Sit in that six lane backed up traffic
Horns are honking, I've about had it
I'm looking for an exit sign
Gotta get out of here, get it all off my mind
And it makes me wanna take a back road
Makes me wanna take the long way home
Throw a little gravel in my travel
Unwind, unravel all night long
Thanks to Rodney Atkins for supplying the title to the blog post this week! Hijinks on the highway was the inspiration, but back to that in a moment. Monday morning saw a return to the classroom after a week off revolving around the most important Islamic holiday on the calendar. It's not yet 8 in the a.m. and several of my students wander in to reconnect after the break. One is more than eager to share a photo from his family's celebration. It looked very similar to this photo taken from the Internet:
Other students regaled me with tales of eating sheep's' brains, tongues, vital organs, eyeballs and testicles. Some may or may not be true, and I am not the squeamish type, but it was a little too early for this, and my stomach was literally turning. Thanks, fellas...
Monday night brought more comedy. I live one block removed from a couple of heavily trafficked roads in a commercial area; on Monday I went to cross one of them during evening rush. At an opportune moment I darted from behind a car toward the other side. All of a sudden I'm cradling my left wrist in pain - what the heck happened?! About 20 feet to my right, a middle-aged man is stopped on his scooter, with his face in his hands. I start to connect the dots. Yup, I punched the guy in the face as he was zipping by on my left passing right-lane traffic. I was watching the cars and trucks, never noticing him quickly sneaking up on me, and he certainly didn't expect me to jump out and whack him. He had a 2-inch cut under his right eye, and it for sure was going to swell. We really couldn't communicate. I just kept apologizing, and he was probably silently cursing his luck he was half my size and didn't have a gun at that instant.
I didn't assault anyone on Tuesday.
On Wednesday after school I made my way over to the section of the city called Oasis. It's a nice enough area, though I'd say the name is a bit of an exaggeration. There is a place there called La Maison D'Enfants Lalla Hasnaa - the Lalla Hasnaa Children's Home, an orphanage carrying the name of Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, it's honorary leader. It is funded by the government to provide for the care of and education for 250+ children, including some with disabilities, from ages birth to 6 years.
I learned of this place late last year and decided when I returned this fall I wanted to volunteer there. Some ladies I work with made the introductions at a visit several weeks ago. Apparently, I am something of an anomaly (gotta use my colleague's vocab words!). It wouldn't be a stretch to say a male caring for these children is virtually unheard of. Anyway, I took a form, managed to figure out what this application said and filled it out correctly.
The other day I met with the director so she could sign off on my being with the children. Her English was barely better than my French; I did take away from the meeting that I shouldn't be caring for newborns, but she was pleased that I was a special education teacher. She even asked if I wanted to stay that afternoon. I hadn't planned on that, but sure! I enjoyed playing with a pair of older toddlers at first in an activity/treatment room. Then a small group of younger toddlers came in. The caregiver asked me in French what my name was, I replied, then I heard her speak to the kids, saying something I couldn't understand except for the words "Uncle Jack", at which point the group turned and most ran at me looking for hugs and kisses. I scared the pooh out of a couple. I went back at my prescribed time Saturday morning. When the first two saw me they immediately remembered and had big smiles on their face. Another was brought in, took one look at me, and ran away screaming. Patience. All in all it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going back. I can't take photos of course, but here are a few links in case you're curious:
association-ihssane.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maison-denfants-Lalla-Hasnaa/195961177163703
http://www.indh.gov.ma/fr/doc/presentation_Habiba_ALAOUI.pdf
On Saturday night I went to an 80's-themed Halloween at a colleagues beachfront pad in Dar Bouazza to the south of Casa. The joint was awesome and everyone's costumes were hysterical. Four people came as Ghostbusters. Lots of high hair (and a great mullet!) A punk chick and a Madonna look-alike. Walk like an Egyptian! I stepped straight out of The Preppy Handbook. Pink shirt with collar up and a red Ralph Lauren Chaps sweater thrown over my shoulders, light-colored khakis and boat shoes with no socks, with 40-dirham "Ray-Bans" to complete the ensemble. Completely authentic! Not certain if it's a good thing or a bad one that, unlike all of my colleagues who went to the souk at Hay Hassani to find clothing, all I had to do was go into my closet to show exactly how I dressed 25 years ago...I don't have a lot of photos at hand, but believe me it was totally radical!
One week, then off to Istanbul, Athens and Budapest! See y'all in a couple...
Tear down some two-lane country, who knows
Get lost and get right with my soul
Makes wanna take, makes me wanna
Take a back road
Some old back road, get right with my soul
Now all I gotta do is take some old back road
To the shady spot where things get hot...
Way down, way down, way down some old back road
Horns are honking, I've about had it
I'm looking for an exit sign
Gotta get out of here, get it all off my mind
And it makes me wanna take a back road
Makes me wanna take the long way home
Throw a little gravel in my travel
Unwind, unravel all night long
Thanks to Rodney Atkins for supplying the title to the blog post this week! Hijinks on the highway was the inspiration, but back to that in a moment. Monday morning saw a return to the classroom after a week off revolving around the most important Islamic holiday on the calendar. It's not yet 8 in the a.m. and several of my students wander in to reconnect after the break. One is more than eager to share a photo from his family's celebration. It looked very similar to this photo taken from the Internet:
Other students regaled me with tales of eating sheep's' brains, tongues, vital organs, eyeballs and testicles. Some may or may not be true, and I am not the squeamish type, but it was a little too early for this, and my stomach was literally turning. Thanks, fellas...
Monday night brought more comedy. I live one block removed from a couple of heavily trafficked roads in a commercial area; on Monday I went to cross one of them during evening rush. At an opportune moment I darted from behind a car toward the other side. All of a sudden I'm cradling my left wrist in pain - what the heck happened?! About 20 feet to my right, a middle-aged man is stopped on his scooter, with his face in his hands. I start to connect the dots. Yup, I punched the guy in the face as he was zipping by on my left passing right-lane traffic. I was watching the cars and trucks, never noticing him quickly sneaking up on me, and he certainly didn't expect me to jump out and whack him. He had a 2-inch cut under his right eye, and it for sure was going to swell. We really couldn't communicate. I just kept apologizing, and he was probably silently cursing his luck he was half my size and didn't have a gun at that instant.
I didn't assault anyone on Tuesday.
On Wednesday after school I made my way over to the section of the city called Oasis. It's a nice enough area, though I'd say the name is a bit of an exaggeration. There is a place there called La Maison D'Enfants Lalla Hasnaa - the Lalla Hasnaa Children's Home, an orphanage carrying the name of Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, it's honorary leader. It is funded by the government to provide for the care of and education for 250+ children, including some with disabilities, from ages birth to 6 years.
I learned of this place late last year and decided when I returned this fall I wanted to volunteer there. Some ladies I work with made the introductions at a visit several weeks ago. Apparently, I am something of an anomaly (gotta use my colleague's vocab words!). It wouldn't be a stretch to say a male caring for these children is virtually unheard of. Anyway, I took a form, managed to figure out what this application said and filled it out correctly.
The other day I met with the director so she could sign off on my being with the children. Her English was barely better than my French; I did take away from the meeting that I shouldn't be caring for newborns, but she was pleased that I was a special education teacher. She even asked if I wanted to stay that afternoon. I hadn't planned on that, but sure! I enjoyed playing with a pair of older toddlers at first in an activity/treatment room. Then a small group of younger toddlers came in. The caregiver asked me in French what my name was, I replied, then I heard her speak to the kids, saying something I couldn't understand except for the words "Uncle Jack", at which point the group turned and most ran at me looking for hugs and kisses. I scared the pooh out of a couple. I went back at my prescribed time Saturday morning. When the first two saw me they immediately remembered and had big smiles on their face. Another was brought in, took one look at me, and ran away screaming. Patience. All in all it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going back. I can't take photos of course, but here are a few links in case you're curious:
association-ihssane.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maison-denfants-Lalla-Hasnaa/195961177163703
http://www.indh.gov.ma/fr/doc/presentation_Habiba_ALAOUI.pdf
On Saturday night I went to an 80's-themed Halloween at a colleagues beachfront pad in Dar Bouazza to the south of Casa. The joint was awesome and everyone's costumes were hysterical. Four people came as Ghostbusters. Lots of high hair (and a great mullet!) A punk chick and a Madonna look-alike. Walk like an Egyptian! I stepped straight out of The Preppy Handbook. Pink shirt with collar up and a red Ralph Lauren Chaps sweater thrown over my shoulders, light-colored khakis and boat shoes with no socks, with 40-dirham "Ray-Bans" to complete the ensemble. Completely authentic! Not certain if it's a good thing or a bad one that, unlike all of my colleagues who went to the souk at Hay Hassani to find clothing, all I had to do was go into my closet to show exactly how I dressed 25 years ago...I don't have a lot of photos at hand, but believe me it was totally radical!
One week, then off to Istanbul, Athens and Budapest! See y'all in a couple...
Tear down some two-lane country, who knows
Get lost and get right with my soul
Makes wanna take, makes me wanna
Take a back road
Some old back road, get right with my soul
Now all I gotta do is take some old back road
To the shady spot where things get hot...
Way down, way down, way down some old back road
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