6/13 "A Little Knowledge can be Dangerous"

After waking up to the first prayer call at 4:30, I continued the habit fearing I had missed my alarm each time. Finally at 7 my alarm and phone went off (I’m so glad my phone charger has a built in converter, as does the laptop). Then I faced the Turkish toilette. No one can understand the fun I had that morning when the shower head came off, unless you know what a Turkish toilette is. A Turkish toilette is two marked places for your feet, which surrounds a whole that’s maybe 2” in diameter. This one happens to have a douche (shower) above it, which let me to my first Moroccan game of ‘Go Fish, for the head in the hole.’ On the bright side, I’m now sure to remember to eat with my right hand only, as the left hand is the unclean one. Breakfast was toasted bread and jam (confiture – yay French). While we ate the rest of the family slept in the same room, my guess is they’ve left their actually rooms to give to the other Americans and I.

School was the same. The three hours really flies by, though it we could be more efficient if she let us do the writing parts at home. Sam, Whitney, Kacey, and Liz are my classmates, and we have the ‘slow’ class. There are three types of classes total, Beg. Adv., Beg. Int. and Beg. Basic – and the latter has two classes. To give an example, the first day we covered 6 letters in BB, the other class finished the alphabet song and counting up to ten. Everyday we are spending the last ten minutes going over Darhija, and I’ve already started confusing it with Fus’ha. Zahira only knows Darhija, though, so learning it will certainly be useful, but unfortunately not for the week in Egypt. Darhija only is understood in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunesia. Oh well.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on the Hamaam, the public bath house. She explained the special soaps and shampoos used, as well as that plant stuff used to temporarily tattoo the skin (used mainly by women). After learning the etiquette and motives behind it (including showing off jewelry, and finding a husband - by allowing the mother to see that you’re pretty) the lecturer shared some of her research on it. She told us if you don’t go molecules called ATP will actually shut down (on a side note that’s basically rigor mortis). This struck me as another example of what Farha was saying about many “knowing everything,” but few actually knowing the exact reasoning behind their actions. Many claim they know the best way, and this is supplemented by any facts or big words they pick up on the way. Not to say that it happens only here, I find we are often also guilty of the same. A little knowledge can be dangerous. Furthermore, because of the huge placement of society over the individual, I asked whether sick people go to Hamaam. She answered, “of course,” and that she knew people who don’t actually feel better until they go. I guess generalizations never work ; )