What? Did Caity win
the lottery and is now a member of the 1 percent?!?! HA – I wish.
I am instead a part of a different 1 percent. According to the all trusting and powerful Internet,
I am now apart of the 1 percent of Morocco that is not Muslim. And only a fraction of that 1 percent is
Christian. It goes without saying that
Christmas would be very different for me this year.
“Me and my Moroccan family on Christmas”
In fact, Christmas this year was very absent from my mind as
the streets were not covered in lights, the store window displaces were missing
themes of Winter Wonder Land, the TV was not telling me all the presents I
needed to by for my loved ones, and the radio was not playing the familiar
Christmas songs. This lack of Christmas
culture explosion made it easier for me to forget how much I missed my family
and friends this Holiday season. Here is
recap of how I spent my Christmas as a 1 percenter.
Christmas Eve: I
went to the one and only English speaking church in the Rabat area to attend
the night service and eat cookies. I
brought a gift to give to the kids (a soccer ball, water bottle, and MSU hat)
and enjoyed the service, lighting of candles, and music.
“Can I keep the fire?”
To be honest with you Internet, I felt the loneliest at
church. It was then that it hit me that
I would not get to spend the night at home in my Christmas pajamas and awake to
take part in my family traditions and presents.
I was pulled out of my glum mood by the kindness of two British women
who talked to me and offered me a ride home after church. I wanted to share this because it was that one
small act of kindness that meant the world to me when I was feeling so alone. I only hope to pay it forward one day.
Christmas Eve
Tradition: As I mentioned above, I
was going to be missing out on some of the Blake family traditions while
away. However, there were something’s
that I could still manage to do while abroad.
Every year we get one present to open on Christmas Eve and every year
that gift is pajamas. This is one of my
favorite things so I insisted on going out and getting a pair of my own to
wear. I came across these leggings that
were fuzzy on the inside and had reindeer on the outside. Can you say perfect?!
"Notice how the light shines down on my majestic leggings?"
"Notice the
extra roll of fat I have because of all the bread I’m eating? I will call it
the Bread Roll!”
*laughs then cries at self
The other tradition I made sure to uphold was waking up my
parents with screams of “IT’S CHRISTMAS!! WAKE UP WAKE UP!! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!”
which I did via text message at 6:45am their time. I’m such a good daughter.
Christmas Service:
I told my boss that I’d be a little late to work Thursday because I wanted to
go to the Christmas service at the church close to my house (this is the same
church from my previous story). I knew
the service would be in French but thought I’d be able to understand about half of it. Oh how wrong I was. My Rosetta Stone failed to teach me Church
French and I understood only the hand gestures they did. Regardless, I enjoyed the small service with
only 12 other people in attendance and looked fondly at the tree I helped decorate.
"Update: Baby
Jesus was returned to the manger”
Christmas Work: From church it was a short walk to the hospital
where I meet my boss on Thursdays to do HIV/AIDS education and testing for
pregnant women. We were done with work
by noon and I thought we’d head back to the office like we had done previously. Instead, my boss said we should take the rest
of the day off. Normally, a person with
an unexpected day off would be happy, but not me, not on this day. I was panicked at having to spend the whole
day alone until my Moroccan family got home and I cooked dinner. I think my boss saw my eyes bug out and so
she suggested we take the afternoon to go shopping. We spent the next several hours walking around
the medina looking for presents. I got a
keychain that I’m going to turn into a Christmas ornament.
“Look I DIY something!”
Christmas Tea: When my boss took off for home I went to one
of my favorite places, the gardens inside the old fort next to the bay. It’s a great place to have a cup of tea, watch the water,
smell the flowers, and pet the stray cats (then use hand sanitizer). This can be a bit touristy of a spot so I
knew the risk of having a half dozen henna artists approach me trying to paint
my skin. I figured that I was not going
to get out of Morocco without getting henna at least once, so I figured why not
on Christmas.
"I’m trying to be all artsy fartsy with this photo"
Christmas Walk:
On my way home from the garden I stopped by the post office, mostly because I
could, and mailed off a few more postcards.
Walking down the Rabat version of 5th Avenue, I did a double
take as I saw a single store displaying a Christmas tree with presents of shoes
underneath. I was so happy at seeing it
I took my backpack off to get my phone to take a photo. As I did, a little girl ran up to me pushing
a pack of tissues into my hand. I have been
working on writing about this issue of children being used to sell products on
the streets and will talk in more detail about it in a later post. For now I will just say that it made my heart
go from excited at seeing a Christmas tree to sad and angry about this girls
situation. I crouched down and took out
my phone to take a photo along with a chocolate candy. I told her "no" to purchasing the pack of
tissues she held out and instead handed her the candy. She took it slowly looking unsure at what it
was, so I pulled out a second piece of candy, unwrapped it, showed her it was
chocolate, and then popped it into my mouth.
Seeing what it was, she took the candy, plopped down right in front of
me, unwrap it and popped the whole treat into her mouth. I couldn’t help but smile as it was way too
big for her to eat in one bite, but she did it anyway and then smiled up at me. I looked around for her mother, spotting her
close by watching me. I nodded to her,
got up, and left the little girl to her treat in front of the Christmas tree.
Christmas Dinner: I decided that it would be a nice treat to
make my host family a traditional Christmas dinner. Too bad I don’t know how to cook any of those
meals. So I opted for a traditional
Caity meal instead. The menu will not
surprise anyone who knows me; tri-colored pasta with cooked vegetables (cherry
tomatoes, red onion, and zucchini) with a cheese sauce (I think it was alfredo?),
topped with goat cheese and chives. I
could hear my dad in my head saying, “where is the protein?” so I added chicken
breasts with special seasoning I brought from MN. And of course bread as a side, as it is
required to be always eating bread (the gluten free kick has not come to
Morocco). For dessert I bought three
little cakes for us all to split. All
rejoiced and devoured the delicious Caity food!
“Sticking
with green and red foods”
“Finding a store that sold goat cheese was a Christmas miracle!”
Christmas Skype:
Thanks to technology and the mysterious workings of the interwebs, I was able
to Skype in with my family. It was
fantastic to be able to watch my family open their presents and to talk to my
family in Tennessee. I also got a
Christmas miracle with my previously broken computer magically fixed
itself. It was amazing to see my family
in their normal color and in a crazy red and blue hue.
"Hi family!"
Christmas Present: Whenever I went off to camp my parents would
slip a note and little gift in my bag to find once I was there. It was great surprise every time that made me
smile and feel closer to home. To my
surprise my parents kept up this practice, slipping 4 cards into my bag on the
way to the airport. They were labeled;
open on Thanksgiving, Christmas, your birthday, and when you need a hug. I was touched and very excited to open up my
cards on the set dates. My Christmas card
had an extra bonus inside of a little snowflake charm. Snowflakes are one of my favorite things and
something I was surly missing here in Morocco.
I attached the charm onto my necklace my brother gave me, and all day I
would reach up to touch it when I wanted to feel close to home.
I know this is a bit late, but Merry Christmas everyone!
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