The long awaited Laid, (lay-eed) or the end of Ramadan, was hopefully expected to have occurred last night, but it was delayed by a day, so had classes today. The end is calculated by the position of the moon (I believe) on the Islamic calendar. Got a lot accomplished today though...worked out some language phrases and more words, and worked again with some people from one of the local weaver's association. Three of us are helping the director and his wife learn computer skills. The wife has never even touched the computer, so it was quite a deal for her to learn to turn it on, handle the mouse, go into Word and do some typing. She knows French so is working in that language. It was so very cool to see her excitement at being able to do a few simple tasks at a machine I am sure she never thought she'd use.

Yesterday was a very full day. Got up early, fixed my usual breakfast, walked for a good hour, went to the hammam with two of my sisters, came home and did a load of wash (did I tell you before the small machine simply does an agitation thing, then everything is rinsed out/wrung by hand) and helped haul in water during the two hours the water is running. Then had a bite to eat, and made flat bread from scratch.

That was quite an event for the household, to watch the American on her knees kneading bread. Not a lot different from how we do it, actually, except working on the floor part. Then the youngest daughter who is visiting "henna'd" my hands, which is an activity that women do for special occasions. I took a picture of one of my palms and will try to post it. The drawing is done with a syringe, but they don't break they skin. It's like cake decorating, but very creative and takes a long time. They do both the palms and the tops. The palms keep their design longer as it is warm and more protected.


The family split up to various places for the early evening meal, and I had several options, so walked again this time with one of the brothers, then went with hime to their two cousin's house to eat. They seem to think I don't eat enough, but I get plenty! Especially a lot of white bread. But still continue to eat fairly healthy and don't go hungry, that's for sure. As I was studying at night the announcement came that Laid would not be until Tuesday, so had another lite bite that Nzha brought in on a tray then went to bed fairly early. There will be lots of eating tomorrow, and we will go to a nearby town to visit one of the other brothers who I've not yet met, but he has email so will be my contact person when I am located with a place that they can come to visit. They all want my family to come and visit when they come to Morocco. They are a very generous people. I am so fortunate to have been placed with these folks. Hope my next homestay people at my permanent site will be as good...and time is drawing near! We'll go for a week long visit there one week from today! Then back to Azrou, then here for another week and it will be hard to say goodbye to my family here!

Time to get "home"...