Another MEDA Meeting

The K-5 attended our second MEDA staff meeting today. Once again the day started wonderfully with lunch together in Khenifra at our favorite pizza place. The pizza isn't great, but its centrally located and one of only 2 restaurants that offer anything other than tagines and sandwiches.

My cell phone stopped sending text messages over the weekend. This might not sound tragic, but since this is the cheapest way to communicate, it is my main connection to other volunteers. I had fiddled with the settings to no avail and took it to the young man who works in the teleboutique where I buy my phone cards. He spent a good 15 minutes checking it out and told me it was a problem with the network. He suggested going to the Maroc Telecom office in Khenifra, which I did before the MEDA meeting.

I was thrilled when I walked into an air-conditioned office which was mostly empty. I thought this would take 15 or 20 minutes and I'd be on my way. I took a number and waited a couple minutes for my turn. In my best Tamazight, I explained the situation to the customer service man. He called someone else over and this man played around with my phone, but couldn't find anything wrong. He asked me to come back tomorrow. I told him I couldn't come back tomorrow and told him where I lived. They looked me up in the computer and declared that I didn't have a contract. This was correct, but I was using the prepaid phone cards – no contract needed. They suggested a new SIM card and the customer service guy disappeared to an upstairs area for a while. He returned with a stack of SIM cards, but then called the next customer over. He tried putting a new SIM card in my phone, but it didn't work. He didn't explain this to me, but just set my phone down. Apparently the next customer needed a new SIM card, too and they fixed him up immediately. This had now taken 45 minutes and I got the impression that the customer service guy was going to ignore me. He called the next customer. I picked up my phone and handed it to him and asked for the new SIM card. He told me to go to a teleboutique to buy one. I couldn't see how the teleboutique would have a card that would work, but he wouldn't. The teleboutiques are independent shops that sell phone cards and SIM cards, but they aren't officially affiliated with Maroc Telecom.

I was extremely frustrated because before I could clarify, he called the next person. ARGH! Was it because I'm a foreigner, an unaccompanied woman? Why wouldn't he help me? I left because I was going to be late for the MEDA meeting.

After last month's meeting, we were all frustrated, so Elizabeth and Jake invited their tutor to the meeting to translate. This was not received well and we spent a good 15 minutes going back and forth with Mr. S. He explaining that this was an internal meeting and only staff were allowed. Point taken by us, but what is the point of sitting through a meeting we won't understand? Mr. S told us it would get easier as we learned the language, except that we are all learning Tamazight and they conduct meetings in French and Arabic. Finally, they brought in Mr. C who I think is the number 2 person at MEDA and who speaks English. He explained again what Mr. S had told us and we conceded, but then he left and we sat through a meeting we didn't understand.

I later asked Said why Mr. C couldn't or wouldn't stay to help us understand the meeting and he told me that he isn't responsible for this area of the project. I'm not used to this kind of response to things – I'm used to the “if we have the resources, we should use them” kind of response. If I was running the show, I'd want to make sure the volunteers knew what was going on. I'm not in charge, so I contented myself with Said's explanation of the meeting. We've gotten to be friends over the past month and he has patiently explained as much as he can to me about MEDA and the projects they are working on in and around my village.

I asked Said to help me with my phone, thinking maybe something was lost in translation. He took me to a friend of his in Khenifra who owns a technology hanut that rivals Best Buy. It took about an hour, but he diagnosed the problem as an old program on my cell phone that doesn't work with the Maroc Telecom's new network. For 20Dh he put the new program on my cell phone and I didn't have to buy a new SIM card or a new phone, which would have run me 400Dh! The best part is that I'm back in touch with my friends!

On our way to the taxi station, Said and I stopped for a juice at the patisserie. We must have taken our sweet time because by the time we got to the station, there were no more taxis to the Sisterhood! Yikes! We tried a couple options for getting me home – calling my host dad to see if he was around, Said calling friends who have cars, etc. but we weren't successful. Since I had come for the day, I wasn't prepared to spend the night in Khenifra and Marja, the volunteer who lives in El Kebab was out of town, so I couldn't crash with her. I ended up buying out a taxi to take me home. I had to pay round trip since it was too late for him to pick up passengers for the ride back. I tried my best to haggle with him – chatted him up on the ride, used my best Tamazight, talked about how I am a volunteer and a friend of Said's (he is a friend of Said's so I thought that might work), even talked about my brother after he told me he served with American troops in the Balkans, but nothing worked. I reluctantly handed him the cash when we got to my village. He insisted on giving me his phone number and told me to come to his house to meet his family and eat couscous, like we were old pals.

I certainly learned my lesson the hard way – don't stay past 7pm in Khenifra! It would have cost me half of what I paid for the taxi to get a hotel room in Khenifra, which is an alternative should I find myself stuck in Khenifra again.