The Couscous Chronicles Stories of Food, Love, and Donkeys from a Life Between Cultures

by Downes, Azzedine T.; Goodall, Jane

• ISBN13: 9781633310759
• ISBN10: 1633310752
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-06-27
• Publisher: Disruption Books
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Summary

"The Couscous Chronicles is one of the most extraordinary and fascinating books I have ever read."
—Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, ethologist and conservationist

Azzedine Downes moves between cultures, places, and time in this wryly comedic, at times mysterious, and always curious memoir of a lifelong nomad.

The best strategy was to drink tea, smile, and enjoy the frustration of not knowing where the story leads. If time is endless, why rush to the point of a story?

Now an international leader in the fight for animal welfare, Azzedine began his career as a volunteer teacher and later was appointed to leadership in the U.S. Peace Corps. An American Muslim with Irish roots, he's a natural cultural shape-shifter, immersing himself in the cultures of Morocco, Eastern Europe, Northwest Africa, Israel and his native United States. Along the way he befriends the glue-sniffing shoemakers of Fez, becomes the de facto manager of a traveling break-dance troupe, dodges bullets on his daily commute, and finds himself cursed over a feast of couscous gone very, very wrong.

But his most powerful story recounts Azzedine's marriage to an elusive girl from Tangiers. Arranged after only two meetings their love story ultimately spans continents and withstands language barriers, international intrigue, and one very antagonistic State Department bureaucrat.

A labyrinth of tales as complex as its namesake dish, The Couscous Chronicles is for anyone who believes that the only real failure is to remain unchanged and in place, that true love is always a blind leap, and that a good story over a cup of tea holds the power to change one's destiny.

Author Biography

Azzedine Downes is the President and CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Before joining IFAW, he served as the Chief of Party for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jerusalem and Morocco, as well as the Acting Regional Director for the U.S. Peace Corps in Eurasia and the Middle East. Fast Company has named Azzedine one of The 100 Most Creative People in Business. He is a member of the Global Tiger Forum Advisory Council, and currently sits on the U.S. Trade and Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

FEZ, MOROCCO: THE MEDINA The Labyrinth Language, Cleanliness, and the Yellow Babouche Bread and Other Smells of Life Feet Smell and So Do Yellow Babouche Sniffing Glue and Lessons Learned Nassarani An Endless String of Apologies Donkeys, Virility, and Birth Control The Buddhist Monk and Talking in My Sleep Couscous, the Foundation of All Life Baraka and the Sheep Shopping, Bargaining, and Accents Aziz, Merchant of Carpets and Bagger of Tourists The Simple-Minded Mathematician FEZ, MOROCCO: LA VILLE NOUVELLE La Ville Nouvelle and My Love Affair with French The Grey-Haired CIA Agent and the Spurned Lover Breaking the Rules and the Donnybrook at the Cinema Teenage Frenzy and the Cardboard Keyboard Arabic Lessons Undoing the Spell via a Good Tip The Curse of Fatouma Peep Show at the Café Alone in My Food Poisoning Pain The Intoxicating Dessert The Rif Mountains and The Hirsute Body The Hamman and the Circumcised Foreigner Salade Niç oise and My Wayward Wife CASABLANCA, MARRAKECH, ZAGORA, AND SALE A Casablanca Unlike the Movie Human Teeth on a Blanket Just Tell Me Where It Is Where There is No Doctor Adapting to Male Chauvinism— My Own Marrakech Express and the Draft The Real Morocco No Room at the Inn How To Break the Cigarette Habit Immediately The Donkey and the Bottle of Cologne Marriage, Spies, and the Muslim Brotherhood CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSSETS The Somewhat Worthless Diploma Where There Is Still No Doctor Street Urchin Arabic and a Wise Mentor The Butcher of Harvard Marry Me, Blue Eyes FEZ, KENITRA, AND SUPPOSEDLY IMILCHIL Said the Mendacious The Girl from Tangiers What Happens in the Men’ s Locker Room Stays… The Endless Photo Album Viewing The Marriage Festival at Imilchil MAURITANIA Sand and Tea for Two More Couscous and Marrying Fatima Teatime and Slavery Lingering Thoughts of Death and Slavery Political Faux Pas The Breakdancing Consultant The Camel Bar Sweet Sixteen and Alone Father of the English Language in Mauritania To Eat or Not to Eat a Camel Michael Jackson in Mauritania Unintended Consequences and Vapid Conversations The Club in NYC RETURN TO MOROCCO AND ITS MOUNTAINS Now is Not What You Think It Is Blue Eyes, Mick, and Keith Trance Dancing and Demonic Possession Dancing For Grandma at the White House BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA, AND WASHINGTON, DC Marriage, the Dowry and Zulu Dawn The Sad Story on the Train Coming to America The Blunder and the Book The Letter The Conversion A Letter Arrived There Was Couscous at the Wedding Consummation Anticipation Nadia’ s First Cooked Meal in America Household Effects and Clueless Men The Unknown Birthday Return to the Household Effects There Must Be a Conspiracy to Uncover Standing Naked on the Phone YEMEN: THE ANCIENT CITY OF SANA’ A Is Time Travel Real? Tell Me Your Real Name Who Is Actually in Charge? Discovering Abdullah and Qat The Undocumented Maid The Glaring Truth Delving into the Dowry The Mystery of the White Cloth The House and the Letter The Sheik It’ s Wednesday, Permit Required Was I a Drug Addict? Guns and Marital Honesty Traffic is a Nightmare The Crying Struggling to Be Polite Death and the Taxi Ramadan MOROCCO FOR THE “ REAL” WEDDING Crying, Chipped Teeth, Boiling Kettles, and Pregnancy Kim and Moroccan Jews When Irish Eyes are Smiling . . . and Drinking Everyone Is Born a Muslim Yoko’ s Revenge Life Within the Palace Walls