As for a Fassian update:
Our darija classes are continuing sporadically enough and act as a good enforcement to the development of my [poor] accent and the basics of Moroccan greetings. As for the real heart of my development in this language, my home-stay continues to provide a fabulous learning environment.
Yesterday we had our first morning of medina restoration, which turned out to be a great few hours. For a brief explanation: there are approx. 14,000 houses in Fes's old medina and there has been an epidemic over the past few decades (although I'm sure it is longer lasting than that) of house collapses. In 1981 Fez was labeled a UNESCO World Heritage Site and subsequently a few initiatives were started to strengthen the foundations and structures of weaker buildingsm but a major turning point in this effort was the collapse of a house in 2003 (the last collapse to date, according to one of the workers we talked to) that caught government attention. This collapse drew funding for a detailed survey of every building in the medina sorting them into categories by degree of danger. 2,000 houses were recognized for their life-threatening structural problems, and now all of these homes are in the process of being either reinforced or rebuilt. We are working on two such homes built sometime within the psat 1,000 years (check out global-lab.org for pictures).
I spent the morning laying bricks and sawing cedar ceiling panels. I also expereicend one of the weirdest moments of my trip so far--when one of the workers pulled me away from brick laying and, with few other workers, tried to convince me to climb a palm tree using a makeshift piece of twine in order to cut off some of its leaves that were hanging through an upstairs window of the building we were working on. We stood there beneath the shade of the palm for twenty minutes before I finally convinced the group of men that although I might try climbing a palm in the States where my doctor is located, it would be too much of a problem if I fell, God forbid, and broke my skull here, because my doc is not in Africa right now.
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2 comments:
Lauren,
Your weird Amazing Race contemplative moment is a classic...To Twine or Not to Twine...and your rational, talk them down ending a guidepost for future such scenarios. Way to keep your head, so to speak, amidst the hunger and restoration impetus! Mabrouk on setting a risk mitigation example as a traveler. Remind your medina co-workers of this Moroccan proverb: "Little by little, the camel goes into the couscous." That should buy you and the rest of the students a pass on palm canopy exploration.
Bisalaama, Alex
difference between you and me:
i'm have no sense of responsibility or physical health.
had i been you, right now i'd be using my mouth to type this message from a hospital bed.
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