Sheep Heads, Anyone?

OK, OK - I said I'd take a break - so consider this simply an answer to Dennis' question - do they eat the sheep they sacrifice? Yes - all of it - starting with the heart and kidneys rolled in fat. The second day is they day they eat the head - which you could see roasting on every corner over coals on an old bed-spring watched closely by the local sheep-head-roasting guy. The third day is the one on which to visit folks. That's when they eat what we would consider the 'normal' parts...

PS

I forgot to mention in my last post that Thanksgiving was in there somewhere too! Since Eid (when Muslims sacrifice a sheep) was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the two holidays were very close together this year. Saturday morning we reminded the girls that we were going to Meknes to celebrate Thanksgiving with Ron's family and other friends. "But I don't want to sacrifice a sheep!" Kendra protested almost in tears. Poor kid - she's got her holidays, religions, and cultures all mixed up!

Taking a short break

If I had a better secretary, I'd be able to keep writing...

Dear faithful, wonderful, amazing readers -

To our great delight, my brother, Daniel and family will be coming to visit us this Monday from Canada! We are counting down the days until Thursday when they will be with us in Ifrane (Ron gets them first in Meknes). Between preparations for their coming, Christmas, and ordering new 'froshes' (couches - which merits an entire entry of its own) - I decided it's time to take a break until the second week of January. It doesn't help that my secretarial help is quite lacking, hairy, and poorly behaved.

Before I sign off, here’s an update from over here –

Eid El Adha - the remembrance of Abraham's almost sacrifice of his son - Ishmael. "Wasn't it Isaac?" you say. Not to Muslims. Each family sacrifices a sheep on this day but they have no deeper meaning to the story than that. The girls' school announced that it was giving the day of the holiday and the day after, as promised. Too bad for the Muslims - because Eid fell on a Saturday and so they got only the weekend off while the rest of the country had at 4-14 days off for this, the biggest holiday on the Muslim calendar. The parents were furious and took their kids out of school anyway. Sometimes I wonder if the French ever got the memo that they are in Morocco.

Swine Flu? In a Muslim country? Surely not!

Many Moroccans are convinced that all of us infidels are going to get the ‘swine flu’ by eating pork. Mothers finding out their children will be studying in the States burst into tears because they are afraid their child will die in the epidemic. And it was inevitable – H1N1 has now struck Morocco and many schools are closed as a result. AUI had six confirmed cases and then stopped testing sick students, quarantining all of them as if they all had it. Where is the leper colony? I mean – quarantine house? Right behind our residences – which made some parents panic – “The wind will blow the germs on our children and they will get sick!” All meetings of over 100 were canceled which made us worry because our annual Christmas program attracts over 500. But university officials said we could have it after all. I guess it’s OK for Christians and sub-Saharans (the majority of those attending) to get H1N1. Sometimes it’s good to be the outsiders! Thankfully the panic has settled down by now.

Which leads to…
Our chaplain’s daughter, Claire, who is a year older than Katrina – has been experiencing some problems in school with kids calling her ‘pork eater’ (no doubt related to the 'swine flu' outbreak) and drawing crosses on her desk. The situation has been resolved, but it makes this mamma worry sometimes. “Tolerance” takes on a whole new meaning when you’re the minority. Thankfully, neither of our girls have not had any problems.

Which leads to…
Have you heard that Switzerland has banned the building of minarets (the Muslim steeple)? The Muslim world is furious. The most-read Moroccan newspaper flat-out lies that “Christians and Jews are given religious freedom all across the Muslim world.” This in a country which has never allowed a new church to be built and in which it is illegal for a Moroccan to be a Christian. And Morocco is liberal compared to the other Muslim countries. In retaliation to the ban, some friends of friends from Switzerland were given one hour to leave Morocco – escorted by the police. It makes us all a little shaky…

Which leads me to have a very rotten attitude until I remember…

Lessons and Carols – which is a celebration of Christmas with our little sad choir, our little girls dancing, and the rockin’ down the house choirs made up of sub-Saharan students from all over the country that we had this Sunday. Attended by hundreds of our Muslim, Jewish, and Christian friends, we choose to look for and find a glimmer of hope for our world – a tiny baby - the prince of peace – May He come, even now, to our hearts as we wait in expectation this season.

A most wonderful Christmas to you all!

You know you are in Morocco if….

You can’t find nails in a hardware store
Your children think it’s normal to be given gifts everywhere they go – a piece of pomegranate, a trinket…even an egg from the egg-seller guy
You enter a room of 35 people at a party and proceed to give and receive at least 70 kisses in greeting
You can’t find change at a bank
Your children’s friends eat supper at 9:00 and play soccer until 11:00
You see a Mercedes pass a person riding a donkey
People routinely use words from three different languages in one sentence
You regularly see people walking in the middle of nowhere
The only reliable time the stores are always open is at 11:00 in the morning
Your 7-year-old daughter gets a wedding proposal
You see a fully veiled girl walking next to one in a miniskirt and a tight shirt
You are so excited that you got a grocery cart that drives straight that you are tempted to call a friend and celebrate
You have come to believe that eggs without chicken poop and feathers all over them are not real and shouldn’t be bought
You laugh at pictures of the angel of death because they look exactly like a Moroccan man wearing a jelaba with the hood up
People wear long underwear in the (hot) summer and so many layers in the winter that you can’t recognize them
You get told not to feed your children cold yogurt or they’ll get sick
You are fed until you can’t move and told you are a member of the family while at someone’s house you barely know
Children are kissed, welcomed, and loved everywhere you go
You are to say, “Thanks be to God!” when you have a really good burp