Khenifra
It just gets better and better. We were just assigned our CBT sites where we will be alternately training in groups of five and individually living with Moroccan families alternated with regrouping at the hostal/PC base here in Azrou. During my approx. 2 minute interview with the PC director, I simply said I wanted a) a larger city b) mountains nearby c) greenery and d) to learn Arabic, not Tamazighr (a mountain Berber dialect). I got exactly what I wanted.
Khenifera is about 1.5 hours south of Azrou, a little be lower altitude, but still in/near mountain ranges. Lots of hiking, rumors of a lake or river nearby, about the same size as Azrou (50k people), a really nice family with four children for my homestay (I'll tell you more about them after I actually meet them), continuation of Arabic training (that is a HUGE blessing!), and some great friends among the five, to boot! Jesse, Cory and Andrea have all been great friends to me and I was shocked that I get to train with them. We don't even have any say in the matter of who our team of six trainees are. Good is certainly good. We head out tomorrow morning.
Today had plenty of fun adventures in itself. My friend Sara and I have been hiding out in the Internet cafe Cyber all day, but asked the dude up front where to go for lunch. As my French wasn't good enough to understand his directions, he simply left the desk to walk us down the street and down a little alley to the most quaint, rust
ic little cafe you've ever seen. We were delighted. There was an open grill where the chef cooked one of two lunch fares: Tagin (basically the Moroccan word for casseroll/meal/stew in a dish; in this instance sausage, eggs, red boiling sause of some sort) or Brichet (skewered lamb). I picked the form, Sara the latter.. but just confirming that was quite an ordeal between a few French words, English and Dhrisia (Mor
occan Arabic, sorry, don't know how to really spell it). It was the perfect picture of rustic simplicity.. a terra cotta clay mug for us to share, another terracotta clay pitcher of water, plates of steaming meats and red sauce, and a basket of fresh stone-baked bread between us functioning as our silverware... The employees all watched and smiled and laughed at our strange American ways, and we laughed and poored over notes and language books for a few words to communicate. The waiter asked if we wanted "Coca" and when we nodded he ran off down the alley, returning promptly with two Coca Cola Light's. Sara's plate was just meat, so we asked for "Danun, yogurt" .. he nodded and again ran off down the street despite our shocked protests. He ran back again within a minute or two with Banana Dannon yogurt. We laughed and she plunged her lamb into the banana yogurt. Oh my, what a fun place this is.
More to write, but I've been hibernating in this internet cafe practically all day, so I'll write more later.
Khenifera is about 1.5 hours south of Azrou, a little be lower altitude, but still in/near mountain ranges. Lots of hiking, rumors of a lake or river nearby, about the same size as Azrou (50k people), a really nice family with four children for my homestay (I'll tell you more about them after I actually meet them), continuation of Arabic training (that is a HUGE blessing!), and some great friends among the five, to boot! Jesse, Cory and Andrea have all been great friends to me and I was shocked that I get to train with them. We don't even have any say in the matter of who our team of six trainees are. Good is certainly good. We head out tomorrow morning.
Today had plenty of fun adventures in itself. My friend Sara and I have been hiding out in the Internet cafe Cyber all day, but asked the dude up front where to go for lunch. As my French wasn't good enough to understand his directions, he simply left the desk to walk us down the street and down a little alley to the most quaint, rust
ic little cafe you've ever seen. We were delighted. There was an open grill where the chef cooked one of two lunch fares: Tagin (basically the Moroccan word for casseroll/meal/stew in a dish; in this instance sausage, eggs, red boiling sause of some sort) or Brichet (skewered lamb). I picked the form, Sara the latter.. but just confirming that was quite an ordeal between a few French words, English and Dhrisia (Mor
occan Arabic, sorry, don't know how to really spell it). It was the perfect picture of rustic simplicity.. a terra cotta clay mug for us to share, another terracotta clay pitcher of water, plates of steaming meats and red sauce, and a basket of fresh stone-baked bread between us functioning as our silverware... The employees all watched and smiled and laughed at our strange American ways, and we laughed and poored over notes and language books for a few words to communicate. The waiter asked if we wanted "Coca" and when we nodded he ran off down the alley, returning promptly with two Coca Cola Light's. Sara's plate was just meat, so we asked for "Danun, yogurt" .. he nodded and again ran off down the street despite our shocked protests. He ran back again within a minute or two with Banana Dannon yogurt. We laughed and she plunged her lamb into the banana yogurt. Oh my, what a fun place this is.
More to write, but I've been hibernating in this internet cafe practically all day, so I'll write more later.
posted by Rachel Beach | 1:19 PM
1 Comments:
Very Cool Rachel. I am so happy for you. You've got a pretty interesting set-up. God is definately good.
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