So I’m actually not living it up by anyone’s standards, but ISP has been pretty great so far. We moved out of our home stays about a week and a half ago. As expected, it was sad to leave, but I’ve already been back twice, once for tea and once for lunch, and I’m going again this Friday for couscous—sorry if I’ve mentioned Friday couscous about a dozen times already, but it bears repeating that it is probably one of the best meals known to mankind.
I spent the first week of ISP living in a cheap hotel in the medina with some of the other students. The first few days were pretty unpleasant because a) everyone was freaking out about their research and b) I got really sick, I think because my home stay family fed me sketchy cheese the weekend before. Also, there was a mosque right next to the hotel, which became a problem because the loudspeaker projecting the call to prayer was right outside our window (they have these loudspeakers all over the city). The call to prayer is extremely loud and happens five times throughout the day, the first of which is around four in the morning. At my home stay the call to prayer was audible but more distant, so I never woke up during the night. In the hotel it was positively blaring.
Still, it was a lot of fun to stay in a dirt cheap place with friends and eat what I wanted when I wanted and not feel obligated to be home by seven for tea time.
Last Friday we upgraded to a hotel in the Ville Nouvelle. By upgraded I mean that I am now paying 65 dirhams (about 7.5 dollars) a night. The walls here are a pleasant off-white rather than bright blue and pink like the first hotel, the rooms are bigger, and there’s a shower downstairs that you can pay extra to use. Plus the room I’m sharing with Elizabeth has a really nice view of a café terrace and Avenue Mohammed V, the main boulevard though the city. The Ville Nouvelle is right next to the medina, so still within easy walking distance of the school, the souk, and my home stay family, but it’s a very different feel. This neighborhood was built by the French during the colonial period (early twentieth century), so the architecture is more European and the overall feel is very different. Lots of cafes, restaurants, open space, big streets, parks…more modern. A very different and nice place to stay, and I’m glad I’m experiencing a new neighborhood, but I kind of miss the craziness of the medina.
As for what I’ve actually been doing…some work, lots of play. Lots of going out to different restaurants and to our favorite ice cream stand, lots of wandering around, lots of time spent watching bootlegged DVDs from the souk. But yes, also research. Like I mentioned, I’m studying the mudawana, so I’ve been doing a few different things for that. Some library research, but mostly I’ve been conducting interviews. I did a few interviews with women who live in the medina to see what they think about the family code and whether they agree with the changes that were made in 2004—really interesting discussions, but I had to get English-speaking acquaintances (Moroccan university students) to act as translators, because none of these women spoke English. I also visited two different nonprofits and did interviews with English-speaking employees. I went with my academic adviser (Souad, who is a gender studies professor and speaks excellent English) to this thing called the “Caravan for Equality” that one of the nonprofits was hosting, where volunteers set up camp in a poor neighborhood on the fringes of the city and talked to local women about their legal rights, leading workshops and group discussions. There was also a free medical clinic, which drew a huge crowd, because most people in this neighborhood never have the opportunity to see a doctor.
I also got the chance to interview a woman who wrote an Arabic book about divorce in Moroccan society. She went through a really awful divorce before the mudawana changed—her husband was abusive, but before 2004 it was really difficult for a woman to get a divorce (whereas a man could just kick his wife out of the house without prior warning and that legally constituted divorce, for women it was both legally difficult and socially unacceptable to ask for separation). It took her four years to finally get her divorce, and then her husband ran off with her son for five years. She went to the courts time and time again to get her son back (she had legal custody all along, but custody isn’t always enforced), and she finally did, but from when he was three to when he was eight, she didn’t see him. This is the sort of thing that is incredibly difficult for me to confront here…things are definitely better now that the mudawana has been revised, but change in legislation does not mean that everyone is cooperating with or enforcing that legislation, and deeply engrained patriarchy does not disappear overnight. I feel like this is one of the difficult things about striving to be the perfect anthropology major…in theory, I want to look at things from a distance and examine them for their cultural significance before I make judgment calls. And I know that universalist principles of human rights do not perfectly apply in every situation. But on a basic emotional level, I can’t distance myself from the things that women deal with here.
Back to the lighthearted and fun side of things, on Friday I am heading north to Tangier and Asilah for the weekend. I’m excited to see more of Northern Morocco, because Chefchaouen was splendid. Right after that we’re taking a bus all the way south along the coast to return to Essaouira and spend the last week of ISP writing and relaxing.
Then our last week as a group back in Rabat, and then the program is over and I fly to Paris. I really can’t process how soon I’m leaving.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
The blue city, my city, and other cities
As the title implies, more traveling! I spent last weekend in El Jadida, a coastal city a few hours south of here. That was a very spontaneous trip. My friend Jessica and I decided at noon that Saturday to go somewhere. An hour later we were at the train station, boarding a train. We arrived and found some random (cheap) hotel, then spent that night and all of Sunday wandering the crazy souk, seeing the Portuguese ramparts on the oceanfront, and sitting on the beach. The return trip was a nightmare, because the train was overbooked and we wound up standing for three hours. Besides that, awesome.
This weekend was a better-planned excursion to Chefchaouen, which is in the northern Rif Mountains. It's a small city literally built into a mountainside...amazing, amazing, amazing. It's so cool to wander through the medina and climb steep cobblestone streets and look up and see mountains all around you. Plus the entire medina (pretty much) is painted sky blue. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's lovely. Oh, AND there's a lot of Spanish influence in Northern Morocco, which thrilled me because I could actually communicate--most people in that region speak some Spanish. Jessica, Janks, and I befriended this artist/shopkeeper who sells all of his work in a small store in the medina, and between a bit of English, Spanish, French, and Arabic, we talked with him for a good chunk of the afternoon--about his paintings, about what Moroccans think of tourists, about what we think of Morocco, etc (and we bought things, of course--I love the conversion rate here).
In short, I fell absolutely and completely in love with Chefchaouen. I think it's my favorite place in this country so far.
As for school: Lectures (Culture and Society Seminar, Field Studies Seminar) are over. This week is the end of Arabic, the end of our home stays, and ISP preparation. I won't be permanently saying goodbye to my home stay family, which I'm really happy about because I've come to completely adore them...I'm going to be in Rabat for the first part of ISP, and while I won't be living with them, I'll definitely visit. When everything is said and done and the other students fly out on May 16, I have three extra days before flying to Paris to meet Stephen, so I'm going to spend that time with my host family as well. Like I said, I'm relieved that I don't have to say a final farewell so soon. Despite all the difficulties of living with them (and there have been plenty) it has been a wonderful experience overall, and I can't get over how nice they have been to me. Hind seems really upset that I'm leaving.
Actually, part of why I feel so close with them right now is that I had a kind of hard week last week. Not for any one particular reason...I was just homesick, a little stressed about ISP and other things, and one of my friends had some personal crap going on that I was trying to help her deal with. Just a rough couple of days. Plus there were plumbing problems at Hind's house (they didn't specify, I didn't ask), so when I got home from school last Monday I was promptly asked to pack up a backpack because we were going to spend the week at Hind's friend's house. I'm learning to go with the flow in terms of living arrangements (you really have to here), but this added some strain to my life because I got absolutely nothing done all week. I don't get much done at my home stay in the first place because of the kids, the lack of alone time, etc., and when you're a guest all over again you have zero time to yourself. You hang out and drink coffee or tea at every waking moment.
The point being, at one point last week I had one of those moments when lots of little things stack on top of each other and you get upset and just need to let it out. Hind realized I was in a bad mood and immediately asked if I was okay, and...I guess this is kind of embarrassing, but whatever, I have no sense of embarrassment anymore...I just started to bawl!!! She was so, so sweet to me, hugging me and kissing me and saying that I could tell her absolutely anything, "like an older sister." A few of her friends were there, too (of course I couldn't break down on my own or just in Hind's presence, I had to do it in front of like six acquaintances--and in the middle of the souk, did I mention that? so actually in front of dozens of people), and they were so supportive. Even though I couldn't really communicate why I was upset, they kept telling me that I was part of their family and anything I needed, just to tell them. It was really touching.
So since that episode, and also just generally, I'm feeling really good about my home stay and really sad about the prospect of moving out. Although there are things (like privacy) that I will be happy to regain.
What else...like I said, preparing for ISP. My topic, once and for all (I've flip-flopped too many times to count), is the Moudawana, or family law. The king revised it a few years ago to provide more comprehensive rights for women, like giving them more say in matters of marriage and divorce. My research will focus on how much difference the revisions have made on the ground, in peoples' lives. My academic directors have mentioned that one issue is that not all women know very much about the changes and may not be fully aware of their new rights. I want to investigate this by interviewing married Moroccan women here in Rabat, seeing what they know and don't know about Moudawana, seeing whether they think their lives are different because of the changes. From there I'm hoping to gain some insight into what more could be done to improve the livelihoods of Moroccan women. It should be great.
This weekend was a better-planned excursion to Chefchaouen, which is in the northern Rif Mountains. It's a small city literally built into a mountainside...amazing, amazing, amazing. It's so cool to wander through the medina and climb steep cobblestone streets and look up and see mountains all around you. Plus the entire medina (pretty much) is painted sky blue. I'm not exactly sure why, but it's lovely. Oh, AND there's a lot of Spanish influence in Northern Morocco, which thrilled me because I could actually communicate--most people in that region speak some Spanish. Jessica, Janks, and I befriended this artist/shopkeeper who sells all of his work in a small store in the medina, and between a bit of English, Spanish, French, and Arabic, we talked with him for a good chunk of the afternoon--about his paintings, about what Moroccans think of tourists, about what we think of Morocco, etc (and we bought things, of course--I love the conversion rate here).
In short, I fell absolutely and completely in love with Chefchaouen. I think it's my favorite place in this country so far.
As for school: Lectures (Culture and Society Seminar, Field Studies Seminar) are over. This week is the end of Arabic, the end of our home stays, and ISP preparation. I won't be permanently saying goodbye to my home stay family, which I'm really happy about because I've come to completely adore them...I'm going to be in Rabat for the first part of ISP, and while I won't be living with them, I'll definitely visit. When everything is said and done and the other students fly out on May 16, I have three extra days before flying to Paris to meet Stephen, so I'm going to spend that time with my host family as well. Like I said, I'm relieved that I don't have to say a final farewell so soon. Despite all the difficulties of living with them (and there have been plenty) it has been a wonderful experience overall, and I can't get over how nice they have been to me. Hind seems really upset that I'm leaving.
Actually, part of why I feel so close with them right now is that I had a kind of hard week last week. Not for any one particular reason...I was just homesick, a little stressed about ISP and other things, and one of my friends had some personal crap going on that I was trying to help her deal with. Just a rough couple of days. Plus there were plumbing problems at Hind's house (they didn't specify, I didn't ask), so when I got home from school last Monday I was promptly asked to pack up a backpack because we were going to spend the week at Hind's friend's house. I'm learning to go with the flow in terms of living arrangements (you really have to here), but this added some strain to my life because I got absolutely nothing done all week. I don't get much done at my home stay in the first place because of the kids, the lack of alone time, etc., and when you're a guest all over again you have zero time to yourself. You hang out and drink coffee or tea at every waking moment.
The point being, at one point last week I had one of those moments when lots of little things stack on top of each other and you get upset and just need to let it out. Hind realized I was in a bad mood and immediately asked if I was okay, and...I guess this is kind of embarrassing, but whatever, I have no sense of embarrassment anymore...I just started to bawl!!! She was so, so sweet to me, hugging me and kissing me and saying that I could tell her absolutely anything, "like an older sister." A few of her friends were there, too (of course I couldn't break down on my own or just in Hind's presence, I had to do it in front of like six acquaintances--and in the middle of the souk, did I mention that? so actually in front of dozens of people), and they were so supportive. Even though I couldn't really communicate why I was upset, they kept telling me that I was part of their family and anything I needed, just to tell them. It was really touching.
So since that episode, and also just generally, I'm feeling really good about my home stay and really sad about the prospect of moving out. Although there are things (like privacy) that I will be happy to regain.
What else...like I said, preparing for ISP. My topic, once and for all (I've flip-flopped too many times to count), is the Moudawana, or family law. The king revised it a few years ago to provide more comprehensive rights for women, like giving them more say in matters of marriage and divorce. My research will focus on how much difference the revisions have made on the ground, in peoples' lives. My academic directors have mentioned that one issue is that not all women know very much about the changes and may not be fully aware of their new rights. I want to investigate this by interviewing married Moroccan women here in Rabat, seeing what they know and don't know about Moudawana, seeing whether they think their lives are different because of the changes. From there I'm hoping to gain some insight into what more could be done to improve the livelihoods of Moroccan women. It should be great.
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