The story of the rope
August 6, 2010
This morning when I went down to get some water, I noticed that the rope off my cistern bucket had disappeared… A strange problem to have. There was my nice blue bucket, sitting next to the hatch, ropeless. Thankfully my landlord’s family is in town right now and had their own bucket still attached by a rope to the hatch.
But really, how and why did my rope go missing? Why not THEIRS instead of the tarumit‘s rope…?
Thankfully my landlord’s mother walked out into the courtyard to say good morning a little after I realized my rope was gone. I asked her where my rope might be, to which she assured me that she didn’t know, but that God would give a rope (along with some other stuff I didn’t catch). If rbbi izikr, she said. Then she offered up that maybe the old people (my usual neighbors) took it when they got up early to go out with the donkey…? At least that’s what I made out from all the words she sent my way. Her conclusion was, anyway, that I should just use their bucket, no problem, presumably until God gave a rope. (I enjoy it when they use that phrase, “God gives… chairs, ropes, a good husband and kids, etc.”–not making light of it here, because they’re sincere, just pointing out that they use it.)
So… I did use their bucket and rope, thinking man I just hope I get a rope back! Things always get weird when the landlord’s family comes, mostly because they bring kids who run around bored looking for things to do. Nice as it is to have company, I get used to my peace and quiet, and my rope and bucket!
The end of the story is good, though. Just now as I was going to grab the laundry that I got hauled my water for, just about to set down to it, when the young boys of the family knocked on my door. Yesterday the littler kids took a liking to knocking on my door and running, and then I heard my landlord would be coming soon, so I was stuck between thinking, “basiln” (naughty punkass kids!) and “man, my house isn’t clean enough for my landlord to come in…”
Thankfully, when I opened the door a nice boy handed me a folded up rope. As I thanked him (“God make you win”), he excitedly pointed out that it’s a NEW rope! “It’s NEW!” he said. Aww, how nice. God, or whoever else, does give ropes from time to time. I suppose my rope was a gift to someone who needed it, and here I get a nice shiny bright new one in return.
Nice. I just hope it’s a good 3.5-4 meters long like the old one.
The rest of the story just came to me as I was buying bread in the shop uptown. The buthanut was talking to me about my rope, and how Ahmed my old neighbor had taken it, but the boys came to get me a new one, didn’t I know…? He said some stuff that I didn’t quite catch, but I said, “yes, good, no problem.” Then he suddenly said, “THE DONKEY DIED and he needed the rope to take it away.” OH, oh… Not good, yes problem. Poor Ahmed! Well, I finally got the picture, but I had no idea what you say when someone’s donkey dies, considering how people look down upon them. It’s still got to be an obstacle for him, they use that donkey everyday to do work!Finally having the full picture, I headed back to my house pondering the donkey issue. Where did they take it, anyway? What do you do when your donkey dies? How long til they get a bright shiny new one? Poor donkey, it was my neighbor too. It lived under my house. When my parents visited, it woke them up at 5:45 every morning. My dad still asks how it’s doing from time to time. Now I’ll have to break the news to them…Just in front of my house I found Ahmed looking perturbed and (perhaps, to my mind) a little forlorn. I thought, “do you say ‘God replenish you’, as you do when someone gives or pays something…, do you say ‘God protect/preserve/prevent’ like when people talking about bad things that might happen, do you say ‘what God wills’ as they do when something bad happens…?”In the end, we greeted each other as usual, him cracking a touch of a smile and holding onto my hand for much longer than most people, giving me a hearty hello and how are you, your health, your parents, everything without harm? Then he launched into a long run of “forgive me, the donkey died! I had to take it out to burn it, and there were people here to help, so I was bold and took your rope, God make you win, forgive me, God bless your parents, I’m sorry, I had to take your rope, the boys brought you a new one, right? Didn’t they? Forgive me, God bless your parents, God make you win…” To which I tried to say it wasn’t a problem, everything was good and that it was good for him to just take the rope, no problems! I think I said the right things, as he blessed my parents some more, talked more about God helping me win (in life, good things), and then we went on our ways.I love my neighbors. It took some time for us to get used to each other, but they’re wonderful people. I hope they get a new donkey soon. In the meantime, they seem to be holding up alright, and I got another interesting experience here in Morocco…
