June 24th

Before I start today I want to mention yesterday I had Moroccan Pastilla with chicken. It was so good. It was like a chicken pie, but with a phyllo crust, and topped with cinnamon, fine chopped peanuts, and powdered sugar – that's right, powered sugar! But it is very small amount and balanced with the 'savoriness' of chicken. That was the highlight of yesterday. It was a business day!

Today, we walked along the beach. We went to the less touristy area, but there were more locals. It is Saturday.  The day was finally less windy. It was nice to get back with water splashing your feet and sand between the toes! Where we at had more wave action, despite less wind, so there were surfers that showed up as we were leaving. 

We went to the local shopping store, and bought some necessaries. The local “farmer's” market for this neighborhood of town was quite a bit bigger than we have ever seen it, but we had already been to store so we did not go. Back at our place, we a light lunch – some bread, raisins (of which Jeff is starting to like!), and almonds. As we were eating on the balcony that is alley side of our apartment, the lady across waved and yelled out, “bon appetite” to us. We have done some waving back and forth. There is a language barrier – she can speak French, but we can only do English. But it is fun!

After we cleaned up lunch we planned dinner – it was our first big dinner venture in awhile. We wanted so low and slow cubed beef with BBQ sauce we had found: baked potatoes with garlic butter; and  carrot/raisin salad. We had planned two hours to cook meat, but it cooked in one hour. So ended up more like burned ends, without smoke, but it was tasty. Potatoes were just right. And the salad – so good because of raisins.  

Next we spent couple of hours vegging then… we went to the Gnaoua music festival!! We went to one of two main stages – the one closest. We watched the opening act, caught maybe three of their songs. The band was lively and steady energetic, and seemed to be Moroccan sound in general. Some people around us were singing with them. Next set was three women, very energetic with lights booming and crowd changed some to a younger element. We stayed for a couple of their songs…we are not in that younger element! But it was an exciting experience! We were blessed to be able to share. Thanks – “shukran” – Morocco!!