al-mSafr dyal hamar al-magrib f - merika

... Or the Travels of a Moroccan Donkey in America. I recently spent some time in a town in the middle of the Atlas Mountains with beautiful foliage, an enormous souk, and snow (in the winter). While there I stopped by my friends house and was able to converse with his host family. I must preface this by stating that I have an odd fascination with donkeys. They can be found all over the place here... its ridiculously awesome. I love it and you might say that I can’t get enough of it. When I found out that one can purchase a donkey for between 500 and 800 dirhams (approximately 80 - 100 dollars) I got even more obsessed. In language class, when we need to create sentences with new verbs, I always figure out a way to fit the hamar (donkey) in my sentence. Even if I go so far as say “The hamar travelled to America for vacation.” Suffice it to say, that if I get placed in a rural enough site you can bet your sweet cookies that I will have a hamar and I will ride it through town, and I will feed it barley. If you come visit I might even let you ride it!

Anyway, I figured I was the only person with such an odd obsession. Some of the other trainees have fascinations, but no one, save me, has hit the obsessive stage yet. Since this was true I figured no native Moroccan would have an obsession such as mine. However, I could not have been more wrong. The host dad of the friend that I was visiting in Immouzar seemed to have the same sort of love for this most prestigious animal. The conversation started with the fact that Obama won the nobel Peace Prize. We then progressed to the ever antagonizing question of why the democratic party chose the donkey as its symbol. I have since read literature on this... a link for your enjoyment.... Anyway, the donkey is supposedly chosen last by all of the other animals. Why? It is a very smart animal. There seems no real plausible explanation other than the cunning nature of the donkey. Yes. Donkeys are cunning. Basically we talked for a while about how donkeys are not given enough credit. They are great animals and, according to my friend’s host dad, the second animal to roam the earth; finishing only behind good ol’ Adam and Eve.

Then my friend’s host dad decided to take the conversation in a rather interesting direction. Imagine a small, dark-skinned, older Moroccan man. He turns his head toward you and says (in Darija) “There should be a movie about a Moroccan donkey’s travels in America. We can dress him in all different costumes. We can put funny large glasses on him. We can die parts of his hair different colors. Its going to be incredible. I will write the story. We can go around taking pictures of him in all of the big cities.” Me, being an avid admirer of this grand creature, saw this opportunity and ran. My friend and I proceeded to sort out the details of this fantastic story with this older Moroccan gentleman. We have the donkey staying primarily on the east coast: D.C, New York, Boston. However, we also planned a short excursion to the west. Most notably the trip to Los Angeles where our beloved equine will don long blonde hair and round John Lennon sun glasses. Mark your calenders as the movie should be going into production in late 2011.