August - Sept 2011.....on and on and on and on....

Hi Finn,

These weeks through Ramadan are ones that I spend apart from you. It seems to happen every year and is of course understandable given that it's ridiculously hot, everyones a bit tetchy because they can't eat, drink or smoke during the day, and all of your friends are away. So you and mummy go back to the UK and I monitor progress on the chantier, which is slow, so very slow and during these months. even slower than normal. But someone has to. To leave the chantier for over a month without supervision is simply foolhardy...thus.....

Guilty Secrets.

As I said previously, my guilty secret is that I actually enjoy this time alone. It's of course not that I would want to be apart for anything longer, but I at least need a break. Some time alone where I can simply be by myself. On the one side simply to get up and do what I want, when I want...possibly you could call thet hedonism..tho in reality it means I sleep slightly longer and deeper and eat what i want whenever I choose to..little else!

On the other it means that I can just spend time alone and with me...sort of I and I..for you the budding dubstar, and to do other things, which have recently included writing a paper on lessons learnt to improve watsan and hygiene response during urban emergencies, applying for a job in Tajikistan that might suppliment our meagre income, given the collapse of tourism here in Moroc and spending time up on Mt Zalagh trying to plot a project I'm developing for toursaroundfez.com our local tourism company.

Mount Zalagh....Tours Around Fez.

Like xaouen, I really love going up to Zalagh and as I write we've just come back from a night camping up on Mt Sidi Hamid Bournassi. I'm sorry that OI don't have any pictures, but we were there for the full moon and you loved it. I came over to you, having thought you were already asleep in the tent, to find you, head cupped in your hands and looking at the lights from Fez. I gave you a pillow and you looked up at the moon...upside doiwn and simply started talking...in a way I'd never heard. You talked for about 20 minutes, about lights, stars, the moon and your friends, even imaginary brothers and sisters! What a great night, as you said!

But the idea is to get a few routes for walking and also for dinners, organised up there. As such I've been meeting local families to develop low scale tourism. It's Perfect and I've been up with Tariq, a great cook, who may or may not work with me on this, we'll see.

Saying that, right now, I'm just exhausted again, exhausted by what this marathon has put us all through. I know I have to just pull my socks up, but nontheless, ...phew!

Back on the Chantier.

Back at the chantier as I say, things move snail like. Of course not being there for a while leaves everything to chance and I came back to see we'd lost Zak who decided not to work on the walled zuak. As such this was left to Mohammed to do and he took to the job with his classic verv. He may not have been a mwalem at the begining, but he was great by the end.

To say that we thought that we'd be finished by now is to try to say how disappointed we all are that it is dragging on. But of course there is progress. We finally got the mezzanine up in the RDC room, which actually looks great. You'll know the story so far, but in the end, it's all about finishing, which we are trying to do....slowly! Equally we are now seeing progress in the kitchen though it felt that Rachid was going so slow...what can you say? Again, to complain is to risk losing a worker and having to start again...god it's frustrating.

As with Mohamed and his team, we thought that we had managed to find a team who would complete the work martobbing and madluking the walls. This is very much the next step and would make such a difference. These guys were recommended by a friend. We negotiated the price, all agreed and they started doing a great job on the garden walls. But, just as we got our hopes up, they first said that they had a small job to finish at a mutual friend, then that they needed to do something else somewhere else. Then they were attending a wedding, and finally, as we now knew it would, they said that they wouldn't return unless we paid three times the original price!!!

Arghhhhh....and so we lost another couple of weeks, tho fortunately we've started another new team, I just hope that they will finish the job. I think that people can smell the desperation we have to finish, to just get the job done. These guys have now again come recommended, but we are left holding our breath..more news to follow!

Away from the chantier

I came back to get you from Spainland, making the mistake of travelling by train on the last day oif Ramadan...it was packed, filled to the gill and the journey to Tangier from Fez took 10 hours! But then there you were and we went off to meet big Louis and move everything from the cars...yes those cars! Don't ask, more nightmares, but let's move on!

You've come back and there have been quite a few changes. Firstly you've started a new class, which to be honest, your saying you don't like. We're looking in to schools for you and the EFES, a local private school, is good but will be limited. However there you speak french all day and your languages are really quite good. However I've checked the American school which works solely in English till aged 12, or the French school which has a ranking system and a French test, so we'll se how we go. I really want you to benefit from our time here and part of that is a lingual fleuncy, hopefully in French and Arabic...possibly even Spanish in xaouen, but also cultural fluency, with access to both north and southern worlds. Again, we'll see.

You've also really gotten in to taking photos and have been a happy snapper almost everywhere we go. I love this image, possibly because things are currently so difficult and also because any image of us, mummy and I laughing like this is so rare...definately caught the moment, well done!

So, though I currently find it hard to believe we do have a laugh at times and even manage to relax at home, away from the frustrations at Tazi. It will end one day, I just hope it's not left us...me at least, too scarred.