Crazy Foreigner, Amazing God

Close to our town there is a little village whose homes almost all contain at least one cave. For some, the cave serves as their living room, for others it is their storage room, and for others, it is a bedroom.

Within a few steps of one home and looking much like a messy version of their cave kitchen, this particular little hollow tucked into a hillside is the family’s stable. Wood, trash and storage items line the walls. Staring at me is a donkey whose woeful eyes tell a tale of heavy burdens laid on his back.

I want to ask him if he has carried a young woman expecting a child recently or if he has been led along by a carpenter’s rough hands. Most likely, he has.

I smile at him and imagine that it won’t be long before he is joined by chickens scuttling in and out on errands of greatest importance. And at night the goats will be corralled inside once convinced to stop eating everyone else’s trash.

Here in this place it does not seem odd at all that a poor little family boarding guests in their inn for a census would offer a young couple their stable – close by and not so very different from their own home.

And it’s hard to imagine Mary and Joseph being alone in a country like Morocco where the concept of privacy is as bizarre as a moon landing. Might some busy-body aunties have come by to help? Perhaps a little girl peeked in. If so, would they have had any idea Who they were looking at?

And I suppose I would have been among the wealthy religious folks reluctantly making the forced journey on my deluxe donkey saddle. Careful to bypass the stinky little stable, I would have headed up to the clean, quiet inn just outside of town.

I wonder how irritated would I have been to be awoken by loud knocking to find several raggedy, poor, unclean shepherds blurting out something about a newborn king?

Would I have been amazed but gone back to bed? Or would the same powerful force that created the universe have drawn me irresistibly to a dark cave – for a glimpse into the face of God?

Back in the present, I find myself pausing to listen for a baby’s cry. I’m tempted to peek inside just in case there is a new mother cradling her baby.

My Moroccan hosts shake their heads – crazy foreigner, taking pictures of a shameful donkey in a dirty cave.

Yes, crazy foreigner. And yes, amazing God who chose such a place to come to earth.

This week

Due to all the rain and snow we've had this fall, the waterfall near our home has filled up again much to our delight. The girls got soaking wet running through all the tiny streams running into this cascade today. Our chaplain organizes a huge "Lessons and Carols" event each year. Our pitiful little AUI choir sang some nice, calm songs first. The girls sang a quiet version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" with their friends, and then came the sub-Saharan African choirs. Immigrants from places like the Congo and Nigeria, these people know how to sing...and dance...and clap. It was a wonderful time of celebration with hundreds in attendance right on campus at the university auditorium. Because the lighting is bad, I couldn't get any choir pictures, but here we are dressed up before the program. Several of Gerald's students came which was a treat. And Gerald played the trumpet for all the carols - often providing the descant. In my completely unbiased opinion, his playing added so much to the program!

Following the performance, two visiting singles stayed the night with us. By morning, all roads out of Ifrane were closed because of heavy snowfall that night (by December 17, we had had 16 days of snow in December). So the two gals along with a few others ended up at our house stranded. The last one left the next day when the road to her town finally opened.

Here is our friend Khadija and her newborn son being carried in the traditional way. Her neighbor's barn had burned down and our church helped pay for repairs so they all invited us over for a meal to thank us. As soon as we arrived, they threw blankets over our shoulders and on our laps to keep us warm. First came the tea. Then the chicken tajine. Then, after we had already stuffed ourselves - the cous cous came. It was then that my Moroccan friend made a great effort in trying to show me exactly how to roll a ball of cous cous in my hand to form into a ball to put in my mouth. I just couldn't get the technique down and showed her instead the Pakistani way of doing it with the fingertips. "That's ridiculous!" she exclaimed.

We had parked our cars halfway on the village road because the road was so snowy and icy that we couldn't get in any farther. The police way down the hill came up and told us to move our cars because the king was passing by and no cars could be in sight (do I look a sniper??). We told them we couldn't move the cars any further in and wouldn't stay long. Finally they agreed to let us stay - and got some cous cous from the villagers.

The king has been in town for over a week now. He didn't give Ifrane much warning like usual and all of a sudden we noticed a mad flurry of activity in preparation. For a few days it was complete chaos because in addition to the huge influx of military, it was also Eid vacation and we had tons of snow tourists. But things have calmed down now - unless of course, we park in the wrong place.

Snow!

IFRANE WEATHER QUIZ

This fall (and sometimes in the space of 24 hours) we have had:

A. Rain
B. Mist
C. Snow
D. Sleet
E. Wind
F. Horizontal rain
G. Hurricane -force mist
H. Blizzards
I. Hurricane-force sleet
J. Sun
K. Blue skies
L. Inches of hail
M. All of the above

Answer - yep, it's M. And yes, we're still in Africa! Although we've had many snows starting in Ocotober, they have barely stuck because it kept switching back to rain. But this Monday and Tuesday, we got almost two feet in less than 24 hours. All roads coming into or going out of Ifrane were closed (and for once we didn't have any emergencies! Yeah!). Gerald had three hours of getting to and from work (it normally takes 20 minutes total), and the girls have been playing endlessly in the white stuff.
See the not-very-handicapped-accessible campus? Apparently everyone is walking around like penguins.

One of the US exchange students wrote something like this for Thanksgivng: "We are thankful for beautiful roofs unmarred by gutters. They are lovely unless it is snowing, raining or sleeting or has recently been snowing, raining or sleeting (i.e. most of the fall)." Huge piles of snow from the roofs are everywhere on campus and here at the apartments, our girls have strict insturctions to stay away from the roofs which dump snow from 4 stories up.

But in spite of the danger and trouble, we are all big fans of the beauty that snow brings. We have been loving it! This is behind our apartments.

A view on campus.

Because it doesn't get much below freezing, it's ideal snow-playing weather. The kids all pile out of their houses every afternoon and play until the sun sets. And most amazing of all, the girls no longer need help with getting dressed or playing in the snow! And they don't need to come in to go to the bathroom or because they are cold after 2.5 seconds. Yeah!!!