it was a valiant effort). The house was a long building that curved and the central courtyard was in direct sunlight. There was a stable for the animals and a tower of some sort.

The families in the village speak only Moroccan Arabic, so it was very difficult to communicate. It involved a lot of pointing, charades, and me following someone. Despite the difficulties in communication, we all became quite close and almost attached to each other.

The next day, we had an Arabic calligraphy session back at the NGO. We all practiced writing our names in Arabic calligraphy, but in the end, our teacher, Mohamed, made us stencils. We cut them out, painted over them, and then had awesome wood blocks with our names on them :-)

The second night, there were 2 weddings in the village. One was the wedding of Chloe's host brother, so she, Laura, and Jeff went to that (Chloe for obvious reasons, Laura to keep Chloe company, and Jeff because the other wedding was only for women). Weddings in Morocco tend to last a few days. It was the first day of the wedding that most of us went to, so it was rather low-key. Regardless, we all looked beautiful in our kaftans! (I borrowed one from my host mom in Rabat.) Beforehand, I was able to shower, which was dumping a bucket of water over my head (much like in Rabat), but I did it in the toilet area (it was a big room). Faiza heated up some water over the stove in a teapot so I didn't freeze, but, again, no running water, so I didn't have the ability to have hot water straight from a faucet. That was okay, I just thought it was interesting :-).

We got back from the wedding at 2:30 am, got up at 8:30, and had a cooking session at the NGO. We made salads. It was epic. Afterward, we went back to our village families for lunch and to say goodbye. As we were making our way back home, we passed by Chloe's house, where there were musicians playing extravagant traditional music. We stopped and danced a little, then continued home.

Saying goodbye to my family was very sad. It will be hard to keep in touch with them because of the language barrier and they don't have internet access. Also, I don't know how much they can read, because most of the people in that village do not get a lot of education. We took a family photo and then an extended-family photo. Jeff and Laura lived in the same "complex" (our families were all related), so we spent a lot of time together.

My feelings about my village homestay are as follows:
~I like donkeys. They're cute.
~Charades go a long way.
~I had a great time.
~I am a better person for living a life WAY different than mine.
~I am thankful for what I have, but glad to have experienced the alternative.
~You never know just how much you have until you no longer have it.
~Appreciate the little things, even if it's out of your comfort zone.

Stay tuned for Chefchaouen.