Visit with friends in an ancient city

We had a marvelous time visiting our Friends up north. They live in a city that hosts the worlds oldest functioning medina (market). (Please correct me if I am wrong on that, but I am pretty sure that is the truth.)

While we were there we got to do lots of fun stuff. Steven had lots of "man time" with Bill, including a new haircut! Check out this handsome guy! (They also did guy stuff like buying locks with KEYS! and a power transformer.)




















The girls went shopping with Betty and I - I had been shopping several times before but this was their first shopping trip ever and we did it at Marjanes which is like a big superWalMart... and full of nationals. If you look closely at the girls faces... they are experiencing a bit of culture shock

















We got to attend church service while we were there and the kids had fun playing with other children and monkeying around on the equipment.















I was able to find new djellabas for the each of the kids and they have all enjoyed wearing them. They often play outside wearing them like American kids would wear a sweatshirt on a cool day.









The girls loved to hang out with Bill - here they are playing cards... past their bedtime... but lovin' it!









This is Betty's maid, Hassna. She was friendly and obliging and let me take her picture while she was doing the dishes.



















At some point during our visit I heard someone calling out from the alley. When I asked Betty what they were saying, she told me it was a fishmonger... so I ran to the balcony to get this shot. He has big metal scales with light blue baskets for weighing, on the back of his bike and the fish are wrapped in paper underneath that.







Gillian discovered that Betty shared her love for crocheting and Betty even shared some of her yarn too! Gilly is already about a good 10 inches into her first scarf!


















We took the kids out to breakfast at a local cafe - they loved the fresh orange juice and bannana "milkshake" (milk and banana whipped up in a blender) and the pasteries that they got to pick out themselves. I loved the coffee and fresh harsha (a cornmeal english muffin) with fromage (cheese).

















And, of course, we coudln't forget the attack cat... Grant. He spiced things up - and the kids loved to be terrorized by him (well, most of the time)...