A friend from a nearby village came to visit for a couple days. First visitor in my Moroccan apartment! Overall, a much-needed mini staycation. However, I’ve noticed hosting here to be a little different mainly for one reason; food. Back home we have so many more options for last minute stops to the grocery store, restaurants or ideally food delivery. Here it is just the weekly souk, for produce, only on Tuesday so if I have someone come Sunday, I better have thought out the necessary ingredients.  I love hosting and this time was no different, it just presented a new challenge to tackle. The fun of thinking out places to go explore or restaurants to visit- this trip may not have involved any restaurants but it did involve more exploration of my village and of course some Moroccan haunt shopping. I got to play tourist in my own village. My friend was able to buy multiple appliances she needed she wasn’t able to get at her site. My Darija or Tashlheit may not be great but nontheless I’m great at the networking thing. We even got to visit what I call the beauty haunt- a little ‘store’ that has mainly health and beauty items for women, including some jewelry.  I even got to meet more haunt owners on the other side of the village including scouting some more transportation resources for later. Learning more about Moroccan life little by little as the universal phrase goes.

Food wise most Moroccan dishes are communal, what we would call family style in the U.S., just without the utensils.  The main dish here is usually tagine which is a large clay dish with a triangle cone top that is filled with veggies and some kind of meat. The tagine is placed in the middle of the knee-high table which each person sits around and uses small pieces of bread to scoop up the food. Bread is the utensil here. Etiquette is that you only eat the portion that is front of you, meaning no reaching across the dish to grab that better looking piece of chicken. Granted custom will dictate the nicer cuts of meat are placed in front of guests. There is also a communal cup of water, but when drinking tea or soda there are individual glasses. Also, you only eat with your right hand as in Islamic culture the left hand is considered unclean, as this is the hand with which a person performs sanitary tasks. Something I heard often, and again is a sign of hospitality and love, is the constant urging to eat more. The word ‘kuli’ which means ‘eat’, is a phrase all us PCV know well. Generally, a tray of fruit is brought out as desert and after the meal a washing basin will be brought around the table for your hands. Then everyone usually sits around drinking tea, talking, watching t.v, or even taking a little nap.