Ramadan 2009

Since we chatted last, Ramadan has begun which has been good so far. It started while I was vacationing in Agadir last weekend, a tourist town two hours down the coast from me. When the sun goes down every night I have been breaking fast every night with my host family and the food is so good. The food consists of dates, cookies, soup, and then snacks of fish, fries, breads, and water. Before I get ahead of myself I am going to explain what Ramadan is. To participate in Ramadan you are usually Muslim or a Peace Corps volunteer in a Muslim country. During Ramadan everyone fasts from sun up to sun down for one month. When you’re fasting you this wake-up at 3 in the morning to prepare breakfast and then they don’t eat or drink anything until the sun goes down. Right now the sun rises around 5 and sets around 7:26 PM. When you don’t eat all day it is so interesting how you notice every minute before you get to eat again. I have been fasting on and off depending on the day. Most days I have to drink water because it is so hot. Today I did fast all day because I went to Smimou to use Internet and check the mail. Since I was in town all the stores are closed that sell food. If I did decide to eat everyone would give me the hairy eye and curse me. It is highly looked down upon to eat around people that are fasting.
Today was such a long day without food or water. It was one of those days where nothing you want to be open is open and everything you try to get done is so difficult. One of my battles today was going to the Post office; I walked up the hill in the blistering sun to find a long line of about a hundred people trying to get their paychecks. Since, most people don’t have bank accounts the only way for them to get paid is by having the money mailed. But as we all know mailing physical money is really not a good idea. If someone wants to send money to in Smimou from Casablanca they go to a post office in Casa and then the money is transferred to the post office in Smimou. Most of this money isn’t a paycheck it is sent from family members who work in the city and send money home to family in the countryside. Every family in my village has someone working in a city in order to make money for the family.
Today, I also went to file for a new Moroccan I.D., which means I had to go deal with my police. I never know how this experience is going to go because we don’t have a common language. It is really hard to get anything done when you can’t explain anything to each other. I new I had to bring a special stamp and eight pictures with me because we had discussed these weeks ago, my Cart National has been expired for three months now. Kind of a big deal but since I went to America I was given extra time because Americans are allowed to travel in Morocco for three months without a visa. My extra time has now expired so it has come time to fix this.
My encounter with the police started out friendly but then my police chief found out that my Cart National was stolen when my wallet was stolen. Since I was in Essa when this happened my police did not know about this; yes both police stations have cell phones and landlines. We got into a fight because I never told them about not having an ID, and I also was one stamp short and two pictures short. After not eating all day I was not in the mood to walk around town to get the stamp or the pictures. After a lot of yelling I just stood up and said good-bye because I was too tired to deal with it anymore. By this point we had a Tashlheet interpreter and an English interpreter. Once I decided to walk out on them, the police hired a guy on a motorbike to get me my stamp and pictures; it was an amazing response I did not expect. The police were probably stunned because A WOMAN was yelling at them, Moroccans are so afraid of the police here. But today a white American WOMEN did yelled, here me roar! I was just too tired to keep it together.
Now I am home I have eaten and life is good again. I love spending time in my little house, alone. I wonder how I am going to deal with not being alone most of the time when I get back to the states? I am going to enjoy this time that I have because my life will never be like this again.
Take care and Love
Emmy
PS Tira Congratulations on you wedding and I wish I could be there. I love you! Please send me picures.