Watching the world go by outside the window is always a common pastime when we’re in Morocco, which is kind of funny because we don’t spend ANY time looking out the window at home.  There’s always a lot happening on our street here.  I’m sure I’ll have more to add, but here are some photos from the last few days.

The boys are constantly playing soccer in the street.  It’s currently midnight and I can still hear them out there.

The littlest ones can’t go out unsupervised, so if they don’t have a responsible older sibling they have to sit in the penalty box and watch.

This boy’s father washes cars…he uses the jugs of water to wash and rinse (no hose).  The boy helps with the mats.

This guy meets his supplier of prickly pear fruit (carmouse ensada) outside our window every morning and spends hours (literally – 2 or 3 hours!) arranging the fruit in neat piles.  It must be a good marketing plan because he comes back with an almost-empty cart.  Beware of eating too much prickly pear fruit…there is apparently an established process for getting your digestive system “unstuck” if you eat too much.  It involves olive oil and some sort of a stick.  I’ll pass.

Coke (Kooka) is definitely the prevalent soda brand here.  I haven’t seen any Pepsi yet.

A surprising number of people still use donkey carts to get around.  It makes the traffic extra-fun.

This whole wagon is filled with parsley.  Imagine the scent!

A new door was delivered by this cart:

I’m not sure if the traffic laws are nonexistent or if they are just not enforced, but driving is an adventure!

Mohammedia has several miles of beaches, but it also has an oil refinery.  When we were here 8 years ago we walked to the beach closest to home, and pollution from the refinery was evident.  When we were here in 2012 we went to the beach that is further north and requires a taxi ride.

Today we walked to the beach near the refinery, and we were pleasantly surprised at how it had changed.  The sand and water seemed clean.  The wastewater pipe that used to flow from the city to the ocean was gone, and there were fish, and fishermen.  New hotels and condos lined the beach and there were plenty of families enjoying the water.  There were even public bathrooms!

Ben and the kids found a pick-up soccer game…

On the way home we stopped at the store…

…and had a surreal 6 Degrees conversation:

Khalid (blue hat), shopping at the same store and practicing his English:  “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Me:  “Don’t worry…I’m happy.”
Ahmed (white shirt):  “Where are you from?”
Me:  “Boston, Massachusetts.”
Ahmed:  “What??  I’M from Boston, Massachusetts!”
Me:  “That’s unbelievable!  We live in Framingham!”
Ahmed:  “I LIVE IN FRAMINGHAM!”
Me (getting suspicious):  “I don’t believe you.  What street?”
Ahmed:  “School Street.  Near Walgreens.”

Is that crazy, or WHAT??  His kids go to Dunning Elementary and the School for the Deaf.  He is in Morocco for 6 weeks visiting family.  It may not seem that unusual to run into someone from home…that happens every time you go to Disneyworld, right?  But on our walk I saw a total of MAYBE 5 people who were from somewhere else, including a Parisian man in a Speedo who was so excited to see a fellow tourist that he tried really hard to have a conversation even though my French is mostly limited to “baguette” and “crepe”.  In the 5 times I’ve been to Morocco I have only seen a few Americans.  Whenever any of the locals (usually young men) try to talk to me, they assume that I’m European – they NEVER guess American.  So meeting someone from the street where Norah goes to Taekwondo was a little freaky.  

Today is the second-to-last day of Ramadan (Insha’Allah), so Aliya stayed up most of the night last night, ate at 3 a.m. and is fasting today.  This is the basis of her strategy for surviving the fast:

Ben decided that the rest of us should go on a 5-mile walk to the beach and back, even though he didn’t have his pedometer to record the effort (he’s still unhappy about that).  On the way we encountered another of those unexpected surprises…kittens!

Adlani has been very concerned about the cats here.  They are EVERYWHERE!  He decided that when he grows up he will come to Morocco for a couple of months every year, gather up the cats, feed them, and find them homes.  I’m trying to inspire him to add spaying/neutering to his plans…hopefully that will be easier to explain after Mrs. Kinsella (the 5th-grade health teacher) has spent some time with him.  At each meal he saves the scraps to feed to the cats in the neighborhood…by the time we leave, this block will be known to all of the cats of Mohammedia as the place to get a free meal. 

When we travel I try to respect the local customs, but sometimes it’s easier to pretend I don’t know what’s going on.  On our way to the beach, we came across this box full of kittens.  Of course, Adlani immediately broke rule number 42 (no touching the animals):

A boy approached (in the blue shirt) and asked if we were going to take them home.  Ben told him that we were going to help the mama cat (you can see her approaching behind Ben), which I’m sure he thought was insane.  The mama cat came and picked up one of the kittens in her mouth and took off down the street.

The kids gathered up the rest of the kittens and followed the mama cat…

She was headed for the motorcycle wagon up ahead, where she had already moved a few of the kittens to the shade.

The kids put the rest of the kittens there, at which point a group of neighborhood ladies were exclaiming about the crazy people who brought back the kittens they were trying to get rid of – that’s when we took off.  I have no idea how they will try to get rid of them next, but Adlani won’t be there to witness it. 

At least Mohammedia doesn’t have a rodent problem.

The typical Moroccan house has an area called s’taah – the word for “roof”.  It is an area on the top floor that has walls but no roof, or just a canvas canopy.  If I had a s’taah I would be tempted to spend all of my time up there drinking cold adult beverages, but Moroccans use it for cooking, eating, laundry, storage, relaxing, you name it.  Here are some photos from my time on the roof today, watching my sisters-in-law cook the freshest, most delicious food EVER.

Ben LOVES the sardines…

Do you know how much this amount of mint would cost at Whole Foods??

Aziz (my brother-in-law) brought this gift from his parents – tomatoes (matisha) and prickly pear fruit (carmouse ensada), along with the giant loaves of bread…

Auntie Aiesha made m’simn, which is a very labor-intensive process:

Atika and Naima with individual bastillas – SO good…

The finished product!