Kulshi Mzyan

One more full day in Aghbala before we leave for the foreseeable future. One more full day until we’re back in Beni Mellal, swearing in as official peace corps volunteers, and getting ready to move to our final sites for two years.

Today, we had our host moms (and some siblings) over to our LCFs house for an early kaskrut/party. There were three cakes. Each of our host moms brought a cake over, completely unprompted, and that just about sums up Moroccan hospitality, three sweet, deliciously frosted chocolate cakes. They hated the chili we made, and to be fair, Moroccans make a really wonderful bean soup, but its not the same as chili. Everything was made from scratch so it was no Midwest chili cookoff chili, but it was pretty damn close and it reminded me of home. The Moroccans were not a fan though. Yesterday we made couscous with one of our host aunts and she said that was way better than the chili. I’d probably agree, but ask me again in about four months after I’ve had couscous every Friday for six months.

our couscous from friday.

We danced, we laughed, we cried, and the moms insisted that they did the dishes. We really did try, begged and begged with “3afak”s and “bghit n3awn”s, but alas, our efforts of cooking they had already decided were far too much and they must clean all of the dishes. Which was a lot. I feel bad about that one. I do hate doing the dishes, but it was a lot.

I thought I would be able to get out of dinner tonight because of the fact that we ate so much at kaskrut, but yet again, I was wrong and I ended up eating some sort of chicken balls and a chicken wing. I don’t eat a lot of meat while in Morocco, but I can confidentially say that my host mom was impressed by my ability to eat a chicken wing. All those wings over the years from output really paid off #bestwingsinwrigleyville.

Usually after dinner I go into my room, and I go to bed. That has been my nighttime routine at my host families house for the past two months. I am always exhausted from the day and my brain just wants a break from darija. It’s normal in my house and I’m usually not missing anything because my host siblings are doing homework every night after dinner. Tonight though, when I went out to brush my teeth my host dad was in the bathroom and one of my host brothers was playing with a balloon from the aforementioned kaskrut/party. While I was waiting we were passing the balloon and then after I went in and brushed my teeth I ended up playing with both of my host brothers for well over an hour. It was probably the most fun I’ve had with my host family, we were picking up my two year old host sister and she was hitting it, my host mom got a couple of hits in, we were trying our crazy soccer moves, one of my host brothers would get on the ground and act like a seal with a ball, and it was just fun.

I’ve never been an older sibling, I was the younger sister and I am pretty much the youngest person in my extended family, so being in Morocco with three younger host siblings plus an army of younger host cousins has been a crazy change of pace. One of the best things was during our balloon game we played keep away and I was so good at it because I was the tallest. And when I got in the middle they didn’t even get one pass in before I intercepted. That rocked. Made up for a lot of years of being tormented in the middle of monkey in the middle.

After the balloon game I got to experience three rounds of two boys racing to see who could eat a whole clementine first. There was lots of laughter tonight, hunched over, tears in my eyes, can barely breath laughter, and I can confidentially say that I am going to miss my host family beyond belief when I leave Aghbala on Monday.

And I’m going to miss the aghbala kitties. This one in particular.