Morocco Day 3: Rabat

Today we had a full day of lectures, starting with a Q & A session with women from an organization called OPALS that does work surrounding STIs and HIV in Morocco. It was very interesting to hear about the work they do and the barriers they face. For example I was astounded to learn that it is illegal for youth under 18 to be tested for STIs of HIV without the consent of a parent. This puts youth, already a vulnerable group, in a very difficult position, especially youth sex workers and those being trafficked. Like I mentioned in my last post, it is great that so much health care - including HIV treatment! - is totally free, but there are definitely many legal challenges that need to be overcome. Next we were supposed to have a lecture on the evolution of the Moroccan diet and its impact on health but the lecturer ended up being the speaker telling us how we should have an ideal diet and then going through some regional plants traditionally used in the Moroccan diet. I was hoping the lecture would be more on cultural and socioeconomic factors related to diet and how that impacts health on a local level, but unfortunately that was not covered. Finally we got to have lunch and I was briefly reunited with a childhood friend studying abroad there! It was an unexpected coincidence that made me quite happy. After lunch, we had a lecture by IOM representatives about migration and health. The lecture was really interesting and I thought a lot about my internship from the past summer doing refugee resettlement. Next, we had a talk by a representative from the ministry of health about maternal and reproductive health, after which I got to ask the speaker a few questions about access to abortion in Morocco. Truthfully, I was getting antsy by the end of the class because I was so excited to go home to spend time with our host family.

When we got home, we had some time to relax in our room but we soon sat down for afternoon (although really it's the evening) tea. For snacking we had dates and (what seemed like) a corn-meal based pancake that you slice in half and put either butter or (what is similar to) cream cheese or honey or any combination of these things. We also had these sweets that seem to be fried knots of dough - fried to the point of crunchiness - that are dipped in a honey-like substance with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. They're incredibly sweet and incredibly delicious. After tea we went out to the markets to go shopping. Our first stop was a small place owned by our host-siblings' uncle (not sure which side of the family) where my friend and I each bought a scarf. Afterwards, I was able to get some souvenirs as well as a small metal and colored-glass candle holder. (There really is nothing like the ambience and peace of mind that suddenly washes over a room when candles are lit.) I am eternally grateful for my host siblings for helping us bargain and get lower prices, not to mention taking the time out of their days to show us around to begin with!

After we returned home from the markets, we had dinner. Tonight it was a mix of many different things including cooked beets, potatoes, & carrots as well as a raw salad (tomatoes, cucumber, and finely choked lettuce), some plain pasta noodles, fried fish, a tomato-based sauce to dip bread in, and, what I loved most, a blended mixture of oranges and carrots. So delicious! After dinner, we chatted, sang, danced, and laughed the night away until 2am. To be completely honest, this night was one of the best nights I've had on my study abroad so far (granted, many of my nights, by virtue of the fact that I'm in school in Switzerland, are spent in my room doing readings or other work). Our home-stay sister really likes Adele and we were trying to remember the words to "Hello" for the past few days so finally we found one of those videos on YouTube that has the lyrics on it and sang along. This sparked an even greater Adele singalong, which then started us listening to even more music that our host sister was into. A lot of it was foreign such as Indian or French or Spanish. I was intrigued by the fact that many of the music videos were very sexual, including behavior and aesthetics the culture here does not seem to support, although the sister and mother seemed to be really into it. It would be interesting to explore gender dynamics here.

At one point in the evening, our host sisters gave my friend and I each beautiful brackets. Later my friend and I were remarking on how our host family is just too generous! They are always giving us gifts, giving and encouraging us to eat so much food, and always giving us hearty kisses on the cheeks and hugs (especially the host mom). Even though I could not have a single exchange of words with the mom, I felt so close to and welcomed by her; I really felt at ease and comfortable among them. I think it's amazing the communication and love people can share without words. I've heard that language can be a limiting factor in our lives because often we do not have the words to describe exactly how we really feel so we end up choosing words that only sort of describe what we want to communicate without truly revealing our thoughts very accurately. This short home stay has taught me how true this is and how powerful pure emotion and body language can be in building relationships.

At one point in the evening, I suppose I had a small hair sticking out of the bridge of my nose, so someone insisted we get some scissors to cut it. We were all laughing so hard I was nervous to have those giggle-y hands with scissors so close to my face but my host mom held me in her arms and trimmed it for me. We were all cracking up. Later on in the evening I braided my own hair, which sparked my braiding my friends and then my homestay sisters hair as well. While I was braiding the sisters hair, which is incredibly long and luscious, the mom, who still had the scissors, was joking about cutting her hair while she wasn't looking. Everyone found this absolutely hilarious as well. Although a lot of these little moments don't seem very funny when I recount them, one must know that last night my friend and host mother and host siblings had a serious case of the giggles - none of us could stop laughing the whole night and every little thing only got us going even more. I think the language barrier also contributed to this in that we didn't have particular things to talk or laugh about so in order to communicate, we made silly gestures and things that anyone would be able to understand. Later on in the night, our host siblings put on Arab music (I'm not sure how traditional versus pop the music was) and we danced! Mostly our 20-year-old host sister was showing us how to dance to the music but occasionally our host mom and eventually one of our host brothers also joined in. The younger host sister, who had evidently feigned sleepiness earlier in the night, came bursting into the guest room in costume - a scarf wrapped around her head (I'm not sure of the name for this particular style) and an oversized sweater with scarfs tied around her waist underneath to give her a bit of a booty. She was dancing outrageously and being so silly - she had everyone in stitches! She's such a character and I love it! Once everyone was done dancing we joked about how our cheeks hurt from so much laughing and smiling, which, if nothing else, is a sign of a wonderful evening and even better company.

😂💕