Ruth and the Learning of Things

You'd think that after 11 months of using turkish toilets I would have learned. But no, that lesson was driven home only just today. Cell phones and turkish toilets don't mix. Cell phones and the most disgusting turkish ever really don't mix. Can cross that off the list of things to do while I'm here though. 

Despite that little incident, I had a very yummy lftur (breakfast) at my host aunts house - moroccan pancake thingers filled with kefta, onions and peppers, delicious cake with chocolate filling, the obligatory harira, and egg tagine for dinner too. Result!

Now for a things I've learned segment, based on the last few days: 

Food is not that important to survival, but chocolate, water and medicine for a funny tummy are essential. 

Don't drop your phone in a turkish toilet (see above). It will stop working. 

Blister beetles don't die easily. Do not assume they are dead even after six or seven gigantic whacks with a dictionary. 

Meringues are really hard to make if you don't have an electric whisk. 

I can make tortillas from scratch, as well as bread like my host aunts! Not muskina any more, Dad - I can make bread!! 

War and Peace is a really hard book to get in to. 

I really miss good mexican food, like Papalotes in San Francisco. I daydreamed about their salsa today. 

Ramadan is very good for losing track of time - neither my host aunt or myself knew the date today. 

I think that's all for now, but there's always more where that came from. 

xoxo.

Ruth and Ramadan.

So now it's week three of Ramadan, and I'm back on the fasting. I made it 7 whole days before my stomach decided that, really, it had had enough of being healthy for a while. I will spare everyone the details of what I've got and just say that I have enough drugs aimed directly at it that it should die any minute now. And so now I'm fasting again, which is going well. Still being woken up at 4am to eat rice and milk if I stay with my host aunts though… not altogether crazy about that, but this is what I do.

Ramadan has given me plenty of time to think, watch and read, which I'm happy for. I read an entire book in less than 12 hours. I'm completely up to date with Mad Men. My Kindle, iPod and computer have never been cleaner and more organized. Today I washed and packed away all my winter clothes as they were getting all dusty. Whatever will happen next?

All in all, it's a very quiet time in Morocco. Last week I was in Agadir, and it was amazingly quiet along the beach front, until 10 or 11 at night. Everyone is at home with their families, and since throughout most of Morocco it's the hottest time of the year, days are spent inside, in the cool. Luckily, my site has been abnormally cool - haven't even had my fan on recently. Hopefully it'll stay this way.

Until the lovely Annalisa gets here, back to the fasting, and with any luck my house will be the most organized place on the planet by the end of Ramadan.

xoxo.

p.s. Monday marked 11 months in Morocco. This time last year... I'd given notice on my job, my apartment... turned everything upside down. Who'd have thunk it?

Ruth and the Big Fast. And the Break Fast.

August 2

I'm hungry. Not starving, but I could definitely eat. It's 3:15pm, and I'm trying to keep my mind occupied with things other than hunger and not being able to go in the kitchen. I've got a list of mindless, yet time consuming projects that I want to complete during Ramadan, so am getting started on those. But, I'm about to tidy myself and go over to my host family's house to experience the first night of breaking fast with them.

August 3

I've just gotten home from my host family, and I'm on to Day 2. I was successful on Day 1, and even managed to shock a few people with the fact that I was actually fasting - I guess they didn't expect me to be. It's going to be interesting doing this for the whole month though. I'm wondering how I'm going to feel about it by the end. When I arrived at my host aunt's house, we sat around chatting for a while, while they prepared harira (soup) for breaking fast. Around 7:30pm Amina served the men of the house, and then us with harira, dates and coffee. Then Amina and I went visiting to a couple of different houses - family, friends, and saw a couple of women from the association. When we returned Sadia had nearly finished preparing dinner, tajine, which we ate around 11pm, then pretty much immediately we all went to bed, around midnight. I was woken by the alarm going off at 3:30am, and promptly fell back asleep again, while my host aunts got up and served the men. Amina woke me again about 4:15am, and the three of us ate bread with oil and honey, rice with milk, and of course, mint tea, until about 5am. I'm not sure I slept much after this, so I'm definitely going to be taking a nap today.

And tonight I'm going to be staying home and breaking fast by myself, with a Bakewell tart and some Cadburys!

xoxo.