Since I didn’t have tinternets while we were in Temara, I wrote this up separately. Because I have a poor memory, and didn’t want to miss anything out. Enjoy.
Day 1 – Friday
The journey to Rabat takes about two and a half hours by road, and was well accompanied by some funny conversation from Aziz and a crazy sausage and olive sandwich and chips. It was over in no time and we arrived in the family flat in Temara which is a town about 11km from Rabat itself. The family have a flat in every city in the country by the looks of things. It was really nice, felt like home right away. We went to bed late, as usual.
Day 2 – Saturday
Wedding day, the wedding of a cousin, so very close family. The day started pretty early when we went to the medina searching for slippers for BMS. She is quite tall and the Kaftan she was borrowing was short, so she couldn’t wear high heels. We spent a good while walking around only to buy the wrong colour. Never mind. After lunch I went to the Hammam with Halima. Its an experience every western girl should have – go sit in a steamy room with a load of naked women you don’t know, and get really really clean. I have honestly never felt so clean in my life, or seen so many boobs. It was a good experience though. The only problem was, it made me tired, so I fell asleep with wet hair. About a half hour later when I woke up, we were getting ready for the wedding and I could feel the illness which I’ve been fighting since Wednesday last creeping up on me. The wedding started at 9, with a meeting of all the grooms family. There I met Mehdi, a friend of BMB from university, who firstly mistook me for a Moroccan (HAHAHA) and then kept disappearing with BMB to the car where they had a stash of vodka…In retrospect, I probably should have joined them. The whole groom’s family then trekked all together to the main event. There was dancing, and music, and amazingness, and it would have been awesome had I not had one of the worst headaches I have ever experienced in my life. I felt like death, but I didn’t want to say anything in case I ruined it for the others, which in retrospect was stupid, because it meant I had a really terrible night, full of people laughing because I looked so tired, and trying to speak to me in Arabic. We finally made it home at 6am, where I took some painkillers and gratefully fell asleep. Photos of this will follow.
Day 3 – Sunday
We got up at 1.30 after our ridiculous night. I had a healthy glass of Berocca (if you haven’t had it, don’t. Unless you are really ill) before we went for lunch at an aunties house. My extended Moroccan family is so huge, I have stopped trying to work out how people are related. Suffice to say that the dinner was nice, and people didn’t go on at me too much in Arabic, though there was a quite significant amount. Then me, BMB and BMS went to meet with Mehdi, and we all went for coffee and chats. It was good. We had dinner at home, and I got a lovely early night.
Day 4 – Monday
A semi-early morning, starting at 9.30 meant that we managed to do a lot with our day. In the morning BMB and BMS took me to the Oudayas (google it) which was lovely because I have some real memories of it there. BMB had to buy a birthday present for his secret girlfriend because he was going to hers for dinner, so we headed towards the big supermarket Marjane in Hay Ryad, the really rich part of Rabat. On the way there we got lost, and by complete chance ended up driving down the avenue next to the road where I used to live. It was super exciting for me. We came home for lunch and I spent an hour and a half agonising over an e-mail, because though I could access the internet there, it was SLOOW. And I mean that in capitals. Spent the afternoon just relaxing, while Aziz went and got the sheep we were going to kill on Wednesday. It was really pretty, and I felt genuinely really sad for it. I held back from naming it, which I think was probably a good choice. I spent most of the evening playing Pokémon on my laptop, a fact which I’m not proud of. Actually that’s a lie. I am very proud of my Pokémon.
Day 5 – Tuesday
The family left me to sleep. Bad plan. You see, I love my sleep, and if you don’t wake me up, I just keep sleeping and sleeping. Thankfully the sheep woke me at 12, but I could have gone on much longer. Maybe I should have as well, because I woke up dizzy and disorientated, and no amount of food and drink cured me for hours. Lunch was good but I could hardly enjoy it I felt so off. Then my laptop decided to inexplicably bluescreen on me. I take great pride in being able to fix things, but nothing I did for my poor baby computer worked. It broke my heart, and completely destroyed any good feeling I’d had. Finally at about 4.30 the kids and I decided to go out. We visited some friends of BMB’s who have a new baby girl, who is just the most beautiful little thing you ever clapped eyes on. Then we went for coffee with BMB’s secret girlfriend, Mehdi, and BMS’s secret boyfriend. I felt much perked up after that which was nice, and when I got home decided to full restore my laptop. I lost my programs, but kept all my files, and it worked, which is all that matters. I went to bed in a much better state than I woke up.