The past couple of weeks have been quite busy out here! On Thursday the 18th Nora and I gained another roommate! His name is Patrick and he goes to college in Colorado. His parents live in Cairo and he spent most of his school years out there. He knows Arabic pretty well but it’s the Arabic that is spoken in Egypt, which is quite different from the Moroccan dialect. Anyway, he is working in Consular Affairs and after his first couple of weeks likes it very much. It is really great to have a guy around now for so many reasons. Our group of three has had a good time so far. We walk to work and go out to lunch together and spend the weekends exploring.
Last week we were informed that the apartment that we moved into initially is to be given back to the landlord, that our lease is up. So we moved on Tuesday and Wednesday to the new apartment. The move was difficult for me because, as being a Management intern, it was my job to organize most of the logistics of the move in addition to my current duties. I ended up making about six trips from the old apartment to the new apartment with most during the day so I had to miss some work. But despite the stress and frustration, everything worked out. Unfortunately we now live about 20 minutes walking from the consulate, verses the eight-minute walk we had previously. The apartment is bigger, though, and we are in a more interesting neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shopping. As for most moves, my most recent one has been good for some things and bad for others but this is the way it goes.
I have been in charge of the motor pool here for a little over three weeks now and it is becoming easier to manage the more understanding I have of it. The most difficult part is not managing the drivers and cars but managing the requests and issues that come from all the people in the consulate. I had a breakthrough on Friday that was another one of those surreal moments that I will remember for the rest of my life. As I said, the motor pool has been difficult at times and I have been driven to the edge of sanity. A few people have missed their rides and there have been misunderstandings, lack of information, and language barriers. Fortunately, though, these problems are coming up fewer and fewer as I get to know the drivers and I understand the system in place. I still have a fear that I am a complete and utter failure; I worry that I am doing everything wrong. Some of these drivers have been working with the consulate for 15+ years and truly know what works and how to best operate. I come in after no training and try to take over this huge task. I’m sure it was difficult for them as well to try to work with this American teenager (yep still a teenager until tomorrow) that speaks neither Arabic nor French and is quite culturally ignorant. Anyway so on Friday afternoon I was sitting in my office waiting to bring the stressful week to an end when I received a phone call from one of the drivers requesting me to come to the driver’s room. I had never been summoned like that before so I really had no idea what was going on. My first reaction was that they were planning an intervention. I thought they were going to sit me down and explain everything that I had been doing wrong. They were going to pick my bones clean, or at least I thought. I prepared for the worst. I gathered up my planner and notebook and walked out to the driver’s lounge trying to look confident but prepared to be humbled. As I approached their room, which is more like a trailer detached from the main consulate building, they could see me through the windows and I was greeted at the door by one of the drivers. He announced “staff meeting!” and I felt a little bit better but still worried that they were going to let me have it. I walked in and approached the sofas arranged in a circle and saw in the middle on the small coffee table a massive plate of couscous. “Just kidding!” they joked. I could not be more surprised. You see, couscous is a huge cultural thing here in Morocco. It is eaten every Friday (the Sabbath) and the whole thing, starting with couscous, then fruit, and ending with traditional mint tea, could last a couple hours. And being invited to share couscous with Moroccans or in a Moroccan home is a huge deal. I was so overwhelmed with joy and surprise and simply filled with love. The kindness I experienced was astonishing. Picture it… me, this white girl that is not outstanding or extraordinary, just plain and simple me that doesn’t have big adventures or interesting stories to tell, but there I was. I was the only white person, the only female, and the only person under 25 in the room. I was surrounded by five Moroccan men, completely outside anything I have ever known but yet having one of the greatest moments of my life. It was amazing. We joked about how I thought it was a real meeting and I had brought my notebook and planner. They poked fun and one of them said "it's Friday. There's no work today!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MoroccanCouscous.jpg
The weekend was happily welcomed by the three exhausted interns. Saturday afternoon was good for catching up on sleep and relaxing. That evening, though, we went to poker night with some consulate folks. The poker started around 9pm and lasted until about 1 or 1:30 in the morning. I ended up losing only 60 dirhams (about $7.50) haha.. and it was a lot of fun.
The next morning on Sunday, Nora and I travelled to a place called Sidi Moumen which is a suburb of Casablanca and one of Casablanca's first shantytowns. We went with a Moroccan that opened a community outreach center there. The town became notorious for being the hometown of all of the Moroccan suicide bombers from 2003 and 2007. The people here, especially the children, are living in dire situations and are vulnerable to persuasion. The man we went with explained that he wants to provide the children of that area with opportunities for success. There is a library, tutor centers, computer lab, sports equipment, and so much more. The facility is in great condition but could always use more money and more volunteers. The center is truly a great thing. I felt so inspired just by visiting it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3930349.stm
After visiting Sidi Moumen, Nora and I rushed back to the apartment to get ready to go to the Embassy in Rabat for the annual Independence Day party. We shuttled out there, ate some food, met the Rabat interns and pretended to mingle with the some 500+ guests. They also had a nice fireworks display that woke up the entire neighborhood. I was so glad to get to see some fireworks this year. It is starting to really feel like my birthday. My life right now is so far from any other normal summer that having even a little connection to home means a lot. Especially around my birthday. We returned to Casablanca that evening after the party and prepared to start another week of work.
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