Aya

This has been an eventful week! It started off with the birth of a new member of the family, Aya. It ended with the slaughtering of three Sheep in celebration of the Eid Al Adha, and the arrival of family members galore.

To start I went to visit my host mom in the hospital where she stayed for 3 days after she gave birth. It is only about a three-minute walk across a huge dirt field to get there from my house. On the way I thought to myself, I wonder if I should turn my cell phone off…You know hospital rules and all. I decided to wait and see what the set up was.

We walked in as though we owned the place, carrying hot tea, otherwise known as sugar water with a dash of tea, soup, fruit juice and a tajine. I imagined the uncomfortable sterile feeling of hospitals, rubber gloves, scrubs, and the ceaseless beeps of machines monitoring ones heart rate.  In front of me was a bed with a woman looking uncomfortable and slightly disturbed to see these new guests. On the bed next to her appeared to be another woman buried beneath a pile of blankets. There was a third bed with a gray, foam/plastic mattress covered in stains. Lastly against the wall lay my host mom under the blanket we brought from home, tired, but happy to have company. Sitting next to her was the new healthy baby girl.

I sat on the plastic stained bed while my host grandma, Hadja, force-fed my host mom tajine and juice. The families have to provide any food, blankets, clothing etc…for the patient in the hospital.  Hadja went to the hospital several times throughout the day to bring food and keep Amina company. I was just grateful she finally had the baby. I was starting to worry.

As I sat on the bed I laughed at the fact that I had even wondered if I should turn my phone off. From where did I think they would get fancy heart monitoring machines?  A calico cat strutted in, eyed up the bed with one of the sleeping women, before he decided to just sit under the bed. A white cat followed him in and circled the room; I thought maybe he was the doctor. It all made sense though, when a visiting little boy came in and threw food under the bed to the cat. No wonder they think they own the place.  

Three days later my host mom came home. They have since put Henna on one of the baby’s hands and black eyeliner under her eyes. I haven’t quite figured it out. They have been very careful about not letting anyone get too close to her yet and Amina is very careful about sanitizing her breasts before feeding Aya and washing her hands regularly. I don’t know what damage Henna or eyeliner would do but it seems like a silly contradiction to smother these eyes, that are barely opened as it is, in black goop, but to make sure no one but her mother goes near her.  It is funny, some days I feel like Morocco really isn’t that different …Then I watch my grandmother wrap her grandson in a white cloth, followed by an ace bandage, spinning him around and around until you can’t see anything but his little head. He literally looks like a mummy. He is then placed on his back, on his mom’s back, and tied on with a long colorful cloth…and I remember, no, I’m really not in Kansas anymore.