Posting to: birds chirping this morning, and someone tap dancing on my roof (or so it would sound).
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I meant to share this with you all – this being the my most recent epic tale of rain – early this week, but a few side-projects wedged themselves between me and my intended post.
To keep you feeling informed but to allow myself time to get on with the day, I will be posting an instant messaging conversation that I had with a friend last week just after the event took place, to tell the tale for me.
Consider this to be insightful (this is me talking without editing, as opposed to writing, and editing, and writing, and editing, and previewing and then posting… per the usual), or consider it to be lazy. Both may be true.
Things that I am changing to ease the reading of this story will be [in brackets], but the rest is just how I recounted the story to him:
Nicole says: yallah, bismillah! our story starts on wednesday. i awoke early, drank my coffee and headed over to host family’s. my h-mom has what i would consider to be pneumonia, so i wanted to help her out with the housework.
i only got the bathroom done when she put a teapot in my hand and said ‘yallah’. we were headed out to the fields [where the women are sewing wheat seeds for a summer harvest], it turns out, to bring the ladies out there a pre-lunch [teatime].
it was a nice teatime, though it started raining and got a bit chilly. we went back to the house to make lunch, and i got a bit more cleaning done before i found a [pressure cooker] in my hands and another ‘yallah’ from h-mom. we were headed back out to the fields again (this time with a buta[gas tank] and my host brother in tow) for lunch.
i told h-mom that i had to leave at one [pm] in order to come back to my house, pack for my pending trip to tiznit and plan for that afternoon’s english class in [my souqtown].
we ended up eating at one thirty, so i texted my english class ladies and abandoned that idea all together. i was then charged with taking host brother to school at two, and accepted my fate.
all this time, by the way, it’s raining on us. the moroccans are unphased (and in the case of my host brother, are ECSTATIC) about the precipitation and keep on keeping on: yelling at donkeys, chatting away about the almond festival coming up at the end of the month and – if you happen to be five years old – playing hide and go seek with me.
i feel really bad about this part, but i can’t leave it out: i really started to lose my patience with host brother. he’s the apple of my eye (cute as a BUTTON!), but i am not a happy camper when i’m wet and cold and there’s no end in sight.
Eric says: yeah, that is no fun.
Nicole says: he’s running all around getting muddy, and then coming up to hug and kiss me… mon dieu, i was just as muddy as he was by the end of that afternoon.
two o’clock finally rolls around, and h-bro and i set out for school/home.
he wants to stop at his friends’ houses along the way to see if they’ve already left for school, but they have — so instead, he just plays in the water as we go along.
it then hit me that the rain, for him, is like snow for us when we were little.
and that made me smile. 🙂
Eric says: 🙂
Nicole says: we finally arrive at school/home, and i throw my stuff into a bag and get my house ready to be gone for a few days. i had a health ministry meeting on friday that i had to leave for on thursday, after first spending the night at my tutor’s house.
i got to [souqtown] with no problems, hamdullah, although it was still raining into the evening.
it got cold and windy that night, and it rained allllll night.
i awoke on thursday morning to more rain and wind, and kept my pajamas on as i went back into the main part of the house for breakfast.
i also left the bed unmade, which is very un-like me. i planned on going back to bed, you see, as i figured that the road to tiznit would be flooded and unpassable.
i asked my tutor if she thought the road would be closed, and she said no.
i asked her if she thought i should wait for the 2p bus instead to see if the weather clears up, and she said that going in the morning would be better. she also threw in that if the bus wasn’t going to go, they woudln’t sell me a ticket.
i heeded her advice, as she’s [lived here for her entire life] (and this is my first winter here), and went on my way. put my big girl clothes on, made the bed, and headed out the door.
oh, tea’s done! just a second.
Eric says: sure thing!
Nicole says: anyhow, i get to the bus and i’m sold a ticket and i grab a seat. there aren’t many people on the bus – me, a few young people, a few old people and some french and german tourists – so we all get to spread out.
we’re boppin’ along down the road, and everyone’s gazing at the waterfalls up in the mountains.
we roll through my site, and i get sad all of a sudden. this day was supposed to be my host-mom’s first trip to agadir (her first trip seeing the city, not just passing through) and she didn’t make the bus because of the river.
the river, by the way, was HUGE — much bigger than christmas. this has me wondering about the road ahead of us…
but wondering aside, we press on. i’m staring out the window letting myself thoughts drift, and then the bus stops.
there’s traffic stopped in front of us – a [truck hauling butagas tanks], a taxi, a few personal cars and some [foreigners].
my heart skips a few beats (in the bad way), but then i regain composure — we’re taking on the people from the taxi.
“so,” i think to myself, “maybe the road is just impassable to smaller vehicles!”
no, my friend, no. that was not at all the case.
we pull up farther (in true moroccan style, we pull up right to the problem to face it head-on) and i see the hold-up.
water that’s flowing too fast, and extends too far, to determine its depth.
Eric says: yikesss
Nicole says: let me take a moment to describe the scene to you: we’re on a one-lane road with VERY TALL MOUNTAIN on one side and VERY DRAMATIC DROP-OFF on the other. the mountain is so tall, and the drop off so dramatic, that i felt both were worthy of capital letters.
Eric says: nice
Nicole says: this bus is between 12 and 15 meters long, and there is no physical way for us to turn around.
back to the scene inside the bus: the driver and the [man who sells tickets] are talking about possibly going through the water. they’re speaking arabic, so i can’t quite make it out, but they’re definitely considering it.
i, meanwhile, AM FREAKING OUT. i’m white-knuckled in my seat convinced that this bus – a reliable yet low-quality souq bus – cannot make it through that water. large tree limbs are flying through the water and off of the drop-off, and oh! did i mention that the water was covering a bend in the road? even if we knew the depth of the road, the driver could’ve clipped the turn and we could’ve gone over the edge.
it could happen on a beautiful sunny day, let alone a crappy one like this.
talk of crossing through the water subsides, and my breathing returns to a natural rate. i start asking the people around me what our next move is, and it turns out that one man speaks english.
he heard me say “oh my god!” in english as i first saw the water, and decided to chat me up. i asked him what we were going to do, and he said that we were waiting for the water to recede.
when i pointed out that it was raining even harder than it was when we left [my souqtown], he said that the water would clear up soon. he also enlightened me as to what the actual reasons for not going through the water were:
1. the water had brought down rocks from the mountain, and we didn’t want to puncture a tire.
2. the problem was not at this part of the road, but another part up ahead.
3. the water might be too deep to cross through.
Eric says: important reason number 1 seems to be important.
Nicole says: oh yes, they’re all very valid reasons to NOT go through the water.
i was more worried about the speed of the water than the depth, and also the lack of visibility – but i was always a rather cautious busdriver.
once my head clears and i make a few “i just had an i-could-lose-my-life-this-morning moment” texts and phone calls, i realize that there was a taxi stuck.
i run to the back of the bus, and sure enough, the taxi’s still there!
Eric says: you just should have filled the bus beyond reasonable capacity. More weight the better. And in the end, you are all in it together!!!! 🙂
Nicole says: i agree that more weight would’ve helped us out. but how important is teambuilding and community when you’re going over the edge of a cliff? 😉
(in all seriousness, that water was moving FAST)
i see a few people get off the bus, and i stand up and yell WAIT! i run to ask the driver if they were going back to [back to my souqtown], and he said yes. i grab my stuff, give the nice english-speaking man no chance to ask my name (he said that he knew me from [my souqtown], and that had me a bit on-edge), and i bolt from the bus to the taxi.
there happens to be a spot in the taxi still, and i head back to site.
(i got so so so so so lucky, eric)
(SO lucky)
Eric says: and what about the bus? did it try to go ever?
Nicole says: i don’t know [about the bus]! i’m sure it did, at one point.
i make a few friends in the taxi, get off at my site, and hit up a [general store] for a few items before heading to my counterpart’s house, where i was stuck over christmas. i’m in a much better mood this time around, however, as i’m totally prepared for an extended stay.
it rained for a while more still though, so i’m not sure when it finally got through.
anyhow, i stick around at my counterpart’s from thursday morning until saturday morning. i waded through the water on saturday morning to get back to my house so i could turn right back around and head to [my souqtown] once more for veggies and a hammam date with my tutor.
my counterpart is a late riser, and she was supposed to accompany me home (so i wouldn’t fall in and drown, maybe?), and i got back to my house around eleven thirty.
i unpack my bag, re-pack my bag, trudge back through the icy water and head up to the road for transport to [my souqtown].
i waited 1.5 hours for transport, as it was too close to lunchtime at that point.
i befriended a few teachers, however, so it was at least an enjoyable 90 minutes. 🙂 we eventually catch the [schoolbus], and i get into [my soutown] at 2p.
i scramble over to my tutor’s house, and it turns out that i’ve missed lunch. boo.
they feed me, of course, but i always feel bad about situations like that.
Eric says: yeah
Nicole says: as i’m enjoying my lentils and a re-run of the 12:45 news, my tutor asks me if i’m ready to go to the hammam. i tell her yes, and ask her the same.
she says no — she started her period that morning and in her words, “that just doesn’t work.”
(sorry, TMI?)
Eric says: nah, its cool, no prob on that.
Nicole says: i died a little inside at that moment (i had put off bathing in lieu of this hammam date), but remained pleasant. i had to go to [souq] anyway, for veggies.
we watched “chinese typewriter” with tom selleck and his brilliant moustache on MBC2, and then i head out. i buy veggies and dried goods (i am addicted to [barley couscous] these days), and head for home. i get home at five-ish, wade through the water, and get safely into my house. i’m not showered, but i’ve got enough food to last me through the next rainstorm, which is coming soon (or so the 12:45 news told me).
i drop my stuff off and take a look at my house. there’s water damage on the north side of my house — water’s seeped in from the roof, and there’s black mold in the kitchen and my workroom.
Eric says: oh no!
Nicole says: i wonder aloud what to do about this (do you talk to yourself too?), and then run upstairs to the roof. a neighbor tells me that the black mold and water marks are all normal for this time of year, and after looking around at all of the other houses, i realize that they’re all wet and water-soaked, just like mine.
i have to stop myself from jumping for joy at this point – i was truly worried about structural damage!
i come back to the house, put on a pot of tea and relax — the epic journey had ended. 🙂
MAROC, JE T'AIME 