Mike in the Maghreb: apartment and stuff

I’ve heard it said that everything in Morocco works at about 80%. I haven’t spent enough time yet in country to determine whether this estimate is correct. In fact, I believe today or tomorrow marks the 3-month point in this whole ordeal. It’s also the summer solstice, I think. Meaning, of course, that this experience has tremendous, cosmic significance. Anyway, enough bullshit- long story short, our faucet broke. This high-quality piece was installed with the help of our landlord (the one with the diploma from the streets, remember). Without warning, a crack appeared and started spraying water directly in my face, and all over the apartment in general. This was in the midst of conducting an ultimately failed attempt at gnocchi and a wildly successful stab at homemade jam.

Luckily it only took about 18 hours to get things straightened out, i.e., running water again; this with the help of our local hanut-owner. After despondently realizing that we had purchased exactly the same faucet as the one that had broken, I wandered over to the corner to ask about a wrench (hoping to avoid any further economic interactions with the landlord). He (Mohammed?) called up Sufyan who arrived on his moped with a backpack full of plumber stuff 5 minutes later. Mohammed sent over some dude along with Sufyan, so I’d know I was being looked after. Sufyan installed the thing and I told him I had no idea how much this type of thing cost (Mohammed had told me maybe 50 Dh). He said something like “as you wish, whatever you think it’s worth”. I said “40?”, and he responded “sure, 40, 30, 20, whatever”. I said “30?” Basically, still don’t know how much a plumber costs, but apparently for something small, it’s about three and half dollars, maybe.

On a completely different note, very little happened yesterday, and then nothing at all happened today. The king has left, I never saw him, and hopefully people start working again now, although nothing is certain. One thing that is certain is Krista and I are going to Ifrane, which is basically like heaven, from July 16-28^th to work at an orphanage there for a special summer camp they’ll have for the kids. Still waiting to hear about another orphanage near Casablanca from August 1-20^th. Here are some pictures and explanations of the apartment.

quasi-living room, and map of morocco, with location of the 8 near-by volunteers (less than 5 hours away) marked. Any visitors, you will be sleeping on those mat things

dining room/fridge and sink room

mad nice kitchen. the oven to the right is the one that nearly blew my face off while Krista had no problem making some complex pastries I don't even know the names of.

bedroom window

shower

the shower has the added bonus of also being the toilet! This adds a whole new dimension to the long-standing debate over peeing in the shower. The hole is covered with a plastic bottle.