Insha’Allah

The photos are at the bottom if you want to skip the family chronicle!

One of the things on my to-do list before I left home was to write a blog post about Norah’s kindergarten graduation.  It didn’t seem right to skip over it and go straight to posting about the trip, but I never got a chance and given the speed of my current internet connection, it will have to wait.  I’m sure Norah will hold it against me someday but it can’t be helped.  I’m hoping I have enough connection speed to post photos without going to the internet café.  I’m currently using some sort of USB modem that you pay to add time to.  I don’t actually know if it’s time or data that you pay for, only that my niece put $2 on it.  Considering that the data price for my phone is about $20/MB, and I’ve transferred over 6MB in the last half hour, it’s a good deal either way.

We left our house a little after 1 p.m. on Tuesday.  It is now 8:30 p.m. Morocco time on Wednesday (5-hour time difference – later in Morocco).  The fun started over the weekend, because I am a big-time planner and I don’t like to wait until the last minute.  My husband, and just about everyone else I’ve met from Morocco, lives by the principle of “If God wills it – Insha’Allah.”  Me: “Do you want to come over for dinner next Thursday?”  Everyone from Morocco:  “Insha’Allah,” which roughly translates to, “If the stars are aligned I’ll come over sometime on Thursday and if there happens to be food, I’ll eat it.”  Since I chose to marry someone from such a completely different world, I’ve obviously had to adapt to our cultural differences, but this one still gives me trouble.  Most of the time we handle it well…I plan and my husband follows along (Insha’Allah), but when planning a trip to Morocco there is certain information that I need him to provide, and waiting until the last minute gives me heartburn.  Let’s just say that I’ve gone through an industrial size bottle of Tums in the last 2 weeks.

Me: “We need to go to the travel clinic to get shots.”
Ben:  “Insha’Allah we won’t get typhoid.”

Me: “How much cash do we need to bring?”
Ben: “Insha’Allah there will be an ATM machine in Morocco, and also Insha’Allah my new ATM card will show up before we leave because the ATM ate my old one.”  (Apparently it wasn’t God’s will because it didn’t arrive in time.)

Me: (It is customary to bring gifts to family members because we’re coming from the Land of Plenty and they live in a 3rd-world country where it’s tough to get something as basic as decent toothpaste.) “I heard that your sisters would like us to bring sandals.  What size, color, and style?”
Ben:  “Just get 5 pairs and Insha’Allah they will fit.”  (I found out 72 hours before the flight that the criteria was “Clark sandals, 1 ½” heel, no thong between the toes, no ankle strap, sizes 8, 8 ½, and 3 @ 9 ½.”)

So you get the picture.  Just multiply by at least 20.

By Monday night I had everything pretty much packed.  We were carrying a lot of extra stuff for our relatives so we ended up with 8 big bags that were between 40 and 50 pounds each (50 pounds is the limit and the norm is to look around the house for any last-minute random items that would take each bag to 49.999 pounds, but I put my foot down on that.)  We also had 1 carry-on backpack each, and I had a small carry-on for my computer.

The next problem was that everything had to be stuffed into or tied onto my Jeep Laredo for the 200-mile trip to JFK Airport.  We ended up with 3 big bags wrapped in plastic and strapped to the roof.  I strapped them down as well as I could, but I really had a bad feeling about the whole thing.  I was ready to spend a half hour taking out the non-essentials so everything would fit into the car, but we had our neighbor come over to check it out and he proclaimed that the load was, “Not going anywhere.”  My husband seemed to have no qualms about tying a bunch of stuff to the roof but I realized that it’s because in Morocco I wouldn’t be surprised to see a live sheep tied up there.  (“Insha’Allah it will still be there when we reach our destination.”)  I spent most of the trip staring at the bags in the passenger-side mirror, and checking the tie-downs at each rest area.  At one point I looked away from the mirror and Ben tilted it down so he could see to change lanes, and I almost had heart failure when I looked back at the mirror and the bags were gone.

We had left home very early thinking that there might be traffic associated with July 4th, but there wasn’t much traffic at all.  We made 2 stops to buy last-minute things we realized that we forgot (a 2nd rectifier/adapter and Benadryl cream), and still hit the airport parking lot more than 4 hours before the flight.  It took us a while to get everything off the roof and unwrapped, but then we had an uneventful ride on the shuttle bus, and got the bags checked in.  Now I know what it feels like to lose almost 400 pounds!  I asked the security lady about Ben’s knee brace (he has a torn ACL) and she sent us to the Business Class line so he didn’t have to wait so long.  Then the gate guy let us onto the plane early because we had 3 kids.  Smooth sailing!

I was a little worried looking at the number of kids running wild in the gate area (and by “number of kids running wild” I mean at least a dozen kids running full speed and screaming at the top of their lungs while their parents allowed it – my kids just sat there in shock), but it in no way prepared me for the flight.  We departed at 9:45 p.m., which means bedtime, right?  Wrong.  One 3YO sitting in front of us kicked up a huge fuss because he didn’t want to wear his seatbelt.  He was traveling with his parents, teenaged brother and 18MO sister.  The parents seemed to have brought nothing to entertain (or bribe) the kids with.  The mom smacked the kid several times and ignored him the rest of the time, while he screamed until he started to gag.  Later in baggage claim we saw her grab his hair and smack his head into the stroller.  🙁

Anyway…I was surprised to be served dinner (lasagna or fish, tossed salad, tomato/mozzarella salad, a roll, cheese, and chocolate cake), so that brought us to after 11 p.m.  Time for bed!  Not so fast.  For the next 2 hours one of the kids from the same family was screaming, and other random kids would join in.  I’ve never heard anything like it.  I finally gave the 3YO my iPad and he shut up for a couple of hours.  I was desperate to sleep and get our kids some sleep, because it was only a 6 ½-hour flight, with dinner and breakfast served, arriving at 10 a.m. local time.  None of us slept much but I adopted a position that included headphones and a travel pillow which helped a little.

By the time it was 2 a.m. Massachusetts-time, we were flying in bright sun and people were awake and talking (loudly).  One sleep-deprived passenger approached the screaming family and a fight almost broke out (seriously).  Breakfast at 3 a.m. Mass-time was yogurt, a croissant, and a muffin, but my kids wouldn’t wake up to eat a bite.  We finally got them up just before we landed, and it was really clear and they loved checking out the landscape from above – so brown and dry even though it was farmland.  When we landed, Adlani’s comment was, “Great, we’ve landed in the middle of the desert.”

The planes don’t arrive at regular gates with jetways…they just taxi to a big airplane parking lot and a shuttle bus takes everyone to the airport.  Our plane was met by an ambulance but I don’t know what happened.  It must have been someone behind us because we saw the female paramedic come up the stairs with a medical kit and nobody was still seated in the rows in front of us.  I was surprised that they didn’t ask people to stay in their seats while the paramedics got to the person in trouble, but I don’t think it would have worked anyway.  We had to wait a while at Immigration, with the screaming family directly behind us (WTF?), but we got through without a problem.  It took forever to get our bags since we checked in so early they must have been underneath everyone else’s stuff.  They all showed up and we were off to Customs.

We have learned that I need to go first at Customs so they don’t hassle us and want to check each bag in hopes that we’ll give them some “coffee money” to avoid the trouble.  The first time we came to Morocco I was like, “no way are we giving this guy coffee money (a bribe),” and they probably recognize that it’s pointless to expect most Americans to do it.  I don’t care if they want to open each bag and rifle through my undies.  I’ll wait.  So I went first and the guy waved me through, but stopped Ben and asked for his passport.  When Ben yelled to me that he needed his passport the guy realized that he was with us and let him through too.

We were met at the airport by 2 of my brothers-in-law and 1 of Ben’s uncles, with a minivan and a car.  We didn’t have to tie anything on so I was happy.  It takes about 45 minutes to drive home from the airport, and it’s a regular highway.  We saw a few farm animals, a grass fire, a couple of wagons with horses or mules pulling them, but mostly the kids were either excited (Adlani), amazed (Norah), or freaked out (Aliya) because there were no seat belts in the back seat.  This is common in Morocco, as is having 4 people riding in the back.  (“Insha’Allah we won’t be ejected from the vehicle.”)  When we got home our relatives were all waiting for us and made us a great lunch.  Aliya and I took a nap while Adlani and Norah played with the kids, and then we had dinner.  Aliya was fading fast although she said she didn’t feel sick, so she’s out cold now.  The other kids went to the beach.

I am alone but luckily I wasn’t hoping for peace and quiet.  It’s 10 p.m. here and there are kids running around outside the window, motorcycles whizzing by, trucks idling, and other random sounds.  The call to prayer was a little while ago and I could hear several mosques from our house  That will happen again later, and super-early in the morning too.  Before dinner, I heard a sound and ran to the window (alarming Aliya) to see the heddia go by.  A heddia happens when someone gets married, circumcised, and probably for other reasons – I’ll ask Ben.  There was a wedding on our street yesterday – total bummer that we missed it, but the heddia was to take food to the bride.  The food was loaded into a van along with family members, and a band follows behind with other friends and anyone who wants to join in, singing/chanting, clapping, and just generally participating in the excitement and celebration.  I love the idea of random parades.

Maybe there’s something to the Insha’Allah way of life.  If I hadn’t spent so much time stressing out over what to bring and all the other details, we probably would still be sitting here, safe, and with everything we need.  I hope our kids grow up with some of my organizational skills and some of Ben’s Insha’Allah outlook.

I’ll have to post the video later because when I tried to upload it the progress bar said 873 minutes remaining, but here are some photos from today and yesterday:

At JFK Airport with the luggage:

Airplane dinner:

Trying to sleep:

My sleeping technique:

Ben handing over my iPad:

Trying to wake up:

Almost there!

Morocco from above:

Our plane:

In the Casablanca airport (and still playing Nintendo):

WHAT?  No seatbelts?!

The highway home.  No, the town was not named after Daddy.

Lunch!

Monster Camping

It’s official.  I am a sucker for a kid who begs me to do something, especially if I’m feeling guilty for working too much, skipping the bed-time story to go to Zumba, or any of the many other sources of guilt I experience.  When Aliya’s Girl Scout troop announced that they were going “Monster Camping,” which involved 2 nights in the wilds of New Hampshire, she BEGGED me to go.  I’m not sure why, but I figure I don’t have too many years left of having her ask me to accompany her somewhere.  Now that my fingers have finally thawed and I’m able to type again, I can describe my camping experience in case any of you are considering volunteering as a chaperone.  My advice is 1) check the weather before you go, 2) pack extra stuff because someone will arrive severely under-dressed, and 3) bring a flask.

The camp was a little over an hour’s drive away and the ride was uneventful.  I only had 2 girls in my car so I didn’t have to resort to singing “99 Bottles of a Politically Correct Beverage on the Wall.”  We were met by an almost-full-grown Girl Scout and shown to our accommodations – 3 tentaloos about 5 miles from the parking lot.  Ok – it was probably a quarter of a mile but it felt a lot longer since we were hauling 3 days worth of food, and necessities like extra pillows, magazines, 2 souvenir pencil sharpeners, an entire bag devoted to first aid remedies, and a recorder.  Yes, the kind you charm snakes with.

A tentaloo has a wood plank floor, a roof, and canvas sides.  The canvas cuts down on some of the wind but it doesn’t do much to help keep the body heat contained.  We got everything settled on our cots and worked on dinner – hot dogs and mac and cheese.  After 22 trips to the car I would have eaten just about anything, so dinner was delicious.  After dinner we headed down to the dining hall for s’mores and Girl Scout songs.  I was never a Girl Scout so I had to move my mouth and pretend to participate, but Elizabeth pulled  a couple out of the memory vault for a private concert in our tentaloo.

What followed the s’mores was a quick walk back to the tentaloo with a stop at the bathroom, where there were 82 girls brushing their teeth and changing in the privacy of the stalls.  Seriously people, you’re all approximately 10 years old.  Nobody is looking at your private area.  Well, they probably are but I have to pee so GET OUT!

Back at the tentaloo I got into my sleeping bag fully dressed (yes, I know, I could have gotten a tick), cinched the mummy bag around my face, and pulled another sleeping bag over me.  At some point during everyone else’s bedtime ritual, my second sleeping bag fell out of the side of the tentaloo and down into the ravine full of brush, which was when we recognized one of the dangers of sleeping in a tentaloo.

I don’t think I have been that cold since I was a little kid waiting at the bus stop in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  The first night it got down to 31 degrees and it was pretty windy.  The second night seemed positively balmy at 33 degrees with less wind.  I fell asleep obsessing about what I would do if I woke up during the night and had to pee, and dreamed about bedpans, tubes, and space-shuttle diapers all night.

The next day the girls had scheduled activities including canoeing, candle-making, scrapbooking, games, and archery.  The archery was quite popular and I’m pretty sure they were all fancying themselves the next Katniss Everdeen.  (Aliya and Hannah immediately started saving for an archery set.  Their plan was to entertain Chloe so she would pay them with gift cards which they would then sell for cash.)  While the girls were busy I ran out for a Box-O-Joe and then the moms sat around all day doing nothing but shooting the sh*t.  We did walk around to each of the activities to take some photos, the troop had a picnic in a meadow, and the moms took quick showers after it warmed up a bit, but that’s about it.  I can’t remember the last time I sat around all day.  It was really nice!

We had tacos and quesadillas for dinner, with more s’mores for dessert.  There were evening activities for the girls and then we all bundled up for another night of trying to avoid frostbite.  The next morning we made breakfast and headed home – our troop was the last to leave, after we tore the girls away from the fairy village they had created.  I think the weekend was a success – nobody got hurt (thank goodness because I was the first aid/CPR person), we battled through a couple of homesickness flare-ups, we didn’t get attacked by any rabid skunks, and we didn’t lose anybody.

Norah already has me lined up to go to GS camp with her someday, but at least I know what to expect and how to prepare.  I’ve just got to work on the camper songs and get one of those cool multi-tools with a spork on it.

Regaining Control – Step 42

I’ve been working hard this year to try to regain control of the chaos that has become my life.  Things are still way out of hand but today I decided to tackle my photos.  I gathered up all of the SD cards that I use for my cameras, moved all of the photos and movies onto my external hard drive, backed them up on my other external hard drive, and they are in the process of being copied to “the cloud.”

Big deal, right?  Yeah, kinda.  There were 4,539 files on the SD cards.  4,539 files!  No wonder I feel overwhelmed!  I do organize my photos at the end of each year and some of the photos I copied today have probably already been copied as part of the year-end process, but who knows?  Although I haven’t been able to keep up with my blog lately (I swear, I’m going to get back to it!), I have created our annual photo book each year since 2007.  While I’m continuing to get my act together, here is the 2011 photo book, which will fill in some of the blanks.

The photos I took today were of soccer, soccer, and more soccer.  Aliya’s team won 2-0, with an awesome penalty kick by Aliya, right over the wall of Franklin players in the goal.  Norah has really gotten into playing this season…much better than crying last season because nobody was giving her the ball.  Adlani wasn’t sure if he wanted to play this season, but he decided to go for it.  He told me yesterday that goalie might be his favorite position (“you don’t have to run around a lot”) but I think he may have changed his mind after today’s game.    

 

February Vacation

It’s back to the rat race.  Today I spent the day at the office, followed by a 3-hour class that I hope will help me successfully redecorate the family room.  When I arrived home at 9:40 p.m., I realized that tomorrow is school picture day for Norah, and she had chosen the fairy princess background and needed a fairy princess dress.  That’s one good thing about living where we do…I was in and out of Kohls literally 15 minutes later, with 2 dresses, a little white sweater, and 2 pairs of white tights.  I hope the fairy princess is happy.

On my way home from Kohls I was thinking about this blog post, and how I would write about the fact that we survived February school vacation.  But the truth is…it was actually enjoyable.  There were years when school vacations were tough, but this year was different.

I started out with a Moms’ Night Out for Elizabeth’s 40th birthday.  Anyone who makes it to 40 without going to see a bunch of drag queens strut their stuff MUST go to Jacques Cabaret, especially if they’re from Kansas.  The…um…ladies were hilarious, if a little scary at times, and were surprisingly good dancers and lip-syncers.  I knew I shouldn’t have let the kids see the photos when Norah told our tour guides later in the week that, “Mommy and her friends went to see boys dressed as ladies, but they still had man-voices.”  (She saw a G-rated video too.)

I can’t decide which is my favorite photo of the birthday girl, so here are two.

The next day Aliya had a soccer game at 7 a.m., and after that we headed to West Yarmouth, on Cape Cod.  I was a little disappointed with the hotel, but it was fine, and there was plenty to keep the kids occupied.  We went on a great tour of the Cape with Des and Terry of Cape Cod Scenic Tours, which I highly recommend.

The next day we met our friends, the Pearlmans, and went to Provincetown and North Truro after stopping at the Chocolate Sparrow.  Race Point Beach was beautiful and the kids used teamwork to roll a giant log back into the water from the top of the beach.  We saw a bunch of crazy young adults(?) swimming in their underwear, went to the library to see the giant ship, went to lunch at the Squealing Pig, and then to Highland Light where we almost froze our butts off.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the gorgeous day.

On the way home we stopped at Battleship Cove in Fall River, another highly recommended activity.  We got to explore every nook and cranny of a destroyer, a submarine, and several other boats.

I spent the rest of the week trying to catch up on some work, and then Aliya’s team won the championship, followed by my favorite Moroccan dish with Ben’s family and the Pearces, then a sleepover for Aliya, and finally a little housecleaning and a trip to the movies.  Hugo was AMAZING.  We packed quite a lot in, but we had a lot of fun.  I wonder what April vacation will bring!