My last Sunday....spent with a good friend and a student and his family!

Finally.....my carte se jour arrives!

Well, typical of how things work here.....my carte se jour has finally arrived.....and just in time....I leave in FIVE days! It only took 10 months to arrive! This is the card I have been waiting for to prove that it is legal for me to work in Morocco.

Up until now I have had a temporary piece of paper stating this same thing. I had to go to the police station (A VERY icky place indeed!!!!) every month to get it stamped and approved so I could legally work here. Also I needed it for proof if I was leaving or entering the country when I traveled.

I know, horrible photo....it was taken way back in August 2010 in that 100+ degree and very, very humid weather!! So ya, not the greatest photo I've ever had taken. :-)

The place I will miss most......Sunny Beach!

Last full day of school - Aqua Park!!!

My day started like most....watching the shepherd guide her sheep up from the field, down the street and into another grassy area. The little ones are so, so cute.

Then we headed to school. Lots of waiting time out front of the school while we wait for the buses to take the 4th/5th graders down the main road about 10 minutes away to Aqua Park, then return for us!! The kids can hardly stand the wait!!!! :D

We arrive and the excitement level is rising!!!!

Then more waiting in line. There were LOTS of other schools there also!!

These are the five I'm in charge of for the day! AND...two of their moms showed up to help out!! What an easy day! Where ever the girls go....I go...we all stay together all day! Luckily they are super kids! :D

Ghita and Yasmine waiting in line for a slide!

Funny story from the day......... well, in Morocco they don't do "lines" like we do in the states. So...ya, confusion, constant pushing and shoving. So several times I was yelling at other kids to move or stop pushing.... Those kids looked at me like I was an alien and my kids looked at me and said, "But, Miss, they don't understand English!!" Dah! :D (They DID understand when I literally MOVED them behind my girls and said "La!" (no!) :D 

The place was HUGE and had tons of things to do....a wave pool, two or three other wading pools like this one with animal sculptures in them, probably 10 - 12 slides of various types (some reallllly tall ones - the girls told me someone died on one of those....we avoided that one), a lazy river float and lots of green space to have lunch and rest!

Is she beautiful or what?? Love this little one. I really know my decision to come home is the right one for me, but when her mom asked if I could stay just three more years and teach her little sister is it ALMOST changed my mind. The parents have been very kind.

Another one of my beautiful girls! My little equestrian! Lila loves everything about horses and horse back riding!!

Oh shucks! My boys are with another adult today!! :D  :D They did a great job though and had a wonderful time too!!!

They had these cool bed-looking things to lay on and relax. I kept asking the girls if they wanted to take a nap and they looked at me and laughed!! "No, Miss, we are here to play!" At the end I did get them to pose for me! :)

Then the boys came and joined us! :D Well, that's it for the day of Aqua Park! What a fun day for everyone! Now five 1/2 days left next week and I will be heading HOME! I'm sooooo ready!

Eight days of being sick in Morocco = NOT fun!!

I was so sick with a bad flu virus and a parasite that I was in bed for four days and still weak and in the apartment for four more days.

My roommate was wonderful! She kept trying to find food and drink that sounded good to me. At one point I just wanted a soda cracker. Well, in Morocco that is hard to find.....Judy came home one day from the local hunoot that she had been at the day before. The guy was SO pleased with himself....he found ONE package of these "crackers" on the back of the shelf. (Who knows how long they had been there????) They looked like soda crackers, smelled like soda crackers......but after tasting 1/2 of one.....nope! They were not eatable! :(

This is looking out my bedroom window in the morning. A big man smoking a cigarette and wearing his djellaba before he gets into his car and drives away.....very attractive...not.

Another view out my bedroom window. I love this little guy. Look closely....he is holding a lawn mower! (Well, clippers is what he uses!) He spends the whole day on the two strips of lawn around the parking lot. He trims and cuts and prunes and steps back to see how it looks and then cleans up all the trimmings. I so want to send him a weedwacker from home! :)

I think I've shown you photos of our "beggar ladies" that sit in front of Corner Sara in the am's. Well, this is the little guy that usually sits there from 5 -8 pm. He is selling 12 - 20 eggs. People come by, bend over and check out his eggs and then pick out 2 or 3 to buy! (Wishing I had Marcia's zoom lens.)

Finally I felt well enough to drive to the local pharmacy a couple of blocks away. What I wouldn't have given for the sign to say a 7-Eleven Store. I don't even know what 7j/7 is!!

I took the scenic route home from the pharmacy....the poorer neighborhood with the sheep eating along side the road.

When  I finally felt well enough to leave the apartment and go out for a bit I headed right to Sunny Beach for a dose of sunshine. A couple other teachers and I rested on the chairs and watched as these two Muslim ladies had fun in the water. They wore their whole djellabas into the water and splashed and laughed!!

After eight days of feeling pretty icky I went back to school. To say this year has been frustrating and challenging would be an understatement. This again was a perfect example.....substitute teachers.... I get back after being gone for four days and there are no notes saying how things went or what they covered, no papers have been graded and the place is upside down. Turns out only one day did my class have the same sub all day. One of the days they had FOUR subs throughout the day!! Crazy!! (FYI....students don't do well in that setting!) After I was back for two days I came home and slept for 13 hours straight! Finally, now feeling back to normal. :D