Scenes From Morocco: The Camera Cinema

The Camera Cinema is one of the oldest movie theaters in Meknes.

Scenes From Morocco: Night Shopping

A Haircut And A Good Terry Jones Conversation

He begins by buzzing the left side of my head. Before he can move to the back or right side, the man in the chair next to me comments on my Arabic, "You speak well the Arabic."

I try to downplay it as usual, "Yes, the basic things. But I don't understand everything."
"Little by little," comes the reply.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm American."
"Good."
"Did you fast during Ramadan?"
"A little. When people invited me to iftar I fasted before."

For a few seconds silence reigns. But the man next to me cannot resist.
"Do you know about the qas in Florida?"
"The story (qissa)?" I ask.
"No," he clarifies in French. "Le pere, the father."
"Oh yes. I know. But you know he decided not to burn the Koran."
"It does not matter if he burns it. You cannot destroy the Koran. It is written on the hearts of Muslims throughout the world."

Practically every conversation I have with a Moroccan these days ends up mentioning Terry Jones and Koran-burning. It reminds me a bit of my time in Latin America and in Europe in the years following the Iraq invasion. Once they found out I was an American, locals felt compelled to stop what they were doing and tell me just how evil of a man my president was.

But at least George W. Bush was President of the United States. Terry Jones has a few dozen people in his congregation in Florida.

Scenes From Morocco: Rooftop View

Looking northward from a Meknes rooftop.

Ramadan Ends

These days, the coffee shops close between 9 PM and 10 PM these days. They open in the morning rather than after sunset. The streets are remarkably quiet in the late evening. Step inside, the papered-over alcohol shelfs are now clearly visible. The population of prostitutes seems to have increased a few fold in the past few nights. There are fewer fights in the streets.

Ramadan is over.

Other than severely limiting my daytime consumption outside the house, Ramadan only really affected my life via teaching. Our intensive Ramadan term ended on Thursday last week, right before Eid al-Fitr. I'm proud to report my Advanced 1 students did quite well on the exam. Afterwards, in order to help them continue improving their English, I wrote up personalized evaluations for all those who have managed to find me online (a majority of the class in this case). Their responses gave me some warm fuzzies, but they also left me scratching my head a bit.

Thank you very much
You are a great teacher too
and a little bit crazy but it's fine
my writing was good thanks to you and your advice
and if you had any question about Darija, Arabic, or Moroccan culture you can ask me, I'll be glad to answer you ;D

I'm a great teacher, but I'm insane. That's a good combination, right? Well, he's obviously fine with it.

And another:

I will always be thankful to you .
For all the hard work and efforts you did . You are the bestest Teacher in the Alc .

I appreciate the thought, but the linguist in me can't help but notice that she calqued over "faire des efforts" ("exert oneself"/"try hard"/"put in a good effort") from French straight into English. And knowing the student, I'm pretty sure that 'bestest' is not a purposeful cutesy grammatical exaggeration. I'm left wondering if we should have reviewed superlatives this term.

Scenes From Morocco: Ramadan Rue de Paris

Rue de Paris is perhaps the best known pedestrian area in Meknes. At night during Ramadan its outdoor cafes are particularly popular.

Moroccan Teenagers On The Amish

For whatever reason the Amish occupy a special place in English textbooks. Perhaps it is because they give an example of an almost other-worldly culture that raises all sorts of interesting questions. Maybe they just serve as a nice counterpoint to any unit on technology and progress. But in any case, every time I turn around, it seems I am explaining the Amish way of life to my Moroccan students.

This time around I asked my teenage students, "Do you think you could live like the Amish?"

"No, teacher. I would kill myself."

I smiled at the hyperbole and proceeded to inquire with the rest of my students. One after another they gave similar answers. Not a single one would be interested in the natural peace of the Pennsylvania Dutch. While not all of my students agreed with the first response, a majority of them did concede the preferability of suicide to the Amish way of life.

There's a certain Moroccan sociability that overwhelms many Westerners. Moroccans' literally non-stop socialization doesn't allow Westerners their needed personal space and time. What we're witnessing right now is a shift of that cultural emphasis into digital technology, as Facebook, MSN, and Skype become practically indispensable for the new generation. While my students' parents likely would have related in part to the Amish way of life, coming generations will continue to find it depressingly inconceivable.

Time Lapse Sunset Over Meknes

This is an experiment. I haven't done anything like this before. The footage I have is in HD, but because of online constraints the quality has been significantly reduced. Let me know what you think.

September 11th, Community Centers, and Koran Burning

"Teacher, al-Qaeda didn't attack the World Trade Center."

"Well, who do you think attacked the World Trade Center on September 11th, then?"

"I don't know. But it wasn't al-Qaeda," came the reply from the smartest student in my Advanced 1 class.

We had started to discuss the proposed mosque/community center a couple of blocks from Ground Zero and the huge controversy it has generated. Only one student had actually heard of it. None of them seemed to care. I took a stab at a one minute survey of American religious history and the 1st Amendment to give some context.

I tried to explain that many Americans conflate Islam with Islamists, that they don't distinguish between al-Qaeda and the much more numerous peaceful Muslims who repudiate al-Qaeda's tactics. But as I got to the part where Americans associate al-Qaeda's actions on September 11th with all Muslims, we reached a snag. Americans are wrong to associate September 11th with Islam not because al-Qaeda is unrepresentative, but because no one even remotely associated with Islam committed the heinous crime.

In contrast with their lack of interest with the "Ground Zero" mosque controversy, they were all well-versed in the plans of Florida pastor Terry Jones to burn Korans next week. All of them had seen the video I posted last week, and all of them were incensed about it.

So I tried to draw the two issues together. Did they realize that not all Americans and not all Christians wanted to burn Korans? After some thought, they could agree to this. After all, the CNN journalist interviewing Terry Jones was American, and he seemed to oppose the idea. I pointed out that Americans need to make distinctions among Muslims as well. The vast majority of people claiming to be Muslims have nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th.

I looked back at the student to see his reaction. "Do you agree, Oussama?"

He paused a moment. I don't know what he was thinking but I assume that in that pause he had decided it wasn't worth arguing with an American who presumably always believes the government's official story.

He grinned, perhaps a little mischievously, and said, "Yes, teacher."

Scenes From Morocco: Stocking Up On Water

In response to Meknes' water problems, hanoots (corner stores) are brimming with bottled water.