arabic keyboards

None of the letters on arabic keyboards are in the same place. I don't know why; it's just that way.

This will be short.
Sam, thanks for taking care of the pipes, you are the bomb. I would kick an ape in the head for you anyday!!

Karen I am alive and having fun. It's hard to check email because of the windows mac thing.

Sara and Harley, thanks for the birthday wishes. I was happy to hear from you. How are the parents?

Catherine, I wish you could come here for lunch. The food is really good!

Matt, I'd also kick an ape for you. Say hi to Meg, Brant, and Forest.

This has been a good week so far. I am managing to have conversations using both the moroccan arabic to english and french to english phrase books. So far I know that Hadija's mom is not her mom. Sara is her sister, they live in Khenitra and have been at the hospital for 21 days. They have 6 sisters for sure. I am not sure about brothers, because we didn't get that far. Sara is 19 and weaves rugs for a living. She's a blast and way keen on trying to talk to me. I think what she really wants to know is why I don't cover my hair. I just don't have any of those words. Yesterday she wrote me something on paper, which I took to the home base for Mohammed to translate. It said, don't drink dirty water without boiling it first. Words to live by.

Fatima is eleven and so smart. She and Bessima line everyone else out when we play games. I was doing math problems with Fatima today and kept making them harder and harder because she was so good. We got to a point where Bob, my fellow volunteer had to tell me what number she was saying. Bob speaks french.

Readers choice

This blog is called readers choice, because I couldn't pick a title. So, your choices are Le Lego, Uno, Snowboarding, or Kicking a Barbary Ape in the head. Some of these topics are related and some are not. I think the easiest thing to do is write short stories for each. Here I go.

Le Lego
Earlier this week I took Lego's to the hospital, because kids like Lego's. I had another cute little ornry child who proceeded to chuck a lego out the window into this little playground between the hospital hallways. It's a similar playground to the tantrariums and bacteria incubators in US malls, only I never see any kids in this area. So, like all ideas, which seem so good at the time I placed le enfante out the window to retrieve le Lego. Immediately le enfante becomes possessed and rips around the playground. Suddenly I am realizing I made a bad decision. To make a long story short, two Arab mothers discussing my situation took pity on me and showed me the door to the play area. Meanwhile, the child realizing I wasn't paying attention to him came running back and wanted back in the window. Giant sigh of relief from me.

Uno
I'm not sure how it happened, but on Friday I managed to have a successful game of Uno with about four other kids. I know this sounds simple, but some of the kids only speak French, some only speak Arabic, and I speak neither. In truth, the actual Uno portion of the game was too hard to convey, but the rest of the game went well. Fatima, was particularly proud of herself, since she won something like four hands in a row. The director of the ward, was kind of surprised that I pulled this one off, but it really only takes one smart child paying attention to line everyone else out.

I must admit that the question I asked myself this week was, how did it become preferential to educate boys over girls. My first thought is that person who came up with this idea, simply desired an extreme amount of agony in their life. Not that boys are not intelligent, it just seems to me they are not as methodical as girls. This thought led me to think that perhaps the preference to educate boys came out of the sheer necessity to curb their unruliness and prevent lawlessness in society. Just an idea.

Snowboarding
This weekend was my birthday and I somehow got bumped off the camel trek in the desert of Ourzuga. I was bummed about that but, I still wanted to do something fun and decided to visit Ifrane,the home of Morocco's only ski resort. I stayed in the Hotel Chamonix and had a great trout dinner, with a yummy chocolate dessert. The next morning, I cruise around town a bit before going to the slopes. I ended up in this shop and negotiate for them to drop me off at Mischifflen and pick me up in a few hours, when I am finished for the day. Turns out there wasn't really snow at Mischifflen and neither of the lifts were running. All the rentals were run out of roadside stands in the parking lot and there was one snowboard available. I, however, did not feel like treking up the hill for several hours and decided to pass. Tarek, the gentleman driving me there, felt bad and asked if I wanted to see some apes. I'm not really a fan of apes, but when in Morocco....

Kicking a Barbary Ape in the Head
The forests around Ifrane are ancient cedar forests, which are gorgeous. This area is considered the Middle Atlas and the air is so clear and beautiful, it was a huge change from Rabat. At one time the forests of Ifrane had lions roaming wild, now there are only the apes. When we saw the first one on the side of the road we pulled over. There were other people around who had also stopped to look. I was pretty leary and left the car door open in case I needed to run back fast. Well, after you saw the first one there were lots of them. After a bit I felt more comfortable and so I shut the car door. I went over to take some pictures and turned around to walk back to the car when a middle sized one came running at me. I stuck out my foot and kicked it right in the head. It screamed, I probably screamed and then a big one started coming for me. At this point, I know I'm loud and running for the car. Visions of rabies shots are flashing through my mind, while it's gaining on me. I knew I wouldn't make it to the car fast enough so, I stopped and turned to face it real quick and that scared it away. Thank God.

I think Tarek must have felt really bad about that, because he proceeded to turn the rest of the morning into a sightseeing trek. We went through Azrou to a fantastic overlook of the Middle Atlas and then onto the Cedre Gourou, which is an 800 year old cedar tree. It's no longer alive, but it's still standing and is huge. Not what I expected from my trip, but a really pleasant surprise. When I leave my volunteering here in Rabat, I'll head that way again for a longer stay

Si Mohammed andu firma hiya, hiya, hoo

Yes, they have Old McDonald had a farm here in Morocco too! But, dogs here say how how not woof woof. Minor details I suppose.

There are twelve volunteers here in the house this month. Two of them have been here for several weeks they are Elena and Hillary. The group which started with me has ten people. There are three Canadians, Danielle, Karen, and Bob; One Australian named Jono; and the rest are from the US. Their names are Louie (she's from San Francisco), Caroline (New York), Maria (Miami), and Tiffany (San Francisco). All in all it's a great group of people with diverse skills, interests, and backgrounds.

This weekend we were off and went to Meknes, Volubilis, Moulay Idriss, and Fes. Everything is a constant overwhelming of the senses, in a positive way. Caroline and Danielle have lots of french words so we were able to navigate well. But, the places we went were touristy and so you could probably get by with English too. I suppose my skin is getting thicker, because the constant stares that we get are less daunting. It seems to me that if you look a male in the eye it's not such a big deal, but if you look at one who is trying to get your attention, you've invited trouble. I would say it's more annoying than anything. I imagine that there are a separate set of rules for tourists than there are for Moroccan women. Essentially, I would say that it is understood that I am a tourist and don't know the rules. I'm getting those customs figured out, but really everyone is welcoming and kind.

I mentioned earlier that my placement is at a children's hospital, in fact it's the largest one in Morocco. There are sixty children in the asthma ward. I know this because the director of the ward introduced himself to me on Friday. He's a really kind man and said it would be all right for me to watch some of the teaching sessions for the respiratory therapy. He was happy to hear that I work in a hospital at home and want to learn more about the procedures. I have observed a bit so far, but I really wish I knew more about asthma. The director told me that asthma is really common in third world countries and a lot of children come in through the emergency department. I was wondering if they use asthma as a general term for respiratory illness, but the director said it is asthma. Overall the kids have runny noses, but it's clear and not gross mucousy colored stuff. ( Sorry, that was for my hospital friends). And they don't seem to run fevers. I just need to learn more.

This hospital is run more like the ones I have heard about in Europe, meaning that the patients bring their own sheets, blankets, and food. There is a minimal lunch of broth and bread served around noon. I don't know if anything is done for breakfast and dinner, because I'm not around. The hospital in general probably holds about 300 children and there is also an emergency department. The sharps containers are used water bottles strapped to the carts with some disinfectant in the bottom, but the use of gloves doesn't exist. The other day the kids were expressing their dislike of the phlebotomy procedure to each other. I knew this because they were all sticking out their arms, pointing at their AC, and making disgusted faces. The respiratory therapy is interesting because the children lie flat on their backs, while the therapist places one hand on the sternum and the other on the xyphoid then compresses and rubs the chest until his hands meet in the middle. At first the kids cry and cry. But, then they get into a groove with the therapist and mucous starts coming up and they relax. Sometimes they rub the neck also. I know it sounds odd, but it works. I just don't know if this is normal.

My inner tourista got some satisfaction this weekend on our outing. I can't say much about Meknes, because it was just a stop on the way for us. But, I did have a wonderful dinner there and stayed at the Hotel Majestic. Despite the uncomfortable beds, the feel of the hotel and the incredible staff would make me recommend it to anyone. I don't think we could have asked for more on our first night out. The next day was Volubilis and Moulay Idriss, then onto Fes for the evening. Volubilis is a Roman ruin of shocking magnificence. It is acres and acres of arches and pillars and foundations and complete tiled floors and bathes and ......I was completely ignorant of Roman civilization until I saw this place and it's not even begining to be excavated. Moulay Idriss is right across the road from Volubilis and only opened up to non Muslims within the past 70 years, we didn't do much there but drive through, which was still amazing.

Fes is going to try to get its own paragraph. But, the chaos and complete disbelief of the medina's souk still has me speechless. You would have to be there to understand. I have never seen anything else like it on earth. For those at Sage Brush, it's like compressing the garment district into hallways about 2-3 feet wide, add several more stories, not removing any people, and adding burros. John would love it and find lots of people with which to do business. We hired a guide to take us around or else I'm pretty certain we would still be lost. I have great photos to share.

ghadi ngoulha L mamak

That's Moroccan Arabic for I'm going to tell your Mama! I am particularly proud of this phrase, I just learned it a few minutes ago. Hopefully, I won't need it again for a while, but it would have come in handy yesterday! I also know la, which is no and bswiya for slow down. Kids are kids all over the world it seems.

What to say, what to say. Yesterday was our tour of Rabat and at some point our driver hit the car ahead of him in the cities largest round about, causing a huge traffic jam of exhaust and honking. The funny thing is that none of us felt anything happen and only a couple of us noticed the driver of the car we rearended come and yell at Ismail. In fact, if it weren't for the cracked radiator which prevented us for going more than a kilometer at a time we wouldn't have known we had been in an accident. About halfway home, smoke started coming out of the van, so we abandoned ship and got taxi's. This is all after getting scammed by one of my kids in the morning ( which is why I learned my handy new words) and a great afternoon of sightseeing.

The morning started out a bummer, because Ayeman wasn't there and Bessima another cutie was too ill to play. So, I had a whole new crew of little ones. Despite one of my sweet ill children trying to pull one over on me by taking my book; I retrieved the item, much to his dismay, on my way out of the ward. I think I won even though I lacked the appropriate words. But, now I am fully ready! Today, still no Ayeman, but Bessima is feeling better and back to her bossy self correcting my pronunciation of colors.

The sightseeing yesterday afternoon was fantastic. We toured Rabat (pre-accident) and the ruins of Chellah. Chellah is a Roman and Arabic ruin and probably one of the most relaxing places on earth. We also visited the tomb of Mohammed V and got dizzy from the intensity of tilework on every surface. I found it very beautiful. I've got lots of little paintings ahead of me.

s salamu ealaykum

Greetings to you all in Moroccan Arabic. I'm sure there are keys in the font section to correctly spell the words, but I am a humble beginner and not an expert. I had my first language lesson today after volunteering and I'm not sure which was more overwhelming. Not so surprisingly I now know more Arabic than French. My pronunciation of each language, however, is equally poor, but I remain undaunted and am having a lot of fun.

My volunteer assignment is at a children's hospital working in the asthma ward. I was pretty intimidated by this at first because I'm not around them much. So Kadija left me wide eyed there this morning to sort it out. And after a bit the kids started coming out of their rooms to hang out. I have a table with benches in the hallway where I can lay out my things and we did a lot of coloring and drawing. Kadija taught me how to say what's your name, how old are you, nice to meet you, and come sit down. Ayeman is my first friend and best buddy so far. I don't know how old he is, because even though I can ask the question, I didn't understand the response until this afternoon. My guess is he's about 4 and completely cool because he can write his name in Arabic and Francais. I was impressive in return, because I had brought my name in Arabic on a piece of paper and happened to randomly learn the word for apricot which is mismash. So began our journey into knocking down the language barrier of fruit, while striking up friendship.

There is so much to say I could blab for hours, but the essentials are my assignment is great, the other volunteers are so fun, and the food is yummy. In fact I had the best eggplant ever last night. Which always amazes me when someone can do something to food I didn't know was possible. If anyone wants to give me feedback about what you want to hear about that would be cool, I feel like there is so much to tell. For example, today I used a toilet which had no toilet. Imagine my surprise at that one, but I did get it figured out. And on that I will say Nt lagau ghdda.