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.