Bslama, Au-revoir, Goodbye

This is it! My last post in Meknes. In some ways, it feels like I’ve been here for so long, but then in the next moment it feels so brief. I think a month was the perfect length, though. I have had the time to fall in love with Morocco, but I’m ready to be back home too.

I didn’t expect today to be as difficult as I thought it would be. I went to Le Nid one more time for a final goodbye to all the little babies. Incidentally, we ended up helping to take a group of babies to another clinic for their shots. I had absolutely no idea what we were doing either; they just handed us each a baby and told us to follow, then we piled in a van and headed toward town. (And in case you didn’t guess – no car seats, just babies in laps.) It wasn’t until we were sitting in the waiting room and heard the first baby wail that I realized what was going on. But, I got it together and held that little guy while they poked him. I have to say, I now have a true appreciation for mothers, because I do not know how you people sit and watch that torture multiple times. It made my heart hurt.

Then I drove the nail in a little deeper when I said goodbye to my little angel. He was so happy to see me, I almost couldn’t cry. Then I put him down in his crib with his new blanket, so he pouted his lip out just a little for having been put down. And the dam burst. It’s hard to believe how attached I have become to a four month old, but harder to believe that I’ll probably never see his beautiful eyes again. It’s definitely proved to me that it doesn’t take very long to fall in love.

Some of my fellow ELAPers and I took a final trip to the medina to walk around and find a few last minute gifts for ourselves. The heat today definitely reminded us we were in Africa. But it was nice to be miserable and laugh and avoid creepy old men together one last time. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle shopping in the states again – there’s just something so thrilling about being able to barter your way down to a good price and find the bath soap next to some Nikes. Shopping inside is overrated.

We leave at midnight tonight for our bus ride to Casablanca. We have to be at the airport by five for some of the students to make their morning flights. It’s going to be such a long couple of travel days, so I’m not sure if/when I’ll check in again. If anything, I’ll have one last post next week to reflect on my whole experience here. Everything is still surreal to me right now, so I’m going to give it the time to sink in. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to wrap my head around the fact that I just spent a month in northern Africa. But maybe not.

Our final roomie picture - (clockwise) Cassie, Katie, Carol, me, Shelby, Sophie

Until next time!