School and Tiout Village Tour

We started school at 8:00 again this morning and team taught with Hassan again. The students are so happy to have us, and some simply cannot stop talking. Some sweet young ladies have given me some thoughtful gifts. I am so impressed with many of them and their enthusiasm for learning.

Hassan took us out to Tiout, a small village where Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was filmed in the 1950s. A most beautiful and interesting field trip. Will post pics and write more soon.

We have a dinner appointment with a family of one of Hassan's colleagues now. It will probably go late. Eating is a big affair here, and it starts late. :-)

Dinner was amazing! The people here are superb hosts. You see the beautiful preparation of a Moroccan salad and Tom lifting off the lid of a tagine. The meal is eaten family style, right from the tagine. It was beef with seasoning, prunes and almonds. Everything here is so flavorful and delightful. I have never eaten better almonds in my life. The picture of what looks like nuts on a tree is actually an argan tree with immature argan nuts. They are the rare ones I mentioned on a previous day. We saw women extracting the seeds from the nuts, but out of respect did not photograph them. It is very labor intensive and cannot be extracted with a machine.

Walking through the oasis (because of the reservoir) in the desert. Our guide insisted that I ride a donkey, but that would not have been very lady-like in a skirt. The walk was great.

Isn't that salad beautiful? The young lady on the right is the daughter of the math teacher next to us. She wants to be an engineer and speaks quite good English.

The argan fruit

Ta Da! (Again) Do you see that we Americans have plates, and no one else does? They were so kind to us in making sure we were comfortable. In Morocco the food is eaten family style, all from the dish and with your hands. And yes, they do wash them. There is a special sink next to the guest room in many homes.

The casbah from the 1600s.

I call this pummel-donkey :-)

My lesson introduced with a piece of elk antler and an elk tooth. They were mesmerized and equally stunned by the photograph of a bull elk and those of Yellowstone. Forty students and very well behaved.

The guide put the flowers in my hat and nicknamed me Khadija. He took lots of photos and got a good tip. We had a great time in Tiout.