My brother emailed me from Great Falls, Montana, my former hometown, with news that they’ve received 23 inches of snow since Saturday. Whoa! Lots of fun for commuters, unless all the roads are shut down. Looking at the Great Falls Tribune Photo Gallery [EDIT: the newspaper pulled the photos off their website.] of the event, it appears that the city plowed the roads in pretty good order, so I don’t supposed too many people in the city were stranded, but I dare say more than a few ranchers and farmers have had their hands full.
Month: November 2005 (Page 1 of 2)
Not! It’s been a very rainy, very cold day in Meknes. It’s probably the first time I’ve really felt cold. As I posted earlier, I think, my apartment building has no central heating and I don’t have any heaters, thinking I could get by. Luckily, John, the RELO, called me today and asked me to take a drive with him in the mountains south of Meknes on Saturday or Sunday. He wants to see the snow; I guess they don’t get much in Rabat. Ok, great, being a Montana boy, a little snow’s right up my alley; a roadtrip. He’s going to call again on Friday to let me know when he’s coming, so I’m going to ask him to bring along one or two heaters, which he indicated a few weeks ago I could borrow.
One thing that is really nice in my apartment is my big bath tub, in which I love to take piping-hot bubble baths. Great to get the chill off just before going to bed. Once in bed, I’m ok. I have some heavy blankets that seem impervious to the cold. Last night I awoke about 3 a.m., sweating. So, earlier this afternoon I’m running hot water to do the dishes, except the water’s not hot. What the heck! Yeah, my hot water heater quit working. I talked to the building super and he got a fellow up here to work on it. It seems the thermostat went out. He put a new one in and I’ve got my “sauna” back. Whew!
I walked to work in the rain this morning, about a half hour hike, no problem. I could have taken a taxi, but I really do like walking in the rain. Except when I don’t have an umbrella. I managed to find a shop open that early (say, about 9 a.m.–most places open around 10) that had some, so I picked one up. Coming back from the CPR, I walked a little out of my way to Label Vie (jeez, I spend a lot of time and money there) to get some stuff. Remember I posted about “O Come All Ye Faithful?” Well, lo and behold, since Saturday, the last time I was there, they put up Christmas decorations. Commercial ones, mind you, but Christmas decorations nonetheless. There were Santa Clauses, wreaths, Christmas trees, tinsel, etc. No Christmas muzak playing and no overt religious symbolism, but the place was decked out except for the boughs of holly. Interesting, surprising and a little homesick-inducing. I haven’t seen any other evidence of Christmas around town, but, with all the expats living and working here, I’m sure other signs of the holiday will appear. More later.
Occasionally when I talk to Nai in Laos he tells me about birthdays. Instead of saying “Today is my father’s birthday” or “Today is my sister’s birthday” he says “Today is Happy Birthday to my Father.” Well, then, today is Happy Birthday to Me! Yep, time flies, but I don’t feel a day older than . . . ummm . . . a day older than . . . uhhh . . . well, nevermind. I forget! (Which should tell you something.) Thanks everyone who sent me ecard greetings. That definitely saves the Montana folks from having to slog through at least 12 inches of snow to get to their mailboxes. Better you than me, although I hear that the mountains south of Meknes have a lot of snow. The ski resorts should be booming this weekend. (Yes, some African countries get their share of snow in winter.)
The first day of classes seemed to go ok; as I expected, my students are quite sharp and they’ll keep me on my toes. Since our school does not use any textbooks, I find that I’m doing a lot of copying. That’s the main reason I broke down and bought a printer/scanner/copier, an HP 1513, a few weekends ago. It sure has come in handy.
After all the rain and cold we had on Saturday, today and yesterday were very sunny and pleasant, but each night seems to be getting colder. More later.
It’s another cold, rainy, blustery day in Meknes. I desperately (ok, not that bad) needed some supplies, so I walked to La Bel Vie. You can almost walk all the way there without getting wet because of all the awnings and roof overhangs along the main streets. Almost. It wasn’t raining when I started the kilometer-long walk, but it started coming down pretty hard about half-way there, the wind negating the effects of the shelter as the rain slanted in. It continued after I bought my goodies and I got a little damp . . . uhhhh, soaked . . . ok, drenched, before I got back to the apartment (I didn’t have an umbrella). Still, it was fun to walk in the rain, though I wasn’t doing a Gene Kelly impersonation.
I did see something interesting and pretty cool on the way back, and, again, I didn’t have my camera with me. It was an automobile painted to be a Spidermanmobile, with the red and gray colors and the white webs interlacing throughout the paintwork. And the make of the car? Ok, it’s obvious . . . ready for this . . . wanna take a guess? It was a VW “bug.” Hah! Neat.
My Lonely Planet guide points out that there is “Central Market” not far from the apartment. I’ve been by there before, but it’s always been shut down, so I thought that maybe the information was old and the market was no longer there, simply moved elsewhere or disappeared. But, I walked by last Saturday morning and it was open. It’s an inside market, mostly, with a few open places, 20-30 good-sized vendors, very much a Farmer’s Market style. What a great place! Tons of great veggies, artichokes, zucchini, eggplant, carrots, pototoes, peppers, etc. for ridiculously low prices. Potatoes and carrots for about 15-20 cents a pound and bananas from Ecuador or Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for 80 cents or so a pound. There is also a fresh fish section, meat, cheese, spices of all kinds, flowers. You name it, you can probably buy it. A wonderful place. I loaded up on white potatoes, baby carrots, onions and bananas this morning. (I still had to go to La Bel Vie for other things, though.)
Looks like the Cairo trip has fallen through, for a variety of reasons. No problem.
Griz 0-7 Cal Poly so far in the first quarter.
Update: Griz 7-7 Cal Poly. More later.
I forgot to mention that the Griz, despite their loss to the Bobcats, still made it into the 1-AA football playoffs and will host Cal Poly State this Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula. The Griz beat Cal-Poly earlier in the season, so they should have a decent chance to advance to the second round. My good friends at UM Catering will spend another in a long string of Thanksgiving Saturdays working the football game at the stadium Sky Boxes. Have fun, Jennifer and company!
More info on the CPR and my teaching duties. The official start date is Monday, the 28th, and I’ll be teaching, for the time being, 6 hours per week, the same 3 classes, since it was decided to have only one group of students, which now numbers 49. So, that seems like an easy schedule, but lesson planning, especially for such a large class, will take a lot of time. I’ll also be working on extracurricular activities, perhaps a drama or culture club. Mohammed and I had an introductory meeting with the students today–they are a very sharp, bright group of young men and women, between the ages of 20 and 28 (most about 24 or 25), many of whom are university graduates with degrees in linguistics. I’m very confident that they’ll keep me on my toes; chances are I will learn as much as they. I also got my office today. It’s definitely bare bones right now, so I’ll have to spruce it up.
It overlooks the basketball and tennis courts, so maybe I’ll buy a racket.
There is a very good chance that I’ll get an opportunity to go to Cairo in January for a week for a conference. Due to a goof up on my part, I missed out on going when the information was first given to me by the RELO (John Scacco). At the time, the only way to go with all expenses paid was to deliver a presentation at the conference. I failed to get a proposal in, so I thought I was out of luck. Now, I find out that the School for International Training (SIT) might fund a trip there for me because, in addition to the conference being held by the American University of Cairo (AUC), there will also be an English Language Fellowship (ELF) mid-year conference. Thus, Yours Truly (YT) might be scrambling among the Pyramids soon. First, though, I have to check this out further with John. More as this develops.
My cold has left, for the time being, so I’m out jogging again. Sheesh, my favorite spot is overrun with kids at the time I usually go huffing and puffing along. It’s a plaza of sorts, off the main roads, so during Ramadan it was pretty quiet. But, there are a few schools, middle and high school, nearby, so a lot of kids hang out there after classes now, rather than going home to break fast, walking, sitting and talking, playing music. It’s rather interesting and they don’t bother me, but I have this vision of stumbling over my own two feet and crashing to the ground in front of them.
I was rather startled while grocery shopping the other day at La Bel Vie. While browsing for something more high-tech in the way of roach traps (I think I’m getting them under control–hah!), the piped-in music started playing “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adestes Fideles).” Wow, here I am in a Muslim country and someone is playing Christmas music. Sure, there are more than a few expats in Meknes, but still . . . However, the next few songs that came over the speakers were modern pop, so it was just an album that happened to have the one religious song on it. It sounded like Mariah Carey or . . . I don’t really know, since I don’t listen to that type of music at all. Still, it was interesting. And it made me a little homesick, especially with Thanksgiving, my favorite American holiday, coming up this Thursday. Maybe I’ll cook a duck. (Haven’t seen any turkeys.) Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. And for my Canadian friends, Tyra, Megan, Allison and Steve, John, David, et. al., sorry I’m a little late, since your Thanksgiving was on Oct. 10. More later.
Griz 6-Cats 16 . . . Sheesh.
No further comment.
The annual rivalry continues, Univ. of Montana (my alma mater) vs. Montana State. I’m watching it on internet TV. So far, with a few minutes left in the first half, it is an UGLY game for the Griz. The current score is 10-0 ‘Cats. The connection is not great, nor is the video feed, but it’s not all that crappy. It’s watchable, but if the video gets that bad, I’ll just link over to the radio feed. I dare say that I could find some Griz fans here in Meknes, and, with a good satellite connection, some 3 inch-thick Montana steaks and a few coolers of beer (or whatever), I could use tailgate parties to teach U.S. culture (Montana culture?) to my Moroccan friends.
If you’re regular readers of my musings in this blog, you know that I don’t inject my personal politics into here too much. (If you know me, you know my worldview.) But I must crow a little about U.S. policy from time to time (not much, mind you). I have more than a few good friends in Laos, so I worry about the threat of bird flu in that country. Because it is one of the few communist-ruled nations remaining in the world, the government is not that transparent about health (or other) issues. So, when I read that the U.S. has given $3.4 million to Laos to help them stop Avian Bird Flu (isn’t that redundant?), then I feel a little more optimistic about my country’s policy toward the rest of the world, especially given its past, needless persecution of some small, inconsequential communist countries. Laos is one of those. If you ever get the opportunity to visit there, please do so. Like me, I think you’ll fall in love with the people and the culture. The funds provided may be miniscule and may have little impact; I don’t know. Hopefully, though, it will make a difference. (Ok, I’m off the soap box now, and done with the politickin’, enough to last me for at least several dozen posts.)
More later.
Finally, the CPR classes begin this coming week, sometime, uhhhmm . . . we’re pretty sure. Probably Tuesday or Wednesday, “automatic,” as Mohammed told me. He and I went to the CPR on Tuesday and the grounds were bustling with teachers, admin people and staff. The director wasn’t there, so we didn’t get to talk to him to confirm the opening date. I don’t think anyone really knows the EXACT day yet, but next week does seem to be firm. Mohammed and I discussed what I will teach this first term. We settled on Methods and Approaches, How to Teach Listening, and Language Proficiency and Development, this last course being for the benefit of the teachers, to increase THEIR English language skills. There are 40 students enrolled this year and they are broken into 2 groups, each group taking 2 hours in each of my classes each week. Thus, I have 12 contact hours (3 classes X 2 groups X 2hours) each week, but I will also be involved with some extracurricular activities, like Drama Club or, perhaps, a culture club. So, that’s how it stacks up for now. The details could change, of course, but at least I’ll finally get to work. More on this as more information becomes available.
Mohammed also told me on Tuesday that the following three days were a holiday. I asked him why and he said that the King was generous to his people. Hmmmm, that sounded plausible, but I thought there must be more to it than mere monarchical benificence. Indeed, it is Independence Day today, the celebratation of the 50th Anniversary of King Mohammed V‘s return from exile. Interesting that the French exiled him to Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon. So, all government entities have been closed for the last three days, but, except for the proliferation of Moroccan flags along the main avenues, you’d hardly know that anything was happening. I guess there’s a big shindig tonight in the medinah, near Mohammed’s house, with a big outdoor screen set up to show the festivities from Rabat.
Luckily, La Bel Vie is open, and walking back this afternoon from buying a few things I was able to witness one of the most crimson-colored sunsets I’ve ever seen. The sun was deep blood-red as it lowered to the horizon, and it cast a beautiful rosy limelight around the edges of the several puffy cumulus clouds in the vicinity. Pretty spectacular; unluckily, I wasn’t carrying my camera. [sigh] More later.
but it’s starting to feel a little like winter. The last few days have been cold, windy and rainy, with more in the forecast. There were a few patches of blue when I looked outside the window a few moments ago, so maybe we’ll have some sunshine today. I walked to the grocery store several days ago and the sun beating down was a wonderful feeling. I wouldn’t normally think too much about a sunny day, but I’ve been fighting a cold for almost a week now, sniffling, coughing, achey muscles, etc.–you know the symptoms. I must have caught it in Marrakech, perhaps from Hakim, who was feeling ill. Or maybe I ate or drank something there that didn’t agree with me, a Montezuma’s Revenge hiding in the water. Luckily, I haven’t heard anything about school opening. Nabila told me that the Tangiers CPR doesn’t begin until the 22d or 23d; obviously, I’d like time to get over this thing before having to teach.
Other than that there is not much of interest to write about from Meknes right now. People are bundled up, fighting the blustery conditions and hoping for a warm spell. More later.