Sheep Souk (market) 2 days before the Holiday

Today Brian and I went with our friend to the market where Moroccans can go and buy a sheep for the Aid Kibir (pronounced Ku beer). I was so overwhelmed with the experience and I want to try to share some of that with you. Some words that come to mind are...smelly, noisy, sheep, crowded,more sheep, CULTURE, anticipation, dusty, still more sheep, urgency, children.....We walked among the sheep and people. There wasn't pens for these sheep, just men holding them together by ropes around their necks or horns. Sometimes these sheep would try to get away by jumping up and over other sheep. I got stepped on by both sheep and people. And till we left I was doing what everyone else did and just took my hand and pushed the sheep out of my way as I tried to walk. I had fuzzy's from the wool hanging on my skirt and the bottom of our shoes....well lets just say there was NO WAY I could enter my house without washing them first!!!!!
I was able to get some pictures and I wish that you could smell and hear what I did.....I will try to explain more of this holiday as it unfolds.

Like Sheep without a Shepherd......

Sons and daughters of Ishmael looking for a sheep to kill in memory of the ram that Abraham sacrificed.

Sheep Transportation....

Sheep Taxi????

Just before we left I saw this sheep in the back seat of the car and all I could see was his feet sticking up in the air above the seat.

And some sheep had to walk!!

FAMILY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

We decided to go away for a day as a family to Rabat. Rabat is about a 1 3/4 hour drive away. It's a town that is bigger and more modern then Fes. We went to the "Mega Mall" where we stayed the whole day except for eating at the Pizza Hut. We had a wonderful time as a family enjoying new things and being with each other.
Brian

This was the first attraction. The children saw this and thought that they just had to ride on it. We don't get out much:)

We don't have any of these in Fes.

Pizza Hut!!!!!!!!

This was a very special treat!!! This was the children's first in 8 1/2 months.

We had lot's of fun bowling

The children said that they liked skating the best. It was a first for all of the children

The children enjoyed bouncing around:)

Before heading home we shared a cotton candy

Christmas evening service

We had a very enjoyable Christmas evening service. It consisted mostly of reading scripture and singing. It was extra special because it was divided up into French, Arabic, Spanish, and English songs and readings. I enjoyed helping sing a few songs with the English group.
Brian

Christmas Sunday

I sat in church on Sunday wishing I had my camera along so that I would be able to show you a different kind of surroundings then your used to. If you were to walk in the back door this is what you would see- different banners written in Spanish and French, men and women sitting huddled in heavy jackets and some beanie hats and gloves. The speaker was wearing a winter jacket. I'm guessing it was close to 50 degrees inside the church. No worries about someone nodding off to sleep. Never-the-less it was a good service and we worshipped Jesus Christ and remembered His birth just the same as all over the world...warm or cold:)
Brian

These next three pics are the results of my decision to allow the boys to juice oranges themselves:(

Their sister decided to capture it on camera

Brent the brain

The other day it was close to lunch time and Brent asked me if he could go out to the hanut and by some candy. I told him he may but that he needed to wait untill after lunch to eat it. Time passed and Brent came in the front door announcing that because his hands were full after he left the hanut he put his candy in his mouth to carry it back home. What a guy!
Brian

A Chocolate Cake Recipe in Arabic!

This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe written in Arabic. Brian made a deal with his teacher that if he makes a cake and brings it to school that she must sing Happy Birthday in all the languages she knows. Everyone liked the cake and a few of the teachers asked for the recipe. I decided to write it in Arabic and had my friend Amina help me. What I learned was fascinating! In this country they don't use measuring cups and spoons like we do in America. It is measured by a standard "tea cup" and a small bowl. Also they use large or small spoons, that's all for measuring spoons! I was told that every house in Morocco has these "measuring items". This recipe was translated into Moroccan measurements. I look forward to some time in the future when I will learn to cook like these women. They are wonderful cooks and their method of cooking is so interesting. I will be sure to share more with you then.

Fresh Peas!!

It was about 80 degrees today so Emma sat outside to haul the peas.
Brian

Boy's Day

A boy's day is when we allow our two boys to invite some of their friends over. I made them these cardboard shields and they painted them. They had fun chasing each other around our neighborhood.
Brian

Kelly is peeking under the curtain that we put up to make our "warm room"

Good news and bad news

The good news is that this is the second day straight that our Internet has been working wonderfully! The bad news... I don't feel like I have real interesting to write about.
Our Temp outside is ranging from a low of 45 degrees at night to a high of 75 degrees during the day. Our inside temp has been holding steady at 60 degrees for weeks. As you probably remember the houses here have no insulation. We have curtained off one of our family rooms and that is now referred to as "the warm room" because we have a propane heater in there.
Schooling- Right now we are taking an Aid Kabeer class. It is a two week language class in which we learn more Arabic and all about this day in which the Muslims celebrate Ishmael being rescued from the alter by a ram in the bushes as Abraham was about to kill him. Some how through time the Muslims have Ishmael on the alter and not Issac. Anyhow every married male Muslim is required to buy a sheep and kill it on this special day. We live in a city of about a million people so we are talking about a lot of sheep. It will be a very interesting day to observe!!
Blessings,
Brian

Plodding Along

Right now the Internet is working so I'll try and give an update. Hopefully by the time I'm done writing this it will be running fast enough to post this:)
Since my parent's left life has been pretty ho hum! I don't have a lot of exciting things to share or entertaining pictures:) Eat, sleep, study language, repeat. That's us!!
A big blessing has come our way. Friends of ours that live here in Morocco left for the States for 7 weeks so we get to use their very nice vehicle! Wow, a vehicle makes life so much easier not to mention the time it saves. It's especially nice this time of year when it's the cold rainy season!
Although language can be tough and frusterating we are encouraged as we look back and see how far we have come.
As Christmas get's closer it's a very different experience living in a country that doesn't celebrate the birth of Christ. There is no word here in the local Arabic dialect for Christmas. Remember us!
Brian

Internet

You haven't seen much activity on our blog lately. I'm paying for a decent speed connection. For the last two weeks I'm lucky if I have 56kbs which at fastest is dial up speed. Often we can't even get our e-mails. That means of course then that we can't Skype or use our vonage phone. We're praying that it improves soon!!
Brian