New Adventures

On Sunday, my friends and I went to the Medina (the old city) and were walking around. One of my friends needed to buy chicken, so she went up to a shop that had a bunch of live chickens asked for a chicken and the man slit it's throat, dumped it in a bucket so the blood would drain out and once it was dead, plucked and gutted it right in front of us. This was definitely a new experience that made my stomach churn a bit. In Morocco you cannot kill a chicken by wringing its neck for religious reasons.

That night, a bunch of friends were over at someone's house talking and playing cards and I learned what the word pontificating means and that it is similar to the word pontif (pope), so it morphed into the word poping. Anyways, all that to say, I've learned a new word. (Later, when we were playing a card game with teams, my team was called the pontificators, and we won!)

Today was a rainy day and the students could not go out to recess or sport and we do not have an indoor gym and often classrooms are being used or there are no teachers to watch the students. Therefore, we had many children who were not sure where to go and teachers not sure where to put these children. It was quite chaotic and our staff has decided that we need a plan, but as of yet, there is none, and it will probably rain again the rest of this week.

Yesterday, I tried something and I was not at all sure if it would work or not. One thing my writing teacher did with us when I was in fourth grade was rewriting stories. Yesterday, I started out this activity by doing an example as a class. We took the story, summarized it, and then changed the characters and the setting. After this, we worked on describing and adding more detail. Most of the students were all very engaged and participated. Many students were incredibly eager to add their ideas. At the end of the class, one of the students said, “Geez! Time flies when you’re having fun!” This was encouraging to here. I would say that not only did the students enjoy this lesson, but I really enjoyed it, because I got to see their thoughts and enthusiasm for learning and being creative.

Thanksgiving!

Advertisements for bank loans so that people can buy sheep for the Moroccan holiday

Thanksgiving with fiftha and sixth grade. What a feast!

This is the 5th grade student I tutor after school... He's got an incredible singing voice!

Teachers and parents came and joined in the feast.

This is the map... students can move from one country to another by reading a book. If they read two, they can cross an ocean.

Watching a football game after the meal

Ms. Stoneman's team won!



For Thanksgiving, we had a feast with the fifth and sixth grade class. They each brought in something to eat and we had plenty of food to go around. We invited parents and a few of the other teachers joined as well. It was quite fun. After the meal, we watched a football game, but some of us stayed in the classroom playing games.
After the school day, Ms. Stoneman and I had our parent-teacher conference and then there were two Thanksgiving parties going on for the teachers, because people couldn't come to terms and combine them... it was kind of childish, but anyways, everyone seemed to have had a great Thanksgiving dinner. I went over to one of the parties and ate delicious food, including stuffing with pork(that came from Spain) in it. It was delicious food, great fellowship and a time for which I am truly thankful.

A great big serving of humble pie

So, I have a feeling God is trying to teach me something, because just about every day this week, I've been hit with the message that I need to be humble. Yesterday, after school my supervising teacher and I met with one of the parents of a students who got a failing grade. She mentioned some things about our organization and structure that we could really improve on. It was a good lesson to learn, but was hard to take. Anyways, I pray that my heart would be softened to what God's trying to teach me, and that I would not only hear the lesson, but let it change me from the inside out.

Loads of Pictures

Here's just a few of pictures that were on my camera from the past week

Trip to Meknes (city close to Fez)

The entrance to the tomb of the founder of Meknes

The grave itself

A statue in the city, by the river

some funny grafity on the wall of the zoo we visited

A little of the beautiful greenery in the zoo... much more interesting than most of the animals

One of the really cool looking birds at the zoo... sorry you can't see it very well

Trip to Sevilla

bridges across the river

playing soccer at the park

some of the architecture

vines growing on metal structures... I thought they looked pretty strange, but interesting

Taking pictures at the park

Back in Fes

Oh! Fifth grade!... what a great class.

The fifth graders were selected as the singers of the month for November.

Student of the month ceremony... what a confident kindergartener!

Saying the school pledge

Humility

Yesterday a group of friends met up to talk and we started on the topic of humility (Isa. 2). We discussed how often students and their parents don't treat teachers with respect, especially here where the teachers at the school are a couple classes lower than the families of the students. We discussed how that is hard it is to strive for excellence without seeking the praise for it and how difficult a balance it is to stay truly humble while still knowing and using our strengths.

Today was, for the most part a normal day. At the end of the day, I had tutoring and after tutoring the mom wanted to talk to me. This was complicated, because we had to work through her son to translate everything we said. After this, I was going to join a group to play ultimate frisbee. However, whenever I told the taxi drivers where I wanted to go, they asked me something in Arabic that I really did not understand, so I could not respond to them, so I waived them on. This is always a humbling experience. After a few taxis I got tired and gave up and decided to walk home instead. On my way home, I felt so tired. I'm tired of not knowing the language. I'm tired of not being able to communicate. I'm tired of not understanding the culture. I'm tired of not knowing my way around.

Here I am, sitting and realizing that in my tiredness, all I can do is rest in God's arms and trust that He will do the rest. I am realizing more each day what it means to truly be a humble servant of the Lord and follow Him wherever He leads, even if it is not easy. I am realizing how difficult it is to be humble, and yet our Shepherd who leads us is the perfect example of humility and wants us to follow in his footsteps.

This morning, I realized that the word 'holy' sounds very similar to the Arabic word for sheep. In thinking about that, I thought about how the Israelites had to kill a sheep in order to be holy (cleansed of all their sin). I also thought about the sheep who sacrificed himself for all our sins and how as a perfect representation of humility, he was also perfectly holy.

One life goal done: go to all the continents except for Antarctica

Warning: this post will be long.

So this week was a Moroccan holiday call the Eid Kabir. The Eid Kabir is a holiday when every Moroccan family gathers together and sacrifices a lamb. Before they sacrifice it, they get to know the lamb and spend time with it for two days. They first slaughter the lamb and then blow air into it through a long tube so that they can remove the skin more easily. The first day, they eat the liver and intestines and hang the rest of the lamb and spend the rest of the day celebrating. They proceed to eat the rest of the lamb during the next week or two. This is a big festival and everybody looks forward to this event. The king sacrificed a lamb on this holdiay for all the people who cannot afford a sheep. However, even if you can't afford it, most people take out loans to buy a lamb, because it is looked down upon if you don't sacrifice a lamb on this holiday.
Because of this holiday, our school combined this holiday with Thanksgiving and gave us a week off of school, rather than having us take two smaller breaks. So, what did I do with all that time off? Well, Monday, I washed clothes and went to the new grocery store and went into an elaborate carpet store that was full of expensive looking fabrics. It was kind of overwhelming to see the wealth of this store with such poverty just outside. Tuesday two friends and I went to Markesh, a smaller city closeby and just wandered the streets, visiting their old city and enjoying a nice chilly Moroccan day. We took the train there, which was very nice and quite cheap. (about 3 dollars a trip)
Tuesday night, I then left for Spain with 9 friends. This completed my journey to all 6 of the continents that I really care to go to. We ate lots of bacon and other forms of pig (which is banned in Muslim culture) , slept in a heated building, played soccer, went to the beach, read and played risk and other games. We wandered around the streets a couple days and looked at a few touristy things from the outside, but didn't actually pay to go in. One night, a few of us went to a bar to watch some flamenco dancers and musicians.
During my time here, I've been wondering where I want to teach next year. While I have enjoyed being here, it is a difficult place to live, especially for a single woman. I love the school and know that it is the kind of place that I would love to work at, but I'm not sure I'd want to live in this country. Please pray for me, as I seek God's will for my future and where he would have me teach.

So here we are... it's halfway through my journey and I praise God for all that I have learned here. So much, about myself, teaching and SO, SO much about this world's depravity and God's love for all his people. I look forward to going home, but know that there is so much left to do in this country.

I thought there was something else I wanted to share about in this blog, but I forgot. I'm sure I'll remember later and add it then.

Morocco

"Morocco is a place where travelers 'expect mystery and they find it,'...it [is] as multi-layered and intriguing as the patterns in the tile work adorning the building, each of which has its own hidden meaning. Morocco has the mystique of a land from the Old Testament yet appears to be coping comfortably with modernization. Internet cafe's rub shoulders with artisan's workshops; peasants on donkey trot beneath billboards advertising the latest mobile phones. Outside mosques, running shoes are lined up next to pointy-toed babouches. In the souks women wearing long robes and headscarves escort daughters with beautifully cut hair and high heals..." -from A House in Fez by Suzanna Clarke.

This is probably the best description of this country I've heard.

trip to the post office

fifth and sixth grade wrote letters this week and today we took a trip to the post office.

Things I love about Fez- November 8

- people tend to dress very modestly
- the faith of the people affects every part of their life
- people are very communal and tend to share everything. A group of people always eats off of a plate together and the beggars on the street ask anybody drinking anything for a sip of their drink (okay that last part isn't my favorite, but I like the communal aspect of it).
- people are very hospitable and welcoming of other people.

sharing carrot cake and chocolate mouse

An eventful weekend- November 7

Friday- At school on Friday, the sixth graders had an election, where they were all running for principal for the year 2021. It was a fun and exciting project. Parents, the principal and the director of the school, the fifth grade class and other teachers came, listened to their speeches, ate some refreshments and voted. The party elected will be able to spend a day working with the principal. This was all very exciting, until the winner was announced. Once this happened, the rest of the class was very upset. We got back to the classroom and students argued that it wasn’t fair, that things should have been different, etc. I thought my teacher did a great job at letting students talk about their feelings for a while and then write about them. She also had them write about what they learned, what they would have done differently the next time, and what one of the other groups did well. Even after the journaling, students were quite upset however, I thought this method helped calm at least some of the tension.

6th grade elections!

The winners!

Voting

             After school, we learned how to make Milawi- a Moroccan fried bread with onions and herbs inside… basically, deliciousness. Then, we went to a woman’s house  for fellowship and I found out that she’s Colombian and, since she’s leaving the country, she gave me some flour to make arepas and Latin American chocolate to make hot cocoa. After this, I met some of my apartment-mate’s friends that live in Casablanca and they came over and we had dinner and went to bed.

Making Mlawi

One of the Arabic teachers who was teaching us to make Mlawi

The lady teaching us to make Mlawi, and one of the other staff members at the school

The principal making Mlawi

Saturday- Saturday morning, I went out for brunch, with my apartment-mate, her friend and some other teachers at the school. We had a lovely time and then walked to the school to show the friends around. When we got home, I planned some lessons, did some laundry for the first time since being here… Hamdullah (Praise the Lord!) and then we all went out to the Medinah (the old city).

                The Medinah is a difficult place to describe, for there are people everywhere crowding very narrow streets, walking along side motorcycles who might easily run a person over and donkeys that leave their remnants on the ground. There are little shops everywhere, some with clothes… many have shoes or jewelry or beautiful scarfs, some with various forms of food, some with uncooked meat, such as goat-heads, some with live chickens. It’s quite a fascinating place, that you really have to experience in order to understand.

                So, we spent the afternoon here and met a man that is a friend of a friend and was really enthusiastic that we knew his ‘best friend.’ We then stopped by a café and shared a camel-burger. This café was quite distinct, because it was very American, while still having a Moroccan feel to it. It was very relaxing and quiet compared to almost every place that I have been here. After leaving the café, we went and saw the palace and then, ate at a pizza place.

The view of the Medinah, from the terrace of the cafe

friend from Casablanca

drinking iced coffees

eating camel burger

The door to the palace (made of gold, glass, tile and wood)

Can we come in??

the handles to the doors... probably the size of my head

The courtyard of the palace

             I heard that the king might be in town, because even though Saturday was a holiday, things were decorated a lot more than usual, with flags and lights, etc.

Sunday- On Sunday morning, I sang at church- that was a real blessing. After church, a bunch of us went to the Medinah and ate at the same café for lunch. After the meal, we walked through the Medinah and some of us bought some things from the little shops. When I got home, I planned more lesson plans and then we went to a pumpkin party, where I spent time talking to other teachers from the school.

The tree trunk is on the other side of the wall... there is now a crack through the wall made by the tree.

The wall of the Medinah

One of the many beautiful fountains in Fez (the globe fountain). It's interesting that there are towns an hour away that have no running water.

one of the big streets in Fez