Music and F'tour

Moroccan music is some of the best worship music I've heard.  It is probably on par with gospel music for the energy it instills in the listener.  The other night, we were treated to a performance in the auditorium.  I don't know where this group was from but they were all dressed in flowing white robes and were wearing the traditional pointy Moroccan slippers.  The band, which consisted basically of an 8 person strong rhythm section, two people playing snake charming horns (yes, they exist), and someone on an electric keyboard that looked hilariously out of place, wore yellow slippers.  The lead singer who sat in the very front and was in charge of getting the crowd into it wore white slippers.  The crowd however, needed very little convincing and a spontaneous dancing section quickly formed in the very front.  The songs would generally last for about 15 minutes starting with a slow section that, to my untrained ear, sounds alot like the call to prayer.  However, the long glissandos and arpeggios would soon be accompanied with a little bit of rhythm or a counter melody played on the horns.  This would eventually build into a frenzied almost cajun rhythm with alot of call and response.   I was trying to find a file that sounded like what we were listening to but nothing really did it justice.  I'll see what I can find from some of my friends.  Most of the people my age like the music but it's not something they would put on their ipods.

This is our auditorium, I didn't take the picture, but I was there!  I'm not much of a photographer, I borrowed this from on of the other exchange students.

This is the ceiling in our auditorium

Two nights ago I was fortunate enough to be invited by my roommate's family to their house in Azrou, which is about half and hour away, for the meal called f'tour.  F'tour is the meal that is eaten to break the fast of the day during Ramadan.  It starts at sundown and the fast is usually broken with dates and water. 

Looking down on the town of Azrou

Amal and I caught the shuttle bus from the campus into Ifrane and then walked about ten minutes to the "Grand Taxi" station.  Basically the grand taxi station is full of 1960 cadillacs that normally comfortably seat five people including the driver.  The drivers walk around yelling the names of the towns they're about to leave for and you just walk over and get in the car.  Once you pay the requisite 10 dirhams, about $1.15, the driver takes off.  Amal and I sat in the front seat while four men and a little boy sat in the back.  The drive to Azrou was beautiful, the change in elevation is much like that when you go over the pass between Bozeman and Cardwell.  However, this was a lush valley with many of the stucco houses of the region below the road.  After we got out at the taxi station, we descended a large concrete stairway down to the neighborhood below.

We passed through a large open area with a garbage can and a plethora of cats.  The Moroccans seem to like their street cats.  I included this picture I took for fun.  How many cats can you find?!  Bear in mind though, there are many that are outside the field of view of the camera!  They were all different colors and breeds and all very pretty (in my mind).

This next picture is of the tiny kittens that hide between the bars over the windows so they don't get attacked by anything.  Adorable.  There are two curled up with each other on the window sill.

When we got to Amal's house, we went to sit in a room that had cushioned benches all along the walls.  I talked to her father about the juvenile diabetes association he is secretary for in Azrou.  We were brainstorming ideas for how I could build a capstone project off of their group.  Once the sun began to set and the call to prayer came ringing out from the mosque just above their house on the hill, Amal's mother brought in a seemingly endless procession of delicous food.  Even if I hadn't been fasting all day the food was undoubtably the best I've had in Morocco thus far.  We had delicious drinks drinks made from blended apples and milk, carrot, zucchini, onion and cabbage stuffed freshly baked pita bread that was wonderfully spiced, potatoes roasted in cumin, and a dish of spiced turkey that we ate with some more fresh bread.  It was wonderful!  After dinner, we looked at scrap books that Amal had put together as a little girl and her dad read a really beautiful french poem about a poet.  I sang an Irish folk song called Carrickfergus to thank them for the meal.  Both her mother and father walked us back up the steps to the taxi station and told me to consider their home my home in Morocco.  The quote of the household was by Lao Tzu which was pinned up next to the door;  Go to the people, live with them, learn from what they know, and love them.