Last night I felt quite proud of myself. I heated up my small shower room with my butane heater which frightens me, shaved in front of it while I heated up my big water kettle, then took a nice, warm, bucketbath. I'm getting quite good at taking them, and feel about 90% as clean as I would be if I took a regular shower. I even washed my hair and washed off my body so well that my beard shavings washed away so no itching today! Then I made my first real dinner here.. after eh.. 9 months in site? I'm not counting tuna and egg sandwiches, or my staple ramen soup dinners. Cut up some onion, washed and cubbed 3 potatos, cooked that up pretty good, then threw an egg on there. So good, I'm going to make that again for dinner. Hell, I might even get fancy and throw two eggs in there but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Food is very cheap here, which is a huge plus. A kilo of potatos cost me 5Dh, an onion cost me 0.5Dh, and the eggs were a gift from my host family. So that hearty meal cost me about 60 cents.
This morning I had to drag myself out of bed for 12 o'clock lunch at Bassu's house (my landlord). I say drag because I've been on a small kick of getting up at 1. Contrast this with getting up at 5 the first two weeks I've been back in Morocco and I think it cancels out. Anywho, it's been snowing and has been fairly cold (around 30F during the day) so when I got to Bassu's, his wife quickly ushered me inside to the stove and got that fired up so I could get warm. We talked for a while, then had delicious tagine with potatos, carrots, beans, onions, and chicken. Oh! and tomato. For dessert we had oranges and tea. Delicious. Best way to start my day. While I was leaving, Bassu and his wife told me (and always do) to stop only coming over to their house when they invite me because 'their house is my house'. I know they mean it, but maybe it's just inherent for me to feel guilty to just drop in. If it gets colder, I may do the drop-in.
On exiting Bassu's house, I began to read a text message I received from my sitemate, Tracy, and I apparently made the mistake of encroaching on one of the most viscious animal's space that lives here- the rooster. I was surprised when something hit my leg with some force, and looked down to see the cock, very angry, and gearing up for another attack. Maybe he thought I was looking at his chicken wife, or he just woke up on the wrong side of the roost, but he was displeased. He flew at me again but I kind of kicked him off me... then I ran away like a little girl. No one saw, thank goodness.
Afterwards I went to the cafe I usually go to and watched the news and protests in Egypt on the television with some friends there. The kids who play pool there convinced me to play, but I had to have a partner, and we lost. Not counting it on my personal billiards record. Anyway, the owner of the cafe speaks some english, and I asked him to help me with a list of all the Auberges and Gites in my site. I got the list from the Ministry of Tourism in our province capitol, but it only lists the owner's names so I needed to know what villages they were in (there at 27 villages in total here). My goal is to create a book and website that lists all the gites/hotels in my site so tourists can see their options when coming here. I want to then expand it to throughout my province as there are many natural wonders here. Any Moroccan I talk about it to seems to really like the idea.
After I got information on the nearly 40 hotels here, I decided to come back home. I feel bad staying inside today but it's cold and snowing. When the sun is out I hate being in my house and would rather be outside talking with people, but today doesn't seem to be an option. Suppose that's all for now. Went on a rant, there, apologies. Here's a picture from my house/porch to where the snow will be coming from in about an hour, I'd say. Melts in the morning though.
LP Butz
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