Eid and Throne Day

Ramadan ended this week with a two-day celebration of Eid and Throne Day. The end of Ramadan is all about spending time with family and being grateful for each other, kind of like Thanksgiving in the States but with more religious context. One of my host sisters, Basma, had breakfast with us on Eid and then left to go visit family in the countryside. It was hard to have to begin the goodbye-process so early even though we still had five days left in Morocco. Our cool aunts and younger cousin came over to the house and we must have laughed for three hours straight. Charlotte brought down her computer into the sitting room and we all played with Photobooth for at least and hour and a half. The delighted looks on their faces to take pictures with us, especially when our faces were contorted and we were making funny expressions made me feel like we were truly part of the family. Later in the day, a bunch of kids from the program came over for tea since they were heading to the medina, which is right next to our house. When Charlotte and I told Mama that they were going to the medina, she insisted that they spend time at our house for Eid and wouldn’t take no for an answer. We ended up with Charlotte, Sam, Will, Devyn, Ryan, and me all at the table drinking mint tea and eating yummy Eid treats (some that I made!) along with two host aunts, a host cousin, and some neighbors. The hospitality in this country never ceases to amaze me, my host mother must have used every tea glass she owned to make sure we all had tea. The next day was Throne Day, a day to celebrate the King. It is a national holiday as well so we got to stay home from school for the third day in a row that week. Sophia and Isa came over and we all worked on our final projects that were to be presented on Friday (eek). Sophia, Charlotte, and I were doing our project on tradition Moroccan spices, so to do some research we prepare a tagine with Mama for dinner that night. It was a chicken tagine with onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, and saffron. As soon as I get home I am going to try to find a suitable substitute for a tagine dish to cook in so I can prepare my favorite Moroccan food at home. Later, we went out to Mohammed V Avenue, the downtown of Rabat, to watch the festivities for the King. There was a concert going on with traditional Moroccan music plus military exhibitions on beautiful white horses. Overall the three days at home before our last two days were huge blessings. Charlotte and I got to spend the maximum amount of time with our host family, although at this point I think that it is more appropriate to call them our actual family.