Wedding!

Hello everyone, I hope you haven’t given up on me, I am still here in Morocco, living the dream. I have been up to a lot since the last time I talked to you. This past weekend I went to Rabat for my boss’s daughters wedding. It was one of my most memorable experiences in country, thus far. It all started last Friday when I went to Marrakesh to meet my friend Erin and Michelle, who were also going to the wedding. On Saturday morning we woke up early to make the journey to Rabat. To get to Rabat I took a train, the trains are a lot like the trains in Darjling Express, but this time we were granted the gift of A/C, which is normally not working. Once we got to Rabat the time bomb started ticking until we had to be at the wedding, which started at 10 pm, yes started at 10 pm.
We all got ready at the Peace Corps office, since the train ride was a sweaty experience even with A/C, we all took European showers, meaning we just put on a bunch of perfume to cover up our sink because there is no shower at the Peace Corps office. I barrowed a traditional Kaftan from one of the girls in my village so I wouldn’t stand out at the wedding. I even got to wear make up and do my hair, which is a rarity in my life these days.
With my hair all done up, heels, and my Peace Corps friends in tow we arrived at the wedding and were surprised from the beginning when we entered we walked down a red carpet. The wedding hall had a huge live band and city Moroccans galore. When we entered the room everyone turned and stared at us because we were such a spectacle, but staring is something we are all used to. In our villages we are like superstars and the fascination of our towns. I guess we did look silly because all the us girls were in traditional garb and we all spoke their language. The bride married a Frenchmen so there was a lot of Frenchies there too but we had more in common with the Moroccans than with them. After living here for so long I am finding myself more accustomed to Moroccan simplicity than the Western world.
The wedding started with cookies, dancing and fresh squeezed juices. Since it was a Muslim wedding no alcohol was there, which is unheard of in my world. I didn’t know you could even have a wedding without drinks, but it was surprisingly so much fun without it. We got crazy on the dance floor with Peace Corps staff and we were the buffers for young Moroccan girls that wanted to dance with boys, which is only appropriate to do if there are other girls dancing with them, we were chaperones.
At Moroccan weddings the bride changes five or more times into different Kaftans. Layla, the bride, started in white, then wore blue and purple and ended the night in a western wedding dress. Layla even threw a bouquet at the end of the night, which is a very westernized thing to do, but she lives in France with her husband, at this point Layla is more westernized than I am.
Dinner came out at two in the morning and it was insane how much food we got. All of us Peace Corps Volunteers were like scavengers, like we had never seen food before. We were all just so surprised at how much food there was that we felt like we had to eat everything. When I go to weddings in my village each table of about ten people gets one chicken, at this wedding we had six chickens! The Volunteers there were the most uncivilized people there because we were just so surprised and the food was so good.
Even when I am in my house I don’t have enough money to make the food that we were being served. There was this fried cheese appetizers at the wedding that I can’t get out of my head because they were so amazing. I never allow myself to even buy cheese or anything that I can’t get in my market because I can’t afford it. Most of my friends allow themselves the luxury of cheese from time to time but I don’t even go down that road because once I start buying it I won’t be able to restrain myself. It is weird to me to think about how I have to restrain myself from buying food because when I was in America I ate cheese and ham with every meal, now in Morocco there is no ham to be eaten and cheese is too expensive. Even people on welfare in America get cheese. I am not feeling sorry for myself part of the reason I joined Peace Corps is to learn discipline and I am doing that one slice of cheese at a time.
Enough about the food, the wedding was so beautiful and the music was actually enjoyable. Most of the volunteers in Morocco don’t like going to weddings in our villages because it is such an enduring process. We have to sit in rooms for hours listening to horrible music and the rooms are so crowded we are sitting on our own feet and people are breathing all over us because they are so close. But this wedding was so amazing we got to sit in chairs, eat as much as we wanted to and men and women got to dance together. In our villages men and women are separated for the entire evening. It was also a great time to bond with my bosses. The father of the bride was so grateful that we came he gave us hugs when we finally left at five in the morning. I am so honored to be given, the opportunity to have had this experience and thank that Lamqaddam family for inviting us to the wedding.
After the wedding I got on a train the next morning and headed into the Middle Atlas Mountains, for my friend Natalie and Brianna’s houses. Months ago I decided to plan a craft weekend because as you all know I love crafts. Bri was a textile major in college and she knows everything about crafts. I didn’t even know that was a major and think I missed my calling. I learned how to felt and knit. Bri has a swing in her house so I also learned how to tie kite knots and I am going to hang a swing in my house. I am so excited for this!
After a couple of days up North I made the journey back to my house and this is where I have been ever since and I never want to get in a taxi, bus, or train again. It took me fifteen hours to get home from Azrou. In America we would never travel that far for a weekend, but in Morocco it is an entirely different story, we do it all the time. Friends that live six or seven hours from me are thought to be close and I would travel that far for a night, and these journey’s are not comfortable and rarely come equipped with A/C. During these journey’s I rarely listen to music or read my book, I usually get totally wrapped up in my own thoughts that the time passes without me even realizing that four hours have gone by and I am still staring out the window. I am getting to know who Emmy is and it is great!
Tomorrow I have to go get the stupid flu shot in Agadir, which is a six-hour journey there and back just for a flu shot. But, if I refuse the shot, which I was tempted to do, I will get kicked out of Peace Corps. I will suck it up and get in a crammed taxi, with four people in the back seat and two in the passenger seat, and get my damn flu shot. Just another opportunity to enter my brain and figure out what is going on in there. Sometimes I get bored of my own thoughts but then I realize that I have no choice I am stuck with this person for the rest of my life so I better get comfortable with this person. “Where ever you go, there you are.”
Love Emmy