A Brief Pause...

...in the ongoing report of our trip to Morocco to announce the arrival of Charlotte Elaine -- first baby for nephew Rob Jr (who will always be Robbie to me) and his wife Tina, and first grandbaby for my sister Rosie and BIL Rob. Charlotte arrived on 11/28, all 8#1 ounce of her.



Of COURSE she is beautiful as befits a member of our family!

I'm glad to have company in the ranks of Grammie. Rosie will be Lao Lao (which is what our grandmother and mother were called, and which means "old old" in Chinese. It is also the name for the mother's mother -- the father's mother is Ni Ni).



LAO is also baby Charlotte's auntie's initials -- Liz Anne is Robbie's youngest sister.

Hm -- Then we could have Lao Lao and Auntie LAO. :>D

Congratulations y'all!!


Robbie, Granddaddy Rob and sweet baby Charlotte, Lao Lao, Tina, Liz Anne (AKA LAO), and Reuben. I KNOW Helen Clare wants to be in this picture too....

The Marrakech Express

Well, it wasn't really an express -- but it WAS a train, and it DID get us from Fes to Marrakech in a mere 7+ hours. We went first class. Premiere class means that there are only 6 in your compartment instead of 8 or 10, and the seats are covered with cloth rather than what appeared to be the hide of a nauga. This was our Thanksgiving trip. Tim and his two classmates begged the T'giving weekend off so we got the 6:50 train, arriving slightly after 2:00 in Marrakech. Tim had never been there, so this was an adventure for him as well.

First off, Marrakech is much more expensive than Fes. The taxi alone cost us 40 dirhams to go about as far as 6 dirhams will take us in Fes. They don't use meters. They just argue about it....we finally gave it up and paid our way.

Our Riad Omar was on a street that led into the big square.



We got a suite there -- which was a good thing since the three of us shared it -- a queen for Bob and me and a single for Tim. The beds were nearly as long as the room was, leaving less than 12 inches between the end of the beds and the wall. Opening the cupboard was tricky, not to mention passing each other -- which generally required one of us retreating to the bedside while the other person walked from the bathroom (thankfully no squatty potty) to the "salon" which consisted of a small coffee table, two little chairs, a hard couch (I've forgotten what it is called now) and a non-working fireplace.



The riad, like Tim's abode, opens to the sun, rain and bird poop. That became significant on Saturday morning when we had the rain that North Carolina has been wishing for.

But -- on to the square where we paid a couple of dirhams to take pictures of the snake charmers.





For a mere 5 dirham more I could have held the snake myself and had my picture taken with him. Um, la shukran. Very much la shukran.

We watched the monkeys, could have had my hands hennaed by any number of willing henna vendors, listened to the story tellers (except since it was in Arabic it wasn't terribly interesting), and spent a lot of time saying things like,

La shukran (no thank you)
La La La!! (No, no no!)
and finally, to the very persistent -- SAFI!! (Enough already!!)

Thanksgiving dinner was at a really lovely restaurant -- beef briochets -- turkey is a non-entity in Morocco. The real shocker at this very Moroccan restaurant was the "entertainment" at the end of the meal:




The medina is a grouping of souks, very geared to the tourist trade, with lots of touristy sorts of stuff. If I saw one stall with key chains sporting miniature typical Moroccan style shoes (which I don't think any self-respecting Moroccan would wear) I must have seen 20 of them. You could get all manner of pottery, jellabahs, scarves, and cheap jewelry. Lots of fun wandering around, but a little wearing to be constantly fobbing them off -- something we rarely had to do in Fes.

Friday after the noon call to worship (as noted in the last blog), we decided to do the true tourist thing and take a double decker bus around the city of Marrakech -- actually we could take two tours for one price, which was great. One was the "monument" tour in which we were treated to all sorts of hotels and buildings. The other was the "romantic" tour in which we saw lots and lots of palm trees and very expensive resorts.




( These are the Atlas mountains -- the juxtaposition of the snow covered mountaintops with the palm trees and desert was amazing.)

(Bob REALLY liked the camels)

Dinner was in the square. Now that is an experience that is not to be believed. Several kiosks offer snails. That's all. Just snails. I really like escargot -- and order it occasionally at home when I get the chance. These snails were NOT escargot...

You pulled the snail out of the shell with a toothpick and ate it. It looked like a rather nasty -- um -- long -- um -- brownish -- um -- (oh come on, just say it) booger.

None the less, Tim talked me into trying them. Only 5 dirhams for a "petite" serving.



Then we ate our dinner at one of the big food kiosks that are set up all over the square after dark. Each kiosk employs young men who run up to you and wave their menus in your face, imploring you to come to THEIR food stand as they have absolutely The Best food in the entire square.

I had fried sole. It was surprisingly good.


It started to rain -- we ended up having dessert in the riad next to our hotel. Bob got a wonderful chocolate concoction, and Tim and I shared a plate of petit pastries. Very good. With Moroccan mint tea, of course....

Oh -- and I got a jellabah. Purple, of course.

Of Minarets and Mosques

You can't visit Morocco and not see the mosques everywhere....they are THE dominant force on the architectural scene. The call to prayer -- five times a day -- is pretty dominant too.



This is a view from a hotel on a hill overlooking Fes -- specifically the medina.

I think the thing that was so surprising was that in the entire 10 days we were there, I didn't see a single person praying (er -- that is -- other than us and those we were with). I mean, I expected that when the call to prayer came, we'd see men whipping out their carpets and kneeling -- but no -- nothing. Now, I admit, I wasn't up to see what was happening at the 5:23 am call -- but there were four other times when we were in Newville, or in the medina, or in the big square in Marrakech, and no praying -- at least as far as we could tell, was going on.




I guess I was a bit disappointed. Even in our hotel in Marrakech there were arrows pointing east so one would know which direction to kneel. And we were there on Friday -- so sat at a cafe facing the big mosque to see the faithful stream into it. It holds, I understand, about 20,000 people. I would say it was less of a stream and more of a trickle -- thought to be fair, and in the interest of complete disclosure, there was another side to the mosque -- maybe more were streaming in that side.



The faithful pouring into the mosque at 12:37 pm, Friday afternoon.




In fact, as I think about it, I only saw one man carrying his mat to worship. That was on Friday on his way to the mosque. No one else took his own rug. I did see some rather nice ones for sale, however, in the souks in Marrakech.



So my question is -- where are all the faithful, and when/where are they praying?

Housing -- a la Fes

There is a world of difference between the home in which we stayed while we were there -- and the house Tim lives in. Jim & Patti live in "Newville" which is in an upscale area of the town. Tim lives, as I've said before, just outside the medina in a riad with Brian and a couple of other guys.

Homes for the upper class are huge -- some of them make the average American 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, two car garage, etc etc look rather small and shabby. But -- they are also designed to house 2 to 4 generations of family. Sometimes there will be three apartments in one home -- Jim and Patti live on the ground and first floors of one such home -- another family lives in the apartment upstairs. Looking at it from the outside, you'd never guess it was a two family home. >>

(This is actually the house across the street from Jim & Patti's. I'm standing on their front porch)

We had a room and a full bath on the ground floor where the kitchen and family "salon" are. (The shower is designed for your basic Lilliputian, but that's another story). Tim stayed in one of the bedrooms upstairs -- there is also a smaller salon, a larger salon off the smaller one, the master bedroom, a full bath with a shower for regular folk, and two offices. Jim and Patti entertain a LOT -- and have a lot of folks staying with them. This house is truly a blessing.



Ground floor "family" salon.



One of the salons upstairs.


Then there is Tim's house. A "riad" is a home with a courtyard -- usually two -- maybe even three stories in a square surrounding the open ceiling. The sun shines. It rains. Birds poop. Into the courtyard -- which isn't a yard, but is tiled. Tim's house is huge too. I lost track of the bedrooms -- Brian often houses guys who are going to the language school who don't want a home stay -- but only one bathroom down a dark hallway. I'd love to know when it was built -- my guess is sometime in the 1800s.



Doorway to Tim's Place




Front Door


Sun, rain, and bird doody comes from on high...looking up from the middle of the courtyard.

"TV" room.




When was the last time you had a pillar like this in your home? Tim has at least 8 of them.

They also have a true Moroccan "squatty potty" which is not for the faint of heart. And CERTAINLY not for someone of my vintage.

And last, but certainly not least, on the street where he lives.

Food -- Moroccan Style

The food in Morocco is really very good -- just not a lot of variety. Perhaps Americans are used to having more variety than we should (one of the causes of obesity??? Inquiring minds want to know....). After all, you can eat something different -- well, not only every day of the week, but probably every day for several months.



None the less, we enjoyed the food. Just before we left, the Chicago Tribune had an article featuring Poulet au Citron -- chicken with preserved lemons and olives. I cut it out as it didn't look as though it would be TOO hard for someone with my lack of culinary skills. After Tim comes home, we're going to give it a try -- I bought a jar of preserved lemons in Marrakech, and some saffron in a little funky grocery in Fes J'Did (a newer version of the old medina) before I left.




One of my favorites was malawi -- a sort of pancake like bread that is made with oil and flour -- takes forever to make as you roll it, stretch it, cook it, fold it, roll & stretch it again. That is what this lady is making in the medina:



But I digress. We had several really amazing meals -- the first on Saturday morning. (Friday was good, but it doesn't count as it was pizza!!). Aziz took us to a restaurant in the medina where I had -- yup, tajine poulet au citron -- the chicken with lemon and olives that I'm going to try at home. But first were the appetizers....

And then the main course. Here's Tim's tajine beef:



And finally, our dessert of Moroccan tea which is a bunch of mint leaves stuffed into a glass and then hot tea poured over it with plenty of sugar:



Bread and olives accompany every meal. Moroccan food is not for the Atkins crowd...



Now -- there are several ways to obtain your food. One is from the grocery store -- there are two Acimas in all of Fes. This one is within walking distance of Jim & Patti's house (our hosts -- friends of Tim's), and a great stopping point for the taxis which you take everywhere you can't walk.




We probably went here four or five times -- always picking up a big bottle of water for the family as well -- only 9 dirhams for a gallon. (9 dirhams is about $1). Don't drink the tap water -- while in "Newville" where Jim & Patti live, it is probably safe, bottled water is recommended. And we usually bought a big bottle of water for each meal as well.

Or you can purchase your food in the medina:








Bob helping with cooking the bread for a family....

You get your chicken VERY fresh....

Tim loves the medina. He lives just outside it in an old riad with a couple of other guys -- more on that in another blog. His favorite thing to do is sit at a cafe and drink espresso and watch life go by. We did this a lot.

Moroccan men sit around and do this all day long. Women are never seen in the cafes in the medina; occasionally they will be seen at a cafe in the new city, but never in the old.

He also takes his gastronomic life in his hands and eats off the streets in the medina....we joined him this one day, but had fast food take out...very much NOT like the fast food take out you will see here in the states:

Cooking our *meat* sandwiches -- Tim loves them. I found them -- um -- interesting.

Lest you think we suffered -- this is where we had dinner after church on Sunday...



There is more -- much more, even just on the food. Remind me to tell you about the snails....

Home Again....

....but there is more to come. It's much easier blogging on my computer as "fast internet access" is a relative term in Morocco, and we didn't have a computer at all in Marrakech.

Anyway, last night we finally got home and got to bed after being up for 24 hours. We left Fes at 6:00 am; arrived in Casablanca at 6:45 on Royal Air Moroc. From there to Heathrow on British Air, and after a race through the airport, collapsed in our upgraded Business Class seats for our over 7 hour flight back to O'Hare.

We are short only one bag -- but American assures us they have found it and it will arrive at O'Hare about 1:00 this afternoon. What was amazing was this that greeted us at home.





Someone -- we have no idea who -- raked our yard this weekend and had all the bags lined up in front of the garage. Bob moved them so he could get the car out...

What amazing person(s) did this for us? What a wonderful gift to come home to!!

So far I've downloaded my pictures, read 275+ e-mails (and that's after keeping up with them all in Morocco), picked up voice mail messages, gone through the mail, counted brochure returns from our first class mailing for LEC (344), and am now ready for a nap.

Jet lag definitely when flying west over the pond. No problem flying east.

Yawn! More on the trip later.

Almost Time to say "Beslama"

Hard to believe we have been here for over a week -- and tomorrow we rise and shine (?) at 3:30 am to leave by 4:30 to get to the Fes airport by 5:00 for our 6:00 flight to Casablanca. Inshallah, we will be to O'Hare by about 7:30 pm. Mumpkin.

We shall see.

Have to say beslama to Tim for three more weeks and then he'll be home for two weeks!! I can't wait....

Well, we are off to walk to a place for ice cream since we haven't had that yet.

Coming to a blog near you -- but later --

"Adventures in Marrakech...."

Dorothy Would Be Proud...AKA Welcome to the Casbah, Part III

And just why would Dorothy be proud? Well, we are walking EVERYWHERE!! Actually, getting into one of the many Petit Taxis is tantamount to taking your life into your hands. Driving is -- well, interesting! Traffic laws -- what laws? -- seeminly are non-existent. Whoever goes first is the one that has their car nose ahead of another car nose. There are traffic circles that bear absolutely no resemblance to any of those I've had the misfortune of navigating in Boston.

Oh -- and you are required to wear seat belts in every car -- except taxis. Somehow the taxi-driver lobby (or whatever it is called) decided that putting on seat belts was taking away from their business, so they don't allow seat belts into the taxis. You close your eyes, pray, and hope.

But mostly we walk.

Yesterday was our mini-3 hour course in Darija -- the Moroccan dialect. It was a great class. So -- what can we say? Not much.

"Say salamu alikum" (Peace be upon you)
"Wa alakum as-selam" (And upon you peace)

La bas? (How are you?)
La bas! (I'm fine)
"l-hamdu leelah" (Praise God!)

"Smiti Jan" Shnu smitek?" (My name is Jan, what is your name?"

"Mitsharfin" (Pleased to meet you)

"Baslama" (Goodbye).

Waha -- OK or yes -- said a LOT!

Shukran -- Thank you

La Shukran -- no thank you.

And my favorite word: "Mumpkin" -- Maybe.

Then we had a lovely traditional Moroccan dinner -- SO good. Tim, Bob & I went to Tim's house to do some laundry, then walked to the Medina to sit at the cafe....

I get stared at A LOT! Evidently they don't get a lot of old, blonde fat women in blue jeans and sweaters sitting in cafes. In fact, women never sit in the cafes -- not even with their husbands -- at least not in the medina.

Later we went to a lovely hotel overlooking the medina which is, by the way, the largest non-traffic area in the entire world! Something over 9400 streets -- tiny little streets with vendors on both sides, and donkeys and feet the only mode of transportation.

We stopped at a grocery store -- bought some water, toilet paper, Snickers, juice, and, of course, OLIVES!!

I love Fez. Waha.

Meet me at the Casbah, part II

We are here! After a L-O-N-G 18 hours from leaving Chicago, we arrived in Fes, Morocco on Friday night. Brand new airport, very small. (Just in case you are interested, my favorite airports are Gatwick & Heathrow which are not really airports...flying from there is incidental to the shopping!!!).

Meeting Tim was pretty emotional. I held back and did not blubber all over his shirt, much to his relief. Neither did Bob. Though I'm not sure Bob has ever blubbered in his whole life.

We ate at an amazing Italian restaurant -- I had pizza with anchovies which assured me that no one would want to share. They didn't.

Yesterday we met up with a wonderful tour guide who spoke perfect English, and he took us all over the Medina (the old, walled city). We are staying with friends in New Town -- it has absolutely gorgeous homes -- looks very Floridian, I think -- almost like an eastern Boca Raton or Palm Beach. Tim's house is a story for another blog (!) -- a riad in the Medina which he shares with one, two or three other guys, depending on who is coming and who is going. Anyway, back to the tour.

As you are driving by the old city, it looks the same color as the hills -- a dun color, almost -- the houses blending into one another and all blending into the side of the mountain. But in the Medina, your overwhelming sensation is that of color. From the djelabas (sp??) of the women to the scarves, tablecloths, shoes, leather goods, and cloths -- it is the most colorful place I've ever been. When we visited the weavers, I couldn't decide between any number of cloths -- they were all so lovely.

My favorite place? The pharmacie which was actually an herbal place. We went there because they thought Bob would like it. He did, but I LOVED it!! 4 seeds of cardamom crushed with one filament of saffron mixed in water and taken three times a week is guaranteed to increase milk supply. Fenugreek does decrease blood sugar, increases milk supply, and increases appetite -- should be given to all skinny people!!

Went to the tannery -- now THAT was an experience. (Pictures will be forthcoming later -- I can't download them to this computer). And to a ceramic/pottery place where we saw how they make the intricate ceramic tiles that grace almost all of Fes.

Great Moroccan lunch -- I had tajine chicken with olives and lemon -- it was delicous.

Sigh. All in all, a most amazing day.

Sunday -- more of the same -- this time just with Tim and hanging out in "his" section of the Medina where I met a number of his friends. The morning started with a house church service which was wonderful, and I met his friend Megan who is actually from Wheaton College -- taking a year off to learn Arabic.

Tonight? Field of Dreams, dinner is from the US -- we brought cheese, Triscuits and summer sausage for Tim which he deigned to share with us.

I love it here.....

Tomorrow is our three hour lesson in Arabic.

Meanwhile,

Yeshua malekee.