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Published: August 23rd 2011
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Wednesday 17th - day sixteen Zak took the french couch surfers into the forest today for a short walk. They wanted to see monkeys in the wild and they did. I stayed home. They left later in the day.
Thursday 18th - day seventeen It's official! I'm turning into a hibernating bear! Each day I sleep longer and eat less. A lot of food is not necessary when the only physical thing I do is get out of bed, shower, catch a taxi to Zak's parents for breakfast, walk the short distance to the cafe, drink coffee for a few hours then return home and eat again only to sleep the day away again. That's the cycle of routine I have now fallen into.
Friday 19th - day eighteen Tonight as we sat in the cafe, one of the town's 'crazies' Rachid gave me a lolly. Yes, I know what you are thinking, why am I sitting in the cafe with a crazy?, why is he giving me lollies? and how come I am on first name terms with a town crazy? I can answer these 3 questions with a simple answer - this is Morocco
and this is normal. Anyway the crazy guy Rachid is not the point to this story, the point is the lolly. It was aniseed candy and I am now addicted to these very cheap and yummy sweets!!
Saturday 20th - day nineteen As I sit in the cafe each night at the center square I notice how crowded they are. The only other venue that I see more overpopulated are the mosques. A few times I have passed one at prayer time and many have mats or blankets strewn outside on the ground to cater for the overflow. Although I haven't seen this at the main mosque, peering in the open doors reveals that it is filled to capacity.
It's lucky for us that Zak's cousins get to the cafe earlier than us and are able to get a prime positioned table that we can all sit at. Every night I look around all the cafes and I still am the only female occupying a seat in any of them. Only exception has been the odd female tourist, but they just have a coffee and move on. They do not linger for hours like the locals and I
do, sitting watching the pedestrian traffic go about their business.
Sunday 21st - day twenty To break the monotony, Zak suggested I get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow and accompany him to the small souk that is down our street on a Monday. This was suggested only after I had a bit of a bitch session and threatened to leave the country due to lack of interest and sheer boredom!!!
When I complained about the fact that all I do is sleep, sleep, eat a little, drink a little and then sleep, sleep some more - he had the hide to tell me that this is Ramadan and I knew it would be like this. What?? I knew it would be like this?? How the hell did I know what Ramadan might be like??? There's not even any point in arguing as there is no kiss and make up at the end.
Monday 22nd - day twenty-one So Zak woke me just after 2pm, I dressed and we walked the 100 meters down the street to the souk. I am happy to report that the sight and smell of the fruit, vegetable and herbs did not want to make me heave this time round. This was a comforting thing. We met up with Yousef (Zak's brother) and Father doing a bit of vege shopping also. It was hot out today. As I've been sleeping away most of the daylight hours I have not noticed the heat so much. I can tell you by the time we got home I was fang-ing for a nice cool, wet drink - but by this stage in the day there was only 1 1/2 hours to go until Iftar so I waited and just rinsed out my mouth (without swallowing!!) to cool off. I think this is allowed!! If not, doh, too late!!!
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