Talk to you later!

At this very moment, Katrina is serving me juice out of the Moroccan tea set you see here. Our liquid intake has gone way up since this gift was given! The funny little Christmas tree behind them was bought in Meknes. This is the first year they have become available!

This is just to let you know that we will be gone from December 29th - January 4th. I'll probably get on here a few days after we return.

Ron's family and our family are heading up to southern Spain. It is about a 4-hour drive, a ferry ride, then another few hours of driving. We are excited!

Happy New Year to all!

Christmas Day

Because we had already done a lot of celebrating, we had a quiet, restful Christmas day here at home. Normally Ifrane has snow on the ground at Christmas, but not this year - sad. But it was a lovely day anyway. We slept in, had Russian pancakes, then went out to the cedar forest to collect kindling for our fire (first picture). There was a whole group of monkeys just ahead of us on the path for much of the time. As we tried hard to sneak up on them through the trees, we kept spotting one here and one there, but never got close to any one monkey. So I guess you could say this was our first Christmas chasing monkeys. Later we just lay on the forest floor and looked up at all the magnificent trees reminding me of the song my parents used to sing, "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree..." (second picture)

With the help of Skype, we have now talked to almost all the family for almost nothing. It's not as perfect as being together, but it helps us feel close to those we love.

That night we opened gifts and lit the last advent candle (third picture) after which we watched the J film's account of the birth.

After the girls were in bed, I found our two manger scenes rearranged by Katrina. The characters, instead of being at aesthetically pleasing distances from the manger were all crowded around the baby, rubbing shoulders with each other in a tiny space, gazing down at God - come to earth.

Merry Christmas!

We have been able to celebrate Christmas several times here. To the left is the party we had at our home a few days ago for Christmas and the end of the semester. In a college community, there is a huge, collective sigh when the semester is over! We had about 20 people here from the apartments and enjoyed a lovely time together.


Next we went down to Meknes and had Christmas dinner with Ron and family on the 23rd. The following day their friends came over for a wonderful talk in which Ron connected the three major holidays from the three major religions (Hanukkah - two weeks ago, Christmas, Eid - New Year's Day).

Hanukkah is when Jews (Laurie's background) celebrate the time between the testaments when the Maccabees regained the Temple and cleansed it after a pig had been sacrificed there. They only had enough oil to light the candles for one day, but miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days.

Christmas is the time when the Messiah came to earth and fulfilled all the prophecies, coming as the "Light of the world." He came as the perfect substitute sacrifice for the sin for which we should have to pay.

Next there is Eid, which Muslims will celebrate either the 31st or the 1st (depending on the moon). This is when they remember the provision of the ram for Abraham so he would not have to sacrifice Ishmael. But wasn't that Isaac, you say? Not in the Koran. And remember, all Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, so they say that is the blessed line. Eid is celebrated with the sacrifice of a perfect lamb. Catch the connection?

We see lots of sheep these days - all being bought or sold for Eid. You know how in the USA before July 4 or Christmas, they set up tents in parking lots to sell items for the holiday? Here all the tents are set up too - only they are all selling sheep. We hear there is even an on-line service where you can order your own sheep and it gets delivered!

It is a odd feeling to walk into stores and see signs celebrating the new year but almost no mention of Christmas. Or to be driving on Christmas day and see workers building houses, children going to school, life going on as ususal. The Christmas lights on our window are the only ones in this city of 10,000. It makes us stop and think.

Love to all of you this season. May you treasure the gift of knowing what Christmas is all about!

The light at the end of the tunnel

Here is Gerald pictured in a cave near Ifrane with the light provided by the guide.

He made it! Gerald survived his first semester of teaching!

New job, new classes, new challenges and new location made for an extremely busy semester. Off to a rough start with materials not arriving in time and the surprise of three days of student advisees dropping by his office, it was hard for him to catch a breath at all until fall break.

As advanced as the university looks, some of it is a facade. One friend here recommended Gerald take a deep breath every day and say, "I am in Africa..." after which the frustrations are not to seem so frustrating!

Gerald was able to get to know many of his students well and had a good rapport with them. Many of them expressed their appreciation for his classes after they moaned about how hard the tests were!

I knew he would do a great job being the patient, kind, funny and helpful that he is. What a guy!

The girls and I are delighted that the pressure is off at least for a bit, and that we get to have him around more!

It was Inevitable

This, my friends, is what happens when you leave a three-year-old in a room alone with a pair of scissors and who-knows-what.

I knew it would happen someday. It was with a sinking feeling that I found a little pair of scissors and quite a bit of hair under the desk in the office one day. I ran out to first examine the little girl we take care of. She still looked fine.

Then I turned to Kendra. Her bangs were zig-zagged and large chunks of hair were missing near her ears. In order to straighten out the mess, I had to chop her bangs ridiculously short and even cut the sides which once were almost down to her shoulders. It was a particularly sad day because it has taken soooo long for Kendra to actually have hair.

Later when I asked her why she did it, she said, "You told me that if I cut my hair, it will grow even longer . . ." Sigh.

And the mark on her face which she got a few days later? We have no idea and neither does she. Thankfully that problem washed right off!

Christmas concert

Our pastor here at AUI organizes a Lessons and Carols service every year open to the community. Since Muslims believe in the virgin birth of Christ, this is allowed and is attended by about 400 people.

Our little choir made up of university students, professors, and teachers from a nearby orphanage sang several songs and led in carols.

All six children in our church sang "Away in a Manger" during the program. Those of you who know our children's history on stage (turning around in circles, picking noses, lifting up dresses, looking miserable, standing with backs to the congregation ... basically anything but singing and smiling), will be pleased to hear that the girls both sang, smiled, and did the actions! After it was over, Kendra said, "Mommy!" and lept into my arms over the greenery and the egde of the stage!

We were instructed to all wear jalabas - the national Moroccan clothing. These are loose-fitting gowns you pull over your head. You can wear anything you want underneath, because no one will know! Jalabas have hoods at the back making you look a bit like the grim reaper if you have a black one. When Katrina saw Gerald in his jalaba, she said, "Daddy is wearing a dress!" She loved hers so much that she slept with it the week before the program.

The other choirs that performed were made up of sub-Saharan Africans who have immigrated to Morocco and who have made new lives here, or those who have escaped to Morocco over the Sahara and are living in terrible conditions. In spite of their circumstances, these people know how to REJOICE on stage! They simply can't NOT dance. Moroccan brothers and sisters cannot make a public appearance like this, although there was one Lebanese brother who sang.

It was a rich time with Scripture read and songs sung in about 10 different languages reminding us that the Body is made up of many parts!

What a Day!

Wow! I got pictures on today!

A few weeks ago, our pastor here invited me to go along on a day of interviewing people for wheelchairs. This is done by a group who gets donated wheelchairs from Europe and the USA. When I walked into the room with these people and others, I was nearly in tears for the first hour. Some of you know that the reason I got my special education degree was because I saw all the people with handicaps being shut in and given up on in Pakistan. The same is done here and that is why it was such an emotional experience for me to see these people.

We had to go pick up a few of these folks. You can see how tall the teenager is at the top. The mother carried this boy down three flights of steps to bring him to us and then transferred him over to the father's back who then carried him to our car. He has no education and no help.

The little girl teenager had a small and petite upper body, but an even smaller lower body and no leg muscles. When dropping her off, her cousin carried her from the car then placed her on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. The girl then hopped up about 20 stairs using her hands in her shoes as leverage. Her mind is completely healthy, but she does not go to school because one day she fell or was dropped there. That is the only explanation I got.

The street they live on has 6 people with severe handicaps.

The little boy with his parents was actually able to get a wheelchair the same day and you see him pictured in it here. This family has three children - all of them with handicaps.

The woman you see in the blue shawl was so lovely I just had to get a closeup of her.

These are just a few of those who were there. The hopeful thing is many of them could walk if they had physical therapy, so the group wants to train two women for three months in Fez (1 hour away) to do this! One of the women is going to be Fatima Ezzarha's (see earlier post) sister, Rashida.

Apparently there is a center for the handicapped 20 minutes away, but there are no teachers and there is no help for the many in this region. Their materials are locked up. My dream now is for Rashida to get training in PT and then to train me. At least I could help out and perhaps together we could try to open this center up again. Of course, before then I would have to actually be able to say a complete sentence in Arabic, so I'll have to conquer that first - sigh. I guess this is a long-term dream, but one about which I am hopeful!

We're Moving!

I think I'm going to move this blog to wordpress as soon as I can figure out how to move all the entries I've done. I have had multiple problems getting pictures on this and so I'm going to see if wordpress is any better.

In the mean time, there is Christmas to prepare for, and emails to catch up on (if you've written us lately you know this is true!), so I will stop doing this addictive blogging for a week to try to catch up on other things. I can only use the computer in the mornings because of the internet speed (students downloading stuff the rest of the day make it hard to even get on sometimes), so that is why I have to do either emails or this.

We got our first snow here last night! It is just a light dusting, but it is lovely for the Christmas spirit. Today is a big lessons and carols event at the university. Sub-Saharan choirs (those from countries who have large Christan populations) from all over the country along with our little choir from church here will be performing to about 400 people. The girls will also sing in a tiny Children's choir. We will all be wearing Jalabas - one of the Moroccan outfits.

Please pray for this event!

The Jumping Bread Guy

I'll do one without a picture today...

A while ago I needed some bread and was trying out all the little stores in Ifrane to see which was the best. I saw a stack of khobs (Moroccan bread) outside of a tiny little place quite like a temporary stand you might see at a fair (though it is permanent), and went up to buy some. When the teenage store keeper saw me coming, he hopped inside his little store over a 4-foot counter so that he could be in his proper spot. I told him I wanted some bread, so he hopped back over the counter to help me select the best ones. Then he hopped back into the store to get me a plastic bag. Then he jumped out of the store to give the bag to me. I thanked him and gave him my money. He hopped back into the store to get the change, and - you guessed it - flew back out to give me the change and say goodbye. All the while he seemed quite happy with his situation and had a big smile on his face in spite of his rather inconvenient set-up.

As I turned to go and chuckle at this energetic jumping bread guy, I thought that surely there must be an easier way to do his job. But then again, he'll never have to join a gym - he gets enough exercise at work!

Fatima Ezzahra

Here is a picture of the girls with Fatima Ezzahra, the woman that comes two times a week to play and speak Arabic with them. She has a very sweet spirit and we all really love her. The other day, Kendra looked up into her face and said "Fatima Ezzahra" over and over again - cute! Fatima speaks no English, so we communicate in the little Arabic and French I know, and in "signs and wonders" as my mom calls it - you sign and I wonder!

Fatima is 25 years old. When she was 13, her older brother was in a running club and she tagged along - much to his dismay. They had a long, hard run and she beat all the boys - not even wearing tennis shoes! After that, trainers started asking her to run and she became a professional athlete for Morocco doing mostly marathons. She went all over Morocco for races and finished 7th in an international event. Her story was featured in a French magazine here along with the Moroccan athlete from the Olympics a few years ago.

Often she was promised prize money but either it never came, or they gave her a stuffed envelope which was actually just small change. Later she got an ankle injury and there was no medical help or follow-up physical therapy to help her continue running. In addition, it was quite taboo for her to be running at all - she either had to run alone or with men - neither an appropriate option here. Her parents wanted her to stop running, saying that they could never find a suitable husband for her if she had such a questionable job. Because of all of this and the fact that she had not finished high school, she quit when she was 17 to finish school. She has also done some professional training and she still runs as often as she can.

Fatima Ezzahra is now engaged to be married to a Moroccan in Germany and hopes to enter college there and pursue her running dreams. As she said in the article, "Running is in my blood." When I asked her if she hopes to go the Olympics some day, she said, "Enshahallah" - "God willing."