Drew U. Visits Tiflet! [Guest Post]

GUEST POSTER: Justin
When I was in college, my school had a pretty amazing program called the Drew International Seminar (DIS). Participants enrolled in a course at Drew focused on a particular issue related to a specific country (occasionally two countries). Then for three to four weeks after the semester ended, the students visited the country/ies they had been studying for an on-site seminar to continue studying the same topic. The DIS program was like a mini study abroad, and in addition to the academic component, students had time for sightseeing, to learn about the country and its culture more generally, and to meet people from the country. 

In February of 2012 I happened to be on Drew’s website and was suddenly curious whether the DIS program still existed. Several years passed since I had been a student, and given the way the economy has been the last few years, I knew many schools have had to cut costs due to financial difficulties. It turned out that not only did the DIS program still exist, but two professors would be bringing a group of students to Morocco in May or June of 2013. Their DIS is on mobility and identity in the context of globalization (seminar description here).

I got in contact with the professors to offer to help however I could, met up with them last July while they were in Morocco making arrangements, have been in correspondence with them, and last week they and sixteen students visited Tiflet during their DIS. It is exam time in Morocco, so a lot of young people are busy studying, but we were able to bring the DIS together with a group of five strong English speakers from our site, and it was a great opportunity for Goals 2 & 3. We have of course explained to our Moroccan students about American diversity, for example, that we have people from all over the world and with all kinds of backgrounds. But us telling them is different from them seeing a group of Americans where the people look very different from one another. The Moroccans loved the opportunity to practice speaking English and both groups seemed to enjoy meeting the new people.

Here's a group photo (a few more are on the DIS Facebook page):

The DIS spent most of its time in Morocco in large cities – Rabat, Tangier, Fez, Meknes, and Casablanca. While in Rabat the Drew students met up with some Moroccan university students, who told them that they needed to get out of the big cities. Some Peace Corps Volunteers also will dismissively tell people that those are not “real Morocco.” It’s not true, as there is no single “real Morocco.” As with anywhere else, Morocco is multifaceted, and particularly since the majority of Moroccans live in urban areas (source: CIA World Factbook), large cities represent a large facet of Morocco. The DIS also visited Chefchaouen, which while small receives a lot of international tourists. But in Tiflet the DIS participants got to experience yet another facet, seeing a minor city that is not often a destination for foreigners and meeting with its youth. While Tiflet is by no means the smallest community in Morocco, the mere thirty-five miles which separate it from the capital city make it far removed from big city life. According to one of the professors at least, the Tiflet experience provided a good point of comparison to some of their other experiences.

What we've been up to, and post-Peace Corps updates

It's been a busy few weeks! How have they been busy, you ask?

Travels with Liz and Dave
The same morning that we said goodbye to my brother Neal and future sister-in-law Erin in Casablanca, Justin and I rushed up to the Rabat airport to meet his sister Liz and brother-in-law Dave. They visited during a school holiday in Morocco, so we were able to take some time to travel around with them to a few places: Rabat, Meknes, Azrou, Fez, and of course Tiflet. A few photos are below, and look for future blog entries about some of our travel experiences!

Dave and Liz in our riad in Rabat.

In Rabat's Kasbah, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Justin and me in a beautiful old Koranic school in Meknes.

Liz and I try out Moroccan style scarf-wrapping in a cooperative in Fez.

Justin and me in an old Koranic school in Fez.

Dave shows off his scarf-wrapping, in Fez.

Liz and Dave, at a beautiful outlook en route to Azrou.

Justin and Liz in the Chellah in Rabat.

Springtime in Tiflet
Even though we were traveling, it was very much a working holiday! We have lots of exciting plans for the coming months, and now that we're back in Tiflet, expect more posts soon as projects come to fruition. Meanwhile, spring has (finally) arrived in Tiflet with beautiful sunny weather every day! And with that beautiful weather, I have proven myself as a gardener. Check out my handiwork:

I harvested the spinach to make a birthday pizza for Justin, at his request. But I've planted a new round and am keeping my fingers crossed that the green thumb wasn't just beginner's luck :)


Women's Leadership Workshop
One of the projects that I had been preparing for was a women's leadership conference in Rabat, that a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer planned along with a Moroccan NGO called "Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc."  I brought 2 women from my site to the training, and I stayed for the weekend to help the Volunteer. Being around this group of 20 women, of all ages and backgrounds, from small and large towns across Morocco, was absolutely inspiring. Here's a photo of all of the workshop participants and the trainers:

Post-Peace Corps Plans
I haven't really written much about it on this blog, but post-Peace Corps plans have been a topic of much discussion, consideration, and anxiety for Justin and me, really since before we even came to Morocco. One of the things we knew we wanted when we left the US was change, and Morocco has given us plenty of that. As we think about returning to the US, what seemed impossibly far off when we first got here is now surreally close, and we’ve finally decided to continue that theme of change by readjusting back to life in the US while at the same time integrating into a new community, the Washington DC area. Granted, it won’t be nearly as different from New York as Morocco was, but will certainly be quite the change from our lives now! We’re confident that our skills and experiences from integrating into a new community here in Morocco will serve us well as we return and reintegrate in the US.

Now here’s where you come in, dear readers. I plan to return to the marketing/advertising world and am seeking opportunities as a Marketing or Brand Manager in the Washington DC metro area in late summer/early fall. If you are involved in the marketing/advertising scene in the DC area, know people who are, or your company is looking for a new marketing person, I would be immeasurably grateful for any and all tips, leads, referrals, or introductions! The same goes for any insights on places to live in the area. Click here to view my resume, or here for my LinkedIn profile, and read a bit more about my marketing and advertising background. And you can be sure that we’ll be experiencing as much as we can of this amazing country as our remaining time ticks by - and of course sharing it here! 

My parents visit Morocco!

Here's the second installment of updates from the last few weeks. After our regional meetings in Azrou ended, Justin and I hopped on a train to meet my parents who were arriving in Casablanca! They spent about a week in Morocco with us and we used the time to catch up on many lost months, with sightseeing, shopping, partaking in wonderful Moroccan food, and of course, enjoying lots of family time together. Hope you enjoy the photos from a week that went by far too quickly!!

Overlooking Rabat's Kasbah and the Atlantic Ocean

A Jewish synagogue from the 17th century in Fes

A break from sightseeing, and enjoying some mint tea!

A musician in Rabat's Kasbah

With a guard, in front of the Mohammed V Mausoleum in Rabat

A traditional breakfast food called "milwi" - very good!

Beautiful fountain

Mom and Dad in a garden in Rabat's Kasbah

Overlooking the Fes tanneries, where leather is dyed by hand! Quite a smell but really cool to see.

Close-up of blue dyed leather

Couscous!

I have developed an affinity for taking photos of beautiful Moroccan lamps :)

In front of the Hassan Tower in Rabat

Dad does his famous Weinrich act (pretending to run into something) in Rabat

A spread of yummy Moroccan salads!

Pouring tea

Doors to the King's Palace in Fes

Called "bastilla au lait," a very tasty dessert!

Lunch with our host family in Tiflet

My Moroccan and American parents together :)

Morocco 101: Meals

Justin and I recently put together a short language and culture "cheat sheet" for his parents and friends, who spent about 10 days traveling through Morocco (more on their visit in my last blog post). Developing the cheat sheet was an interesting opportunity to distance myself from day-to-day life and to think about some of the differences between Moroccan and American culture. In today's post, I thought I would talk a bit about Moroccan meals and the differences that I have seen.

To start with the basics - Moroccans seem to eat 4 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a lovely little "snack" between lunch and dinner called "kaskrot." I used quotations around the word snack, as it seems to be considered a smaller meal but often is NOT the case! Here's an example of a kaskrot meal:

Now, this is certainly on the larger end of kaskrots, but we've experienced this type of spread on several occasions. It usually seems to be a combination of breads (the dish in the middle is milwi, a very tasty fried layered bread) and often a few sweets (or as the case may be, more than a few!). And of course, always Moroccan tea - which is not always mint tea, by the way - sometimes just green tea, and sometimes green tea in combination with another herb - such as sheba, also known as absinthium or wormwood. But always lots of sugar.

Another kaskrot - this one has skewered meat (pretty unusual)
and an AMAZING thing called sellou, made from sesame,
almonds and flour and usually served during Ramadan.

Lunch seems to be the largest meal of the day. The most frequent main dishes that we have seen are tagines, couscous, fried fish, lentils, or beans. Often the main dish is accompanied by a salad, and bread is almost always on the table as a means of eating the food. Dessert seems to almost always be fruit (the Moroccan word for fruit, "deeseer," also means dessert!). Here's an example of a lunch spread:

It is customary for families to eat couscous on Fridays. Not everyone does but it is a widely observed custom, and Justin and I go to our host family's house every Friday for lunch. Couscous is usually topped with a variety of vegetables and starches, ranging from squash to carrots, potatoes to fava beans, zucchini to tomatoes. Sometimes there will be meat in the middle of the couscous too.

Breakfasts seem to be fairly basic, usually with some sort of bread (milwi, as I described above; or harsha, like cornbread except with semolina flour and cooked on a pan rather than baked; or sometimes just basic baguettes or round loaves of white or wheat bread), sometimes egg or cheese, sometimes honey, butter, or jam. And dinners also seem to be light and fairly simple, sometimes soups, or pasta with tomato sauce or milk, or leftovers from recent meals.

I should also mention that the times for meals are a bit different - Breakfast and lunch are similar to the U.S., with breakfast happening before kids go to school or adults go to work (7/8 A.M.), and lunch around 12:30 or 1 PM. Kaskrot is usually slightly before our dinnertime, around 5 or 5:30 PM. And dinner can be served really late - we've had it as "early" as 9:30 or 10 P.M. but as late as midnight. When we were in training, we had a lot of difficulty staying awake for dinner; fortunately now that we live on our own, we are able to keep to our own schedule (and no, we typically don't add in the kaskrot meal, though we do sometimes have tea or coffee at our local cafe during kaskrot time).

Rfisa - my favorite Moroccan dish so far.

Meal preparation is also quite different (you can read more about that in a guest post that I wrote). In a town like Tiflet that has a market open every day, people just buy whatever is needed for that day. In smaller communities that don't have a daily market, people travel to the nearest big town, usually once a week, to get the food items that they need at what is called a "souk."  And common cooking apparatuses include the pressure cooker, tagine pot, couscoussier (a double-chambered food steamer), mjmar (a clay charcoal grill), gsaa (a large, shallow clay vessel used for serving and also making doughs), stock pots, and of course, tea pots.

Shopping at the market in Moulay Yacoub.

In terms of eating - Typically main dishes are eaten from shared platters. With couscous, people often use a spoon (though many people have an amazing technique of eating couscous with their hands), but with most other main dishes, people either eat just with the hand, or with bread as a means of dipping into the platter and getting sauce, vegetables, etc. There's an unspoken system of triangles in which each person keeps to his/her own area when eating. And typically meat is in the middle of the platter, and is not eaten until towards the end of the meal, when often someone in the family will give portions of meat to each person (in most meals, the portion of meat eaten is significantly smaller than what we might eat in a meal in the U.S.).

That's all for now on Moroccan Meals 101! And speaking of eating, my own cooking adventures have continued...

Yes, that is my first-ever challah baking experiment, which was a phenomenal success, and led to some REALLY good french toast and a spin-off on hamburger buns which got the thumbs-up from our Moroccan host family. Thanks to the wonderful Jessie who contributed her recipe via one of my most favorite cooking blogs, by my friend Nishta - you can get the recipe here (I didn't change a bit of it, it's perfect!).

By the way, if you are interested the full cheat sheet (including both language and cultural info, geared towards short-term visitors), you can view and download it here.

Brooklyn descends on Tiflet!

Phew... catching my breath from a whirlwind few days, as the Bernsteins and friends have now left Tiflet and are on a plane back from Casablanca as I type!

After Justin's parents and a few of their friends had a weeklong tour in other parts of the country, they came over to us and we spent 4 days exploring Tiflet and Rabat - Here are some of the things we did:

• Visited Rabat's old medina and kasbah, with great shopping and beautiful views of the ocean.
• Ate in one of the few Chinese restaurants in Rabat (I've learned that this is a Bernstein travel tradition!).
• Toured the beautiful Saint Pierre Cathedral in Rabat.
• Had a wonderful meal with our host family in Tiflet (rfisa-my favorite!).
• Did lots of exploring around Tiflet - our Youth Center, the downtown markets, the cafes, meeting our friends, and generally just wandering.
• Visited our weekly souk (an open-air market) on the edge of town.
• Relaxed in our apartment and cooked some Moroccan-style food.
• Ate and drank lots and lots and lots: fresh juices (my favorite is banana and avocado), mint tea, warm breads, piping fresh donuts from our favorite pastry guy, a fried mashed potato snack called maakouda (yes, I did say fried mashed potatoes), and sweet and fragrant bastilla.

It was a wonderful time spent with our first U.S. visitors and we hope they enjoyed our part of Morocco as much as we enjoyed having them. For the rest of you, you only have 582 more days left of travel time, so start booking those reservations! :)
 

Lots of fun colors in the Rabat market

Overlooking Sale, a city next to Rabat, and of course the beautiful ocean

The Saint Pierre Cathedral in Rabat

Father and son in our apartment (along with our photo/card collection on the wall)

The crew, just before dinner (meat and veggies grilled on a "mjmar," a clay oven,
along with mustard cream sauce, and saffron rice)

RFISA, at our host family's house - I promise to all of you that I will learn how to make this!

At one of the (many) cafes, with some rugs for sale hanging in the background

in Rabat, in the old medina

Justin and the amazing Martha, who trooped around Morocco like it was nothing!
I would love to be like this woman at 81 years!

Justin and me in our apartment. Two days of being a tourist got me TAN!