Baa, Ram, You

Oh weekends! Always lovely, and always over too quickly! This weekend I enjoyed staying in Meknes. I hung out with fellow ISA students, visited the Medina, had a girls' night, and woke up Sunday feeling tired but happy! Weekends are usually the only time it works out for me to run because of my school schedule and refusal to wake up before 6:30 am. I usually run with Alaina, a fun girl from Seattle. Yesterday, however, Majda asked if she could join us on the run. So at a little before 7am, Majda and I headed out the door to go meet Alaina. We have a usual route that I absolutely love, but we switched it up yesterday and ran through town. Majda kept up for the first kilometer but then slowed to a walk and told us to go on without her. In the middle of our run, we were joined by another Moroccan runner. She kept pace with us for about a kilometer but then also slowed back down to a walk. We finished our run feeling in shape and kind of like rockstars.


I ate breakfast with the family, and Moustaffa's brother from Casablanca came over. We discussed American films made in Morocco, and it was an excellent opportunity for me to practice my French. Then Anne sang while Amin played along on piano. SOOO impressive, he just listened to her sing and made up the music as they went along.



In the afternoon, Majda took us kids to a farm to pick out a ram for Eid, the holiday that celebrates the Abraham and Isaac story. The farm was right on the outskirts of Meknes, and we were greeted warmly by the owner and his wife. They had a young son who must have been about 7, and the Mrs. had a baby girl tied around her back. We talked for a bit and then went over to the barn to pick out our ram. There were only 35 or so rams, but it was still a process to pick out the ram for this most important holiday. Most of the large ones had already been tagged (by tagged, I mean that their ears had been tagged) for other people. The Mrs. would pull out a ram for Majda to inspect, then we'd go into the barn to look at more, then another would be pulled out. The odd thing about sheep is that the one that was being taken out of the barn, resisted with all its might, while the others tried to sneak out the door behind the chosen one. It is like the older sibling that HAS to go to school but doesn't want to and the younger sibling that desperately wants to go to school and tries to sneak onto the bus.


By the time Majda had decided on which ram was perfect, the Mrs. had headed to the kitchen. The owner is a pretty old man, so I don't think he does much manual labor anymore. Thus, Majda sent me into the barn to drag out our ram. Then Anne and I held the horns as the owner pierced his ear with the tag that marked him as ours. I couldn't watch.

Financial matters were settled, and mint tea was brought out. Then the Mrs. brought out some Moroccan crepes and bread with freshly squeezed olive oil. I had never had fresh olive oil before, and I wasn't sure if I ever would again, so I enjoyed every bite of the delicious treat!

And I know what you're all thinking, how can you finish off such a "Moroccan" day? Well, with Russian music and dance at the big green dome in Meknes of course!