L-musm

I went to my first Moroccan festival last week, otherwise known as l-musm. I had one of those mini out-of-body experience where I realize that, 'wow I'm really in Morocco right now.' There were several street vendors like any other festival, that sold various things like donuts, dried fruit, peanuts, almonds, garbanzo beans, popcorn, clothing, perfume, kitchen supplies, and even cotton candy. What made the festival unique was the men on horseback that galloped line after line and shot their rifles in the air. They wore what appeared to be traditional Moroccan military uniform. If I didn't know better then I would call what they wore costumes, well I'm still not sure I know better. I'm working on it. As we say in Tamazight, “imik s imik,” that means “little by little.” I say this phrase whenever someone asks me if I know Tamazight.
It's surprising how few words you need to communicate an idea. Other than the common Moroccan greetings that we use everyday, I've been surviving on 'yes,' 'no,' 'maybe,' 'later,' 'one day,' 'in bit,' 'I'm full,' 'beautiful/nice/pretty/good,' 'a lot/very,' 'a little,' 'repeat,' 'slowly,' 'please,' and 'thank you.' Now that we're learning verbs I'm able to form phrases and a few simple sentences. Verb conjugation is confusing, but not impossible to learn. I'm not stressed out about it because my Tam teacher said that Peace Corps approach to language is about communication first, you don't have to conjugate the verb correctly to be understood. That's exactly why I believe Peace Corps is one of the best ways to learn a language. Tamazight and the other Berber languages are primarily spoken languages. The literacy rate in Morocco is only about 50% and the number is even lower for women. The point is that speaking as much as I can in Tam will help me learn the language the best. My quiet nature interferes with this part of the learning process. Part of me wants to lock myself in my room and study with my book and notes, and part of me just wants to observe people interact and see what language I can pick up from listening and watching. That's how I learned as I child, but I realize that adults learn very differently. I'm struggling with understanding how best I learn. As I learned during one of our Peace Corps training sessions is that every adult learns differently. As I learn Tam I'm also learning how I learn language the best. I know so far I need a lot of repetition before I can memorize words. I remember words better when I can associate it with another word I know, for example, the word for 'cold' sounds like the word for 'cold' in Japanese, 'samui.' I'm working on coming up with these words associations for as many words as I can. It just takes time, imik s imik.
So as I was standing watching these men on horseback galloping across the muddy field, I had a weird thought or realization that, yes I am fulfilling a dream that I've had for a long time. It's so strange living that dream. That moment felt like a dream. Nothing is ever really what you expect. Everything is a dream until it isn't and some dreams remain a dream forever.