You Haven't Experienced Morocco Until...

Let’s see here…my last entry detailed my doctor adventures to Rabat and back. I finally made it safely back into site before dark that Saturday. I had left the auberge in hopes of catching the 8am bus to Errachidia…haha. There was only one bus out and that was at 12pm. I managed to muscle my way on and into a seat and arrived in Errachidia in the normal 5 hours. I then went back to my site and greeted my family. I understand why people avoid traveling during l’3id, it’s crazy!

Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the long trip. It is very exhausting to travel by bus in Morocco and due to my southern location I had a 2 day trip back. I woke up late and went to hammam with the family to get cleaned up before the big day. It was crazy! The entire hammam was packed and it was so warm that I felt dizzy after awhile. But it was nice to get clean and it was a beautiful day. I’ve decided maybe for the next couple l’3ids I’ll just avoid hammam until afterwards. I then picked up my finished jallaba, J. Very excited, it’s very pretty, below is a photo or two of me in my l’3id dress. I felt like a dress up doll, haha. I also managed to solidify a tutor in the process of getting my jallaba. They speak words differently down here and often times in riddles. There are days where I kind of understand what they are saying, but then they completely change the subject on me and I get very very confused.

Monday, I attempted to make fudge. I really should stick to things I’ve actually made before while in Morocco. It started out well, but then I decreased the heat too much and should have added the chocolate more slowly, hence to say it was a very failed attempt. Otherwise I hung out near the stove most of the day, it was so cold! I thought they were kidding about cold winters in the dessert, haha. If they had heated buildings it wouldn’t be so bad, but the buildings were created to withstand the high heat of summer, not the cold of winter. So often times it is much warmer outside. Then that afternoon they “bear pawed” my hands and feet. That is to say they completely covered my palms and feet bottoms with henna. It looks pretty scary, haha. I wasn’t able to do anything with my hands or feet for several hours.

Then Tuesday was the big day, L’3id Kbir. Wow. It was a very long day. Had breakfast at 8am, then spent the morning greeting people in the village, this was a several hours process. After drinking lots and lots of very sugared tea and cookies, I was able to witness the killing of the sheep. This is quite the spectacle. I won’t go into details for any of you with a weak stomach, but the smell got to me so much I actually had to go lie down for awhile, haha. Never thought I had a weak stomach until that day. After they slit the sheep’s throat they felt I needed a group family photo with the dead animal, it was quite the family bonding experience, ;). All in the life in Morocco. They then had all of us women take turns holding the two babies and posing for photos. In my family of 12 there are two married couples, each with a child around 3-4 months old now. It’s very interesting to experience all of this first hand. After they finished preparing the sheep, they grilled the sheep’s head and legs…still waiting to see it turn up for dinner. I think I missed that part though, I never did see the head again. Generally the eating of the sheep is a good 2-3 day process. That night we ate the heart, liver and intestines. Then after lunch I went with my two single host sisters to a nearby village to visit family and friends, it was very beautiful. That was about an hour hike there and back, but it was nice. I was exhausted by the time I finished dinner of many many marinated beef kababs and sheep liver, heart and intestine kababs.

Wednesday, I slept in late as a result of the big day on Tuesday. I also had massive acid reflux due to the herbs they marinated the beef kababs in. They were so good though! I also ate many of these awesome carrot sugar cookies. Hopefully my host sister will teach me the recipe someday. Otherwise I spent the morning eating breakfast of sugar tea with bread and oil, then I took a walk through the nearby gaba (forest) where they have their farm lands. It was very nice and beautiful. It was a very gorgeous sunny day albeit with a cold wind.

I’ve taken many photos during the last week, I hope you enjoy them!

One of my host sisters and I at Meski


One of my host sisters and I at Meski

Me posing in Meskiin my new jallaba!

My host mom.

Me and the famales of my host fam plus an extra child or two.

They wanted me to pose with the two babies.

Family photo with the dead sheep on l'3id.

I'm the new moroccan dress up doll.

Me in my new jallaba and headscarf, :).

Me and my host mom.

Gotta love the red hands and feet from henna!

Me and some of the fam.

Me waiting for the henna to dry.

My street.

My street.

Donkey!

And another.