117 Degrees Here in Morocco!

We broke down and had pizza tonight at a local tennis and swim club. It has a small restaurant non-members can go to. Four of us "older women" went and relaxed on the veranda of the outdoor part of the restaurant. The veranda overlooks the tennis courts and beyond to a lovely expanse of golden fields and gray goats. We laughed and talked, and de-briefed about the days events. This adventure is really new to all of us. It was so nice to eat something familiar and tasty.

I wondered why I was dragging today, and then I heard it was 117 degrees here. Why I wasn't lazing about at the beach is beyond me! Oh, right, I had meetings, and I was trying to find a pencil sharpener for my room. I asked my friend (Abduljalila?)  in the copy room for a classroom pencil sharpener, and he mentioned someone I needed to see about that. I went to the office of said pencil sharpener person, and she handed me a tiny silver sharpener and said I had to use it in her office.

I said I had 25 pencils to sharpen, and didn't she have a classroom sharpener. Nope. I had to fill out a maintenance form for that at a completely different office and then return the form to another office across campus. I mentioned my predicament to a passerby, and she suggested I buy one for the class. I thought, "Which hut hnoot would I buy it at???" But, I quietly kept going to the appropriate places to try to get the ball rolling for a pencil sharpener in my art room. I'll keep you posted. The current efforts took a good 20 minutes.

I walked back to my classroom, somewhat deflated and overheated, and I pulled out my file cabinet drawer and had a bite to eat in there. I took a few swigs of water. I'm still trying to be respectful of those who are keeping Ramadan. Ramadan is 3 and 1/2 weeks too long for me. I'm sure there is something I am not understanding about it all, although I do love the food associated with it.

I thought you might like to see our little tent mosque below our bedroom windows. Here it is. They just announced the call to the evening service which will take place in about a half hour.

Good news! Jills bed frame was at the bottom of our stairs, so she might have a proper frame under her mattress if we can lug that thing up the stairs in the next day or two. We have 65 stairs to the roof where we do wash, but I think it is about 25 to our door. Beautiful marble stairs. I can just see crashing the bed frame up those stairs. I hope it works out.

My school at sunset.

We have another try at setting up our classrooms tomorrow. I really like the size of my room and the view of the ocean from my room windows. It is going to be a pretty space in which to work. I'm just so exhausted, and I haven't even begun my first day of teaching. Everything is hard here. I just pray it gets easier eventually. Ta Bark Allah! (God bless you!)