Tea and Tajin

This week at community training was easier than the last. I’m making some language progress (swih b swih - little by little) and I am more comfortable in my site and amongst my family. I’m eating a lot of tajin, which is like a potluck that is fired over a small wood burning stove or budagas tank (propane) for about an hour. Tajin is like America’s steak and potatoes served in a glazed pyramid shaped pot; it’s the staple of the country. Right now, my consecutive number of tajin meals (not counting breakfast) stands at 5. This occurred two weeks ago when we first arrived at site. We got it at the hotel before leaving, once more while in transit, and three more times at my site.

The 2nd staple of a Moroccans diet might be couscous, which unlike the tajin, I don’t care for because its bland. It’s served in the same pot as tajin, and combines small pieces of rice, veggies, and meat. With both meals, the meat and potatoes are at the bottom because they take longer to cook. From what I know, the veggies are added later. For drink, I don’t know how they stave off dehydration. There is no drink served with meals, except mint tea with breakfast (which is normally just bread) and buttermilk with couscous. So far, I’ve refused nothing at the table, although the buttermilk requires an iron stomach. Also dinner in Morocco can be anywhere between 9-11 PM. In my host family, we eat at 10, then I go to bed at 10:30. Often, I can just feel dinner converting into fat while I lie in bed.

If tajin is the staple meal of Morocco, mint tea is their water. Since I got here, I’ve been drinking tea for breakfast, morning break (10 AM), afternoon break (4 PM), in the evening (7 PM), and sometimes as a nightcap. Tea drinking is also the social icebreaker; we’ve already gotten numerous invites, which the culture makes hard to refuse. In the cities, moroccans with a little English will call tea “berber whiskey.” The first night with my host family, I called it this, they just picked up on “whiskey,” and my host brother Brahim let me know that alcohol was a shuma (something that is socially condemned, although not illegal) in Morocco and in Islam. Also on tea, if a normal kettle of chinese tea with local mint is around 32 oz, Moroccans like to put in about 10 oz or more than 1 cup of sugar. It’s like juiced up Kool-Aid or I’ve been told southern tea.

This last Thursday we went to the souk (weekly market) in Tourbadour, a community of a couple thousand. The souk is seperated into a vegetable/fruits section and then pottery, clothes, rugs, cheap tech gadgets, etc are intermixed. There is also the open meat market and a livestock area, where sheep can be bought for 200 dhm or a donkey for around 2000 dhm I think. The dhm/dollar exchange is 1/8.9.

P.S. There are definetly two things you can get from Morocco: cavities and patience. I tried posting a photo with this post, but gave up after 30 mins. I have posted some photos to my flickr account under "My Photos." These seem to upload quicker.