Oh, crazy Moroccan winter and the joys of living at 6000 ft. Sunshine and warmth (you know, relatively) were plentiful the last two weeks. I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and got a little too comfortable and complacent with the early signs of spring. Well, the gods of winter decided to throw me a little curveball. My little town that sits on the top of a mountain has experienced intermittent snow showers and heavy winds since Friday night and this nasty weather is expected to continue through the rest of the week.
February was, by far, the busiest month of my Peace Corps career--working to get the computer literacy classes started, attending trainings, and repairing my relationship with the weaving cooperative. After sort-of sitting on my hands the second half of 2008, all my work projects seem to be coming together at just the right time. I am happy, motivated, and enthused about the next couple of months.
As I grow older, I am having more and more of those "oh-my-god-I-swore-I-would-never-do-this" moments. Some are in the abstract--like realizing that I am slowly but surely turning into my parents. That I am okay with. However, two events at souk today have me shaking my head in a little bit of disbelief:
1) The sellers at souk were in a bargaining mode. After my very first souk experience, I promised myself that I would never bargain for food. It was a lot of work for only a couple of dirhams difference. While some volunteers say that it is the merit of the issue, I know when someone is taking advantage of the fact that I am a foreigner. If it bothers me, I will do something but this does not usually happen at souk. Today however, I bargained just for the hell of it. I have more vegetables than I will ever eat but the red peppers looked beautiful and they are usually scarce around my town. The seller said 8 dirhams. I said 5. He said 7. I said 6 or I was going away. He quickly accepted and after handing him the equivalent of 75 cents, I walked away with a kilo of red peppers.
2) I bargained some more, this time for olive oil. Accepting my new liter of scrupulous Berber olive oil, I made a mental note that my current liter was bought less than less 2 weeks ago. With the exception of one dinner, I have not been entertaining. Its been just me; I went through a entire liter of olive oil in less than 2 weeks. My diet has been overtaken by the Mediterranean diet. But that diet is supposed to be good for you, right?
Today's adventures have ended and at this moment, I sip my cup of chamomile tea, trying to figure out a way to use my kilo of red peppers, and daydreamin' about my upcoming trip to the Sahara.
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