The Jungle of Undies... and Avoiding Harassment

The time has finally started to pass at what seems like a more realistic pace. I’m not sure that I prefer it this way, but it nonetheless feels a bit more familiar to what I’m used to. Days and visits are starting to run together, and CBT is almost through the second stage.
Currently all of us are back at our hotel in Ouarzazate for a couple of days. We continually move back and forth from our CBT sites to this consolidation point. Here we receive lectures, vaccines, and occasionally hot showers (hamdullah). For a lot of us this is also the time to wash our more personal laundry items. Above you will see that this is in fact what my roommie Karen and I decided to do this time around. The shot is taken in our room. Materials used: extension cords, duct tape and various undergarments.

The lecture subjects vary. The sessions are given by Peace Corps staff, and sometimes by, or in conjunction with current Volunteers. We receive a good amount of information on field work, project goals and objectives, Moroccan economy, Moroccan government, creating an artist co-op/association, and etc. A lot of integration and acclimation topics include Islam, food preparation, the public bath, medical/mental health, program logistics, dealing with harassment and diarrhea (last one was a title of a lecture and a corresponding Power Point presentation).
Harassment of women is not an uncommon thing in Morocco. Men make cat calls, yell out and approach women on the street asking names, numbers and etc. (not very different then in some parts of Brooklyn, but perhaps a bit more frequent). I should mention that their methods are very interesting, most of the time they begin the dialogue before they even come into eye contact and continue once by your side. Their initial language for speaking with all tourists is French (as is everywhere down to the smallest douar in Morocco), then, if there is no response they sometimes switch to English and then Darija. Most recently, I’ve developed a new tactic in order to discourage unwanted followers. Just today a friend and I were approached by a couple of guys.
“Hello. How are you?....” the guy beside me went on as he walked up.
I stopped and looked up at the fellow with a blank stare.
“Ruskii?” I said.
“Putin?” he asked.
“Vladimir Putin. Ruskii” I said and smiled.
“You don’t speak English? France? Arabia?” he persisted.
I shook my head and repeated with the blank smile “Ruskii”.
The guys shortly exchanged a few surprised words with the word for Russia somewhere in there. Then one of them made a gesture similar to that of ours during “Screw this!” and they were on their way.

All in all much more efficient and much less painful then having to explain that you are not in the least bit interested. Success!