Good signs
March 13, 2010
http://capaday.com/blog/?p=484
This afternoon I found myself sitting down with two Moroccan men I didn’t know in a cafe. I was accompanying a friend who did know them and who is hoping to accomplish some work with them in her site in the future. Nice guys, members of a local development association. I wasn’t sure what to expect walking into the situation, but I was pleasantly surprised as soon as we arrived at their table. One of the men was wearing a rather sophisticated (for Morocco) Carolina hat. White with a modern style foot raised in white thread. Just like the picture here, but entirely white. Not a bit of black or blue.
I was hoping I might have a chance to mention the hat to him without totally confusing him with my messy Tashlheit, and sure enough an opening in the conversation popped up eventually. I told him it was one of the symbols of my university back in America. He wasn’t too surprised by that, but it turned into a great little piece of the conversation. He said he wore it because people kept stepping on his head. He figured if he wore the foot on his hat it might help him keep people from doing it anymore, sort of expressing that he didn’t want them to step on him. The story doesn’t translate so well without his motions and expressions, not to mention the differences between Tashlheit and English, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what a Moroccan might make of such a strange image as the tar heel foot.
My Carolina day didn’t end there. As I was sitting in my transit van to head back home from the city, a man walked by wearing a navy blue cap with a white UNC logo lined in red thread. Another wonderful knock-off. And, I’m still quite happy to be able to say that I have not witnessed with my own eyes a single Dook knock-off since I left the States a year ago.
We’ll try to repress the thought that Carolina lost to that team down the road this week… by 32 points… ugh. What a strange succession of Marches we’ve had since I showed up here in Morocco. The Heels win the national championship, then have what’s one of their worst seasons in a long time, or maybe even ever. Madness indeed. What will next March be like?
