Happy Eid to Everyone! Today was the big day celebrating the end of Ramadan and the beginning of a new month! I'm so happy this month is over! I can't wait to get back into my normal routine here.
Here is how I spent that last two days:
Last night people starting talking that Ramadan might be Wednesday, or Thursday, but probably Wednesday, depending on the moon, of course. So, I asked around and nobody was entirely sure but I decided to pedal out to my host family's village and wait with them for the announcement. Basically, somebody (and it's different for every country) watches the sky until they see the first sliver of the crescent moon. Last night while watching a national Ramadan program they I actually could understand,because they spoke Darija, called "Go Until you Come" (Or was it "Come Until you Go?") the show was briefly interrupted with a flashy sign announcing the end of the month. Yea!
Then, I took a hammam (turkish bath) with Soukaina and she scrubbed my back. No matter how long I sit there, scrubbing my body with basically the equivalent of a brillo pad, I never can get the same results as Moroccan women. I mean, layers and layers of skin are peeled off their bodies and I'm lucky if I can get a few flakes to fall away. Also, no matter what I do there, I never can spend more than half an hour inside the steam house, but these women spend hours inside. They always say to me, "You sure finished quickly! Just half an hour!"
After the hammam I went to bed to rest up for the big day. This morning, at 7 am, Nadia's mom barged into the room and yelled "Come on, wake up!" but we ignored her until about 8:30 when family started arriving. I could hear her talking about me on the other side of the door saying "Jenny's here, but she's still sleeping!" So, I got myself up to join the others for breakfast and sat down at the table to the smell of a steaming ..... meat tajine. Mmmmmm, nothing like an oily hunk of meat washed down with a mouthful of bread! Normally, Moroccans celebrate the first breakfast with breads, sweets, dates, figs, and of course, tea. I'm not sure while my family went the meat route, but I was hungry, so I ate it. Then, six hours later when we gathered for lunch I got to eat my second meat tajine of the day! I was worried about what dinner might have in store for us, but luckily my friend in town sent me a text message asking me to visit her family.
So, I rode back into town (with about five pounds of pomegranates on my back) and stopped by Kabira's house. We watched "Just Married" and then went for a spin on her moped. Her moped was "sick" for a long time and somehow she fixed it today. We rode all over town, waving and greeting people with "mabarak lawasheer" which means "Happy Holiday!" And then returned to her house. I decided it was time to get myself back home where nobody forces me to eat large quantities of meat so I said goodbye and hopped on my bike to ride home. And promptly fell in a giant hole, pomegranates landing on my head. I guess my personal mantra of "home home home home home" blinded me from the road block, but no worries, I just brushed the dirt off and continued on.
Now, I'm home, high on a sugar buzz from the tea and looking forward to having a normal day tomorrow!
