Sameness

I've been a little hesitant in writing this post for fear that it would be taken as a criticism to the Moroccan people, but now that I'm over that worry I figured I'd go for it!

Morocco is an ancient culture. No I'm not going to give you a history lesson but in a country with a mosque more than 1,000 years old I realize I'm dealing with centuries of tradition. And it is tradition, or rather, sameness that I want to address here in this blog. You, dear reader, can make the distinction between tradition or sameness for yourself.

It seems to me that in so many things Moroccans are the same. First thing is the way they eat. They all eat bread along with every bite of their food (with rare exceptions). It's as if they can eat nothing if they aren't scoooping it up with bread. Because of this method of eating they do not use forks, instead using the bread to grab the food. I had a bit of fun with this the other day. We were sitting down to eat and the food had been placed on the table but not yet the bread. Of course Ali's grandmother was quick to point this out to her daughter-in-law (Ali's mother) and she was calling for her to bring the bread. Just to see what she would do, I handed her my fork (which I always use while eating because I'm the crazy American who just can't fathom eating that much bread) and encouraged her to eat from it without the bread. She shook her head no, smiled at me and said "shooma" which means shame. Good grief!

Another "sameness" quality is the aprons a lot of the older women wear. Ali's grandmother and her sister both wear these all day even though they do absolutely no cooking. This is a garment that has to be tied around the waist and I would imagine it's not the most comfortable thing in the world but damned if they don't take them off...EVER!

This next one is an extension of the aprons as it deals with clothing. In Morocco there is a unique garment called the jilaba (that's not how to spell it but I tried to go with phonetic spelling). It's a long dress for women and a similar style for men, expect the men's style comes to the ankles and the women's is a little longer. Most jilabas sport a hood and embroidery down the center front of the garment. You can spot them anywhere in the world and know they came from Morocco. Now don't get me wrong, many of them are very beautiful and they come in a dizzying array of styles, colors and patterns. But they are essestially all the same.

Now on to cleaning attire. I've seen several ladies of the family and ladies of the neighborhood cleaning in and outside of their homes and, again, it's all the same. They all roll up their pants, put on their plastic houseshoes, tie up all their hair in a rag and go at it. They all look the same pushing a broom or a mop.

Also, they all cover their hair completely when they go to the hamaam (public baths) or bathe inside the home. And this is regardless of whether or not they routinely cover their hair for religious purposes or not. For instance, Ali's youngest sister doesn't cover her hair but I can always tell when she's had a shower because she'll have her hair wrapped in a scarf for the rest of the day. I think this goes back to their fear of cold but I don't know. I always just towel dry my hair and then pull it up into a ponytail while damp but call me crazy. I also let Drea leave the hamaam with towel-dried but non-covered hair and I'm sure the ladies are all silent condemning me for my negligent mothering. Ah well.

Another thing is shoes. They wear them in the house but not on rugs and carpets. Now I totally get and agree with this as several studies have shown that walking with shoes on carpets traps a lot of dirt and dust in your home and can trigger allergy attacks and other problems. But it's still a funny sight to see a serviceman walk into your home and take off his shoes before he fixes your power outlet in your room or, even funnier, to see someone drop to their knees on the rug in the room your sitting in and "knee walk" to you because they need to greet you (with a kiss of course) and they don't want to take off their shoes because they don't intend on staying in the room you're in. I have seen this done on more than one occasion and it's funny!

I've also talked to my sister-in-law about the type of food that's served in Morocco. She agreed with me that if you walk into any home they are likely having tea at the same time we are, having coffee the same time we are and so on.

Now having said all this I'm sure we can chalk a lot of this "sameness" up to tradition, something I feel is a little lacking in America simply due to its youth.  Now many of you may not agree with me on that point but having seen something of other cultures I can tell you it's true, as least in my Moroccan experience. But feel free to share your own.