_____The next day we get up early. Joe
is up for breakfast and we start a load of clothes. 
This
involves putting your clothes in a basin with some Tide and stirring
it for a while. Then you hang them up on the roof to dry. The
trick is that you have to get back before souk is over so people
won't steal your clothes. Mom has had many a pair of her 'smart
wool' socks stolen from the roof on souk days. Mom and I head
out for Souk to get food for the week. Joe declined to come claiming
that he gets real bad 'souk fatigue' and would be unable to do
anything for the rest of the day if he came. Souk was amazing!
People come from miles around to Zagora to get items that they
can not get in their own villages. Fresh fruits and vegetables,
animals both living and skinned, dates, olives, fabric, and furnishings.
Each type of good has its own section. All the vegetable guys
are in the same area and all the salted fat people have their
own corner. We go around to Mom's special merchants that she buys
from. They know her and give her good prices. We go to her vegetable
guy, her spice vendor, and then we have to go around to a bunch
of places looking for garlic. It is amazing to watch her work
in Arabic! "...I need some of this, but not this one, its
not yet ripe, how about that one?" Of course I don't know
if that is what she is really saying, but I just let my imagination
fill in. After an hour and a half I have a sudden attack of souk
fatigue. Having gotten food for the week (for $3) we head home.
I grab the clothes off the roof and someone has taken all of Mom's
nice socks but left my torn up ones. M'barka was pissed! It turned
out to be Joe playing a joke. Mom didn't think it was that funny.
She takes her socks really seriously. Ha! I thought it was hilarious!
Then Joe and I head to the café to watch the football match.
Mom can't go because it is a male only event. Morocco vs. Western
Africa. Morocco blows them out in the second half and a good time
is had by all. We head back home. After a brief nap Mom and I
head out to the mountain to watch the sunset. We hike through
the palmeraie and up these
two peaks that flank Zagora. We have a view of Zagora, the palmeraie,
and the desert beyond as the sun goes down. We head down before
it gets completely dark. 
Granny (My maternal grandmother)
had given me $50 to take everyone out to eat. So we went to meet
Joe and Lahcen at the Hotel Febule, which is located in the palmeraie.
It is an amazing old hotel with lots of charm and character. After
a few beers at the bar we are seated in the restaurant. We order
cous-cous for the table. Lahcen teaches us how to 'make the tennis'
which is pretty hard. After you are done eating you lick your
hand clean. You begin to understand why people do not eat food
with their left hand! The place was populated with French tourists
and they stared as we ate with our hands and spoke in Arabic.
Such fun! The bibulous dinner made the walk home through the palmeraie
much more intriguing and eerie.
Copyright Seth Toomay 2000
All Rights Reserved