Of sadness, joy, hard work, long bus rides, and fun

ASI track team - Casablanca meet

A new family member! Stan, Diane, Emily, Dustin, and Heidi!

Last week began with a tragic event. One of our professors lost four members of her family in one day. Her father, two sisters, niece, nephew, and mother were driving from Rabat when the father fell asleep. The car rolled and all were killed except the mother who was wearing a seatbelt (which are rarely used here) and the niece who remains in a coma. Both this professor and her husband are in the school of business so we know them well. It is hard to imagine what Bouchra (Moroccan) and Nick (French) will have to face in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. Please keep them in your prayers.

The next events are intertwined. Katrina had her first track meet Saturday in Casablanca. We, being overprotective and overinvolved parents, decided to go along as chaperones/parents. Normally it's a 3 1/2 hour ride to Casa. With the bus it was 5. The kids were great, but still a five-hour bus-ride is a five-hour bus ride! Giggles and messing around were heard at the hotel until late that night and the next morning we were off to George Washington Academy to compete against four of the other American schools in Morocco. The day was full of flashbacks. In Pakistan, we did the same thing. We went to fancy American schools and competed as poor mountain children who almost always got beaten soundly. Then we would be given the sportsmanship award (I think they developed that in sympathy for us) and sent us back on the bus once again.

Yesterday it was pretty much the same thing. We had the least athletes and barely any standards to qualify so you can guess what happened! We had one girl and a few shot-putters who did quite well. The kids' coach is an Olympic-hopeful. He has come here between his junior and senior year in the States (he's of Moroccan origin) to train for college scholarships and beyond because of our altitude. He left the boys in his dust for the 1500 and lapped the last kid much to the screaming delight of our discouraged little school!

Another flashback was that Katrina was chosen for 100 m, 200 m, and long jump - exactly my events! She made the finals for both running events even though she is at least a head shorter than all the other girls (10-12). She didn't place in the finals, but she ran and jumped her little heart heart out. All the kids were taken aback by the hot, humid air of Casa in contrast to our pure, clean, cool, air of Ifrane!

The other event - joy - was my nephew's wedding, which happened towards the end of the track meet our time. It was hard not to be there, but since they live-streamed it, we were able to watch it. Towards the end of the track meet, we got permission to use a classroom and got connected to the internet to watch the wedding of Dustin and Emily in New York state. We caught the first half of the wedding but then lost the live-feed. After we had lost it for a while, I went out to Facebook and found that one of the ushers had written on FB that D&E were officially married! Talk about fast connections. To think that we, in Africa, could know the moment they were married (even though we lost the picture) was pretty amazing! We are excited for more pictures to come!

Then it was back on the bus for a loooooong ride home!