The cart before the horse and trees that grow

Mr. Reimer at his desk ready to take all your questions about accounting and auditing! He certainly has a lot of visitors - students who need help with the classes he teaches and graduate students.

Although it must be said that sometimes he is out of his office! It wasn't until Scott took this picture that I realized that it's time for this note to go!

Last week was course selection for the university. Here is roughly how it goes:

- The students choose their courses for next semester with the help of their coordinator – and for all the business master’s students, that’s Gerald (60-90 students).
- All their completed forms must then be signed by Gerald.

- A few weeks later, the university announces course times & days.

- Students go into a panic reselecting and reshuffling their courses to make things fit.

- Students flock back to Gerald’s office to get advice.
- When they have figured out their new schedule, they come back to Gerald to get his signature.

Now, does anything strike you as odd?

The students are heavily dependent on Gerald for every step of the way because of the way the system works. This is good because he has a lot of student contact time. This is bad because he has long waiting lines outside his door during these times of the year.

And wouldn’t it be just a tad easier if the original course listings had dates & times so that this process would only happen once instead of twice? Wouldn't it be easier to put the horse before the cart?

Yes, it has been suggested that this change. No, the suggestion was not taken.

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One more thing - Our internet connection here at the residences is through the university which is across town. We've been having a lot of problems with internet lately and once Gerald got an email explaining why our internet was down at the time.

The trees grew. Yep, that’s right. The connection cannot have interference and they hadn’t figured in the trees growing.

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It’s things like this that drive foreigners crazy here. The place looks European. But western it is not. People come here expecting things to be 'the same' as where they came often because of the image the university portrays. But when they get here, the realize much of it is a facade. Almost all meetings are last-minute, local folks have no problem yelling at each other in meetings and following no agenda, major changes are never announced or even acknowledged (a few years ago we found out we had a new president because the newspapers announced it), hierarchical structures are so firmly in place that westerners often get in trouble for breaking norms, and the list could go on!

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I am really not sure how Gerald functions in this setting so well. You'd think that I, the one who grew up overseas, would be used to all this. But I usually pull my hair out just hearing the stories! Thankfully he has an easy-going personality and views many of these things as a circus with some entertainment value!

Scott's trip

Oops - I just realized I forgot the reduce the size of these pictures. Please let me know if you can't get them.

Gerald's cousin, Scott came to visit us in September during a short Eid break. Just enough time to run to the desert and back!


This is not Gerald's cousin. This is a camel.

As you bump uncomfortably along on your camel wondering what your insides and your seat think of all this, you note all the people you see in the desert are leading camels, NOT riding them. And this is for good reason. It's really not that fun. It's especially hard to go down a dune on a camel as he sinks in deeper and you hold on but push back at the same time to not squish the child in front of you. Then, as you hobble off your camel to the tent, you say another prayer of thanksgiving for the Biblical patriarchs. Not because of their faith, but because they had to ride camels.
While watching the sunrise on the dunes, we noticed that all the camel teams had turned around from their sleeping positions and were watching too! Then we climbed back on to "Grunty" or whatever we named our camel, and got up again. This time Kendra was ready for this. You see, getting up and down on a camel is half the experience. His bottom goes way up first, then his front legs, then his bottom again. Really you could call them desert roller coasters. Then off you go again, one camel burping, another grunting, another nibbling at Scott's pants. We made a new rule: You have to imitate whatever sound your camel is making. Scott did the best with his camel burping. Kendra turned around to me at one point and made a fabulous camel face. Not only did the camel ride bring out creativity, it brought, amazingly, peace. It's so quiet and the colors are so pure and beautiful. If you can forget that you are still bumping and burping along, you realize that it really is a wonderful experience.

In the middle of the camel ride, we were still trying to figure out how to get my medicine for my RLS out to Morocco since it had come too late for Scott to bring. I counted a series of 10 people (and one camel) that were involved in the chain of getting my medicine to me - it's quite an amazing story and I am deeply grateful to all those involved!

And I also think that Maroc Telecom should use this for their next add! quite amazing that we get coverage in the Sahara Desert!

I must also note that our camel driver had four biouvacs (camps) in the desert in a row. That means he led 4 groups out the 4km & back each way. It was amazing how fast he could walk in the sand. I've tried before to keep up with these guys, but find myself panting and needing rests instead!

Scott triumphally entering Volubulus - the Roman ruins near us. Sadly the boys (Gerald and Scott) left all their guidebooks and other helpful information in the car and basically made things about what they were seeing! The also kept 'finding' KU hats perched on various columns and deducted that the Romans had, indeed, been KU fans. Next time I'm coming along...

Back to the desert - this is where we ate supper which they prepared for us and then some breakfast of hard bread and tea. In between we slept under the stars. Whatever drive or camel pain you have endured to get here, lying under the starts is breathtaking. There was no moonlight and we could see the stunning expanse of sky with not light to interfere. You don't sleep very well in the desert and you end up getting pretty cold. It didn't help that the other camps decided to play their drums for half the night. But it was OK. Because looking into the vast display was better than sleep. The words of the song my father loved rolled over and over in my head:

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song!

Morocco is a geologist's paradice. Here are some fosslis found in the rocks on the edge of the desert.

Kendra's favorite part - singing men who originated from the southern half of Africa whose ancestors were brought here as slaves. This is one place where the curse of slavery has finally worn off.

Gerald's gift - he went out for the sunrise the day we left. He had some beautiful insights here remembering Craig and I'll see if I can get him to write them down someday!

Scott stayed with us for about 10 days and got to see all over this mountian area, the desert, and the beach with a friend of ours. It shows how diverse Morocco is! Even though people think of it as being mostly desert, it is actually mostly mountains and beach. The desert and arid parts are quite small - unless you count the Western Sahara. But that's another story...

Question: Do sleds work in the desert?

Answer: Yes, but not terribly well.

School & Springs

Only a month late, here are the pictures of the girls' first day of school!

Kendra has two dear little friends - Laila & Leila. It causes no end of confusion in our house which "L" friend she is talking about!

Katrina has discovered "Magic Tree House" books and has actually been seen sitting down reading voluntarily as a result!

Gerald goes to 'fetch the water' - although I have to say I'm a little disappointed he doesn't sing the "Jungle Book" song while he's doing it!

The girls and I all have stomachs that do not appreciate the high mineral content of the water here. And so we buy enormous amounts of bottled water...but between the cost & the fact that there is no where to recycle, it's not a good solution. We have tried several other options like boiling or filtering all with no success. So finally Gerald was inspired to start getting water from the main spring about 10 minutes away from our home. It comes right out of the rock and as you can see here, they have built a little area where you can collect it. The water is cool and perfect - lovely! The first time we went as a family, but this last week I ran out of time so Gerald went to go get the water. I think that's terribly romantic - I mean, really, how many women can say their husbands fetch fresh spring water for them?