Last night we all went to the Riad Alif, which is a riad in the Medina reserved for ALIF students and is absolutely beautiful. We stayed until around 8:30 and then headed home, which is about a 10 to 15 minute walk.
When we got home, our house mother's sister and her 2 young daughters were there to visit. The aunt studied English at a university in Fez, so we could talk to her very easily to her and she helped us translate to our mother. I think they may be the funniest women I've ever met in my life. They're loud, hilarious, and sarcastic, and are also the sweetest people in the world. They invited us to their nephew's wedding in July and said we could borrow they're traditional dresses. They also went on and on about how beautiful I am, and started marketing Islam to us and said we could have any of the young men in their family. Apparently they have a nephew who's 21 and part Italian, and they want me to dance with him at the wedding.
It was nice to talk to them about Islam. Sarah's parents are Lutheran Ministers, and she's majoring in Islamic studies at DePaul, so she knows more than me and they usually talk to her about it. The mom asked us what Americans think of Muslims and Arabs, and we said there are a lot of issues on the image of Muslims to Americans, but those that know true Islam and talk to regular Muslims see the beauty of the religion. We told them how we admire the goal of the religion, which is to just lead a peaceful life based around family and community and to have a strong relationship between each person and Allah. The aunt stressed the peacefulness of the religion, which is my favorite aspect, and how the Muslims that Americans think of, the violent ones, are not in any way true Muslims.
The 2 young cousins were 5 and 7 years old and are absolutely beautiful. They didn't speak any English and were very shy at first, but the youngest one kept smiling and staring at me, and finally she went to Iman, my house sister, and started talking to me through Iman's translation. She kept saying I was pretty and that she liked me and kept kissing me on the cheek, then we played Hide and Go Seek and messed around with the PhotoBooth application on my computer, which got A LOT of laughs with the kids and the moms. When they asked me if I have an Arabic name (Sarah is Arabic, so everyone recognizes that name, but Kirby is weird internationally) I joked and said we made nicknames for each other and my group named me Zeytuna, which is the feminine word for "olive" because I'm quickly getting an addiction to them, and now the little girls call me Olive and then giggle.
The people of Morocco are the nicest people I've met in all my travels. Their main goal is to be peaceful, friendly, and hospitable to everyone they meet. Sarah and I got a little sidetracked on our way home and everyone pointed us in the right direction, and when we meet people they say how happy they are to meet us and have us in their city. I wasn't expecting them to be mean, but this level of kindness surprised me and is nice to see. Their way of life here is so refreshing, especially their views on family time. The whole family is close, and spends all free time (which is quite a bit, since they have a big break in the day and don't necessarily work often throughout all Morocco, at least not like in America) together in one main room of the house, talking and watching TV or reading. They even sleep in the same rooms together, and it seems like Iman is always cuddling and kissing her parents. When I asked her about her friends, she said her best friends were her mom and dad, which is nice to hear from a pre-teen.
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