Mr. Caffeine Comeback

I’ve been on a caffeine roller-coaster for the last 5 months. It's been all jagged and kicks you around like that ride made out of pallet wood at Worlds of Fun, The Timberwolf. Tea at least five times a day, mixed in sometimes with a couple cokes (my moroccan champagne). My energy level fluctuates so much from my glucose intake that I’m afraid I’d be diabetic if I continued this way for several more years. Of interest, the diabetes rate in Morocco has jumped since better testing has been implemented. Here’s a breakdown of my daily schedule while I’m still living with a host family.

8:00 Breakfast and tea
8:30 Environment work in site (generally just talking with local residents)
10:00 Tea
10:30 Work on preparations for regional EE workshop in August
12:30 Lunch and tea
1:00 Nap
2:00 Study arabic
4:00 Tea
4:30 Study arabic
7:00 World Cup soccer, tea, and popcorn
10:00 Dinner and tea
11:00 Bedtime

On the previous, nap-time fluctuates. In many places, the streets are barren between the hours of noon to 2 or 3 because of the afternoon siesta. I wish we could incorporate this in America.
With soccer throughout the month of June, I was busy drinking tea and chowing on popcorn and peanuts (although I will always prefer the arabic word cow-cow). And sometimes, there were as many as 3 games in a day, which led to more gluttony at my neighbors house.

Related, I have to tell you about how moroccans have accessed the World Cup. Everyone that I have seen and all that I can imagine besides the rich bypass paying for the games by getting the password for unlocking the games off the internet from internet sites like “Pirate Booty.” Like imitation clothes or pirated CDs and DVDs, this exists in Morocco because of its poverty. Without these alternatives, many moroccans would have to go without.
Returning to my tea intake, its about lunchtime and I’m zapped. I need more sugar.

P.S. With the World Cup final between Italy and France tonight, I’m cheering for Italy. I’m acrimonious towards the France government right now; their colonization of Morocco until 1956 did bring some modernity towards Morocco, but their gains from exploiting the state were more then the costs. I’ll detail the exploits of the coal mining town of Jerada in a later post, its just too long for here. The short story is the same as others in the world; they came, they exploited the natural resources and filled their pockets, and left.

Moreover, I’m disgusted by the manner in which I see many European tourists acting here, insensitive towards culture norms like dress and cultural behavior. As one college professor told me before traveling, “When you’re abroad, act like your an ambassador. Everything you do reflects on your country.”

To clarify, I’m not lumping together French and other Europeans that travel to Morocco as callous individuals. Furthermore, americans have their own problems abroad; the term ugly american comes from our travel exploits. I have met some wonderful individuals. It’s very easy to be cynical in a developing country where development is so slow. They didn’t tell me when I signed up that one of my main responsibilities while I’m here is not to become jaded.