Eid Kbir

Today Muslims around the world have been celebrating the annual sacrificial feast of Islam.  Moroccans call it "The Great Feast," which is "Eid Kbir."  It is meant to memorialize how God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son.  Jewish and Christian believers think that Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Muslims believe that God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his other son, Ishmael.  Therefore, Eid Kbir is celebrated from the point-of-view that Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son Ishmael.  (All three faiths believe that after God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham was about to do so.  Under all three faiths, God then told Abraham not to sacrifice him, because God had only told Abraham to sacrifice his son to test Abraham's devotion to God. Instead of sacrificing his son, Abraham sacrificed an animal.)

Every family is to have its own sheep on Eid Kbir.  Those who cannot afford a sheep buy a less expensive animal, such as a goat.  In Morocco, families are not to kill their sheep until the King has slain his sheep.  Today I watched the King kill two sheep on TV. After the King has killed his sheep, then the head of each household kills the sheep for that family, then the sheep is cooked bit by bit.  Earlier today, I ate various sheep parts, including sheep liver.

It is customary to purify oneself for Eid Kbir.  One is expected to make oneself as clean as possible.  Accordingly, this morning my host brother, his visiting nephew and I visited the local hammam, which is essentially a Moroccan bath house.  Each of us brought a kis (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic for "exfoliating glove") and we scrubbed ourselves, removing much dirt from our bodies.  We scrubbed each others' backs, too.  Men and boys also get haircuts in preparation for Eid Kbir.

Community members also pray more than usual during Eid Kbir.  Also, it is customary, as always, to give alms to impoverished persons.  People also give some of the cooked sheep parts to poor people as well.  Since it is also customary to visit family and friends during Eid Kbir, I accompanied my host brother and his visiting nephew when they visited some of their relatives here in town this morning.

I certainly feel that I am learning about the culture of Morocco by experiencing Eid Kbir.

Independence Day!

Today, the 4th of July, Independence Day, isn't my last day at the job which I'm about to leave, or my first day of not working there, or my first day driving east from the San Francisco Bay Area. Nevertheless, I feel that it's rather appropriate that Independence Day falls so near to each of those events. I'm not completely fond of my current job, which I'm leaving to enter the Peace Corps, which I strongly suspect I will thoroughly enjoy. Moving on from something I've been longing to leave behind, and moving on to something I've been longing to do, I feel is akin to declaring my independence.

In addition to acknowledging such ironic punctuation, I'm also writing this post to provide a little more information about my assignment. So, I've accepted an invitation to serve as a Youth Developer in Morocco. That's the official job title.

In mid-September, there will be a one-day or two-day staging, or orientation, for all those of us who are being invited to be Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in Morocco. We, those of us invited to be PCVs in Morocco, haven't yet found out where the staging will be held. It looks like the last staging for Morocco was held in Philadelphia, so perhaps the staging this September will be held in Philadelphia.

Right after the staging, there will be between two to three months of training in Morocco. We'll be trained in language skills, cross-cultural knowledge, safety and security, and technical skills. At some point during the training, we'll get assigned to our specific sites in Morocco; right now none of us know where in Morocco any of us will be specifically assigned.

As far as the job goes, Youth Developers in Morocco start out teaching English at Dar Chebabs, which are Youth Centers. PCVs integrate into their community by teaching English classes at the Youth Centers. Later, PCVs can branch out and potentially start other projects and extracurricular activities to bring different members of the community together.

I'm especially excited about several aspects of this assignment in Morocco. One, the King of Morocco has made education a priority in Morocco. In particular, the King has made clear that a particular priority is girls' and women's education and empowerment. The King has also been called the “King of the Poor” by the French and the local press, since he is seeking to raise the quality of life in rural locations, and is wanting to reduce poverty. For these reasons, I am especially excited about moving to Morocco, and living, working, and teaching there. I'm excited to see what will unfold during my time there!