Just go with it.

The photos are at the bottom again!

I’m realizing how much like me Aliya is.  She keeps asking what time it is, where are we going next, who’s going with us, what’s for lunch…normally I’m all about the schedules and details because we are so overscheduled that I live in fear of missing something.  All day long Aliya has been asking questions and I’ve been telling her to “Just go with it.”

Life is different here, and I have slipped easily into the Moroccan way of life (while still working part of each day) .  This is my 6^th trip to Africa and I’m very family with “African Time.”  Things move much more slowly and people seem like they meander through life instead of racing from one thing to the next.  I like it.

Today we woke up at 10 a.m. (5 a.m. at home).  Our internal clocks are still messed up.  At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.  After breakfast the kids all started putting on their bathing suits and gathering up their pool-related paraphernalia…apparently we were going swimming.  Since my Arabic is very rusty I’m in the dark about what’s going on half the time.

Since we are here to work out my mother-in-law’s estate (she passed away last year), Ben has to get a government ID as part of that process.  He came to the US over 25 years ago and is a US citizen, but he needs this Moroccan card for some reason.  Adlani was out of sorts so Ben decided to go to the pool and I would stay home with Adlani.  Then a friend showed up to take Ben to the police station for something to do with the ID (at which point Ben asked me if I had a copy of our marriage certificate, and I stared at him with the stunned look of someone who was never told that a marriage certificate might be needed), so suddenly I was going to the pool and leaving Adlani home with my sisters-in-law.  Whatever…just go with it.

My brother-in-law drove us to the pool and paid the admission – 120 dirhams ($13.50) per adult and teenager, 70 dirhams ($8) per kid.  There was hardly anyone at the pool and we immediately realized why.  A woman followed us into the pool area and said that if we wanted to sit down, each lounge chair would cost 50 dirhams ($6), and we weren’t allowed to bring in any food or water.  We hardly had any food with us – just a few granola bars and a bottle of water.  Knowing that there were no “free” chairs in the place, why wouldn’t they have told us that when we paid our admission??  Annoying!  We got our money back and left on principle.    (Aliya: “Where are we going?!”  Me: “Just go with it.”)

We drove to another pool that was in the middle of nowhere, with a single-lane paved road shared by two-way traffic, bikes, motorcycles, pedestrians, donkeys pulling carts, sheep, cows, and various other animals.  Whenever two cars met, someone would have to pull off the road.

The pool was in a place called “Dream Village.”  They also had a small zoo and a café.  There were 5 pools of different depths, plus another pool with a bunch of slides.  The kids loved it and I had a great day of people-watching.  We didn’t have to pay extra for our lounge chairs and there were no rules about granola bars.  There were several bus groups that came and went, and at the end of the day all of the lifeguards started horsing around – jumping off the bridge, diving over a line of 3 friends, and doing various flips.  They kept sidling by me and one guy finally started speaking to me in English.  After the normal pleasantries he said, “I see that you enjoy watching us.”  Busted!  Was it that obvious??  🙂

We came home to another beautiful dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, and several different salads.  More aunts and cousins showed up to visit and everyone is just sitting around chatting and enjoying the cool night air.  I only have 48 emails to answer and then I’ll be able to sit around too.  Just go with it.

The road to the pool:

Traffic jam:

Beautiful fields:

I have no idea why there is a plane up on blocks.

I think these tents are probably for the farm workers:

The water slides:

Racha (my nice from Holland):

Tissem (my niece from Morocco):

Amine (my nephew from Morocco):

Aliya:

3-person game of Chicken:

Can you spot the blondie?

Norah posing for an ad for Sprite:

Aliya and Racha:

Water gymnastics:

Not camera-shy:

Cool dude:

Me: “Line up for a picture.”  Norah: “I’ll be the one with my feet showing.”

Cousins!

This is what typical Moroccan teenagers look like (none of them are mine).

I thought this cage would have a giant pig in it but it had 2 porcupines, 1 albino.

I had mentioned that a mule was from a donkey and a horse mating, and I heard Aliya tell Norah, “This is when one parent is a horse and one parent is a goat.”

Out cold:

Another one bites the dust.  Apparently it’s legal to ride in the way-back.

Ben’s aunt just dug up this old photo of him (on the right).  Too bad I missed his six-pack!