Summer!

Since it is July, I believe I can safely say summer is in full swing here in Morocco.  Today, the temperature is 110 degrees in the shade; I have been moving as little as possible since I woke up this morning.  I’ve had frozen yogurt, iced crystal lite, iced karkaday (Egyptian hibiscus tea), and iced coffee (Raspberry chocolate! Thanks to Aunt Judy).  Needless to say my friends down here in Tiznit and I are handling the situation pretty well.  Two weeks ago we went to Sidi Ifni, a beach town south of Tiznit.  This weekend we will go to Mirleft, another beach town in our region.  Although we still have to dress like nuns on the beach, the breeze is great!

 

Our weekend in Sidi Ifni was wonderful.  We went with 2 of the new health volunteers in our region, who are still living with host families.  So the 5 of us (Meredith, Hanneke, Jess, Marjorie, me) rented an apartment on the beach.  Here is our view.

 

Since we were still in our region, we dressed as we normally would in our sites….just rolled up the pants a little.  J  And went to the beach!

 

 

A few days later, our Peace Corps Program Assistant, Rachid, came to Tiznt to visit the new volunteers.  In the morning, he picked up Meredith and drove her to my house, and while he was off visiting one of the new volunteers, Nicole, Meredith and I proceeded to cook a relatively Chinese lunch for him.

 

Chicken egg rolls (we even made the wrappers), Vegetable stir-fry, and Egg Drop Soup.  We diverged from the theme a bit with Egyptian tea to drink and apple pie for dessert.  Meredith and I had a lot of fun cooking and overall the meal was a success!

 

Oh, and Mer brought her kitten, Toni Almeida (she’s a girl, hence the “i”) over for a play date with Chandler while we cooked.  They didn’t exactly love each other, but Toni had fun in my fridge. 

 

I was going to continue with the beach-on-the-weekends theme this past weekend by going to Agadir, until I was recruited to help my host family on Sunday.  I was told to show up at their house Sunday morning, to help prepare food for a bunch of men.  Well, it turns out “a bunch of men” means 40 men and later, 50 women.  We were cooking tajine and couscous like mad-people!  And making tea until it was coming out of our ears.  It was crazy.  Still not clear on why this all happened, but I believe it is something related to the mosque, since the men were reciting the Quran in between meals.  Anyway, I had fun-ish.  I mean, hanging out with some of my favorite women is always fun, but cooking and cleaning for 90 is not how I will choose to spend every Sunday.  I have renewed respect for those in the catering business!!