Somewhere in rural Africa

family portra

oh where to begin.
Left Rabat last Thursday, and just got back yesterday (Wednesday October 6)......so much, yet so little has happened between then. it's indescribable
So the village where I was for the past week was near the town of Bejaad, not far from the middle atlas mountains, named Loutichaina, also known as  dry land.
I was lucky and got placed in a host family with another student on my program, who just happened to be one of my roommates from the first week here aka we get along and can live together.
Our host family: Mom, Tajinia, and two girls, Rabia and Nabila ages 17 and 16 we think.

our house

chobs

So the short version of our stay is chobs, also known as bread, the sugariest tea you will ever drink, sitting around, A LOT, and trying to communicate in Durija, the only language our host family spoke.

making chobs

To elaborate on the short version:
 Our mom was also a migrant worker in SPain for three years so she had random spanish words in her vocabulary which helped a little.
They were very poor (in terms of money and material goods) no electricity, at all, a very small herd of goats, and a small house/complexy living space.  The day basically started when the sun rose and ended when it set, we had dinner around 7 and went to bed around nine.  the time in between was lit by a single candle.
it got SO dark there, Tulsi (my roomie) and I stood outside every night before bedtime just staring at the stars. It was so cleer we could see the milky way, Venus, and more stars than I've ever seen before....including shooting ones!
The world was our bathroom....we could go anywhere and everywhere our heart desired, it was great.
The food was delicious....so flavorful and on such smaller scales....minus the chob, which was never in short supply.

rabia with egglplan tagine

with the program we went on a hike around  the area, and learned about soil erosion and deforestation, had tea and chobs soaked in buttery honey at the chief of a neighboring village's house, played at the school (which goes up to the sixth grade) and helped clean up and paint there, as well as watch women weave.
So basically we had quite a bit of free time, though most of that time was spent in the dark so only a few hours of daylight to explore which was NOT an easy fete.
While our host mom was lovely, trying to get out of the house was a painfully awkward experience.  THe two times we did manage to though, with the help of other students and Badrdine, my arabic teacher and a chaperon for the week, as well as a teacher from the village translating we, along with our rebellious compatriots put my new sipsi to good use.

I didn't shower the entire time I was there, and not because I didn't want to. By the time we left my hair couldn't move on it's own and the amount of dead skin and grim that came off of me yesterday when I went to the hammam was actually slightly repulsive.  The ladies that scrubbed my friends and I thought we were nuts and dirrttty.

Coming back to Rabat was terrible.  It was so fresh and open in the village.  The people were so friendly and happy, the language barrier was not as much of a hindrance, and it was relaxing and beautiful.  Yesterday was rough, I think I suffered from slight culture shock but I'm readjusting and leaving tonight again to hopefully go up to the Mediterranean with friends to be with nature again!