Last sunset in 2008

In a few minutes we'll be in 2009.....I captured this seagull in flight the other evening and I'm using it to symbolize all the beautiful sunsets we've witnessed in 2008, all the wonderful days we've had to enjoy. God Bless and keep you this year and may we all see many more beautiful sunsets.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2009

MEILLEURS VOEUX

SANAA SAIDA

ASSAGWAS MBARKI

Pictures from this past week

This is the great group of gals that got together on the 19th of December to make Christmas cookies. Home made Christmas cookies have been a tradition with me for many , many years..
But since last year this tradition has been adopted among my Agadir friends , too.
I bring the recipes, the " special"ingredients AND the translations and everyone comes equipped with a rolling pin , an apron and tupperware for taking home!!
It's great fun: making the dough, rolling them out, cutting and painting them...baking and TASTING them..
I love days like this one.......we work, create, sip tea and snack, but most of all we laugh!!
We started around 14:00 and left at 18:00 each one clutching a box of cookies.....Layla had her goodies , too, plus a house filled with the wonderful lingering fragrance of warm sweet spicey Christmas cookies.

Hail , hail the gang's all here!!

Making candy cane cookies.

Very concentrated efforts go into mixing the dough!!

This picture is a bit out of order...the cookies are already baked and on the platters.

Do you recognize them??!!

Helen's cutting out the gingerbread stars, trees and boys!!

Another event leading up to Christmas was our Christmas concert on the 20th of December. Over the years our small international choir at church has participated in many concerts for Christmas, but for differents reasons, we've not been able to do one since 2005. This year was a real challange as we had only about five weeks to put it together.

We were "the veterans" as I call us, the small group who have sung with the choir for many years , and the "reinforcements", a dozen African students from our parish who are here in Agadir studying at the different Universites. We made a remarkable team. The kids, as I call them, added not only voices, but energy and enthusiasm to our choir. They had lots of new music to learn...classic composers that they're not familiar with, but they didn't falter, and together we presented a great program. The concert was a big success.

Two hundred and fifty people crowded into our beautiful little church. At the end of the concert everyone was all on their feet , clapping,and cheering. As they came to congratulate us, their red rosey cheeks testified to the Christmas joy they'd experienced through our music. I think there's nothing more satifying and fulfilling for a choir than to know they've pronfondly touched their audience. For us too, it was a wonderful!

Here a series of pictures taken during the concert . You can't really see that much, but you will constat how full the sanctuary was and the enthusiam of the group in the last picture.

The next series of pictures were taken on the 22nd and 24th of December...The kids from our parish put on the natuvity play for the eight o'clock mass, and of course they had to practice a bit first!! The older kids read the text and the younger ones inacted it.. I was too busy to get pictures on the 24th(because of th choir that was singing, too) so I took snaps of the rehersals.

I took MANY more than I'm posting, now as I look at them, I think maybe I should've added more...

I trust you'll enjoy these pictures even if you don't know the children..they may take you back MANY YEARS to when you were in a nativity play for Chrstmas.

And to bring this to a close, some pictures of our delicious Christmas Eve dinner with friends.

Everything was delicious and the fire in the fire place added a lovely winter glow everything!!

This was just out of this world..mouth watering delicious!!

Beautiful platters, a festive menu!

Christmas Day.....more friends and more GOOD FOOD...hmmmm!

All for now....must stop and let YOU digest everything!!

See you next year! xoxooxo

Christmas Greetings and Blessings to All!!

Signs of Christmas

Christmas is almost here, but as you know it is not a holiday in Morocco.

There are no glowing christmas trees in the center of town. No santa clauses strolling

the sidewalks or shopping centers. The towns are not decorated, nor are there big crowds

hustling and bustling everywhere. We have no snow in Agadir, and just today the first christmas trees arrived in the market.

And yet for those of us who look forward to celebrating Christmas every year there are undeniable signs that Christmas time is approaching.

I play lots of Christmas cd's, bake christms cookies and send card.

I've already posted a page about Advent, candles and wreaths, evidence of the nearing of the nativity. But these manifestations are apparent only in our homes.

Today I'd like to share with you pictures of what over the years I've come to associate with my favorite holiday..

First sign that we're nearing December are the aleo that begin to bloom,
in parks and yards all over town.

They are a bright orange, and the birds love to drop in
for a drink of the sweet fluid in their petals.


Here's a close up of a few we have on our little balcony.


Another shot, with the swaying palm branches in the background.


As the days shorten, and the nights grow longer, the pointsettas also
begin to bloom and reach for the sky!

These pointsettas are so small next to the beautiful and full, red and white ones we

had when we lived in the villa. But they're still pretty and festive!

This one is near a grocery town just down the street, there are lots

of pointsettas in Agadir.

These trees , too, just explode in December, I think it's called(Spathodea) the Tulip Tree

of Gabon.

It's so full of color and energy!!

And last but not least the (Schinus Mole). We call it the "false pepper tree"

because of it's small spicey-peppery smelling berries...that when crushed make you sneeze as if they were real pepper, but they're not! The tree I photographed is small. There are many big ones in town, they line many of our avenues.

These branches are so beatiful and smell good ,too.

I've often used them in table decorations or in my advent wreaths.

Don't the berries look tempting enough to taste?

I don't advise it!!

Beautiful flowers, trees exploding in jubilating colors, cooler days, and bluer skies,
these my friends are proof to me, that even in Agadir, Christmas is just around the corner!!

A Very Merry, Meaningful Christmas to you!!

Aïd AL- ADHA

The Holiday of the Sacrifice (Aïd AL-ADHA), also known as l'Aïd Kibir (the Big Holiday) or "la Fête du Mouton" (the Sheep Holiday) falls this year the 9th of December.

If Ramadan is the holiest of the Moslim Holidays, Aïd AL-ADHA is the biggest and happiest, except , of course for the five million sheep who will be sacrificed. It sounds pretty impressive, I know, killing five million sheep in the same day...but if you think about it, how many turkeys are slaughtered in America between Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays?

Or how many beef for daily hamburgers?

The l'aïd Kibir recalls Abraham, who because of his trust in, and obeissance to God was ready to kill his son. But God stopped his hand before it could strike the youth and brought him a lamb to sacrifice instead.

For this most important of holidays, every family kills a sheep. Many families are so big that more than one sheep is bought and sacrificed.
This year Morocco has produced enough sheep themselves to supply the demand. This has not always been the case. There were years when sheep were imported for the fête.
The Sheep are on sell in open markets each one marked on the nose, or shoulder, or back, by the owner with a colorful sign of some kind, so even if the sheep mingle while waiting to be sold, each one will still know which sheep are his.

Buying a sheep is like buying a Christmas tree.
Each family wants the very nicest one possible for what they can afford.

The sheep must be sane, without blemish. The sheep sell at between 2,500dh-5,000 dh ($260-$520) and on up, of course, which considering the minimum wage is 2000.dh a month, is a hearty sum . Often to please the family, especially the children with a beautiful sheep, people go in debt.
And , as surprising as it may seem, it's not the size or weigh of the sheep that makes the difference in the price but the "head gear"! That is , the horns!
The rams with the most handsome, spiraled, pointed horns are those who are sold for the most.

Once the sheep has been chosen he becomes almost sacred. They are fed well and beds of fresh hay are made for them.
Not all families have yards or barns in which to keep the sheep until the moment it's sacrificed, so sheep are kept on balconies, in indoor patios, or in small rooms. Having a sheep in the house is the source of great excitement and distraction for the children. They pet it, feed it, "baaa " to it, come to keep it company . It becomes a special guest.
For days before the "fête", sheep can be heard bleating from one apartment or house to another.

The day of the l'Aïd begins very early for everyone. The women especially arise first and great the morning by making pastries, crêpes and tea for those awaiting breakfast . Platters of cookies ( that were made earlier in the week) are prepared already in anticipation of all the friends and family who will be passing during the day to exchange holiday greetings and share in a glass of mint tea.
They also must prepare the kitchen for all the activity it will see!!

Verses from the Coran can be heard coming from the mosques, or on radios. Sweet smelling incense fills the homes and drifts into the streets.

A special l'Aïd prayer takes place around 08:30 am, afterwhich, at the desired moment an expert and experienced hand severs the carotid artery which makes for a quick and painless death. He who kills the sheep must be a pious man. One who has been intiated in the tradition and must know the rules and prayers that accompany the act. He learns this from years of working with another pious man.

Today, it's more and more rare that in every family there is a man qualified to make the sacrifice; so many qualified butchers , make the rounds from home to home , sacrificing the rams for the sum of 150dh-200dh.

Once the sacrifice is over every bit of the sheep is recouperated and used.

As the festivites and the day advances , the women of the family join forces and set to work cleaning the sheep, the patios where it was killed, and preparing meals for those already present and those who will be passing by.

The sheep is not consumed in just any way, there is an order. For lunch on the first day brochettes are made from the heart and liver, and tajines are made with the stomach and intestines( which have of course been washed and and extra cleaned ).

NOW, before you start to wrinkle up your noses, let me say these dishes are DELICIOUS...........

Later on for the evening, couscous is made.

During the two days of the fête the women donnot stop cooking and the family and their guests donnot stop eating and drinking mint tea.

The children are given gifts for the holiday..usually new clothes which are worn for the day.

In the countryside, where refrigerators are rare to non existant, the sheep is wrapped up with a clean cloth and hung in a cool room or a shaded spot in the patio, and as the week wears on , each day a bit of the meat is cut off and used. There is also a tradition for drying bits of the ribs, and conserving them for special cous couses during the year...

In the town, people not only have refrigerators but also freezers. So they cut the meat into sections, or take it to a butcher and have him cut it up "profesionally" and take it home to freeze it.

For at least two weeks after the Sheep Holiday, no mutton can be found in any of the market places anywhere!! Not surprising, huh?

We have shared with dear friends in many, many Sheep holidays, especially when the kids were at home.

Tomorrow, however, we will be staying at home just relaxing and enjoying the silence of the city completly absorbed by the Aid Al-ADHA.





Before arriving to where the sheep are kept on the market, we pass mountains of bails of hay.

Hay to be used to make nice clean beds for the sheep, and also to feed them




Hafida next to the wood coal, that will be sold for cooking the brochettes and many tajines!



This was just one of the many "shops" selling wood coal!




We finally find men selling their sheep.

And here are more sheep

There were hundreds of little herds like this

The sheep with the black spot also has a black face which he decided to turn when I snapped the picture!

A few more

You'll probably never think of a leg of lamb again after this posting..

I hope I've not bored you, and who knows maybe some day you'll decide to see it all first hand!!

Have a great day, today, wherever you are!