Party Rock is in Maroc, Tonight

Hello – I am alive! I know I’ve been radio silent for the past few months or so (wow, has it been that long?!), but thankfully it’s because I’ve been so busy! The last month has been a whirwind of more summer parties, summer camp, visits from friends, weddings, and more! Based on what I’d heard from other volunteers about how much things slow down in the summer, I’d been a bit nervous that June, July, and August would only hold hours of alone time, reading, and wandering around my town looking for social interaction of any kind. There have been a few slow days, but for the most part I’ve been so happy to have a lot to do and tons to experience – especially because I’m not someone who particularly thrives on alone time or slow days. There’s so much to say, so I’ll try to sum it up the best I can, but be ready for a long read! J This post is just about the goings on that happened in the month of June, and I'll be posting one about the month of July soon! 

I wrote a bit in my last post about the end-of-year parties that were going on in my site, and the last weeks of June were bursting with more of them. Schools, associations, clubs, classes – where there was any sort of organized group in my town, there was a party to celebrate the end of the working year and welcome the summer. In America, we’re used to schools and school-related clubs celebrating the end of the year and taking a summer break. Here, due to a combination of excessive heat and the month-long Ramadan holiday, the summer break applies to almost everyone, and the entire town had the air of a school campus around May or June. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was another party going on, which was a strange yet awesome thing to discover in a smallish town like mine, relatively out in the middle of nowhere.

I may have lost count, but I attended at least 10 summer parties like these in a matter of weeks, some larger than others. There was a party for the Nedi Neswi, for the women’s literacy class, and several for local schools and associations. On many days, I was invited to a party as I was walking through town, on my way to buy vegetables or to sit and read in the park, and wouldn’t get home until 4, 5, or 6 hours later! My longest Moroccan party-hopping day went from 3pm until after midnight, and was also the hottest day I’ve experienced in country – I believe it was about 115 degrees F that day – wow!

Though there was some variation between parties, most of them followed essentially the same format: First, everyone arrives in a slow trickle, some at the time the party was ‘supposed to start,’ but most around an hour or so afterwards. Everyone is seated in either rows of chairs, packed tightly together, or around the edges of the room on a combination Moroccan floor mats and chairs. For the first few hours, everyone mostly sits and talks, waiting for the party to get going. There might be some music playing, and maybe some tea or snacks being passed around. When the party starts, it feels more or less like a presentation or formal gathering, rather than a ‘party’ as we would think of it in the US. It’s important to note that there’s not a ton of wandering and mingling at these types of events – everyone mostly stays seated where they are, taking in the snacks, talking with people near them, and listening to whatever sort of presentation is going on at the front of the room. There are typically musical Koran readings, a musical group playing drums and singing, perhaps some dancing, riddles or other opportunities to win little prizes, speeches and other performances, and presentations of certificates for completing a year of whatever organization/school/etc. put on the party. Snacks and tea are always passed around, and some parties even had full meals served, with everyone seated around circular tables enjoying a tagine together.

Aside from their sheer abundance and the people I was able to meet at them, he one thing I will probably remember the most about these parties is the stifling, unbelievable heat! The majority of these gatherings took place in the midst of a heat wave, in a closed in room offering little to o breeze. Add to that the body heat of anywhere between 30-100 people in close quarters, the presence of hot tea (Moroccans will drink their delicious hot tea any time of year, regardless of how hot it may get!), and wearing long conservative clothing, and you have one hot and sweaty place on your hands. At the largest, longest, and hottest party I attended, I remember just sitting there sweating, wondering where my body was managing to get all of the moisture pouring out of me at every second. The Moroccans in the room seemed warm and uncomfortable as well, but it was clear that I was struggling a bit more than everyone else. I made a fold-up fan out of paper from my notebook, feeling at once enormously creative and like an elementary school student playing around. I thought I might have looked silly, frantically waving my paper fan back and forth, but I soon noticed a few young girls nearby doing the same thing with pieces of paper they had; that felt pretty cool.

At each party I attended, I was struck by how many people I knew – it seemed like everywhere I turned, there were women from my aerobics class, girls from the Dar Chebab, or other women that I know from various places around town. At Grand Valley, I could hardly walk into any building on campus without running into someone I knew, and that made me feel truly at home, with a sense of belonging; it’s good to know that here, after only a little more than a month in site, I’m starting to build that feeling again. On top of that, I was able to meet many more people, including a group of women who teach at a local middle school, speak some English, and would like to work with me in the fall. In fact, it was at the marathon party (115 degrees, over 100 people, paper fans, lasted until after midnight) that I found myself talking about culture and singing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” with one of the middle school teachers. I think it’s fair to say that any night that includes such a singalong is a good night indeed, stifling heat and all.

In the midst of all of this, thanks to Barbara, an awesome volunteer who lives near me and has been in country about a year, I was able to attend two informal cross-cultural exchange lunches in the Agadir region. The first was with two Moroccan students studying English at the university in Agadir, whom Barbara met some months ago at an event in Agadir. Since their first meeting, she’s been getting groups of volunteers together to visit with the university students, practice conversational English with them, and discuss Moroccan and American cultures. The lunch took place at the incredibly generous family home of one of the students, and we were treated to what seemed like 2 whole meals in one sitting! We were first served nuts, dates, cookies, and tea, to enjoy while we were chatting and waiting for the food to finish cooking. When lunch came out, it consisted of fresh salads and the best tagine I’ve had yet in my time in Morocco, made with goat meat and prunes (it might sound iffy to some of you, but trust me – it was so flavorful, sweet, and tender!). Just when we had finished the tagine and felt thoroughly satisfied, we were told that they had a surprise for us – and out came a huge plate of cous cous! I could not believe my eyes, and was already full, but there’s really no way to pass up surprise cous cous! Over the course of lunch and for a few hours afterwards, we had fascinating conversations with the university students, about things ranging from linguistics to American slang to Moroccan food and American politics. I was truly impressed by both the language ability and wit of the two students; in fact, I learned several new things from them about how the English language functions and other linguistic theories. They even invited us to attend some lectures at their university in the fall and to meet their professor of American Language and Culture – awesome!

The second lunch was in Taroudannt, the large city about 20 minutes away from my site, and hosted by a kind Britsh man who has lived in Morocco for the past several years, running an RV tour company that caters mostly to European travelers. He’s always been known as a friend to PCVs in the region, and welcomed us into his home for a delicious lunch and good conversation with some Moroccan friends of his. I ended up talking for a long time with a young man who is a professor of comparative literature at the university in Agadir, and loved the chance to geek out in an ivory tower fashion for awhile with someone from Morocco. We talked for hours about literature, philosophy, feminism, political theory, cross-cultural studies, and more, and I felt truly in my element. I always thrive on having conversations like those, and having them with someone who has studied in an entirely different country, yet read so many of the same authors, is even more incredible. We exchanged book recommendations and contact information, and he even invited me to attend some of his lectures at the university in the fall! I’m not sure if I’ll have the time with work I’ll be doing in my site, but it’s awesome to have these two connections to people at the university in Agadir either way. 

More soon on July, an awesome wheelchair project, summer camps, and Ramadan!