Hotel Rabat

... and I actually understood 85% of it. I was able to respond and ask questions. It was truly amazing. A small victory on my ongoing battle with the large army of Arabic.<br> <br>I am getting much better at speaking, Zineb understands me and I can explain most of the things I want to say in Arabic. Poor Zineb has to listen to me fumble through Arabic. She is very supportive. I need to ask her if I sound horrible accent-wise. I realize that I have an American accent but ...

... 16 07;&#8221; in case anyone wants to take a stab at it, but at least I know her name now) called to say she couldn&#8217;t come today. They called Stuart to let him know that class was cancelled. They said they couldn&#8217;t find my number so they couldn&#8217;t ring me. No surprise considering I don&#8217;t have a phone. I was fairly glad to find that Stuart wasn&#8217;t dead. He didn&#8217;t come Thursday and then he didn&#8217;t come today (this is before I ...

... own dialects and their distinct subcultures within the larger context of Morocco. We spent the afternoon talking with the family through help of our translator and learning about life in the village, about schooling, about job opportunities, about the potential of mobility outside of the village and more. Over lunch and dancing we learned discovered what Morocco is truly about, family, honor and religion. Though I found myself unable to relate to these people as ...

... and revel in the glory. <br> <br>So on to lanes. Let&#8217;s say that you are heading north on a one lane road. That empty little section on your right is street parking and there are a few cars utilizing this space, but your thought is along the lines of, &#8220;Jeez, why are most of the cars parked on the sidewalk.&#8221; This makes you a foreigner to your marrow and you may never recover. Please do not vocalize this question to either a Moroccan or a ...

... if you were a poor white hick, living in squalor, killing squirrels in the back forty, you were always at least better than black people.&#8221; See, we all need that security. I might have exaggerated the speech a little, but you all seem smart. Well, I am going to explain how making fun of the class idiot comes back to haunt (both me and Mr. Sedaris), but first, I am going to show how racism bites you. Here I go, YOUR BLACK NEIGHBOR WENT TO HARVARD ...

... by then popped a wheelie. The woman said in English that the man was crazy (he had a passenger). I said &#8220;hooa majnoon.&#8221; &#8220;He is crazy.&#8221; <br><br> They laughed harder. I understood enough darija to get the gist, &#8220;She doesn&#8217;t know where she lives but she knows &#8216;majnoon.&#8217;&#8221; Honest-to-goodness, no joke. Like &#8216;crazy&#8217; and the landmarks near where I&#8217;ve been staying a few nights are inexplicably connected. <br ...

... sunup to sundown. Restaurants are closed during the day, some close completely during the month and it looks like about 20% of them use the time to remodel. Drinking water during Ramadan daylight hours can land you in jail in Morocco. <br><br>Because it is a lunar calendar, the seasons advance about 11 days each year. Ramadan occurred from August 23 to Sept 21 this year, but it will start on August 12 next year. That means for the next 6 years or so ...

... If I haven't mentioned this before, the playroom is basically a giant petri dish with a glass ceiling and no ventilation. The sun beams down through the glass and makes the room nice and toasty. Abdellah came by to check on us, and commented on the heat - and he was there early! It got much warmer as the morning went on. He said he's going to come back tomorrow and talk to the principle ...

... a couple of small fights that broke out over sharing crayons, etc. I have a new vocabulary word to use for that situation - hshuma - which means 'for shame'. The kids respond to it a little better than 'safi'. We had a couple of new arrivals who were mentally disabled and it was a challenge to keep an eye on them along with all the others. They required specific hand-holding and ...

... CCS volunteers come (with our toys and materials in tow!) so it really means a lot to me to be doing this project. Our power was out most of the day today and I didn't even notice for several hours! It is nice to be unplugged from the every day world, but it is fun to report the day's happenings via this blog. My battery is running low, so I'm going to sign off for now. B'esselama, Patty