Rain!

Ok, I know I said I'd talk about moving and the hike but there are a few recent things to note first.
From mid-May until mid-September I would estimate it rained a total of 5 min. And even those few min were only light sprinkles. So you could say I was skeptical when talk of rain started. We had a few cloudy afternoons and some actual rain but nothing to write home about. Until..... two days ago we had a big storm. I mean huge. It was raining so hard you could barely see, or hear anything but the rain for a prolonged period of time. When it slowed for a few min we looked down to the river in the valley and it was enormous! Talk about a flash flood. Then the rain picked up again with the same force. I have plans to make a rain gauge, and I'm bummed I haven't made it yet. I'm sure it was an impressive amount of rain for one evening. If these are the kind of storms we are going to have all winter...I'm in in for another exciting season.
My dad had put a piece of plastic over my courtyard which held surprisingly well, but water leaked in around the courtyard, windows, and a few other parts of the ceiling. However, considering this was the first test of the roof, I think it did pretty well. I posted pictures of my house on flickr (link on the right) if you want to see. Too bad I couldn't get any of the river in action.
By 6am the next morning the entire village (it seemed) had gathered outside my bedroom window to look down at the river and discuss the damage. At least it wasn't the rooster... My host mom told me that the targa (the water supply) was damaged and I shouldn't do laundry because I won't be able to get much water. I think my host brother may have to get water from the spring 2k away and it will be much more difficult. Hopefully it won't be too hard to fix, Nshalla.
This morning I spent time adding a little more to my house. Thanks to everyone who has sent cards, and postcards (and of course packages!). I hope to have the walls full by the time I leave. I also received a new, larger, mosquito net and was able to cut up the old one to make screens for my windows and curtains for my doors. Anything to help keeps the bugs out!
Then it was lunch time. I decided to whip up a little pasta with tomato sauce, nothing fancy or difficult...right? I was almost done just adding a little salt and pepper for good measure, and then I made my biggest cooking blunder ever. I opened the wrong side of the salt and instead of adding a pinch probably ended up with a few tablespoons. Darn! I've never been one to waste food, and even more so here but... this might just be too much. If i was low on sodium...I'm not anymore.
Ok, rewind a bit to moving in. After returning from my trip to Agadir my house was ready to move in. I spent the first day sweeping all the rooms, ceiling and floors, twice. There was a bunch of cement dust in the house and, despite wearing a bandanna over my mouth and nose, it got in my lungs and was sick for the next few days. It was a bummer but I'm fine and am only sweeping dirt out of my house now.
Since there is no transportation into my village I had to hire a van to pick me up in town with all of my large items and drive me all the way into the village. Unfortunately the road stops at the edge of the village and of course my house is as far as you could be from the road. So my host dad and brother, the guys working on the house, my host brothers friends, the donkey, and I paraded all of my new things through the entire village. I didn't have a butagas tank for my stove for the first few weeks, so I ate mostly cereal and pb&j, but no complaints (these were the things I had missed most anyway).
My host family is very proud of the house and my host mom showed it off to everyone in the village for the first few weeks. Should they happened to have missed the moving day parade they could come and get a tour anytime they like. One evening I was on the phone waiting for my host brother to come back when there were suddenly 6 women and their children standing in my kitchen with me. "Umm...I'm gonna have to call you back..." My host mom gave another tour yesterday but they have thankfully slowed down.
I think this is enough for today. Ramadan will be ending tomorrow or Thursday so maybe I'll have some fun stories. I have thankfully started to sleep through the 3am drumming but I will be happy for it to be done anyway. Take care, and enjoy the new pictures!