more sisters!

mimouna squinting.

halima is visiting from her college in agadir where she is studying to be a pharmacist? or work in a lab. or teach in a lab. i'm a bit unclear on the concept. but she's super sweet and talks to me and is really good at communicating herself well. and helping me out when i'm a mess and not understanding anything. she's wonderful as well! she's the youngest and my age. it's fun to have some youngest child energy around. :P

some amazing women in my new home

my sister. khadijah. she's the 33 yr old preschool teacher. she's an incredible leader in the community and she's so patient with me!! she's really good at teaching arabic. :P

my mom, mbarka, and other sisters. fatim zohor on the left and mimouna.

fatim zohor is so cute! she works at the teleboutique and lets me work with her sometimes. i practice my darija with customers and tell them that i dont have change so they're just going to have to buy 100 dhs worth of cell phone minutes instead of 20. they get a good laugh. then i give them their change.

my sister in law, kaltoum. she's also wonderful, although a bit distant from the family sometimes. her husband lives and works in casa and comes back occasionally.

my mom all dressed up for a wedding. she's so cute!!

the house

my birthday gift from my counterpart at the pottery cooperative. didn't i tell you that the henna is such a cool way to decorate pottery? they're very thoughtful. it was an incredible birthday.

the garden and the roof where they dry all the food and palm branches for the furnace. most of the house seems to be made with a combination of mud bricks and concrete. it's all incomprehensible to me at this point. but i love our garden. this is our outer courtyard.

the cool oven that bakes all the bread. they just stick burning palm brances in on the right side and the bread on that brown circular tablet on the left side. it's really cool. and smokey...

our courtyard again. the brown building in the back is our kitchen. and imagine the lines with sheep innards hanging on them to dry, which is how they are now. i'll do my laundry next week...
the sheep who kick it and make alot of noise. i think they're sheep. i honestly don't know. they look like sheep, right?

Men of the House

my brother who visited from Casa for the big L'Eid holiday. he brought all these amazing swiss chocolates and i was REALLY happy. please send candy...





my funny dad. he's super nice and respectful and he laughs alot. he always tries to take extra meat from the plate and the family yells at him in jest. he's wonderful!! and incredibly sweet.

the ram we killed and ate for L'Eid al Fitr. i'm not trying to be morbid when i say it was really beautiful and i love the way it's all about honoring the sacrifice by using all parts of the animal. it's like an art process.

Desert Oases

the "welcome" piece that the artist who owns the little hotel on the main strip made for me on my way to see the officials to get my papers signed and notorized.

the beautiful palmery behind the town. it extends for a very long way. i have yet to explore it's nooks and crannies. very different from my experience in the mountains up north.

the view from my roof of the special mosque.

more family celebrating l'eid

my host aunt and host mom. they're sisters. and wonderful!!
and my host grandparents. soo cool!!

l'eid

we did henna for l'eid!! it was really fun.
and we got to do my nails and remind me of how old school we used to dye our nails red/orange with the flowers in korea.
/i'm a walking non-sequitor.

family

my cutie pie sisters!! aren't they wonderful!!! farah is 5 and shaima is 9. and they are the most fun EVER!!!

apparently we're supposed to be working too...

this is me trying to explain to a very nice group of young women that we have to ask them a million questions about their personal lives because it's our job.
/looking important like it's my job.

at a crossroads...

it's a DONKEY! not a taxi!!
why would you SAY that???
/apalled and confused.