Winding Down

>Well, I have less than a week left here in Morocco, and I must say I won't miss the frigid temperatures, although melancholy is beginning to set in as I contemplate leaving Ali, family and friends here. I fly out of Morocco next Monday and after a week in Europe I will head home. Ali will join me in Berkeley for a few weeks, but he will return to Morocco for the spring semester at Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane (AUI). That means I get to come back for spring break! In January, Ismail, the youngest of the Khejjou clan, will start graduate work in international relations at AUI. Ali are I are very proud of him as being accepted at AUI is no small feat.>We spent a lovely Thanksgiving with American teachers from AUI last week. Ali and a colleague went out the night before to find a turkey for the event. He came home after three hours with three, rather lean turkeys. The turkeys were alive when he picked them out and they were still warm, although perfectly plucked, when he brought them home. They were undoubtedly the freshest turkeys I have ever eaten. They were well received at the Thanksgiving table and just like home, we ate and drank too much.They say it is about to snow in Ifrane and I believe it might. Ali and everyone else around here are thrilled at the prospect, but I am not moved. I have started to store water for him though as they say the pipes freeze up, which interrupts the flow of water into the house, sometimes for days and a time. Lovely. One friend said that it got so bad after three days of no plumbing that she and her husband had to leave town.

I have come down with a virus of some type so I have been passing the days huddled on the couch wrapped in my heating blanket and eating chicken soup. I will be fine as long as the plumbing doesn't freeze up.