November 6, 2001
Some of you have been nice enough to pretend interest in my experience and ask questions, so here are some answers, and some other news.
Akermoud is really a "commercial center" by bled standards. It's essentially just a (barely) two lane road with hanoots (store fronts) lining either side. There are probably about 150 hanoots, which is a lot [though most of them are empty]. Besides the mosque and sbitar, there isn't much else, though, including housing. As far as I can tell, people actually live in other duoars and come into Akermoud to work. My host family is one of the few exceptions to this, as Margie and I will be in a few weeks. We have secured housing in two apartments that are across the street from our host family's house, at the "end of town." The apartments are on the second floor, over a teleboutique, which is good because PC is stringent about safety requirements, and this way Margie and I don't have to have bars installed over our windows as we would if we were on the first floor. The apartments have running water, although that is controlled by some sort of decision making body so that water only runs on souq days (Mon., Wed., Fri., and Sat.) and then, only in the mornings. We also have electricity, which is probably my biggest plus because of reading. The situation of the apartments though, is not ideal from my perspective. Akermoud is quite conservative, unlike Bzou, and women rarely go outside their homes, especially on souq days. The only acceptable place for women to be is the sbitar, which is good for us, but still awkward. I would much rather live in one of the surrounding duoars, especially if I can get closer to the ocean. I am settling on the apartment, largely because with no privacy and no control over my life for the last 3 months, I'm at the point where I need to get out, where ever that may be.
Daily routines haven't really been established yet, mostly because we're trying to do all of the paperwork needed when you move. The most complicated is the "Carte de Sejour" which we have to obtain from the gendarmes. It's essentially a resident alien card and needs to be updated once a year. This would be easier if Akermoud had a gendarme office, but it's too small, so we have to go to Talmest, for which we take 2 taxis, and lots of staring. Talmest is about 45 minutes to the northeast of Akermoud, and not much bigger from what I've seen of it, but it does have the police. Our (hopefully) last trip to them will be tomorrow, and then we should be done. Our other piece of business was to meet the delege, who is in charge of all of the [health] ministry's programs in Essaouira. Meeting the delege is a courtesy from PC's view, but was necessary for our nurse, so we haven't done much at the sbitar. What sort of routine I'll eventually settle into, I haven't a clue at the moment. For now, I eat far too much, go for walks, sleep and read a lot. If I got to decide on the when and what of these things, it would be almost perfect, but for now I just want to move.
Our host family is small, Najia, Abdultef, and their 2 year old terror of a son, Tofeck. Najia I like quite a bit, but worry about because she isn't even twenty, has a 2 year old, and is due to give birth within the month. Abdultef is not my favorite person. He's astonishingly sexist and seems determined to control everything Margie and I do, including where we live. Sexism here, is of course to be expected, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. Because there has never been a women's movement, the idea holds, based (falsely, I think) on the Koran, that men
are fundamentally superior to women. Women aren't even allowed to look at men on the street, because it is seen as a challenge to male authority, which has been very difficult for me. Sunglasses help though, so I don't walk with my head down all the time. As an example of how relationships work here, a few nights ago, Najia, who is hugely pregnant, as I mentioned,
and does manual labor all day in the form of too much housework, asked Abdultef to get the oranges for dessert. He couldn't be bothered to do so because he was talking to us and that was clearly more important than helping his wife. I'm not favorably impressed. Sigh.
Najia is an excellent cook and I eat way too much. We have four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. Tea is at about 5 and dinner between 8:30 and 9 pm. This will all change in a little over a week when Ramadam starts. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I'm not eating meat here because the storage practices don't meet my standards, so I eat a lot of vegetables, tajines, m'simon (a wonderful bread product that is similar to a very thick flour
tortilla, but even better), and oranges which are currently in season. We do have pasta sometimes, but the method of preparation is different and it doesn't satisfy my pasta cravings. One of the nicest things about being able to come to Essaouira at the moment, is that I get to choose what I want to eat. Really, until you've lost all control over the basics in your life you have no idea how important choices are. On the political front everything seems to be going
well. We get weekly updates from Barbara and she mentions if there have been any reports of harassment for PCVs. There were 2 in the report she sent out yesterday, but they don't seem to be related to what is going on, it's just general harassment, which is all too common here, especially by children. Everyone Margie and I have met, in an official capacity or otherwise, has been very nice to us, and has gone out of their way to express sympathy for the attacks on
the 11th.
I hope this is satisfying for some of you, and if not, send me more questions and I'll be happy to answer them! Hope you're all doing well and having lots of fun.
