Salam alekum my friends,
guess who has traveled all the way to Morocco to see me?? My mom! Yes, she arrived in Spain three days ago and I went to meet her there. We stayed in Malaga overnight, did a tour in the town and took a boat to Tangier the next day. She is liking Morocco and wondering all the new things that she is seeing. Yes, I remember being the same way when I was visiting an arabic country for the first time (it was in Egypt three years ago - a trip that really made me fall in love with arabic culture with its tastes, sounds and atmosphere...). It's interesting that my mom is noticing many things -differences between Morocco and Finland that I already take for granted and that I'm used to. In psychology we would call it a process of adaptation! Mom is staying here three more days and then flying home from Casablanca where I'm traveling with her to make sure that she gets to the airport. I only hope that she will manage to find her connecting flight in London and get home safely!
I hope you spent a very nice Easter with your family and friends. For me, there wasn't really any feeling of Easter (only the chocolate eggs and candy that mom brought from Finland -well, that's the most important thing, right! :) However, we had three days of holidays from school because it was prophet Mohammed's birthday and moroccans celebrated that with their families.
I'm getting more and more convinced that this place is my home. I noticed this when I traveled to Spain to meet my mom. I took a boat from Tangier to Tarifa, which is only 35 minutes away from me. This was something that really opened my eyes. First of all, I learned how everything changes when you travel 20 km from here to another continent. It's like another world - new houses, less people, roads in good condition, people living their quiet, wealthy life and most of all, not a remarkable gap between the rich and the poor. You can see the coast of Spain from Tangier when the weather is clear -the coast which is a promise of a new, better life for many moroccans. Because of this, Tangier has always attracted people who want to cross the sea to Europe in hopes of finding the paradise there. Only for me, everything was contrary. As soon as I reached Tarifa and I was in Europe again, everything seemed so weird to me. I was wondering where are all the people? Why aren't people smiling to me? Why aren't people helping me when I can't find my bus? Why is the bus driver respecting all the traffic laws? Where are the sheep, cows, and donkeys beside the roads? Why is everyone in a hurry to get somewhere? Why does everything look so perfect that it can't be the reality of it? I felt sad when I looked Morocco from the side of Spain. I felt that's not where I should be. I should be on the other side. I wanted to get out of that "paradise". And the next day when I got back to Morocco, I felt I was at home and I could breath again.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Joys and sadness
This past week I've been going through quite mixed feelings. I can honestly say that I feel happier than I have felt for a long, long time in my life. It's all because of this country - the atmosphere and the people who amaze me by their hospitality and friendliness every time. But, at the same time, there are things in every day life that make me very sad. Maybe in the beginning I didn't see them well, or maybe I didn't want to. But after being here for a month, the reality of this country has hit me. One of the hardest things for me is to accept the big difference that exists between the rich and the poor, which I'm not used to seeing in Finland. The saddest thing of those, which I see every day, is the children that live on the street. In this area where we live, there are quite a lot of them. As this is a wealthier area of the town, these kids hang around here hoping to get money and food from the residents. However, we have been told not to give money to them as they would only buy glue for sniffing it. So, if we want to help them a little bit, it's better to give them food. Some mornings when I have woken up and looked through the window, I've seen something that really breaks my heart: kids sleeping on the ground without any blankets, just having a small fire to warm them up as the nights are still pretty cold. At those moments, I really hate the injustice in this world and feel so bad about the fact that I'm fortunate in my life... But it's part of this experience. If I want to live this experience to the fullest, I need to face those things even though it hurts. Like I wrote last time: every day here is a lesson about life. Seeing the reality here is certainly a lesson that changes my way of thinking. How cliché it may sound, but when I go back to Finland, I will appreciate things that I have taken for granted so far. And also, I will think twice before complaining about little things.
Maybe I'm one of those people who like to be shaked by the facts of life - whether in good or bad. Despite the misery I see here, I have started to think something these past days: I could actually live here! I never thought about this before. This thought came out of the blue one day when I was walking on the beach. It really stopped me. This is something I want about life.
As for studies, everything is finally clear. In the beginning I was supposed to do a psychological research, but then I finally decided to drop it as it would have taken too much time. I think it's more useful for me to concentrate on studying arabic and if I really want to learn it, I need to put it a lot of effort. Little by little, I'm starting to read it but writing it is more difficult. I have classes in both classical arabic, which is the universal language of all the arabic countries, and "darija" which is the Moroccan dialect spoken here. Every day I'm using some phrases that I have learned when communicating with people. It always makes a good impression on them:) People are always impressioned when I say something in their language, and they start to speak to me something really quickly, which unfortunately, I don't understand anymore... :D
On Saturday, we celebrated the international Women's Days as well as Laura's 25th birthday. It was really nice. We invited many people from school in our home and had a great party with them. Laura had ordered a cake from the bakery that said in arabic and french "Happy Women's Day, Jean Pierre 50 years." Heh heh! Actually we don't know any Jean Pierre, it was just a joke since there was no logic in it. You can imagine that the guests were pretty confused about it! Afterwards we went to a night club which was a nice experience for me since it's pretty different here than in Finland. There was a live artist singing arabic music and people were dancing so well. Wait until I get back to Finland and I will show you all the moves that I have learned here! :D I feel very lucky to have so many nice Moroccan friends that are really sincere and want only good for me. As for here, it's always good to pay attention to which people you should trust.
Ok, I think it's about the time for me to go to bed. I haven't felt very good today since there has been a weird feeling in my stomach the whole day (Kristiina, in Tanzania, I guess you know what I mean!:D) Oh well, it's only part of the experience, as I tend to say about everything! :)
Mselkhir, good night, my dear friends.
Maybe I'm one of those people who like to be shaked by the facts of life - whether in good or bad. Despite the misery I see here, I have started to think something these past days: I could actually live here! I never thought about this before. This thought came out of the blue one day when I was walking on the beach. It really stopped me. This is something I want about life.
As for studies, everything is finally clear. In the beginning I was supposed to do a psychological research, but then I finally decided to drop it as it would have taken too much time. I think it's more useful for me to concentrate on studying arabic and if I really want to learn it, I need to put it a lot of effort. Little by little, I'm starting to read it but writing it is more difficult. I have classes in both classical arabic, which is the universal language of all the arabic countries, and "darija" which is the Moroccan dialect spoken here. Every day I'm using some phrases that I have learned when communicating with people. It always makes a good impression on them:) People are always impressioned when I say something in their language, and they start to speak to me something really quickly, which unfortunately, I don't understand anymore... :D
On Saturday, we celebrated the international Women's Days as well as Laura's 25th birthday. It was really nice. We invited many people from school in our home and had a great party with them. Laura had ordered a cake from the bakery that said in arabic and french "Happy Women's Day, Jean Pierre 50 years." Heh heh! Actually we don't know any Jean Pierre, it was just a joke since there was no logic in it. You can imagine that the guests were pretty confused about it! Afterwards we went to a night club which was a nice experience for me since it's pretty different here than in Finland. There was a live artist singing arabic music and people were dancing so well. Wait until I get back to Finland and I will show you all the moves that I have learned here! :D I feel very lucky to have so many nice Moroccan friends that are really sincere and want only good for me. As for here, it's always good to pay attention to which people you should trust.
Ok, I think it's about the time for me to go to bed. I haven't felt very good today since there has been a weird feeling in my stomach the whole day (Kristiina, in Tanzania, I guess you know what I mean!:D) Oh well, it's only part of the experience, as I tend to say about everything! :)
Mselkhir, good night, my dear friends.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Wish I could stop the time...
Dear friends, here I am again. Please, excuse my absence and not keeping you updated about my life here. It's been almost a month since I came here. Time goes by really fast. Too fast. I'm scared that, even before I notice, it will be July and time to go back to Finland. Ohh, I should stop thinking like this! Why am I always worried about the future? One of the things I came to learn here is to live day by day, not worrying about the future and just enjoying every moment. After all, we are not always the ones who decide where this life will take us.
To describe my feelings, I can simply say that I feel GOOD here in Morocco. When I wake up in the morning, I know that there is always something that the new day will teach me. New ways of doing things, new ways of seeing different aspects of life. Most of all, learning that the way we are used to doing things in our culture, is not the one and only way. For me, every day here is a new lesson about life.
Last weekend I travelled to Fes with Laura and we stayed with a Moroccan family. Fes is a very old traditional town five hours from Tanger, close to the Atlas mountains. I liked this town very much as it gave me a feeling of ancient Morocco, the feeling that I can't get here in Tanger as this quite a modern place. Especially the Medina (the old town) of Fes had fascinating atmosphere in it. We also visited a place where they paint the goat skins with different colours to make slippers and bags out of them. The smell in this place was something not very pleasant as we know what the sheep smell like! Heh. It was a great experience to stay with a local family since it's always the best way to learn about local customs, which for me is the most importang thing about travelling. Not seeing the sights and monuments, but really feeling the life profoundly as it appears to the members of the culture in question. I got to prepare Couscous (which is traditionally eaten on Fridays as it's the holy day for musulmans) with the mother of the family. It took a few hours to prepare it but was really worth it, soooo good! As I know now the way to prepare it, I will invite you all to eat this traditional moroccan dish when I get back to Finland! ;)
From Fes, we did a day trip to Safrou, which is a small berber village where the Atlas mountains begin. It was really something to remember. We climbed onto a hill where the views were magnificent, as you can see from the picture. People live there on the mountains in the their small houses far from the facilities of modern life. And yet, they seem happier than us. We met a boy who was having his dinner on the rocks and when he saw us, he came to offer us a part of the food he was eating. These people don't have a lot and yet they give to others from the little things they have. That certainly should be a lesson to remember for all of us.
To describe my feelings, I can simply say that I feel GOOD here in Morocco. When I wake up in the morning, I know that there is always something that the new day will teach me. New ways of doing things, new ways of seeing different aspects of life. Most of all, learning that the way we are used to doing things in our culture, is not the one and only way. For me, every day here is a new lesson about life.
Last weekend I travelled to Fes with Laura and we stayed with a Moroccan family. Fes is a very old traditional town five hours from Tanger, close to the Atlas mountains. I liked this town very much as it gave me a feeling of ancient Morocco, the feeling that I can't get here in Tanger as this quite a modern place. Especially the Medina (the old town) of Fes had fascinating atmosphere in it. We also visited a place where they paint the goat skins with different colours to make slippers and bags out of them. The smell in this place was something not very pleasant as we know what the sheep smell like! Heh. It was a great experience to stay with a local family since it's always the best way to learn about local customs, which for me is the most importang thing about travelling. Not seeing the sights and monuments, but really feeling the life profoundly as it appears to the members of the culture in question. I got to prepare Couscous (which is traditionally eaten on Fridays as it's the holy day for musulmans) with the mother of the family. It took a few hours to prepare it but was really worth it, soooo good! As I know now the way to prepare it, I will invite you all to eat this traditional moroccan dish when I get back to Finland! ;)
From Fes, we did a day trip to Safrou, which is a small berber village where the Atlas mountains begin. It was really something to remember. We climbed onto a hill where the views were magnificent, as you can see from the picture. People live there on the mountains in the their small houses far from the facilities of modern life. And yet, they seem happier than us. We met a boy who was having his dinner on the rocks and when he saw us, he came to offer us a part of the food he was eating. These people don't have a lot and yet they give to others from the little things they have. That certainly should be a lesson to remember for all of us.
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