ifta and the plummer

Tuesday night we were invited as a staff to a family's home for ifta, "breaking of the fast". It was a beautiful, large home (it's amazing what amazing homes you can make out of concrete!). Our time began the traditional Moroccian soup and a pigeon soup...I opted for tradition :) We also were served fresh fruit juices and Moroccian mint tea. After that course, we moved to a large coffee table filled with different cheeses and pastries. Everything was delicious!

Since it is Ramadan, people don't really work during the day because they are fasting...this makes them tired and grumpy :) SO, the work day picks up around 9pm! When we moved into our apartment there was not a faucet on the bathroom sink. Therefore, we made due with the kitchen sink for a few days. The plummer had come earlier in the day but didn't have what he needed (I'm beginning to realize that's how things work here...stuff doesn't get done right the first time). Despite the fact that we don't speak french or arabic and he didn't speak english, we were able to make another appointment for 10pm. This would have been okay except for the fact that he didn't show up until after 11pm!!! He fixed the sink and then moved on to hook up the washing machine. In order to do this, he needed to drill a hole through the cabinet to hook up to a water supply. So it's 11:30pm and the drilling begins. (Now remember we live on the 5th floor of an apartment building) As we plug our ears and the apartment starts to shake, a very angry arabic man walks in our door and starts yelling at me in arabic! I hold up my hands in a puzzled manner and apologize (which he probably couldn't understand) and he storms out! I think he likes us ;) So finally after 10 minutes of loud drilling and 15 of assembly, we were able to go to bed. It was a pretty eventful day.