De Perros y Limones

The Uncertainty Principle

The world is in flux and, apparently, running out of toilet paper at the moment.  Sporting and cultural events are being cancelled or postponed and the country of Italy is becoming the cradle of worry and panic in Europe.   And taking a cruise is seemingly no longer the decadent choice of the wealthy and privileged.  Welcome to the world of the Coronavirus.

Nature’s patterns 4

It’s weird.

Luna – she’s coming atcha!

Our school has been actively engaged in planning for an outbreak – we are now officially at ‘Level Two’ which means that lots of soap and antibacterial wipes have been distributed and people are unsure of whether they should shake hands or not.  And that some outside visitors are no longer allowed to visit, which means that Friday Football is no longer happening as well as our French classes.  Our teacher (who is Polish – work that one out) is at one of the universities here and is kind of teaching us as a kind of favour to us but is considered a risk as a carrier.

  • What is this strange thing? Can I eat it?

Should the school find itself at Level Three, when there are cases of it in Rabat,  then there is the real possibility that we will find ourselves being a Virtual School.  Which is quite exciting in a way.  I’ve not yet been a virtual teacher.  I’ve been virtually anonymous many many times – when playing football, when dealing with domestic issues (just ask Sonalee for examples) or debating family issues but this will be a new role for me should the situation present itself.

Keeping guard on the terrace

Being a new thing for me won’t be a new thing for me this year.  Everything is.  I do not exaggerate when I say the each day brings new things to get my head around, whether it is at work or in my studies.  And, yes, sometimes it can be overwhelming in a First World way.  Sonalee teaches the IB, the International Baccalaureate.  This means, local conditions notwithstanding, what is taught in a school in Asia will be taught in Africa.  So she knows, is familiar with, has experience of what she is about to teach and she doesn’t need to do a load of preparation because she already has many of the resources available to her and knows what works.

Daddy spends all day at work, daddy has no slippers anymore

I don’t.  I spend each day frantically trying to work out what it is I am supposed to be teaching the next day and wondering whether it will work or not.  I’m a British teacher  and I am working with an American curriculum that I have no knowledge of.    I honestly thought that it wouldn’t be so different and my naivety has once again shown itself.  Americans just think so differently.  They say so many different things.  Apparently I am an instructor, not a teacher.  Instructors are those people who shout at you in the gym.  This is how I see things.

terrace views at dusk

I confess that I am still struggling with many aspects of teaching in an American school.  Maybe I shouldn’t be, maybe I should just accept that our American cousins are very very different from us Europeans despite the language that we broadly share.  But being an old person from the Old World is proving to be extremely challenging every day especially when you’re living in a new country with some odd ideas about road safety.

Lighthouse @ Rabat

Seriously, WTF?  Each and every day brings some new level of fuckwittery that we have not encountered before.  And, still, I am not sure if pedestrians are worse than drivers.  Just today we saw a motorbike travelling down the wrong side of the road into incoming traffic, a jogger running on the road RIGHT NEXT TO A BEAUTIFULLY LAID JOGGING PAVEMENT into incoming traffic, a taxi reversing around a roundabout into incoming traffic, a truck driving down the tramway-lines the wrong way into incoming trams, a father dragging his infant child across a busy  three-lane main road just to jump in front of a taxi, countless drivers on their phones and, of course, the most common of all – the texter.

Spring Light @ The Surf Club in Rabat

There is a belief here that it is okay to text whilst driving.  There are rules, however.  You have to slow right down.  This is important.  You have to ‘only’ drift a foot or foot and a half out of your lane.  If you can stick to those rules then it’s okay to text.  Nevermind the absolute chaos, the near pile-ups, the frantic weaving to avoid you, the frenzied braking and hazard-lights switching on you leave behind you as traffic attempts to get around you safely.  Because, you see, you are driving really slowly so that is safe. 

  • The Cemetary
  • The Kasbah

FFS.

We saw a lot of this today because today was a special day.  We went out. 

Yes, we left the house not to go to work or go shopping or to go to the vets. 

The Kasbah

We went out as tourists.

We visited Rabat.  It was really nice.  We saw life happening.  We experienced the nice weather in a nice place that did remind us of Paris in one respect – it smelled of piss. 

Kasbah guns

My sister and my brother-in-law were right, Rabat is lovely.  It has been six months since we took a peek at it properly and we liked what we saw.  We only did it because we had our cleaner over for the morning on a Saturday – she has been doing overtime at school doing the deep cleaning at school thanks to the Coronavirus and hasn’t been able to come during the week.  Miluda is lovely, she’s cool with the dogs and does a great job.  So, after tidying up and doing a bit of cleaning because the cleaner is coming, we left to see the Kasbah and town.

It was an eye-opener and no mistake.  We toured the medina during flea-market time where, away from the gentrified part of sellers of art and leather, we saw what I guess is a proper market where people sell anything they can to make some money.  Some of it was desperate – old kitchen equipment that you know will never work, remote controls from fifteen years ago, watches that haven’t ticked or tocked for decades, tools that are more rust than steel, books that are beyond dog-eared, records and cd’s that no one would be interested in and clothes that are at least 4th hand. 

A cat in the Kasbah – there’s a song in there somewhere

The market was, basically, full of stuff that we throw away so recklessly so often.  All recycled in one last, perhaps vain, attempt to make some money for someone who so obviously needs it.   We get people rummaging around the communal bin that serves our little community here in the wealthy beach suburb that we call our Moroccan home.  We’re never sure what they want so we separate our rubbish into organic – which attracts that hundreds of cats around here – from bottles, cans and tins and anything else we think someone can scrape some money from. 

I’ve tried to understand what it is that our scavengers who are really friendly, really smiley want but my pathetic language knowledge means I can’t quite get what they need us to do.  I wish I could be better at this but I remain an ignoramus in this regard. 

Mrs Byatt in the Medina

But today, well today was a wake-up call for the both of us I think.  I don’t think we quite appreciate the desperation of some of the people that we live alongside sometimes.  Sure, we ‘slum it’ by getting  the bus home sometimes and we give money to those who are begging and we buy as local as we can and we tip those doing jobs we wouldn’t like to be doing but we don’t truly understand what it is to be poor anymore. 

Modern Rabat

I’ve been poor.  Its shit.  There’s no nobility in being poor.  I’ve been that person who envies and hates those who have more than I do and I have no wish to be that person ever again.  What worries Sonalee and I is that we are in danger of forgetting that, that feeling of sheer desperation that most of the population of a country that we are guests in feel each and every day.   I sometimes forget that we live in this bubble of unbelievable wealth and privilege and that most people do not.

Rabat Life

That student that is driving you mad, what are they in the grand scheme of things?  That colleague who you really don’t get along with, who are they really when it comes to it?  That parent who constantly annoys you, how important are their concerns really? 

Yellow – opposite our house

This is what our day out has given us.  And a sense of being in a land of vivid contrasts.  Rabat may not be typical of Morocco and Morocco may not be typical of Africa but, nevertheless, we are here and we are seeing this tiny sliver of this mighty continent.  We need to see more.  We need to explore more of this place, this place that has accepted us, has smiled at us, has eyed us up and has attempted to sell us leather slippers. 

  • Garden life

The afflictions that have resulted from the Cornonavirus have not reached Rabat – no one is wearing a surgical mask, toilet rolls are still in stock in the supermarches and people still greet each other in the street with long hugs and smiles.  The personal touch is still prevalent here in Morocco, an affectation that will long survive this current ‘crisis’. 

And as to self-isolating should we need to.  Well, I reckon Sonalee and I will take to it like a duck to water.  We’re really good at it.  We have four dogs to keep us company, a lovely empty beach to wander, enough HP sauce for a month (although we only have one jar of piccalilli), good internet and an appreciation of just how lucky we are to have been born into the families of such good fortunes. 

Here’s hoping that Coronavirus doesn’t affect you too much. 

Hasta Luego

Paul

They keep on playing on our car stereo.  You can’t help but love them.  It’s easy to mock them for being cheesy but that ignores just how good they were.  Peeps, I give you The Bee Gees for this and this.

Our house, in the middle of the street

Paul

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