Company!

April was a good month for us because we had two sets of visitors! First came my cousin, Lisa Friesen (actually, my cousin's daughter...but only the Mennonites reading this actually need to figure that out), and her friend Susan. A few weeks later came my cousin's husband and daughter, Paul & Katie Richardson. (For the Mennonites - Paul is Cyndi Friesen Richardson's husband - Cyndi is the daughter of Paul and Freda Friesen, Paul is the son of Jacob and Tina Friesen...)

Lisa & Susan came first for 2 1/2 days. Sadly, our "sightseeing" time was cut down to one day because Susan got sick (Note to tourists in Morocco: Step away from the cream-filled pastries that have been sitting out all day in the hot sun). When she did feel better, we did a whirlwind tour which included seeing the monkeys in the cedar forest about 20 mins away from us. You can see Lisa & Susan both bonded well with our hairy friends - Susan even had one jump on her back looking for food!

Next came Paul and Katie (10) who were with us for less than two days. Another whirlwind tour was cut short but wild wind, rain and hail. Trying not to be deterred, we went to a little shepherding village 5 mins away to buy a rug and saw how miserable it is for these dear people to live in their little hovels in bad weather with tin roofs (remember the hail?). As we were leaving, bracing ourselves against the freezing wind and hail, Katie yelled, "My friends will never believe I was this cold in AFRICA!!!" The picture above is at a little village school in the Zaouia(mentioned in an earlier blog) that we took them to. Since Paul is the director of the Caris school in Malang, Indonesia, he was eager to see the school and meet the director. It was neat to see connections made in spite of language barriers.

What a great refreshing and catching-up time with these wonderful people. We figure with well over 200 family members from both sides of the family, we could easily have family here every week for a long time to come! Don't worry - we'll keep the monkeys off your back. Maybe.