What am I Eating?

So where do I begin?  I could begin with the fact that this morning I was woken up by the sound of a sheep continuously ‘baaing’ somewhere about in the middle of the city.  How about, I tell you more on that later.  Instead, I will begin with the stories and lessons learned from this weekend. 

On Saturday evening at about 6:30pm, we slung on our backpacks, filed the children in line between the two of us and set out to find a taxi to head to the bus station.  Apparently, 6:30pm on Saturday night is prime time for transportation to be filled.  We walked down the street trying to flag every taxi we could see in sight.  Finally, one taxi pulled over.  I tired my best to communicate with him “Supratours” or “gare de Marrakech.”  He knew where we wanted to get, but he simply just said ‘no’ and drove off.  That was a first for me.  Luckily, within a few minutes, across the street, a man in a grand taxi pulled over and we were able to climb in.  He asked when our bus was, and he DROVE very talentedly and aggressively to help get us there on time.  Once we arrived to the bus station, we waited.  Then, we waited some more.  Why?  Because that is how it works here in Africa-- always waiting.  In the midst of our waiting, Joe and I learned our first lesson from this weekend.  It is very hard to discipline and hold your children accountable for their actions while in public.  Claire decided to throw a GIGANTIC fit in the middle of the side walk and in consequence, she lost her lollipop.  This caused a huge whirlwind of a fit and a whole lot of eyes upon us.  The women—it felt like they were judging us as parents because she had a consequence for her actions.  The men—possibly the opposite..  However, this helps explain a lot of the difficulties that the teachers face here in Marrakech.  Teaching at times can feel like herding cats. 

 

Claire finally gave up on her fit, the people stopped staring and we loaded the bus to take the 2 hour ride of Essaouria.  The sky darkened and the children’s eyes became heavy and they took a small little nap.  Once we arrived to Essaouria, we were approached by a random man.  He was convincing Joe and I that for a small fee, he could walk us to our Riad.  So, we decided… why not?  All part of the experience right?  As we followed him, he bobbed and weaved through the narrow streets in the Medina.  Unsure where he was taking us, Joe had his plan of safety ready to pounce if needed.  As we were walking, I saw this beautiful orange glow coming from a doorway and captured this: 

Guess I need to slow down.  Within a few minutes, we arrived at our Riad.  It was beautiful.  As soon as we walked through the door, the gentlemen at the counter said ‘Lexie?  You must be Lexie.’  He gave us our key, allowed us to settle in nicely and we all crashed asleep.

The next morning, Chad and I left Joe and Claire to continue to sleep in the Riad.  We decided to head downstairs to the ‘free’ breakfast that the Riad provided.  The waiter was extremely nice and welcoming.  He brought us a spread of bread, honey, jam, butter and a cofe au lait as well as a hot chocolate for Chad.  We ate and enjoyed our conversation and then headed back up to join Joe and Claire.  We all finished getting ourselves ready and headed out into the Medina of Essaouria.  We just decided to walk wherever the wind took us.  My obsession with Moroccan architecture continues.  Enough so that when we decided to buy a house or build a house, pieces of Morocco will become a part of our home.  We ended up walking ourselves to the beach.  We put Claire in the Deuter aka ‘her trap.’  We all played in the Atlantic and the sand enjoying the cool wind and air, such a change from Marrakech.  Claire, her first time on the beach, was in Morocco on the Atlantic—and she LOVED it! 

Our belliies all became very hungry so we walked even further down the beach to a place called Beach and Friends-- a pretty cool relaxing atmosphere.  We ordered our lunch, some beverages of the adult persuasion and food.  We have discovered to alcohol is hard to find here in Morocco when you are eating out in the city.  It is also expensive.  The main reason is that the religious practice is not to drink, but especially not in public.  To find bars, you are often paying high prices for everything else as well—knowing the option are limited to those searching, people pay it.

 

 

As Joe and I were handed our dishes, we dove into our plates not thinking of much else.  At one point, I looked at my plate and asked Joe if I was eating seaweed.  His reply was simply ‘I don’t really know what I am eating either.  I think maybe octopus suckers.’ 

 

As we finished eating, we had a lot of friends join us.  I believe two cats and one dog just sat below our feet as we ate.. 

 

 

When we finished, Chad looked up at me and said “Mom, I want to ride a camel with you.”  He didn’t have to do much conviencing because a kid that cute needs little effort to make me do something so special.  We were greeted by a man in a traditional blue burka and he tried to convience us to pay 1,000 dirhams (over$100).  I laughed and told him no way.  We will find another camel.  Joe said 100 dirhams, last price, after a bit more bartering, we landed on 100 dirhams and Chad and I hopped up.  He walked us pretty far down the beach, long enough that I started thinking of my safety escape plan.  (I find this happens a lot.  Always have an escape planned! Haha).  He turned us around and we were approaching Joe and Claire.  Claire was playing with the horses and camels when we left.  Getting more and more comfortable to pet and get close to them.  Everyone was offering that girl free rides.  We dismounted off of our camel and decided to keep walking up towards the Medina on the beach.  I came across more of my lunch on the beach.

 

We walked into the Medina and through the souks in Essaouria.  We ended up at a carpet shop and bought two carpets.  One for Claire’s room and one for Chad’s room.  The guy was very nice, and wasn’t too pressing.  I have no idea if we overpaid for the carpets, but we like the carpets, so I am calling it good.  We paid about $100 USD for two hand woven, hand dyed Berber rugs… not bad!

Chad's

Claire's

We continued walking coming across some beautiful wood shops with tables that we would have bought in a heartbeat if there was an easy way to get them home.  They were amazing!  We then headed up to look at the ramparts.  We had a little fun on the fortress and the canonsJ

My Lunch from Beach and Friends...

As we were wlaking back to our Riad, Joe decided to stop at a coffiure (barber) shop to get his first international haircut.  This was a major step for mankind and Joe's hair, as he can be rather particular about the way his hair is loved (cut/styled).  We left Joe in the yellow chair and continued to walk the souks.  Upon our return, Joe was looking rather GQ and was incredibly satisfied with his first international haircut. (Now-- Joe is taking over) His experience was rather unforgettable with the barber.  While it was not the best haricut he has ever experienced or even pleased with, the artwork, the delicate precision and care was amazing.  There was a very clear genuine love for the barber's passion.  The fast moving scissor work, the gentle caress of the warm straight edge blade, the genuine attention to detail and the focused furrowed brow of the aged man left a neverending impact with Joe.  The things lost on everday living can be reaffirmed and appreciated by a one window cave passed daily by thousands of people with nevermind to stop.

We found a place to eat dinner called Taros, a rooftop terrace restaurant.  It was beautiful and the wind was ripping through the terrace, so they came over and slipped a poncho over Joe and Chad and gave one to Claire and I that we used as a blanket.  Our waiter ended up coming over and moving us to a less windy table, in the corner by the bathroom.  Suddenly, we were forgotten, so we decided to pay and leave.  While we waited for our ticket, they kept bringing us huge baskets of bread.  We had about three baskets of bread sitting in front of us, so Joe and Chad loaded into the Deuter pocket for later.  I am pretty sure it is still there…

 

Claire and I went back to the Riad Restaurant and Joe and Chad bartered with a guy in the souks.  They ended up buying beats audio headphones.  Now, these surprisingly aren’t Bleats Blaudio or Eats Laudio.  These are actually Beats Audio… huh…  Unlike the Ren Bai’s (Ray Ban’s) that Joe bought when he forgot his sunglasses.  

 

We ended up eating chicken and pancakes and heading back upstairs to our room.  The children were wind beaten and looked like we never let them sleep—ever, So, when we walked in, we noticed that we must have had maid service.  She folded all of our clothes, organized our toiletries and made fans with the bed sheets and blankets.

We all piled into bed once again to fall into a very noisy sleep at the Riad. (Moroccan architecture fail).  The next morning, Joe and Chad headed out a bit before Claire and I because she needed to be in her trap once again. 

Today, we wanted to visit the port and then just play on the beach.  That is exactly what we did.  It was a fantastic day filled with fun.  Later in the day, we all walked back to the Riad and the three of them took a nap.  I snuck out and bought Joe a pair of Moroccan pants.  Now, this all steamed from the day he stole my Moroccan pants.  All of you may be looking, hating on these pants.  However, these Aladdin pants are amazing.  Comfortable like you are wearing no pants at all—like invisible pants. 

The stealer of my pants

Joe's Moroccan Birthday Pants

 

At night, we ended up getting some peaceful time as the kids played together on the iPad right before bed.  Joe explored the terrace upstairs while I took photos of lanterns. 

 

The morning of our departure, we all went to our ‘free’ breakfast and I am working on breaking Joe into enjoying café au lait with me. As we sat eating our breakfast and crazily trying two tame to children drinking HUGE hot chocolates in cermanic mugs, we sat talking and enjoying our family and the memories we are creating.  We were soon joined by a Spanish couple who sat at a nearby table-- which was an interesting choice in itself.  The entire resturaunt was empty.  Joe and I quickly noticed that the couple immediately sat down silently and began fondling their cell phones.  My heart broke because the international barriers  are broken down when the same problems from The States are quickly realized to be a worldwide epedmic.  Social media is changing the way we interact, the way we communicate and changing the way we love the person sitting across from us.  

After we checked out of our riad, we decided to by a few more things on our way out of the Medina from a guy in the souk, which I have already stolen one from Joe’s collection…

We hoped on the bus and made the two hour ride home rather peacefully with two very tired children.  We barely made it off the bus when we were  literally swarmed by a mass of over enthusiastic and sometimes angry taxi drivers asking us where we needed to be taken.  I communicated with an older man about where we needed to be driven and he then pointed us to another driver.  Our eyes were darting all over the place trying to keep track of who we were riding with.  I kept asking Joe "Who are we riding with?  Who is our driver?"  We ended up hoping into a taxi which was apparently and very clear that it was not the correct taxi as two taxi drivers began to physically remove our bags from the trunk and fight for our attention and business.  We quickly removed ourselves from the taxi and joined another driver in his.  As we drove, the city felt like the hectic and craziness of Christmas time in The States.  People were aggressive, short tempered and on edge.  At one point, a man approached our taxi for a ride, but our driver told him no.  The man then decided to hop onto the back of a random man's moped.  The man quickly sped off the man raced up after him and jumped on.  This caused a whole new series of events resulting in some pushing and shoving and helmets falling off.  I couldn't stop laughing hysterically out of utter disbelief in the back seat.  I had never seen any of this before in Marrakech.  We ended up arriving safely at our apartment and paid the man more than we should have, but he earned it!

We have arrived at home and celebrated Joe’s birthday with a homemade Moroccan upside down cake and cowboy caviar.  I have had to make some compromises in baking and cooking, but in the end, we are ending up with something similar to the original product in The States.  As you can see, I was only able to find two cherries and the cake tasted more like a crepe.  The cowboy caviar, I accidentally bought sweet corn and there are no tortilla chips here so salted potato chips it is! 

 

 

We also have discovered an amazing option in our oven.  Tonight, we are trying our the rotisserie option.  This is an amazing option and Lowes or Home Depot better jump on this so when we come back the The States we can purchase one of these bad boys!

Back to the sheep on the balcony… it is the celebration of Eid here.  Thus, we have seen families pulling sheep down the street, trucking them in cars and even carrying them on the mopeds.  Eid is a time where Muslim families sacrifice sheep and feast on it for days.  Joe keeps peeking out the window to see if the sheep is still alive or not.  Within a couple of hours, Joe noticed that a man, seperate from the family arrived at their apartment.  The family all went outside and performed a ritual and the man sacrificed the goat.  Needless to say, even though we come from a town in Central Oregon where hunting is the norm, it felt different.  The air smelt like death.  The combination of blood and the heat most honestly, kept us inside for the day.  This shall be one interesting day! 

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Life still happens, like Claire and I were searching feverishly for a bathroom because she had to poop so I had to go ‘beg’ a café to let us use their bathroom.  Life still happens while traveling.  Traveling with kids we discovered is rare and we didn’t see another family traveling like we are.  What I have discovered is how we are growing together as a family.  Experiencing the world and new cultures, experiencing hardships in other cultures is helping us understand each other, our family and the world.  Discovering what is important and what has little and what has great value.  And… Claire finally really likes showers and is rather interested/distraught about the washer machine!

 

 Well, it is this crazy pair saying... we love and miss you all as always!

Yes, Joe... another picture please...

xo

Lex