It's been a while since I last wrote on  this blog, or on  any blogs. I have been doing other stuff like making jewellery and relearning how to crochet. I have also got addicted to Pinterest - which fulfills my need to collect stuff.

So now I am  gearing up for another visit to Morocco. This time for 5 weeks. We (that's me and my Moroccan husband Ammar) didn't visit last year. So this year we will see a few changes.

This time there will be four girls from the family who are attending university. Three have gone to Meknes and Khadija is continuing at Er Rachidia. And then there is Fatima-Zohra who is Ammar's cousin Ibrahim's daughter. She is also at Meknes and we are hoping to meet her.

Also new are two little girls, the twin daughters of Ammar's nephew and niece Hamid and Zhour. But they may not be at home as they are currently visiting Ammar's sister Zohra, who lives nearer to Agadir. She has moved home since we last visited and is now living in a home being built by her sons Ali, Hasssan and Hamid.

Ali is in the south of Morocco being a soldier and he is with his wife Bouchra - I haven't met her at all - only on skype. Hassan is in a home of his own with his wife Shadia and their two children Fatim- Zohra and Adam.

Hamid is living with him mum. But the other Hamid, who is Zohra's firstborn is just visiting. Zohra has two sons called Hamid - I call the first one Hamid the original to distinguish him. He is from Zohra's first husband.

Zohra has another son called Youssef and he is living in France with his French wife. We haven't heard from him for a long time.

Zohra is the sister I feel closest to - even though I cannot speak Tamazight and she doesn't speak English. I think I gel with her best as she has had a tough life and has spent a lot of it without a husband as he left the family some time ago. We have danced together - I have a phone video clip to prove it - and she took me to the Hammam and washed me. One of my most memorable experiences in Morocco.

Zohra is the furthest from the rest of the family - who mostly live in Merzouga or in the nearby town of Erfoud or the small desert village of Tafrouate ( not to be confused with the town of the same name further south, which has the famous blue painted rocks).

I don't know if we will visit Zohra this time as I want to go on a little trek in a 4x4 in the north of Morocco. But we will see.

Yesterday Ammar was on facebook talking to his nephew Idir (Sleepy Man) who was in Merzouga. We are hoping he can find a 4x4 and be our driver but it doesn't look that way as he will be starting a driving job soon in Marrakech, which he will do for a month.

Idir is one of the four children of Ammar's oldest brother Mohammed and his wife Zohra. I wasn't able to meet Mohammed as he had died before I even met Ammar. But I have listened to Ammar's tales of him and I feel I would have really liked him a lot. Zohra, his wife, lives with her sons and daughter in law and two lovely girlies Nazha and Hanan, in Merzouga. Her two daughters, Fatima and Mouna have married and have of course have left home, as brides always do in the Amazigh tradition.

Fatima is married to her cousin Mohamed ( another of Ammar's nephews) and they live fairly far away in the mountains where Mohamed is a teacher or maybe not a teacher now but still in education. Last time we visited in 2011 Fatima gave birth to a lovely son called Youssef but sadly he died last year.

Mouna, Mohammed and Zohra's other daughter, married her cousin ( on her mother's side) Ibrahim and they have a daughter called Fatim-Zohra.

And lastly there is Youssef - their oldest son, who is also married to a cousin on his mum's side. She is Fatima - mother to Nezha and Hanan. Youssef does building work in and around Merzouga. He has his own large house not far from where Ammar's third brother Zaid lives.

Ammar's second brother is Addi. He lives with his wife Khadija in his large pink house in Merzouga. I call it the pink house as it is painted inside in a dark shade of pink.

Addi is retired now after years of driving for the council. He and Khadija have seven children. The oldest is a daughter called Fatima, who lives in the village with her own family. She was followed by five sons - Mohammed, Ibrahim, Ali, Mustapha and Moha. Then there is another daughter; Nezha. She is one of the girls who has just gone to Meknes to university.

All of Addi's sons went to university and four of them became teachers. Only Ibrahim is still sharing the family home with his wife Khadija (who is also his cousin from his mother's side). They have two young sons, not yet at school. Ibrahim is a teacher at the school in Merzouga.

Ali is also married. He lives in Rissani, the nearest town, with his wife Aicha and their son Ayman. He teaches in one of the secondary schools in Rissani and lives in a flat in the town.

Mustapha is a geologist and works from Meknes, where he is living. He is not married. He is one of the first of Ammar's family that I met when he was a student in Meknes and living at 73 - the place where quite a few Amazigh students lived.

Moha is a teacher and spent his first couple of working years near Midelt but this year he has moved to a different town and will not have to endure the freezing cold winters. I have forgotten where exactly he has relocated but Ammar can tell me later.He attended the university at Er Rachidia.

Ammar's third brother is Zaid. He lives in Merzouga with his wife Rkia and their four daughters and two sons. Their eldest daughter is Khadija, who is now at university in Er Rachidia. She is studying science. Then their next daughter is Fatima and she began university at Er Rachidia but changed courses and went to Meknes. She will be starting her second year this autumn. She will be joined there by her sister Zhour.

Zaid and Rkia's first son is Mohamed and he is at school in Rissani. Then there is Khawla who is at school in Merzouga and then the baby of the family Ayoub, who is not really old enough for school but I think he goes there sometimes.

Ammar has two more sisters; Fatima and Rkia. Both are married and both live out of Merzouga. Fatima lives in the far off desert village of Tafrouate, a four hour drive over the piste ( unmade road) from Merzouga. Last time we visited we came from the direction of Zagora, where a tarmac road was being constructed.

Fatima is married and at one time she and her husband were living the life of nomads. Fatima adapted to the lifestyle very well. But now they live in a house with their sons and just one daughter, Aicha. But the daughters have been replaced with daughters - in - law, both called Zhour.

Fatima's oldest daughter is Moma - she lives in the same village with her second husband and four daughters and a son.  She has another daughter from her first marriage called Rkia and Rkia lives with her grandmother Fatima but at the moment she is helping Zhour, another of Fatima's daughters, with the twins.

Fatima's third daughter is Aicha. She was married but it didn't work out so now she is living with the  family again.

Fatima has three sons; Hassan, Idir and Youssef. Hassan has married his cousin Zhour and they have a daughter - I have forgotten her name. Idir is married to his school days sweetheart, also called Zhour, and they live with the family, except that Idir works away from home doing geological work for a mining firm. I was speaking to him on facebook recently and he told me that another baby is due next year. He already has a son called Salah, who was a baby the last time we saw him. Idir posted a lovely photo of Salah and he is not a little boy with lots of black hair.

I first met Idir when he was a student in Meknes, living at 73 with Mustapha.

Then there is Youssef. I can converse with him as he learned English and studied the language at university in Meknes. He has become a teacher and is working in a remote mountainside school near to Imilchil. I think this will be his third year of teaching. He also lived, for a time, at 73.

Hassan is the son who did not go to university. I am not sure what he does for a living.


Finally there is Ammar's sister Rkia. She is closest in age to him and we chat to her more than to the others as she has quite a good internet connection via her sons.

We just missed the wedding of Rkia's older daughter Khadija. She was married not long after Ramadan. but as we wanted to be in Morocco for the sheep day then it was not convenient to go to her wedding. Khadija has married a soldier called Idris and has moved away from Erfoud and is living somewhere further north. We hope to see her when sheep day comes. Khadija speaks English but she had to give up her studies to help her mum at home.

Rkia has a step-son Ibrahim. Then she has three of her own sons and another daughter. The sons are Ammar and Hassan. Ammar is working for his father in the fossil business and Hassan is working with tourism I think - but I'm not sure.

The two youngest children are Asma and Mohammed. They are still at school where they are learning English.I hope to be able to converse with them when they get a grip of the language. 



So there are a lot of people to visit. Hopefully a lot of them will come back to Merzouga for the sheep day.