cleaning out the house and Passover with the Imam

Haven't written for a few days because we have been getting ready for the girls vacation and things have been very hectic with exams etc.  At night the girls start really panicking about their homework and frantically asking for my help with their English assignments.  I know a lot now about how to order in a restaurant and the meaning and responsibilities of citizenship.  Very strange system indeed.....Anyway, one of the girls that I have been working with told me that she got a 17 out of 20 on her English test, so I felt that I had perhaps accomplished something.


Manou (volunteer retired French teacher from Belgium) left today.  It has been great having her as a roommate for three weeks and she has been doing wonderful work with the girls on their French.  The problem is that, for the most part,the girls are so far behind that a few weeks isn't really going to make much of a difference.  For the girls who are in the first year of the Baccalaureate program (11th grade), they take their first year exams this year, including their French exams and then their others next year.  For the girls in the math/science track (most of them) they are going to have major problems when they get to the university since all the science/math etc classes are taught in French, not Arabic.  French is definitely the 2nd language of this country but it is a first language among the most educated people.

how we eat couscous on Fridays

Today Manou and Latifa and I went next door to visit the boy's government boarding house which houses 200 boys in a house built for 80.  It was the most disgusting and depressing place I have ever been.  It was institutional, smelling of a combination of sweat and disinfectant.  The boys sleep in rooms with maybe 40 beds and they sleep three to a bed.  And the parents pay for the privilege of having their children sleep there!!!  The boys (and the same is true at the girls boarding house) do nothing to take care of the house and it was a horrible mess with broken windows and trash all over.  What a difference between that and Dar Asni where the girls keep their rooms spotless and all pitch in and help the cleaning woman with her daily cleaning.  For example, today, before they left the house for their two week vacation, we all washed all the floors, all the sheets, all the slip covers for the sofas etc.  We all got caught up in the need to return to a sparkling clean house when we get back.  I figured since I didn't have to clean my house.....why not do it here....and it felt good pitching in and doing stuff with the girls.

the wash before vacation

yup....here are their nice clean prayer rugs

After the girls left Latifa and I went to the hammam where I got most of my skin scrubbed off and then promptly went back home and fell asleep for a few hours. We are spending the night in the house among the hanging sheets and made a yummy dinner of mashed potatos and lots of onions and peppers...Tomorrow we are going to Marrakesh and staying at her sister's house.  Her brother-in-law is an Imam so it should be very interesting to go there....ironic to spend the Passover with a Muslim....just part of my experience here.  Monday I am going to go get fitted for my new lovely jilaba that I am having made for our big Open Day here on April 29th and then I am going on to Casablanca.  Leaving for PHL on Tuesday.  It will be very strange indeed to be back in the US.  It feels like I have been away a lot longer than three months.