Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Friends from Afar

Over the past few months, we've had the privilege of having many faraway friends to our little edge of the earth in North Africa. It seems that every time someone from the motherland shows up we are blessed beyond measure, even if we are meeting them for the first time.

Our family is grateful for each one of you and the unique gifts, personalities, passions and American treats you have shared with us and our friends and community here. Please know you are always welcome in our little seaside town.


Until we meet again, here are just a few of our favorite moments from our time with you:

Sharing life and good meals together:


Watching you love our kids so well:

Thank you for sharing your time, energy, creativity and talents to grow the work here: 


Thank you for the hours of painting you did so this pregnant lady didn't have to endure the fumes!

Celebrating together:


Your Birthdays: 


Our baby's gender reveal...It's a girl! 


Building relationships with local friends and neighbors:


Getting spoiled by you...





Dressing you up:

Enjoying your kids:


Taking you on our shopping experience and feeling like someone in the world understands a bit of the craziness of life here!


Risking your lives to ride with North Africa's newest driver...


And its most easily distracted one:


Thank you to you and your family's who let you go for a time to enrich our lives and work in North Africa! You are thought of often and missed greatly.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Eid Kabeer

We had a lovely time going to our first Eid Kabeer. The people here are so hospitable that they invited our visiting American group…so if you're feeling up for a good old fashioned sheep slaughtering and BBQ, keep your calendars clear for October next year, and come see us!
Felicity and I opted out of the slaughtering day in favor of the BBQ day so this post only has pictures from day two of the celebration…

The kids had their own little grills…so cute:


Felicity loving her some grilled sheep:


 It was really good. I forgot to mention it was 9 a.m. Protein for breakfast is always a good thing!


If they can, every family within a family buys their very own sheep. It is a lot of work for the women to clean and prepare all of the meat. Our friends had four sheep, one for each nuclear family. Here our neighbor is using the sheep heads to show us the difference between a 300 dinar sheep and a 500 dinar sheep. 1 dinar is about $0.60. Families will be eating from these sheep for months to come…from the freezer of course.


I was so relieved when she told me they do not eat anything from the heads or the horns! They just keep them for fun ;)...


We were so grateful for the opportunity to share in this celebration and hope we can return the hospitality and generosity ten fold in days to come…Although I'm not sure we can compete with lamb for breakfast!