Currently the kids who attend public school here in Morocco have a two-week break. Consequently there are fewer kids coming to the dar chebab (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic, for "youth center") where I do most of my volunteering as a PCV. Thus I also have fewer kids asking me questions about English.
When I've been going to the dar chebab for the last week or so, I've played some games of pool. The kids are so good at pool, though, that even when I play one of my best games, I still just barely lose!
Once the dar chebab had closed last night, I was walking home, incidentally with the boy who had bested me in our game of pool. We saw a dog at the side of the street, sniffing some sacks piled on the ground. The student asked me if people have dogs as pets in the US. I told him that many people keep dogs as pets in the US. In contrast, far fewer Moroccans keep dogs as pets. In fact, many Moroccans don't treat dogs well. I added that many people in the US keep cats as pets. When Moroccans have cats, the cats don't seem to live at the homes so much as they tend to be frequent visitors. The cats show up often and the people feed them.
I added that some people in the US keep fish as pets. My walking companion noted that people don't have fish as pets in Morocco. Later I considered why he had said that, and I thought that here in town, most people are impoverished. Thus it probably doesn't make sense to buy, in addition to the fish, a fish tank and special food for the fish. Also, they would also likely pay for the additional expense of the electricity for the fish tank.
Then we spoke a little bit about the animals which people here in town often have at their homes. I noted that people sometimes have pigeons, sheep and goats at their homes. However, I often think about how people don't have them so much as pets; rather, these animals help them to survive, since these people often live off of them; that is, they eat them!
No comments:
Post a Comment