Ruth and the Crazy Stories She Could Tell

The last three weeks have been a total blur, in the best possible way. I can hardly believe it's already the end of April, and that this month marked 7 months being in country. And if you round seven months up, that's like two years, right? So I'll be done before I know it. Sort of scary.

But, back to the last three weeks, since this blog post is long overdue. Here's what you missed:

Fes is a crazy town, but very awesome, especially when with my people

Jenn discovers that I laugh during my sleep, although we believe this is the first time

I am appointed to role of special police by Jo (thanks, Jo)

Craft fair was a lot of fun, good sales for my women

Fifteen hour bus rides after four days of giardia are not that fun

You can take a taxi from Agadir to Kech for 110 dhs, which is only 10dhs more than the bus, and way quicker

Mum and Dad make Christmas happen all over again with lots of goodies for me, including a Kindle, which is possibly about to change my life

I introduce Mum and Dad to the hot mess that is Marrakech

Mum is bewildered by grand taxis and crazy taxi drivers, while trying to pretend she's not phased by the driver playing chicken at 80 mph

I get in a 2 hour argument / discussion with taxi driver in darija instead of going to tutoring for the week

More discussions with taxi drivers in Agadir when they discover little white girl can speak their language (ish)

Mum and Dad come to my site and eat couscous with my host family, although Dad is singled out to eat with the men

My tortoise Olly dies of unknown causes, possibly because of unexpected hailstorm while sitting below my skylight. I am sad, but Tiberius lives on

My host aunt mimes slaughtering me to my parents for some unknown reason

Day in Taroudant with my parents and my tutors family is awesome and includes Dad wearing a fes, which is a very good look for him

My giardia makes a comeback and I nearly die drinking nasty rehydration salts

Giardia dies horrible death, I am victorious

Day in Tiznit with parents is hot and sticky, but it's gorgeous there, so we don't mind

I eat tuna tartare and drink a margarita and think I have died and gone to heaven

Another day in site with my parents meeting all the women from my association and having lunch with my landlady

I get lots of packages and cards, aka Christmas Part 3, including thai curry mix, quinoa, dairy milk and gorgeous earrings (thank you all!) and I am very happy

The bus to Marrakech proves much easier than taxi, and less stressful for me

Dinner with my people and my parents is fun, although margaritas should not be rimmed with sugar

The Vietnamese restaurant in Marrakech proves a little underwhelming

Essaouira moves up slightly in the possibly-being-my-favorite-place-in-Morocco ranks

We take a newbie to her site, which is a pretty awesome site, and drink a lot of tea

I have my first ever experience of nine people in a grand taxi, in which I am seated between the driver and the stick shift, and he is reaching over me to change gears, while talking about circumcision.

I arrive home and collapse, but not before my host aunt hunts me down to tell me where I need to be the next day

I go to get henna'ed the next day, which results in 8 hour Moroccan teenager dance party/wedding celebration and sheep's (goat's?) head for dinner at 12:30 at night

And here's what the next 2 weeks look like, so that we're all on the same page.

Stay in site, living in confused state of old time vs. new time

Sleep as much as possible

Try not to get giardia again

Buy a new fridge so I can make jello and eat thai curry leftovers

Get ready with my association for going to Rabat for another craft fair

Go to first and second Moroccan weddings

Wage war against insects and lizards trying to get in my house

And yes, you read that correctly. There are two time zones in this country currently - my village is on old time, ie. not observing daylight savings, yet my souk town and most major cities are on new time, where they do observe DST. Which is nice in that I gain an hour whenever I come back to site, but I lose an hour when I leave. My biggest issue with this is that if I am at home, but on new time, and I want to eat lunch at 12.30, this is actually 11.30 old time, ie. for the rest of the village, which means I can't eat lunch because it's not after noon. I will remain confused until July 31 when it changes back.

That's enough writing for now.

xoxo