I have accomplished a lot today (unpacked most of my stuff, took a shower, wrote some letters and emails) and therefore feel in the mood for a celebratory posting. So here are a few of the good things that have happened to me in the last few weeks:
-moved into my new house
-got water in said house
-house was cleaned (and not by me, thankfully)
-went to the beach
-was greeted in Darija (not French) by a shop keeper I walk by a lot in Essaouira…he also had a big smile on his face when he did it and it totally made my day
-after the greeting, another man asked me if I was from Rabat…why no sir, but thank you for mistaking me for a Moroccan
-have fed myself for like 4 days on sandwiches and cereal
-will be getting the rest of the furniture for my house in the next week from a volunteer near me who is going back to the States
-the weather here is wonderful…not as hot as the rest of the country, so I can feel bad for all my friends while being quite comfortable …yes, feel free to hate me because of it
Crazy story of the day:
So I decided to get a little exercise today and went on a bike ride. I got to a place which I thought would be a good place to turn around. Then, I saw this goat on the side of this hill…but the hill had a sheer drop off of like 25 ft. and the goat was stuck on the side of the drop off standing on some roots and a rock. Looking at this goat, I thought there was a very real possibility that this goat was going to fall so I put my bike down and started to climb up the other side of the hill with the intention (I guess) of like picking this goat up and putting him back on the flat top of the hill. However, as I was walking over, the goat totally did fall (and now I have to diverge a little to explain how animal roaming works in my site-the animals have their 2 front feet tied close together often or just one of their feet is tied and then the other end is attached to a tree or rock or something else to keep them from going far). This goat fit into the second category, so when he fell he was just hanging on this side of this hill from his one foot screaming. I ran over and I think I was maybe going to try to like hold the goat so he wouldn’t be hanging by his foot but then he freaked me out and I thought he might bite me so I sort of freaked out and started yelling just like the goat. Then this pickup drove by so I flagged them down and the guy backed up and I pointed at the goat. He got out with a knife (yes, I think kitchen knives are common accessories in cars in Morocco…and for good reason apparently) and walked over to the goat and cut the rope that was attached to the goat’s foot. The goat landed and then got up and walked back up the hill. The guy just kind of laughed at me and got back in his truck and drove away. Yes, clearly, just cut the goat down…that was literally probably the last thing I would have thought of and this guy knew totally what to do. Perhaps I will take my knife on future bike rides for such occasions…
