Throughout the course of Ramadan, this was possibly the most common phrase besides "pass the harira." It means, "Bayn. Everything Bayn." Bayn is the name of a relatively new phone company here in Morocco, and they ran an aggressive and incessant advertising campaign during the semester. I was thinking about things the other day that will mean Morocco to me in the future, and my friends and I joked about the Bayn commericals. Then, I started to think about the intereresting parallel between the word "bayn," the phone company, and "bain," the Arabic word for "between." (The spelling difference in Arabic is the following: باين -the phone company, and بين-"between"). Suddenly, as corny as it sounds, the phrase took on new meaning-"between, everything between." That is probably the most appropriate way I can sum up my feelings right now, in light of my impending return to the States.
Early on Saturday morning, December 15, our flight goes out from Casablanca, and I should be home to St. Louis by Saturday evening ("insha'allah")--it never ceases to amaze me that the distance between two cultures can be geographically bridged in such a brief period of time. There is a nice symmetry to the last week here; we're in the same hotel I wrote about in the second blog, and I'm even in the same overpriced internet café--though I'm much better on the keyboard now. That all seems so very long ago now, but obviously that's not a surprising sensation. I feel that three and a half months is just long enough to get used to the idea of living somewhere new and to allow it to start permeating your identity. Then, you are suddenly jetted back home and must grapple with just what to do with that new piece of identity that you've picked up. It's a satisfying struggle, though.
I'm afraid I don't want to write very much tonight, considering that we have so little time left. I have a million and one things to say, but they can wait until I am comfortably seated in my American house on internet that I don't pay for by the hour. Really, I just wanted to write one last blog while in Morocco for closure of sorts; I am weeks behind in my personal journal, and don't know that it can ever be caught up--things have just been too much. We finished our Independent Study Projects (ISP) on Saturday and had presentations this week with our directors and advisors. ISP for me, as you may recall from last blog, was about tourism development and water resource management in Marrakech. Basically, I was given three weeks to tackle this project head-on, which meant, for example, just walking into the National Ministry of Tourism and demanding an interview, or calling Moroccan university students in Derija--later to find out that their English was amazing (practice makes perfect). I also spent hours and hours in Moroccan cafés drinking "nous-nous" (half-coffee, half-milk, completely Moroccan) or mint tea, with an incredibly helpful French dictionary deciphering hundreds of pages of bureaucratic French-language documents from different ministries and officials. (In Morocco, French is definintely more important than Classical Arabic for getting around; more people understand Derija and French than understand Derija and Classical Arabic--which sometimes makes me rue the hours spent agonizing over the details of Classical Arabic). Initially, I had grand plans of all of the things I could accomplish in only three weeks, but life gets in the way sometimes--as do preparations for the American University in Cairo--, and I'm resigned to what I was able to finish in the alloted time. I'll post some pictures in another blog.
To get back to the point, however, of "between," that would be the accurate description of my feelings right now. It seems that as the days get shorter, the lists of "to see" get longer. Yet, my eagerness to get home gets stronger everyday, as well. Hopefully, while I write my next blog, I will have a nice bowl of cereal next to me or be stuffed with Mexican food--my current two largest cravings. I also know, however, that there will be so many things, so many small things, that will accumulate from day to day and make me miss Morocco terribly. Just a short list of amazing things that I miss already: the prayer call five times a day, eating everything with bread and fingers, palm trees, zelij tiles, jellabas, reading Arabic street signs, the ocean, old walls and fortresses, seagulls, French pastries, Moroccan pastries, really fresh juice and fruit smoothies, eating everything with LOADS of sugar, and Moroccan generosity. Really, the best thing about Morocco is the people. Actually, they are the best and worst thing at the same time, paradoxical as that is. Moroccans as a general rule are some of the most generous people in the entire world, and I will be taken aback in the States when every person I meet doesn't ask me to come back to their house to meet their family and eat couscous. Yet, I will also be incredibly relieved that every man that I see on the street won't shout things at me or follow me trying to get my phone number. One of the most trying things for every girl on this program has been the street harrassment from Moroccan men. Please don't be offended at home if I walk past you and don't see you, since I have gotten into a habit of walking even faster than normal and having tunnel vision to avoid any glances that may lead the men to say even more; they often find accidental eye contact to be an acceptable reason to continue dogging you to talk. Everyone says, "Well, it's just the culture," which it is, but that doesn't always make it easier to accept. It did get easier with time, but I won't miss it (though it doesn't seem that I will have a chance to, since everyone has told me that Egyptian men are actually worse...). There are certainly more terrible things in the world than all of this, however, and while currently listening to Christmas music, it's hard to stay angry or annoyed. I'm a little disappointed by our timing here on the program. We were here for Ramadan, but we are just missing Eid Al-Kabir by a week. It would have been a great experience.
Anyway, this is taking longer than it should, my thoughts are not collected enough yet to write a satisfactory blog (I learned the word for "mixed-up" in Arabic earlier this evening). I think that I will save the rest for the States, and just wish everyone good luck with finals and happy holidays until I talk to you again! (Wish us safe travels and short delays!) B'slaama from Morocco!!!
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