Kelly decided she's going to get a kiss one way or another!

  

Kelly turned 3 on the 25th

  

Student Visas

Friday morning(the 28th) after school, Brian and I picked up Amina our Moroccan friend and we went to the police station. When we walked in we saw Mr. Nice Guy and Mr. Grumpy Pants. Mr. Nice Guy asked what we needed and Amina told him we came back for our papers like we were told to. Mr. Grumpy Pants said "What time is it? Why are you here?" Amina said you told them to come back on Friday to get their papers. He walked up to me and said in a very grumpy and annoyed way "I said to come back on Friday afternoon not morning! I am not crazy. I did not forget what I said. Come back in the afternoon." I smiled at him and said in Arabic " OK No problem sir " and turned to walk out of the room. Brian said the same thing and we acted like it was NO BIG DEAL. As I walked away Amina said "Donna come and sit down, He said he will get your papers.
I was more than happy to sit and we waited as he found our papers, stamped them and we signed them. We made sure that we had the correct papers and that it does mean that we do NOT need to travel to Spain this weekend! We need to go back in about 2 weeks and they will have a number that they need to write on those papers. Then it will be compete!

Brian and I feel like we saw a the Father's hand as we trusted in him and responded with the confidence that the Father IS IN CONTROL! And not Mr. Grumpy Pants!!!
Thanks for all your prayers on our behalf......We thank the Father for friends that love Him and US!!
love Donna

Culture Differences

Having guests for a meal.
In the PA area where we grew up, cooks tend to pride themselves in the fact that they had done a good job figuring how much food is needed. There is plenty for everyone and little left over.
The Moroccan culture is much different.
It is showing honor to your guests if there is a lot of food left over at the end of a meal. It shows that "we wanted to make much food for you so that there is no way you can leave my house hungry".
We have had a meal in one of the poorest of houses but what was put before us was a meal that appeared(by beauty and amount) to be for a king. It is very humbling as they give you their best. Another way to honor your guest is to have two different kinds of meat.

In our PA culture when we invite someone over for a meal we tend to eat first and them visit. We tend to hurry through the meal at times and then get on with the other events of the evening.
In Morocco you get together, visit and the meal is the final event. Meal time here is an event. You eat slowly and may lean back and semi-recline between bites of food.
The hot food is served on different stages. I have learned to eat slowly. I used to eat and get full only to have the hostess bring out the next hot course.

In PA when it's time to go home it's basically up to the guest to decide when the courteous time is to leave.
Here in Morocco it's very simple- the host decides when it's time to leave. After the meal you may visit awhile. When the host serves coffee, tea, or both, that's the signal it's time to head home after your done drinking.(Of course if your Moroccan you can make a little glass of tea last an hour. The Moroccans are masters at sipping their hot drinks.

The other night when I(Donna) wanted to put Kelly to bed she said, "I can't sleep the moon is talking to me."
"The what?" I asked.
"The moon" she said.
"What did it say?" I asked.
"Ummmmmm I don't know but it's talking to me!!"
"Well then tell the moon that it's time for you to sleep and you can't talk right now."
"I can't talk to the moon mommy! It can't hear me!!" (like duh mom!)
Donna

Humor in language learning

Tonight I went to the hanut to ask for 8 loaves of bread. We needed a lot because we were having friends over for Kelly's birthday party. After I asked the man I noticed a puzzled look on his face. When quickly thinking back over what I had said I realized I had asked him for 80 loaves of bread. Quite the party huh!?! We both had a good laugh.

Our visa application has been accepted

Monday morning after school Donna, myself and our translator went into the police station for the fifth time.
He looked at our papers and then we had to leave and make more photo copies. We went back and we had to leave again and fill out different forms. We went back and we had to leave again to fill out more forms. We went back and had to leave again and buy special $7 stamps. Then we went back for the last time(4 times for this morning and 9 times total for the last couple of weeks.) and he told us to come back this Friday for our paper work.
Our translator said that we will probably be given a temporary "pass" on Friday until our visas come.

Student Visas

Tomorrow I go into the police station for the 5th time to try and make some progress with our visas. So far no progress has been made. Remember us as we try to get this accomplished. If we don't get our visas by this coming Friday we will have to leave the country for a day and then renter. This will give us 90 more days. It is an added pain and expense. It would require a 5 to 6 hour trip to the border, then a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride across the Straight of Gibraltar into Spain. Then back home. We are hoping we won't have to do all of that!!
Brian

  

  

IT'S HEATIN' UP

I thought I would try and give you an idea what the weather is like here in sunny northern Africa. Our days are around 110 degrees in the shade which means it's close to 130 or 135 degrees out in the sun. The nights are cooling down to 85 to 90 degrees. We are told it usually peeks around 150 degrees for a couple of weeks with the nights cooling down to 100 degrees. Can you say SWEAT!!! The past few days have required me to go out in the afternoon. When I stepped out our front door and started down the road the thought crossed my mind, "Will I make it out here?" In PA when it's really hot out we usually welcome a breeze. The wind here comes in off the desert this time of year. It reminds me of when you open an oven door and that first blast of heat rises up and hits you; that's literally what it's like when you step out your door. We keep our house closed up all day and sometimes open the windows in the evening if it cools off enough.
I moved Tori, Bradley, Brent, and Emma down into the basement to sleep. It's cooler down there! I moved Kelly into our room upstairs. Our room had an air conditioner built into the wall when we moved in. That's the only one in the house. We feel very blessed that we all can get a good night sleep!!
We have 5 fans that are usually running wide open throughout the day.
So please remember us as we try to cope with the heat and learn language.
Brian

Making new friends

  

  

 
Lot's of Storks in the country 

Now that's a tent!!

 
I don't know if this is a permenant dwelling or temporary. 

 
In the country donkey's are one of the main modes of transportation- either for people or anything else you can imagine. I have seen them hauling dirt, cement blocks, bags of "Sakcrete", bales, looose straw and grass, people, crates piled high filled with various things, produce etc... 

 
It's not uncommon for us to be eating dinner and the door bell rings. It's the girls waiting for Victoria to come out. 

Loven on Chester

  

 
Brad & Brent with some of the neighborhood guys 

 
We took a trip up into the mountains to visit a childrens haven. On our way back home these monkeys were along the road. 

 
Kelly is awe-struck at how this little guy can eat a banana so fast! 

  

Our first Moroccan invitation for lunch

 
7/7/06
Today we went to a Moroccan families house for lunch. This was our first invitation since we arrived. Pretty exciting. The man and his wife own the produce hanut at the end of our street. We have bought quite a bit of produce from them. The other day Donna was talking to them and the lady invited us for Friday lunch.
Today we went and she had a huge platter of kus kus, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, other vegs, chicken, rabbit.
As we were eating we would get quite thirsty. There was no water on the table(this is common) so we asked for mah(water). They brought us some but they didn't drink any. So after lunch I asked the husband why they do not drink water during the meal. Ask a simple question get a simple answer. He rubbed his belly and told me that if he drinks water he has less room for food!
So that's where they put it all!!
Brian 

"I am the vine and you are the branches"

 
This grape vine stretched up three stories. At the top it split into two and stretches the whole length of the house. Thousands of grapes. 

 
This vine was 8 inches thick at the base. I have never seen anything like it in my life. 

Some advantages of living in a country where you can't speak the language.

1.When your children yell out something in public that would normally embarrass you- no one else knows the difference!(not like that would ever happen to us :)

2.You never say hasty hurtful things. Until you say what you want to you have had plenty of time to think about it!

3. Nobody ever has to ask you to repeat what you said because you said it too fast.

Of course the disadvantages out-weigh the advantages but I'm trying to remain positive.:)
Brian

Three Mosque's in a row

 
We were driving through the city and I noticed these three Mosque's in a row. You can see the first tower up close and the other two in the distance. 

Hauling produce