June 13, 2009
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Our last day of work (Saturday) dawned bright and hot. We were pretty chipper at breakfast, as we ate our last meal of hardboiled eggs for a VERY long time. (I only choked it down in order to get protein) and had our last devotions with Dick and Dee. The new crop joined us--even though they were barely awake, as they arrived late the night before.
Everyone was a buzz with excitement--ROOF DAY!!!!
First, the gals took MANY trips to the river with Donkey. We and Donkey mutually HATE each other now. Ooooooooh the rat. Then, when we had three regular barrels and one huge barrel filled, and the men mixed gravel and sand and cement together, they quickly started mixing in water. Amy, Anna, Y, and two AZs, and I were on the roof. We had Y to spread cement, two people to dump cement from buckets on the pulleys (from the men and cement below), two on wheel barrows to dump cement, and one to help spread/wet the bricks (so the moisture in cement didn't leave too soon).
I was on wheelbarrows for one disastrous turn, pulleys until I dumped a bucket accidentally on the extremely good-natured men below, but my calling was spreading and wetting. I LOVE spreading cement. It's like frosting. I love frosting.
We're on the roof!
We first put a sloppy layer to fill in the bricks, then a smooth layer of a couple inches on top. I watched Y at first: spread with the trowel to get it level, then pat bumps smooth. Check. I did that for him whenever he used a 2x4 to pat large chunks even smoother. Sweet.
The whole thing looked like:
At one point, J brought a turtle up from the river. Aaaw.
Our last visit to Rashida and Fayeeda's was sweet. Dani and Mel came, so they were able to translate and explain that we were leaving, but would pray for them. They thanked us profusely, fed us almonds, threatened us with tea, and hugged us and cried. Aaaawww...love them.
That night, we called home for the first time. We got Mom at Husky Stadium for David's graduation. Aaaw, Happy Graduation, Bud! Little Bachelor's in EE!
[written June 14, 2009]
[Yesterday] we felt a huge camaraderie with the guys. We know each other a bit now, even if we can't say much to each other. ;) After lunch, B and M said how much said how much they appreciated us and how much fun they had with us. We gals teared up majorly. Amy reciprocated with a speech about how much we enjoyed it, learned, and loved their smiles and hearts. Anna said she loves them and wants to come back, and I thanked them for their patience with us (they laughed). We all (gals) CRIED during their prayers over us. Every guy shook our hands, looked us in the eye, and thanked us. B gave us big bear hugs. Aaaaw...I wanted to hug everyone, but wasn't sure that's culturally acceptable. Sigh. I love them all, but especially Y, M, and T stick out as awesome. Sweet, man.
Melodie took the four of us right away to the beach. It felt SO good to sink in the frigid sea and wash off work dirt and sweat. We actually swam in it--so we can say we've swum in the Med. :)
Then we showered at home, had "tea" (coffee) and set off to Hoceima for henna with Melodie. We went to Fatima's home, looked at pictures of hennaed people, and excitedly chose our designs. We each got our left arm and right ankle done in some way. It smells like rabbit pellets and look like mouse poop...at first. We bought cheap perfume ("Fancy Flirt") to spray on it to keep it wet for a while, while it soaked in. Mel's truck reeked. We bought drinks at a super market. I tried Poms--delish carbonated apple drink. Mmmm.
While in the car, waiting for something, we met "Anna the chicken":
A couple minutes later, Anna looked different:
At home, we avoided bumping into people, ate harina for dinner. Then, bed.
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June 14, 2009, Part I
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Oh man. Today we leave Al Hoceima/Izemourren/the FOR. :( We are all sad. I think I'm leaving a bit of myself here--I really LOVE it. Not for a place to stay much longer--but I'll be glad to return! And the people!! S and W have been sad since a few days ago when we started packing a bit, and it was so hard to say goodbye to the boys at work yesterday.
We got to sleep in until 7:30am this morning! We're packed, cleaned, and ready for fellowship at 10. I am enjoying one last moment on the roof. I love you, Izemourren!
After shower, breakfast (of pistachio pudding, banana, and nectarine--NO bread or eggs), and reflection on the roof, we had our last worship meeting. B, S, and kids and sister and Mel came down. We sang a lot and had a good time.
We wrote a song, to the tune of DoReMi:
"Do, the stuff, they make chobbes from.
Rays, that give you farmer's tans.
Me, the girl, that gets stared at,
Fafa, a boy that's really cute!
So, what M always says!
La! A word that means no!
Tea! A drink we always have!
and that will bring us back to..."
Anecdote: Yesterday, at our last 6am breakfast before work, Dee sat down as the four of us munched groggily away on bananas and chobbes. Beth calmly said, "Oh. There's a cockroach on the table somewhere. Not sure where it went." *munch munch* Dee looked at us in awe and said "MY, you've all adjusted!"
Then, Joey, Dani, Josiah, Benson, Anna, Amy, Bethy, and I set off in the van for Chefchaouen! WOOHOO!
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