Un Petit Update

I know that I owe you guys an update about my recent vacation to the glorious (albeit soul-less) city of Agadir, and that will come on Wednesday, incha'Allah. For today, since I'm here in my souq town against my will (I had to come to send in paperwork for an upcoming training session), let me give you a quick life update. The following bullets are in no particular order, so bear with me.

1. It's Ramadan right now, if you didn't read the top of the page, and the Ramadan fast is intense. A month of no food, water, sex, smoking, other miscellaneous naughty vices or bad thoughts from sun-up (that's around 4:30a at this time of year) to sun-down (about 7:15p). When you throw in altitude and the absurd heat of August in Morocco, it's even more of a challenge.

And, just to make things interesting, I've come down with a headcold. You know, because I thought it'd be a fun challenge to take on.

(There's no cold medicine allowed during fasting, friends.)

Other than my nose running constantly and feeling perpetually disgusting, I'm loving Ramadan so far. It's a time of family and community and charity, and those sentiments are palpable wherever you go (except when you're buying produce -- more on that coming up soon).

2. My running water's been regulated to five hours every other day, which is SO EXCITING. It's so nice to be able to budget your water consumption, let me tell you. Before Ramadan started, the water was on haphazardly -- once every four days, during some weeks. I'm thankful to have running water in general, but regular running water is a true luxury, even if it's only a few hours a week.

Also, if you were curious, my water comes from a well with an electric pump (also an amazing luxury), and I treat it with bleach or by boiling it. My mom my water situation interesting, so I thought I'd share with the whole class.

3. My body insists on napping in the afternoons while I'm fasting. While I haven't dreamt much since coming to Morocco, my mid-fast naps have provided some interesting dreams. I've dreamt twice that my brother came back to visit, once with his children (which do not exist right now, to my knowledge) (they were also blonde and spoke only Spanish. Matt, tienes algo que contarme?). I also dreamt that I was picking up a pizza from a restaurant that my family frequents back home, and I spoke Tashlheit with the guy behind the counter. He responded in Tash, no problem. And then, when he turned to another customer and spoke flawless American English, I was shocked that he spoke English so well! In the dream, even though I was in America, I didn't think that English would get me very far. This leads me to believe that I'm going to be spectacularly awkward when I come home.

4. August is a terrible month for produce in my part of the country. Tomatoes, especially, have suffered greatly. A kilo went from 2 dirhams (henceforth referred to as MAD) to 10 MAD in three weeks! I know that MAD probably doesn't mean anything to those of you back home (1 USD = approximately 8 MAD if you must know), but trust me, it's a price change worth griping about. Everyone around here talks to me about the tomatoes. Wa ifla7n, you should know that the Berber ladies and I down here are not happy about this.

5. Speaking of food, my newest Favorite Summer Treat is Berber Iced Coffee. The recipie is technically challenging and requires a great deal of concentration (I'm ranking it at the intermediate-mid level), but I'll include it for those that feel like they're up to the challenge.

Berber Iced Coffee

note: Don't tell my hostmom about this! Berbers, from what I've seen, do not consume tea or coffee cold and have no idea why anyone would ever think to do so.

Ingredients:

Instant coffee, preferrably Nescafé
Milk (ideally from your own cow, but packaged milk will suffice if you're in a pinch)
Sugar (vanilla sugar if you're feeling sassy)
A few drops of vanilla, almond or hazelnut extract (again, if you're in the mood)
One mug
One spoon or similar mixing instrument

Combine Nescafe, milk and sugar and stir well, until a pleasant froth appears. Mix in extract if you're so inclined, and then pop the mug in the freezer until the mixture's at the desired texture. Consume at will.

6. After a short break, I'm back to the what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life-after-this-is-over dilemma. The list has been narrowed down considerably since I last went through this, but this is still a huge decision to make. More on this later.

7. Time is still flying. Literally, I do not know where this summer went. My brother moved back to school yesterday, and tomorrow is September! L3id (or L'Eid, or Eid, however you want to transliterate it), celebrating the end of Ramadan, is right around the corner. Then comes in-service training (IST), like, three hours later, and then before I have time to catch my breath, I'll have COSed, gotten my PhD, married, and my brother will have those blonde Spanish-speaking children!

8. Save the Date: Michigan Football starts 5 September. GO BLUE!