My Moroccan family

So I never really finished blogging while I was in Morocco. The weak internet, crazy, busy days during our three weeks of research (ISP), and the usual Moroccan days, filled with street harassment often left me too exhausted to blog and try and even upload pictures. But I realized that I never posted pictures of my Moroccan host family! How could I have never shown pictures of my home and family? That's definitely something worth blogging about.. Voila!

عائلتي:

My host brother, host mother, host father, friend Jessie, and I on our last day in Morocco :(

My host mother, Fatima, and I. Towards the end of the trip, I felt really close to her, even though she only spoke Arabic and we couldn't understand each other most of the time. On that last night, I couldn't help but feel really sad and sentimental.. I was going to miss all those unhealthy, oil egg sandwiches she so happily made me for breakfast every morning and all her other acts of kindness and generosity.. the gold bracelet I'm wearing on my left wrist was actually my host mother's but she took if off and insisted I take it when I came for my last visit. On a lighter note, you can see how my hair is oily and how I've definitely gained weight-- showering minimally, eating unhealthy food, and being cooped up all day long, a true Moroccan experience!

My host dad coming home from work. I didn't learn until my last day there that he was in his eighties.. !!

     My host sister Kawtar, in pink, and Sophia, my host grand-niece.

                                         Sophia and I! She had the cutest smile :)

Ihsane, Sophia's mother, in the center. This was a few weeks after I moved in with my host family. We had a lot of extended family members over for the funeral, and Ihsane, Sophia's mother, stayed the longest. I really bonded with her-- she was about a year or two older than me, but already married and had a child! Through her Spanish and few words of French and my French, we were able to share things going on in our lives. 

my room and lumpy bed

There are a few more key things that I feel like I need to blog about, even though I've been back home in the US for almost three months now, but I'll try to get to those and accompany them with photos.