Sept. 16 - Thursday - My roommate's birthday today!!

Hello from Casa!

What a special day!! It was Marcia's birthday AND the FIRST day it has rained since we got here!!
It was soooo hot and muggy the past few days, so when the storm came rolling in this afternoon, we heard thunder and the whole place cooled off it was



WONDERFUL!
Several of us took Marcia out for her dinner. It was quite a delightful surprise.....we were told it was a restaurant behind a gas station on our way home that wasn't much to look at, but had good food! Wow!!! It was like a banquet hall....chandeliers and all!!

As usual, we weren't sure what we had ordered, but after a long day....we were game for most anything and it was a terrific meal! The first course was yummy flat bread and Moroccan salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and lovely spices). The second course was "chips" (french fries) and a large plate of "meat" (a little of all kinds...when the menu says meat.....they just mean literally ALL kinds of meat!!) and popcorn shrimp.

There is Marcia doing a wonderful job of pouring the "Moroccan Tea" for all of us!

The last photo is of my little friend, McKenna. Marcia and I were kid-sitting earlier for McKenna and her brother, Sawyer. They are kids of a wonderful couple in HR that were out of town. McKenna came to my room (that's where the photo is taken) every morning to help me out until the bell would ring.....wonderful young gal!

Wed. - Sept. 15th First mail from "home!!

First mail from the US arrived two days ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was wonderful to receive something....anything from the USA! My favorite was a letter from a teacher friend that included a photo of she and her hubby....what a treasure! I will hang it in my room and think of them often. Thanks, Linda!! :)

Well, tonight was "Curriculum Night" where the parents come to hear about what their children are learning in my class. It went really well! I had 20 out of 24 parents there!! One of the fathers offered to translate in French for me, so it all worked out very well. That was my first time ever having to give my "talk" and wait for the French translation to happen.

The parents seemed very sweet and asked great questions. They wanted to know how I would compare these children to a 2nd grade in the US.... I told them I thought each have pros and cons....American children know their language very well, they read and comprehend what they read well, but the Arabic children know three languages. These children struggle a little with the English language and understanding all the words. So....both have strengths and weaknesses. All in all a good day!!

What I didn't share with the parents was that most of us new staff at the school find things there VERY disorganized and backwards.....everything takes a long time to do and nothing is orderly or even really thought out.... There has been a lot of complaining and frustration this week, so on the way out of school today I had to laugh when one of the teachers came up and shared that she finally just figured out something important! We have been seeking the answer lately to "Why did God send us here??" She's pretty sure there was a mix up and God was really telling us all to go to Maui instead of Morocco....just a small mistake!! :) ...anyone could have made it, right? But...how long did we sign on for?????????? :)

Well, it is late and tomorrow is another day of school (even though Marcia thinks we should have it off because it is her birthday!!). I'd better go to bed and be chipper for the am!

Blessings to all my family and friends in the USA!
Jill

Part three of Sat. Sept. 11 - Rabat Weekend

A few random fun photos from the weekend!

That's it for the weekend report!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend as well! Miss you!!

xo Jill

Sept. 11 - VERY cool doors in RABAT!!

Check out these amazing doors of Rabat!
I loved them all!

Sat. night - Sept. 11 - Ramadan has ended!

Hello everyone!

Wow....where do I start? Well, thank you all for your prayers! I started on some Cipro right away on Thursday am and was not 100% by Friday am, but better, so I did get to go on the girls trip to Rabat! We had s WONDERFUL time!! We are wishing that GWA was IN RABAT! We found Rabat to be MUCH cleaner and prettier than Casa.


Ten of us gals from GWA took the train to Rabat and spent the night in a cute little hotel close to the train station. There were five of us over 50 yr olds and the rest were the "younger" group. We all enjoyed each other and had so much fun!!

We saw everything from the King on live TV (he was across town at some formal celebration for the end of Ramadan) to some pretty ugly cats, to a very cool Roman ruins to a beautiful area called Casba that reminded me of Greece!!! Oh...AND we went to a "real" mall!!! Everyone loved the shops and the food court.


Now, we are back in Casa and feeling a bit down. So, four of is went out for dinner....quite an adventure....The first place closed right as we got there (6:45 on Sat night!!!), the next place there was no room on the second floor where the women and men were sitting, so we tried to sit on the first floor where only men were sitting and the little waiter guy told us we should go to the restaurant next door.....we went to the next door place, the guy said he would bring a menu and we never saw him again. So....we tried a fourth place and it was lovely!! We had a great meal and now are home and relaxing!

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of the week Marcia and I are kid-watching two kids of parents in the HR Dept. The kids are great and they are in 8th and 10th grades, so it should be a fun time!
Then we have "Curriculum Night" on Wed. So, off to a busy week again!

Sept. 9 Part 3

First, Happy Birthday, Bill!!! Hope your day is terrific!

I spent the day at home. I woke up last night at 3am, heard the men outside my window praying and then realized I had a bout of the big D ....bummer! Must have been something I ate at dinner. I was up the rest of the night, but then got ready and went to school. I took extra clothes along (just in case) and had to use them before I even got to my room!! So.......I found a sub, took photos of my darling 2nd graders in their Moroccan clothing and left for home. I hope this isn't a sign of what is to come....being sick on school day #7 is NOT a good thing!!

So, I went out to my car and then remembered that we had "issues" with the car this am also! Marcia tried to shut her door and it wouldn't shut! This happened one other night and it took us a good 15 minutes to "fix" it. Well, as we got out of the car at school today it happened again...I was feeling lousy, so I said, "Just leave it....". Marcia said, "Yes, there isn't anything worth stealing in there anyway."

Well, when I came back out of school to go home I realized I still had the door problem. I tried and the guard tried to fix it ....but NOPE! So, I drove the stick shift car home while holding onto the door handle.

I'm telling you...........there really is no same old day in Casa....EVERY day has some kind of "issue" to deal with or we see some bizarre new thing or we learn something crazy!!!!! It's quite the journey that God has us on!! :)

Well, I'm feeling some better tonight and hoping to be well enough to ride the train with a bunch of gals to spend tomorrow night in Rabat!

Blessings everyone!
Jill

Sept. 9 - #2

Funny story I was told the first day I arrived here....

One of the guys in HR was driving me to my new home and we drove by this billboard! Yes...it is one of the gals from the "Desperate House Wives" TV show!! Well, the story is this: Behind the billboard is a very nice housing area going up and to advertise for it they put up a big tent with chandeliers and all, put up these billboards and invited the ladies from the show to come to Casa!!! SOOOOOO unlike anything here.....but THEY CAME! Well, the billboard didn't always have this photo on it...the first one had her wearing something slinky! But they found the men here couldn't handle it. They were driving off the road!! So, they made them change it to something a little more conservative.








Now for some "local shots"....


Well, first you see the local Mosque. Well, they are working on it....not very quickly, mind you! We are praying that just because it isn't fixed yet won't mean that they need to keep having prayer time in the temporary Mosque below our bedrooms!!










The next photo is for you Eric!! Thought you might want to see a local motorcycle...makes yours look like brand new!! :)


Next, the local butcher...right out in the open...selling cows feet!! We have not tried them yet...it took us all week to just take a photo of them!! :)


Lastly, today was "Moroccan Dress Day" at school - celebrating the end of Ramadan. We have tomorrow off! Yippee! My kids looked soooo cute!