Sam had his first day with his babysitter and it seemed to go really well. John and I like Munya a lot- she seems to be wonderful. Sam seems to like her too. We have shortened class hours at our afternoon school this week 2-4 so that is a good way to ease Sam into things too. We're still not sure how it will go every day when it is from 1:20-4:45 but we hope that things will work out.
Both of our tutors came this morning- mine being back from vacation. I'm really hoping that it will work out well- and that we'll be able to use the time well. Also, that we can get Sam to take a morning nap regularly during the time. John and Mike are off to a good start but Thesia and I need to work out some kinks.
My family and I are doing a high/low thing for each week- I wrote that my high this week has been doing these really cool French grammar flashcards with John. I am surprised at how much I've enjoyed doing them at our little cafe in the foret (the eucalyptus forest we walk in regularly). I should attach a picture sometime from there- it's one of our favorite places.
John and I have done a lot of exploring the past few weeks, maybe because my parents are still away. The other night we wandered the Takadoum market (which is the closest one to us). It was Saturday night which some dub "souk night" because it's the night that everyone hits the markets to wander (and I suppose buy things too). Going on Saturday night made me feel like part of the in-crowd.
Today we went walking in the ancient medina (market) of Sale which is the city across the river from Rabat. I liked it more than Rabat's medina- a bit more like Fez which is my favorite. I love seeing what people sell there- today we got some star shaped things that turned out to be shortbread I think, and some garbanzo beans that had already been soaked. I also bought two kilos of peaches from a really old lady who spoke no French at all- she was so dear- I have no idea if I ended up giving too much money or not- not that she was trying to rip me off but I think that she couldn't really see the money well and her husband (also a bit ancient) was trying to help. At the end she said something that I took to mean that I should learn some Arabic and also asked if I was a madame or a mademoiselle. I pointed over to John and Sam and she was really delighted.
I find that as long as I'm not swarmed (which I'm not here), I really enjoy walking around open markets- I have great memories in China with the steiners (see blog links), in Thailand, in Ghana's capital, and in Israel from 2002. Somehow the constant attention in Indonesia (hello mister) and Tanzania (mzungu, mzungu) made those markets less enjoyable for me. I hope that I'll enjoy the markets in Congo.
Then we drove down the coast and saw an amazing sunset over the ocean. I found it really cool that the sun sets over the ocean when I went to the west coast of the US as a 10 or 11 year old- so I'm delighted that it does that here too. (I guess that's one good thing about California- Jones')
Today Sam got his BCG vaccine (for tuberculosis the one that leaves a scar- in the past on the arm but for him on his hip)- he had been to the doctor's two times in the last two weeks- once for another vaccine and once for the monotest which told us that he was not already immune to tuberculosis. This time we were in the waiting room and he seemed fine and then all of a sudden he screamed- it was an awful sound. I am sure that he remembered the previous shots and was a bit traumatized- it was pretty awful all the way through and he screamed all the way to the car. We're not sure whether it's a bad idea to smile at him while he's getting them- maybe he thinks we're hurting him on purpose (which I guess we are in a way). Obviously, the protective effect of a vaccination is a bit beyond his little mind. I hope he forgets the doctor's office before we go back again.
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