What is left of the Roman's occupation of Northern Morocco (outside of Meknes).
Roman mosaics...almost 2000 years old (one of the 12 labors of Hercules)...amazing
An ancient Roman city, built 224 AD
Sean & Em and the Romans...
Meknes - you just can't get away from American movies in the big cities...
Ahhh, McDonalds...Moroccan style (Meknes)!
Celebrating the last night of training in Azrou with traditional Berber dancers.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!!
Life in Morocco has been surreal the last few weeks. We stayed in a very nice hotel in a big city with a bunch of other American volunteers. We actually had conversations, expressed our thoughts and feelings, discussed life, business and all manner of things. Wow. Language is so crucial in the dissemination of information, yet my brain is having difficulty learning, retaining and recalling…so here is part of the problem:
- We live in an area that doesn't exclusively speak Tamazight; almost everyone we know speaks Darija (Moroccan Arabic)
- The Tamazight that IS spoken at our site is a different dialect than the one we were taught during training
- There is absolutely no reinforcement of Tamazight via TV, radio, music, etc.
- Tam is not a written language (it does have an ancient script but is not used) so there is no way of writing it besides transcription (the use of the roman alphabet with a few added symbols)
- Tam is not technically a language, it is a dialect and it is not taught in schools so none of the young people speak it
- Primarily ONLY older women speak Tam
- French is taught in all the schools as the official second language
- ALL official persons (police, leaders, etc) ONLY speak Darija and French
- There are no official study materials or learning aids to help with Tam
- In the center of town only Darija and French is used
- We cannot find a tutor that speaks both English and Tam
- Traveling out of our site is difficult because very few people speak Tam in larger cities, especially up North and along the coast
Okay, so don't take me wrong, I knew there are challenges to every site and every Peace Corps experience, but Sean and I are still trying to figure out the best solution to our language conundrum. We could try to learn Darija in addition to working on Tam, we could switch from Tam to Darija, or we can concentrate on French (a language we can actually use after Peace Corps). The reason that Peace Corps has volunteers learn the dialect languages (there are two other besides Tam), is so we can integrate into the communities better, perhaps even gain respect instantly when using a local dialect, but for us, unfortunately, or site is not 100% Tam speaking, in fact, it is only about 40%. Another interesting fact is that everyone understands Darija and some French (most likely because there are TVs in every home streaming Darija and French ONLY), even if they don't dominantly speak it; plus all young people speak Darija and French, but Tam might be spoken in the home with their elders. Okay. So, we have decided to concentrate on learning French. It would be awesome to speak and understand all three, but then I think I would just end up knowing all of the languages at a mediocre level; I want to be able to COMMUNICATE! Well, there you have it…from now on all of our blog post will be in French. Haha, just kidding…
And…for the most important part of the blog…let's talk about FOOD! In my previous post I talked about a Belgium mousse place that we were frequenting during our training, well, we discussed with the Chef about commissioning a special order of ice cream for our whole training crew (20 people) and he said YES! So, we took a survey and it was decided that we wanted chocolate/raspberry and vanilla/caramel ice cream…we put in our order and collected 30 Durhams from each participant and voila!!! FRESH, HOMEMADE ICE CREAM, IN WINTER, IN THE MIDDLE OF MOROCCO! Needless to say, it was fantastic and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. Man, we are all such food-heads!
Mistranslation of the week:
General "Instruction Manual" Quartz Heater:
"If soft power line damage, in order to its maintenance department to replace a similar sector professionals."
"This appliance is not intended for use by persons (including children) with reduced physical, sensory or mental capabilities, or lack of experience and knowledge, unless they have been given supervision or instruction concerning use of the appliance by a person responsible for their safety."
Hope everyone is doing well! Love and Peace to all,
~em
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