Sachel and Kari's Trip

Sachel and Kari just came to visit for a week and the trip could not have gone better. They arrive on a Wednesday where I picked them up from the airport, where Sachel was sporting as much BSU gear that can be worn at one time and they had matching old school back packing packs. We then took the bus to Marrakesh center where I introduced them to the chaos and they got to meet Doug for the first time. We started the night by eating at my favorite pizza place.
Our second day was spent in the market bartering and buying so much stuff. Doug helped me bargain and become friends with all of the shopkeepers. Marrakesh is a really busy city with lots of markets and lots of people going in every direction besides with the crowd. Sachel and Kari did great and really seemed to enjoy this madness. That evening I took them to a restaurant that I claimed was similar to Alice in Wonderland, but no one agrees with me on this. I will take their word for it because I am the only who has not seen the movie. It was a great meal and to my surprise it was insanely expensive. Sachel will never let me live this down, but when I am rich I owe him and Kari a really expensive meal that actually has an Alice and Wonderland theme.
The next day we were off to Essaouira, which Doug and I were excited about because we were totally worn out from Marrakesh. Essa is a laid-back beach town with a lot less tourists and less scooters darting at you from all different directions. Once we got settled into our apartment, that I had rented, Sachel and Kari took a long nap. They claimed that Marrakesh was great and easy to handle but this nap proved them wrong. We spent the evening playing games and I lost at a ruthless game of Jenga. Grandma you would be happy, after our Jenga game we played a traditional game of Scrabble, which Kari won. There was a wedding right outside of our window; Sachel and Kari got to see what that is like from the distance of our window.
It was back to the shops the second day. After we bought some paintings Doug got us stuck in a jewelry shop where we proceeded to sit down and have tea. At this point I knew we were done for and would be forced to buy something. But I went with it and the man continued to show us horrible jewelry and we continued to tell him how great his shit was. Then the time came to leave and he asked us what we wanted and we fished for something to buy so we could get the hell out of there. Kari and I found a pair of earrings that the man tried to sell to us for an outrageous price. We talked him down to a price we were willing to pay and ran. It was a really interesting monumental experience in Kari and Sachel’s trip.
We walked around in the wind some more where Sachel found a great Indian Chief ring and Kari found a great pink stone ring, and then finished the day with a nice Italian dinner. That night we stayed up late talking about life and Morocco. Kari started not feeling well this night and went to bed early and then started the next day feeling like someone was hammering on her joints. We tried to take it easy this day. We saw all of the fish markets and sat at the beach for a while. Then it was off to Imi N Tlit (my village).
In my village we made great meals and tried to regain some strength in our tired bodies. The first full day Kari and Sachel were in my site Kari was really sick but she was a trooper and went to my host families for lunch. After the first extremely awkward half hour my host sisters then warmed up to Kari and my host brother Hussein was a terror and started hitting people like he always does. We had a great tajine (a traditional Moroccan dish). While we were eating lunch my host mom scolded my host dad, her son that he did not fix us tea, so after lunch we had to stay for tea. The room was filled with my neighbors because they wanted to check out Kari and Sachel. With curious eyes burning into them Sachel and Kari did great and got along well with everyone. After tea we had to take a group photo, which became a ridiculous event because everyone had to change their clothes and they couldn’t decide where to have this picture. Naturally, they decided to take it by the cow in the back yard. We were really confused by this but followed.
After lunch with the host family we went to the neddy. This was great because all my neddy girls attacked me like they always do with hundreds of questions about Kari mostly. It was so happy to get to share this time with Sachel, Kari, and Doug because they got to truly see what I do when I am in my site.
We had one last morning in my site and we had planned on going to the clinic but found that it was closed because my nurse decided not to show up to work. That is life here in Morocco. We accepted this and moved on to the argan cooperative. Sachel and Kari and I got the opportunity to break open argan shells. Sachel was not a natural at this but as we know he never gives up. Kari was a natural after she figured it out. The women love it when I bring people there so they really enjoyed this. We got to see the oil processing room that my host sister runs and we learned that it takes two kilos of argan nuts to make a liter and a half of oil. I have no idea what that means but my guess is that it is a lot of nuts for not very much oil.
We then proceeded to make our way back to Marrakesh so Sachel and Kari could make it to the airport the next day. We returned to our same hotel tired and ragged, me especially. Sachel and Kari have already mastered the skill of sleeping on the bus, which I can’t do because I am so worried about missing something.
We spent the evening in the market to look at everything one last time. We also got a birds eye view of the market for some great pictures. We had our final meal together at my favorite pizza place where we had our first meal. By this point in the trip Kari was so tired of pizza she decided to eat McDonalds! The next morning I woke up with Sachel and Kari and took them to the airport where they headed off to London.
Sachel and Kari’s trip really helped me realize that no matter how many blogs I write, or pictures I show you, or videos I send home no one will ever really understand my life here until they see it in person. I am so grateful for someone from my family to see what I do here and what my life is truly like. This will help when I get home and you all have questions, Sachel and Kari can help you understand from their perspective. I had such a great time with them and I hope you get to see all of their pictures.
I love you both so much and thank you for everything. Doug thought you both were great and funny.
Until Next Time
Love
Emmy