Cute car, cute guy

Here is our "new" car! It is extremely difficult to find used cars in Morocco because people run their cars until they completely die or give their car to a family member if it becomes too small. When a used car is actually on the market, it is highly suspicious. That is why, when a professor moving to Saudi Arabia offered to sell us his car, we realized it was a unique opportunity to get a reliable used car.

It is a Ford Focus (I guess we had to move to Morocco to buy an American car!) but it is made in Belgium so doesn't look like those in the States. The owner really babied the car which is good for us. It is a stick and runs on diesel like most cars here. The diesel part makes it really loud which I still have to get used to. Fuel is expensive here so it takes $40.00 to fill it up, but thankfully, it doesn't use much!

When we got the car, we had been without one for most of 3 1/2 months. What did we learn? The humility of depending on others, the ropes of public transport, and how it feels to not have personal transport like many Moroccans.

The first day we had it, I got to give two people rides. It made me so happy since we had just spent the last several months being given rides. Now we can go to the forest, help other people out, or go places without getting a series of taxis. After we test-drove it with the Algerian owner, Kendra said, "That was a nice taxi!" to which Katrina replied, "Yeah, and we didn't even have to pay for the ride!"