Moroccan Odyssey Day 4

 Morocco Day 4:  Chefchaouen and Home Visit

This morning, after breakfast, we strolled through the souk (market) with a local guide, Mustafa.  Though he spoke no English, it was evident that he was thrilled to show off his town, Chefchaouen.  The name comes from the word chaouen meaning horns.  A rock formation above the town appeared to visitors as goat horns

and they would exclaim " Chef (Look!) chaouen (horns!).  At least this is how the story goes.

wearing distinctive straw hats decorated with colorful woolen pom-poms. These hats are called chachia or teraza. The hats are part of the traditional dress of Amazigh women in the Rif region.The colorful pom-poms (often made of dyed wool) symbolize joy, life, and cultural pride.Each hat is handwoven and usually paired with brightly colored striped shawls (mendil), tied around the waist or shoulders.

Molly, of course, did her traditional hat wearing for the trip.

We left the city and drove about an hour into the countryside for a home visit with a local family. Mohammed and Ihsin and their two young daughters.

We helped gather some vegetables from their garden

and then came back to their home to cook lunch.

After a delicious meal of Chicken tagine, fried eggplant and steamed vegetables, we sat with the family and peppered them with questions about rural life in Morocco.

Before we left, we gave the family small gifts that we had brought with us.  We brought maple walnut fudge and crayons and coloring books for the girls.

Molly and Dave brought pens, hand made by Dave's dad, Howard Siegel. They were a big hit!

On our return, we stopped to snap some pix at the I Love Chefchaouen sign.

After much coaxing, we convinced Molly and Suzanne to do a hike up to the Spanish Mosque, high above Chefchaouen to watch the sunset.  Mohammed had tried to scare everyone off, telling us about the steepness and bad footing.  Turned it to be no more difficult than walking around Eastman. I think he had no idea who his audience was.  The hike he thought would take us 1 hr, took about 20 minutes.  It was great to get a little exercise and the sunset was nice.  

By the time we reached the bottom, it was dark.  We were all still pretty full from our lunch with the family, so we decided to have ice cream for dinner.