don't know how to....

In both gender studies and culture class, we have been talking about how no one here is accustomed to living on their own. From the day she pops you out of the womb ol’ mommy does everything for you until the day you move out to live with your own spouse. There is no period of living alone, doing things for yourself, if you’re a girl your mom slowly passes down her homemaking knowledge to prepare you to pop out your own kids and that’s that. In the coming age of modernity, though, this is becoming a problem as more and more Moroccan youth leave home for college, or travel to European countries for a better education. They don’t know how to live on their own, and it’s a bad kind of dependence on the family. Sure, the U.S. might be individualistic, but there are some real benefits to having a well educated and independent youth population.
A few of the gaps in the education of living that I have noticed of late:
Well, obviously, sex education; I’m amazed that the Moroccans have any kids at all because Allah only knows how they figure out what sex is or means. It’s scary, actually, at the women’s conference I went to they were talking about how sometimes in rural areas, girls wont know they are pregnant until they are several months along because they don’t know how to read the signals from their bodies’ or that pregnancy comes from having sex. Of course, these are extreme cases, but still, the process behind reproduction is very much taboo. I am amazed and amused that my host mom has started talking to me lately about periods. She asks if I am “frustrated with blood” (translated literally, but it’s not actually weird like it sounds in English). The Always pad commercial, too, has a really catchy theme song that my host sister sings along with all the time. So I think this is changing, albeit like most changes, very slowly. But, I also know from gender class, unfortunately, that beyond a quick lesson on natural reproduction in bio class at who knows what age, sex ed is not a part of the Moroccan school system.
The same type of black hole has sucked up nutritional education. My host brother, I guess, is trying to lose weight. When the subject first came up, though, it was this big family discussion as to what exactly he should do to achieve this end. They asked me what people in America did to lose weight and argued about what kind of exercise he should participate in. He doesn’t eat as much as he used to, I have noticed, but his restriction is only in quantity and not so much in quality of food. He only had cake and custard for dinner last night, for example. Like sex ed, there is never any lesson in school beyond bio 101 about what kind of food or exercise is good for you body. I mean, obviously Moroccans, especially educated Moroccans, know. I don’t want to paint this picture of this ignorant people who don’t know cookies from vegetables or sex from riding a bike. They’re by no means stupid- my host family knows what a diet is and I’m pretty sure they’re towards the bottom of the educated class. It’s just that it’s not a formal part of education. There is no food pyramid with stairs up the side to tell Muhammad how many snails are in one serving. Combine these gaps in schooling with never being taught how to do your own laundry, or cook your own meals, or balance your own budget, or take care of your own house, and now we have a problem when it becomes increasingly common that little Muhammad or Miriam gets the chance to go live on their own for college in France. Fahemmt? (you understand?) So that’s what I’ll be telling my kid, “do your own damn laundry and be grateful for it.”