Words I put into sentences......

*WARNING: There are some photos that contain blood……*

How can I put into words just how amazing Shuksgiving was this year!?!?! For all of you who have forgotten what Shuksgiving is, it means Thanksgiving. Some volunteers have just decided to “Americanize” some Arabic words, and one of those words is “Shukran” which means “Thank you”. We took “Shuk”, added an “s” and boom, you have the Arabic equivalent to “Thanks.” Now that probably really isn’t the word at all, but I love saying “Shuks”, and some kids in my site even say it when talking with me. I find it hilarious. There you have it, “Shuksgiving.” 

It was a 100% couple of days with some awesome Peace Corps volunteers and Moroccans. It might have been the ultimate cross-cultural experience. Allow me to explain. I’ve never slaughtered anything in my life, let alone my own turkey for Thanksgiving. So when I got to my friend Nicole’s village, Ouled Ali, and she said “Hey we are slaughtering Bob at 6pm”, I was to say the least shocked and very excited! Since we and by “we”, I mean the Americans, did not know how to do such things, we had a Moroccan come in.

Johnathan, Nicole’s site-mate had his host brother, Ahmed help us out. Is it weird to say that it was a bit “normal” for me to see something like an animal slaughtering? Two weeks or so prior to Shuksgiving was of course l3id Kbir, in which every Moroccan family slaughters their own sheep. l3id Kbir is the celebration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. So needless to say, I am used to the blood and guts by now. It was just fascinating to see it done to our turkey, Bob. Now I can say that I know how to not only slaughter a turkey, but also how to d feather it. Every opportunity is a learning opportunity! 

Our turkey, Bob. Thank you Mr. Turkey for your 18 kilos of meat! (18kg=36 lbs). 

Nicole and Ahmed getting their work on d feathering Bob.

Ahmed really helped us out by basically taking care of Bob and getting him ready for cooking the next day. He split the turkey in half and cooked one his style and we took the other half and cooked it at Nicole’s house. So that was Wednesday. 

Thursday was the BIG DAY! It started off with me checking my phone to see what time it was. It was around 7/7:30am, definitely time to go back to bed for more sleep, except for the fact that Nicole was wide awake getting ready to cook our half of Bob. She woke Colin and I up and said “Come on, get up, people are here, get up!!!!”. Her voice reminded me so much of that of my mom’s, waking us kids up early to just try and get motivated for the day. I started laughing and complaining, but she was right, people were here. Colin and I needed to get dressed; Colin did, I didn’t. So I met three new volunteers with a coffee-stained shirt on. Hey, it was cold! 

After some delicious harcha (Moroccan cornbread), and coffee, it was time to really get motivated and start my apple pie! Colin was very helpful (as usual) and brought in a table for me to roll out the dough and a nice bottle of Jameson to act as my rolling pin…HAHA! After the pie was sent off to bake at another location, the real party started, and by party I mean the start of listening to my “Workout Mix 3”, over and over again. Let me just say that by “workout”, I really mean dance party in my house. You have been warned. 

Workout Mix 3:

1. Move Your Body- Beyonce feat. Swizz Beatz
2. Till the World Ends- Britney Spears
3. Get It Right- J Lo
4. On the Floor- J Lo feat. Pitbull
5. I’m Into You- J Lo feat. Lil Wayne
6. Gossip Folks- Missy Elliot
7. Give Me Everything- Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer)
8. Rabiosa- Shakira feat. Pitbull
9. E.T. -Katy Perry
10. Let It Rock- Kevin Rudolf

We weren’t exactly counting, but I’m pretty sure we listened to this mix about 12 different times. The people want what they want. The true gem of this mix is Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends.” Who knew that several chest thrusts could inspire a Peace Corps volunteer team warm-up before a soccer game with some Moroccans OR that you could do these chest thrusts just about anywhere? You can’t deny it, Britney has got skills, whether musical or whatever, she is a master of the business.  Check out the video below: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzU9OrZlKb8&ob=av3e

Don’t worry though, there was TONS of food being prepared among st all the dancing.  As in true Peace Corps fashion, we tried to pull out all the stops. First step was slaughtering Bob, second step was busting out some from scratch goodness (i.e. pies, muffins, biscuits, soup, stuffing etc.) 

The fixings: sweet bread, rosemary bread, mac n’ cheese, mash potatoes, stuffing, cornbread stuffing, gravy, meat balls, pomegranate sauce (substitute for cranberry), and sweet squash (substitute for yams or sweet potatoes). 

The two sides of Bob :) 

Like I said before, this might have been the ultimate cross-cultural experience, one worry of even putting on our VRF (Volunteer Report Form), that we each have to fill out each quarter. We had Moroccan friends help with the slaughter, in turn teaching us some things about the trade, PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) cooked the food and shared the meal with our Moroccan friends AND we all had an epic dance party afterwards. We ate dinner at this AWESOME jit (hotel), where Nicole’s friend Abdelallah was kind enough to not only let us use his kitchen but even let some PCVs spend the night and use the hot shower!!

Before the dance party started, I was talking to Nicole’s friend Hassane, and he said, “Socorra, I really like your culture, American culture. Do you know why?” Hassane told me that he liked the fact that boys and girls, men and women interact together and that it’s normal. I took a second to look around the room where everyone was just hanging out, talking and dancing and turned to Hassane and simply said, “These people are my family, they are all my brothers and sisters.” I didn’t know what else to really say in that moment. I realized how lucky I was and I also realized that it was the first time that a Moroccan told me that he or she liked my culture and gave me a reason. It was so cool. Probably my favorite part of that whole night was explaining to Hassane what a “dance battle” was. As we sat back and watched, I realized how weird this must look to someone who doesn’t speak English and doesn’t know all of our customs. I mean think about it, people dancing somewhat aggressively towards one another, looking very crazy. I could understand the confusion. 

I’m not going to lie, I’m going to miss Peace Corps versions of the holidays, especially Thanksgiving. While during Christmas people tend to go on vacations and become dazzled with presents, Thanksgiving is different. Thanksgiving is all about family and friends…..well and the food of course! 

I was feeling a bit or maybe very homesick before Thanksgiving. I realized this as I was writing a Christmas song which turned out to be a bit sad. I thought to myself, “Damn Soco, I think you are homesick.” I don’t remember feeling this way last year. It could have possibly been that I was still on a high from experiencing  my first l3id Kbir, seeing my entire stage for a week during IST (Inter-Service Training), revisiting my old CBT (Community Based Training) host family outside of Ouarzazate and the anticipation of eating; that it covered up the whole homesick feeling. This year was a bit different.

I’m on the cusp of being done with my Peace Corps service and like a crazy person, I have a huge project to finish still. So I’m a little stressed, confused about the future and trying to savor all the rest of my time here with my Peace Corps family and my Moroccan family. It’s all starting to become very bittersweet. I suppose all of this led up to becoming homesick. Thanksgiving just seemed to fix everything, even if it was only for a couple of days. No one talked about work, there was no negativity, only dancing, eating and spending time with each other. It was perfect and I will miss it very much. 

Group shot (apologies for the bad quality). 

Day-after Thanksgiving tacos!