2023

 Not our usual seeing in the New Year!  I am sat in our upgraded room in  Casablanca.  I slept through the New Year, again.  Luke saw in the New Year, again, and is asleep next to me.  We will honour the sea dip tradition though and have already found our perfect spot which we will walk to later.

An upgraded room means you have further to walk to your tiny bathroom.  I think we won this privilege due to spotting a sudden burst water tank and averting serious hotel room flooding.  Heroes with wheelie suitcases.   It didn't feel particularly heroic, more annoying when the manager would not get off his arse and the flood was picking up momentum.  My French for 'please give us a bucket while we wait' didn't work and many a towel was lost to the fight.  We need to add some more phrases to our French lessons list...

We have walked a lot of Casablanca.  Sadly both too scruffy to go to Ricks Cafe-no trainers, no jeans, no sports wear; it was as if they could see me.  

We went to Marrakesh for a few nights, staying in the medina and walking in the Atlas mountains.  

                                   Waterfalls and flowers up in Ourika Valley, Atlas Mountains

We went up in a hot air balloon-amazing but never again.  I prefer life from the ground up such as our trip to Essaouira where they you might recognise scenes from the Game of Thrones. (the goats were on the way there!)

                    Essaouira ramparts from the Game of Thrones

                   Souveneirs from Essaouira           Sunset at Marrakech

Yesterday was beautiful Rabat.  Fantastic modern art gallery and botanical gardens.  We also choose the spices to be ground for our own Pinney style tagine mix.  

                                    The coast at Rabat                   Our tajine spices being ground

                                    Archeological museum                        Fig tree lined road

 

Botanical gardens

It has been great having a break.  We love Burkina but the relentless quietly whispered speculation as to whether we will still be there in a few months is nice to get away from.  It feels like we are waiting for something to happen.  Who knows what it will be.  This must be the lot for many an unstable state.  My personal thoughts are that people will slowly leave.  NGOs cannot move around the country; they will slowly pull out, taking their children with them.  Then, what of the school?  

Meanwhile, we enjoy the work, the people, the wildlife and the rhythm of the city. We have worked a quarter of our contracts happily.  We are taking French lessons, mainly covering daily essentials.  The plan is to stay, re signing if we can.

Having our Burkina bikes has indeed widened our circles.  There are some seriously white knuckle times at major junctions and always safest to dive in at the same time as the other 2 wheel chancers.  Then the cars have to stop while we all scuttle in to place.   Mostly the pot holes ensure that there are few times anyone can pick up enough speed to cause a serious accident.  We are finding more things that make us happy-the stall with the best orange juice, the shop that sells the best bread...

We still keep up our regular weekend walks in the woods.  Getting to know the birds by both sound and sight now.  Sitting by the lake until we spot the crocs.  I am looking forward to the prospect of seeing a full years cycle with the fauna in there.  When the rains and flooding starts, the crocodiles expand their boundaries and sometimes wander across the main road...a friend showed us some videos of them playing with the cars.

I am hoping that when he wakes up, Mr P will add some photos.  Who knows who is still reading and enjoying this blog.  I know that in years to come both of us will look back on it like a scrapbook...

Happy New Year!

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