3 Sunny Days

oday is the third of 3 sunny days. I was very silly on two of them as I sat in the sun reading my book and yesterday got very tired so took to my bed. We were going to Erfoud today to see Ammar's sister Rkia and family but I felt odd. I was persuaded to get up after a back massage and a tepid shower and then I felt better.

We went for lunch at Hyatt and Lahcen's place. First of all peanuts and biscuits and tea; then the meal; a mixed salad and a chicken tagine. There was a plate of green olives too. Lahcen showed us his kidney stones - which had to be removed by operation in Rabat.

Rkia, Zaid's wife, has begun my shawl. She is joining the two pieces with a small embroidery stitch. It will be wonderful when all the women of the family have stitched something on it.

Fatima and Mohamed are here from Aghbalou, a village in the Atlas mountains. He is a teacher there and now there are school holidays. We looked at a video he made of him and Fatima  throwing snowballs and another where they were making a snowman with orange peel for the facial features.

Today some bees came out of the first hive and now there is a new colony in a new hive. A way to calm the bees is to spray water on them and then they can't fly. They fly when they dry.

Little Hanan was making squealing noises at her house. She is a happy little girl and is getting strong legs by standing a lot. I think she will get some teeth soon as she is shoving a fist in her mouth and dribbling a lot. We have yet to see baby Hassan but he is progressing well and going onto his tummy now. He is the same age as Hanan.

The other night the little kitten followed us home. She spent the night in a cut down cardboard box which was made comfy by putting a pair of old leggings and a piece of blanket inside. We fed her some sardines and gave her water and she spent the night there. We decided that looking after her would not be a good thing as we move round quite a lot and so we took her back to the cafe. We still see her every day there and she or Tricky jump onto my lap and settle down happily. And of course we still feed them.

The trip to Erfoud is quite long. It takes half an hour to get to Rissani by taxi or little bus. I prefer the bus as the taxi has to take 6 passengers and it's a bit of a squash. Then we walk to the taxi place in Rissani to get a taxi to Erfoud. Another half hour or so. We get off and walk to Rkia's house. I am hoping to have henna on my hands tomorrow. Rkia's daughter Khadija has a friend who does it. I am looking forward to seeing the family, especially Asma and Mohamed, the two youngest.

A Rainy Day

We think that one of Tricky's kittens  has come back. It may be the little one we called Shrad, which means three in Tamazight - the Berber language of the region. The other two were Yan and Sin, or One and Two. We fed Tricky and Shrad with some cheese but Shrad made nasty noises at Tricky.

Yesterday I watched Zaid making frames for the wax for his beehives. He made about 8, nailing them together then putting some wire across them on which to fix the wax. The wax comes in sheets which are a starter for the bees. He melts the wax to fix it to the wires.

We are getting proper tagines now as they have bought a new tagine. The onion is put in first and gets a bit burnt and tastes delicious. We have had couscous too and that was good. One day Rkia made Berber pizza and it was very tasty. It is a sort of stuffed bread. It had vegetables and eggs in it. Women here make round flat loaves here every day, the word for bread is aghrom. Not an easy word to say.

Today Zhour came back from school in Rissani, she has a weeks holiday. Fatima her older sister is coming tomorrow. Then all six children will be at home.

When Zaid was doing his bee hive frames Rkia was busy with a pile of parsley. Its not like the English crinkled one but the flat leved type. It's used a lot in cooking here. Another regular food is soup; which is eaten for breakfast. I had a bowl this morning, it is usually drunk from the bowl.

We were going to see Ammar's brother Addi and his family today but the rain put him off. We will return to the cafe where I will fuss over the cats and do some more sudoku. Ammar will probably play cards with the post office manager, the headmaster and some policemen and maybe funny Lahcen and Carpet Man. They have a jolly time there without the aid of alcohol. And the tv may be on for others to watch the football from Angola.

Dinner will be at Youssef's tonight. I dont know where the apostrophe is on this machine. It is not a qwerty layout, though most of the keys are in the same place. No one ever cleans the keys and this one is particularly grimy.

Ammar's friend Michael has driven to Ouarzazate today to collect a friend who wants to see the mountains and desert. We may meet up with him at Tafraoute, which is a small village nearer to the Algerian border. We usually travel there by small bus, which takes about 3 or so hours. Ammar has just shown me where the apostrophe is. '''''' Tafraoute is where Ammar's sister Fatima lives with her family.



Time to check my email.

friday 22nd January

I am now in Morocco in Merzouga. The flight was good and the chief host steward was very funny. She told us it would be a challenge if we tried to go to the loo during the air turbulence. Also it would be like surfing if we tried to walk in the aisle.

Met a lovely lady on my way out of the plane. Her name is Kitty and she loves Morocco. She has visited about 90 times in the past 30 years. She was going to Imlil to stay with some Berber friends.

Got to the riad by phoning and asking for directions. A young woman came and showed us the route. A fab riad with a cosy room. Went to get some money at Credit Maroc and it swallowed my card. tried to use my credit card but it was rejected. I hope I remembered the number correctly. The card was returned the next morning.

Had an evening meal at the Argana cafe which is in the square. Not the best meal but a good view of the portable restaurants in the square.

Breakfast was good, they even had harcha - a cake of semolina. I had 2.The coffee was really good.

We took the bus to Ourzazate and while we were waiting we met and  chatted to a young couple from Montreal. They were with their two sons Manu and Luka. So brave to travel with them in a different country. I bet they were glad of their double buggie.

Felt sick for the first part of the journey but after eating some tagine felt restored. We stayed at Dar Chamaa and met Mohammed whose family own the hotel in partnership with some Spanish. Mohammed was one of the students at the house in Meknes where Ammars nephew was staying. Mohammed was an English student at the university. It was great to see him again.

We got tickets on the CTM bus for Er Rachidia and walked about the main street. It was in my mind to buy an embroidered scarf that I had seen on another visit. We found the shop and a scarf was fixed to the ceiling. I wanted it and the man was trying to find a page in a book to show us one like it. I asked the price and he said 800 dirhams. A good job I was sitting down. Got him down to 250 but A was eager to go. I have decided that I will make one of my own embroidered scarves. I will get the cloth, needles and thread in Rissani on Sunday or maybe tomorrow.

A taxi took us to Rissani and an other took us to Merzouga. We were lucky to get it. But if we missed it we could have stayed with Ammars nephew Ali.

The big thing at Zaids, thats Ammars brother, is bees. Last year he started with one and then got another. Now he has about 7 boxes and two hives in old clay water pots. Today there was another swarm. Youssef, another nephew of Ammar is also following the bee craze. He was making his own box today.

We went to the cafe before coming to the net but didnt see Tricky, my adopted cat. Mohamed the Carpet Man was there and Funny Lahcen. Ammar has gone to see his German pal Michael at the auberge Le Petit Prince while I do the blog.

Im going to check my email now.

Staying in a riad

Now I am getting excited. I decided I wanted to stay in a riad for a change instead of good old Ibis in Marrakech. Ammar told me of one and he had just phoned them and reserved a room and I have reserved it too via their website. www.riadmarana.com

It looks lovely, as do all of the riads and it is very near the square Djemma El Fna. If you ever go to Morocco be sure to stay in a riad. We have stayed in two so far. One of them was in Essouira and it was great, just opened. The other one was in Marrakech and it was Riad Todra, but it is not open now. I don't know why. Anyway this Riad Marana was recommended by a friend of Ammar so I  expect it will be good. It looks good on their website.It will cost us 600 or 700 dirhams, but I'm not sure what that is in sterling.

My suitcase is almost packed, my backpack is almost packed. I just need to get up early tomorrow morning to get my lift to the bus stop. It is the low season now in Morocco but they still have sunshine and a bit of warmth

I have put the pictures up of the room I have reserved.

I'm going to add some photos

This is the square in the evening when the food stalls are out

 

Typical musicians in the square

 

The square closer to the food stalls

 

And this is something I think is needed

The map doesn't show Merzouga  but it does show Rissani, which is the nearest town.

Just a weekend

So the snow is going. I was almost down to cancelling my flight the day before yesterday (Wednesday) as it was snowing all day long and when I looked at the Ryanair site they were saying you could reschedule your flight but when I tried to do it I couldn't. Sometimes the Internet is difficult. Anyway it looks as though I'm  going to be lucky.

This is a picture of the gardens at Merzouga

I think I have all the necessary documents for Ammar's visa application. I have even included some photos. I tried to get the old talks we had on msn as I had saved them but they are not in the same format as more current stuff, si I have decided not to bother.

A tagine made by Ammar's nephew in Meknes

Just got the last bit of packing to do, clothes and stuff like the body cleaners and things like that. I have got to find the camera things - charger and the phone charger. I am also taking my camcorder - should have left it there last time.

Here is Ammar running up a dune at Merzouga 

Slowly getting things ready for Morocco. My suitcase is open on the sitting room floor. I've located my passport, I thought I'd lost it but I had left it in the suitcase as I knew I would be needing it soon.

The paperwork is coming on slowly. My printer isn't doing a good job as I have bought some cheap ink and it shows.

Had a bit of trouble talking to Ammar today. He got onto MSN but it wasn't working, then we tried skype but not much better so he changed computer and that did the trick although he couldn't see me. The best bit of news is that his kidney stone came out this morning. Hooray! Now he won't be getting the awful pain that he has to go to get an injection for. He showed it to me and it looked quite big.

Seems there is snow near Midelt. There is a way for him to get to Marrakech that doesn't involve going through Ourzazate, as that road to Marrakech must be full of snow. He can go to Beni Mellal.

I have bought a little blanket to cover our legs with as travelling on a Moroccan bus in winter is not pleasant. Last time I did it I was freezing. Ammar will bring his sleeping bag too for extra warmth. the 'cow' blanket would be nice but a bit big to carry. I will see if I can locate the photo of this lovely blanket.Still haven't found it but I did find a picture of snow in the Atlas mountains that I took a couple of years ago.

Yes I found the cow blanket pic. You can see why we called it that. I also got a nice duvet type thing called a cuette (not sure of the spelling) which kept us warm in Meknes. I have to be warm where ever I go.

I am just going to check Ryanair and download my boarding card.

Done it and put away in my little black purse. I forgot that you have to enter details about your passport onto the online checkin. But its all been done now.

Ammar has seen Tricky (my lovely Moroccan cat) but she didn't want him to touch her. I hope she will be friendly with me again. Maybe she is pregnant - this will be the third time. I think I will get her some dry food in Marrakech as you can't buy it in the south.

There is nothing really to indicate whether or not my flight will be cancelled. Its too early to tell - just over a week and 2 days to go.I have asked Paul to drive me to the bus stop as I don't fancy trundling my suitcase all the way to the main road. I will get the bus to Stourbridge, then the train from Stourbridge Town to the Junction and then go to Worcester. Easier really than going to Birmingham.

Getting the hang of blogging

I just put a picture up here but I didn't want to post it until I had written something. So here is the something. The photo was taken when I was leaving Marrakech last summer on the Ryanair flight to Luton. 

I wonder what new rules there will be at airports. I have never left from Bristol to Marrackech but going from Luton I had to remember to empty out all liquids and creams from my hand luggage. Last time I even had to remove the belt from my trousers. They let me keep my shoes on.

In Marrakech there are separate queues for men and women. You get frisked at the end by a police woman. This doesn't bother me. Now there is talk about the new sort of body scanners that let everyone who is checking see exactly what you are like under the clothes. Not a pretty sight. But anything that stops these people who want to kill planefuls of souls. I am reading a book about Islam to try to understand why this is happening. Its called 'The Crisis of Islam Holy War and Unholy Terror' by Bernard Lewis. 

A. says that these people are not Muslims.  The whole interplay of the so called 'West' and the countries of Islam that have been inhabited by people from 'western' countries is difficult to grasp. I only know that I have got a better understanding of the Muslim world since meeting Ammar and all my friends in Morocco, since meeting some lovely guys from Gaza and hearing their terrible stories and since finding my Egyptian cousin two years ago and actually getting to meet her.

Time to get back to the documents.

Getting ready

I have two weeks before I go to Morocco for the 11th time. My aim this time is to help Ammar get a visa to the UK. I am in the process of assembling documents that will be needed there. What a palava!! I am putting them into a labelled folder just so that its easy to access them. I am doing photocopies too as the Moroccans are hot on those. Well actually I'm scanning the docs and then printing them. I'm basically lazy and would rather do anything at home if I can.

This afternoon I went out to buy some bubbles for his nieces and nephews. It makes a change from balloons and there were some jazzy looking containers in the Early Learning Centre. I would love to buy the children more things but I can only take so much on the plane. This time I will also amuse them with my butcher bird toy that I got from Brisbane. It makes the call of the bird when its pressed and its such a lovely sound.

My flight is booked on Ryanair. I am taking off from Bristol for a change. I usually go to Luton to get my Ryanair flight. Bristol is so much more convenient and the plane leaves at a sensible hour. The one from Luton always left at 6.30 a.m. and I always felt half drugged getting it. I will also be able to get on the train to Bristol which I will take in two stages as it is cheaper. First I go from Stourbridge Town to Worcester and then change for Bristol.

I have also booked a night at one of the Bristol Ibis hotels, It cost £27 which is a real bargain. Can't remember the cost of my return flight but it was pretty decent. I'm sure it was less than £100. Ammar will be coming to meet me at Marrakech and then we will either take an overnight bus or stay in Marrakech and go the next day.

This time I will not take a handbag just a small backpack. I have had enough of lugging my large backpack round. I will try my best to travel light with my suitcase too. I have a few clothes stashed away in Merzouga now. I am going for my usual six weeks and hope to go to the net every day to add to this blog. Meanwhile I am going to search for a good photo to add.