Ustadh Charafa

Last night was one of my best nights in Fes and definitely deserves its own blog.

Charlotte and I went back to our homestay right after class because we were going visiting with one of the sisters, Charafa, and her cousin, Ismail. We went to the cousin's old neighborhood in the medina, which was very close to our homestay. There we visited a friend of his from when he was really little.

We spent the entire night on the roof of this families house just talking, drinking coffee, and of course eating. The family was amazing. The mother was so funny and loved entertaining. She showed us pictures of her family and told us about her children. She told Charlotte that she looked like her daughter because they were both white. She was very comical.

We also went up to the terrace and looked at the neighborhood. It was a more rundown area of the medina. It is interesting to see the variance in the areas even within the medieval medina. Some areas have been kept really nice and the houses are still in good condition. While others, like this one, make you feel like any second the houses will fall down around you. We had an interesting culture clash when the wind started blowing on the roof. Charlotte was wearing a skirt that would be considered long by US standards but not in Morocco. The wind was bad and blew it up. We were so embarrassed even though it only showed her thighs. In the US we would not have even cared. Getting down was interesting too because we had to climb a ladder.

The incident started an entire conversation on the differences between Morocco and the US. We talked about how girls wear skirts to play sports in the US that are shorter than what Charlotte was wearing. Somehow this led to a discussion on immigration which was cool. Friends of the sons of the family illegally immigrated to Europe so we were talking about problems surrounding that and how weird it is that you merely have to be born in the US to be considered a citizen.

Overall, it was a very interesting evening. I think it is really impressive that people from totally different backgrounds and people who speak different languages can have such an intellectual conversation.

The women of my family are amazing. Though I feel they are the driving force behind the conservative and religiousness of the house they are all well educated and very strong and empowered women. It shows that not all women who live in conservative countries suffer from their lower status in comparison to men. Charafa is getting her second degree and her sister Khalwa is a lawyer in the new city. They all speak multiple languages and have career goals as well as desire to raise a traditional Islamic Moroccan family. Though I feel my family is a pretty unique case especially in the medina.