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Visitors, normal life and some local outings Hi,
My sister Barbie wrote that I forgot to mention that ..Gigi and Glen were here. Yes….Glen and Gigi were here weekend before last, and I only told y'all about the last 5 days.. I think that we had no Internet at home at the time that they were here also... I can't recall ..I think it was out a total of 11 days. Also Kurt and Jan were here. We had local fun with Glen and Gigi. We stayed in Casa and did a small bit of scurrying here and there and about the city. We traveled around locally, and did not do any special "tourist" things. You should understand that the tour books say …"oh yeah, right, um-hem, Casablanca, .... if you are on a time crunch, you might want to skip this city, or perhaps spend two days and you've seen it.” Regardless, we love it here and it is our home, but the other cities, Rabat, Fez, and Marrakech are all more typical and full of tourists stuff. Fez haz a completely restored souk which was paid for by funds from UNESCO. These are not close by, and require folks to make a bit longer stay. The reason we love it here in Casa is the diversity; and of course our new friends, and the work. In that regard, Leslie and I were talking before any of the guests came …. Jan and Kurt - weekend one, Leslie traveled to meet Jan - weekend 2, Gigi and Glen - weekend 3 , Don and Rose Ann weekend 4, and next...off to M A I S conference in Florence (our school pays for professional developement courses after two years of service and about 50 of us are going) weekend .. yikes! .. so anyway, Leslie and I talked about just what is it that we hope that each person will come away with, when going home to US. ... We agreed that we hope that each goes home with a new understanding of what it is that we are doing here, about our work, about the children and the school, and about the diversity of friends and relationships both expat and Moroccan ....all that the Lord has blessed us with, and just what He is doing here since arriving. We hope that guests will come away with a little understanding that the people of Morocco are extremely hospitable (almost to a fault) very kind, sweet and are mostly, just “available” to talk and “be” with you. We did a lot of just “normal” stuff when our guests came. Like our house meetings on Sundays, like our typical Saturday, spent shopping at the smaller family-owned grocery store that has most of what-we-need, and then spending the next hours or so, finding herbs, veggies, and nuts and pampers at the even smaller street vendors nearby. In fact, in every case we mostly hung-out and talked, ate and drank together and saw the local Casa sights; (what there are show) and the rather strange diversity of our life just getting around and getting into town and back. Kurt and Jan told everyone the last Sunday that they were here, that if they had not come here and particularly gone to the school, that they would have no idea about what is happening here. Suppose I will need to be more diligent in my correspondence, but the fact is that we hope that if you haven't visited that you will, that if you have you will again, and the guest room is now available for reservations. It is wonderful to hear back how that our visitors family and friends catch the vision here. Please send any stories! Love to all, Tom (Dad)
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I still have to write the story about buying enough wine for a month (not enough, by the way) on the last day before Ramaden and will eventually write that story for the eager consumer...but everyday I am crowded. And, the wine story needs more quality time. CROWDED.... Some easy issues were noun adjective order. But in some places he still used French terms and were more difficult to translate; particularly given that my French is K3. The word for Lavatory and basin were still in French and it was in Marble.. I wasn't sure what to say. I finished just in time to start the next adventure. So, afterward I spent almost 3-1/2 hours in town driving, with Local Mr. Computer-friend as navigator, between the petit taxis, the Citroëns, Peugeots, Hyundais Mercedes-Benz, baby-mopeds... and the donkey carts with assorted veggies, to get satellite supplies. We drove to the outdoor market on the other side of town to get all of the pieces needed to install satellite TV for Mom (that's the excuse but its for Leslie and I too) although I am not a big TV fan ..it seems it could be fun, as we be able to get about 1500 worldwide channels. (another type of crowded). Anyway we went to a really big outdoor market (Dar Bralif) which is a 2 km square souk (outdoor market) The stalls are semi-permanent; the gutter runs between them and is nicely filled with trash and mucky water. There was everything there: new, almost-new, used, and "black". It is super crowded with elbow to elbow people. (and quite fragrant both good and no so good) By the way its cash only here. Satellite TV is not controlled other than you have to buy a dish and receiver and other misc parts to install it, all about $200.00 and then use you ol' TV or get a new one. There are no monthly fees but you can buy some chips for special channels that are encrypted. With about 50% free I am not too interested, since TV is pretty low on the list for me. It was a circus. After we got the parts for the system, my friend decided to go (way too quickly) to see about a mini-iPod, and I followed, but he left me in the dust. I finally climbed up on a high-ground area and found him searching the crowd from about 30 meters up the way...he waited. And then I matched his steps, like a shadow. Later he said in French "faite attention" as we returned to the satellite booth. I walked in his footsteps once again. I suppose that he is way too comfortable in that environment... and I was being way too polite...finally I just bumped in to people with little "pardon" and kept up. The wonderful thing about Mr. Computer-friend is that if he says he'll arrive at 13:00, he is there at 12:55 and always has a wonderful smile. Although we communicate in mini-Arabic, mini-French and mini-English and lot of hand signals, it is affirming that we are making new friends. Mr. Computer-friend and I returned to the house to unload. Voila! After, this day, I settled for one of those "story" reds and spent the evening in the kitchen. I am writing this the next day and before he will return ....in 10 minutes so I am off.... but then you knew that. T DAD! Write in this fashion more often! That was a very enjoyable read. Great story and I totally understand how your title relates to everything in your story. Love you, hope you got your power situation fixed! SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 2:46 PM |
Relth in US
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