Morocco has now closed most things, and I am here for the long term. So here is a post about where I am staying and what it is like. I will return to posts about Rabat next week.

This is the main living area, with an archway to the front door at the right, beside the wooden door to the stairs to the upper storeys. Shoes have to be taken off at the entrance. The door just showing at the extreme right is to my room.

The house is in the middle of the large Medina and was built about 120 years ago, though the Medina is much older. It looks as though this area was all rebuilt about the same time. It is down a small alley with 3 front doors on it, off a minor street which in about 20 yards leads to the main street in the Medina for all types of food and household product ‘shops’. The ‘shops’ are large kiosks really, which you stand at the front of.

The general plan of all the houses is a central courtyard with the rooms arranged around it. In this house the courtyard has a pitched glass roof, and that is the only natural light. So the rooms are quite dark. It can be quite cold inside the house at this time of year, and they all wear more clothes inside than we normally do in England. I expect it is nice and cool in the summer though. It has been cloudy with occasional rain lately, and the house has got even colder. It will warm again when the sun re-emerges.

This photo shows about two-thirds of my room. The bed is very comfortable.

There are two other main rooms off the central one, as well as a small kitchen and a communal toilet. Upstairs there are 2 more rooms and a shower room. Up more stairs is the roof terrace, which is arranged round the glass roof. At this time of year it is only used for drying the washing. In any case it is quite small. All the stairs are very steep, have slippy tiles and no hand rails, so coming down them in slippers is an interesting experience. All floors and walls with patterns on are tiled. The washing machine is on a turn in the stairs.

One of the rooms is used for praying, and also when lots of people are round; the others are mainly used as bedrooms.

All meals are taken by everyone at this low table, which has a sofa on each of 2 sides. This is breakfast, and Assia (my host) has the essential basket of bread at her right hand.

This is the only table in the house, and there are no chairs as such, just sofas with cushions.

The house has been in Assia’s family for many decades (possibly since it was built), but was rented out until 2 or 3 years ago, when it came into Assia’s possession and she decided to be an AirBnB host. Apparently it needed much restoration.

Assia is married, but has no children. Until she moved in here she lived with her mother, Fatima (74), in the main family home about a 5 minute walk away. She has 5 sisters and  6 brothers, so the family house is presumably quite large.

There is also some sort of farm in the north east of Morocco at Tetouan, and Jamel, Assia’s husband, has been there with 2 of her brothers since before I arrived here. Jamel has just arrived here. Assia is either not allowed to be alone here or just doesn’t like to be alone, so her youngest sister, Havsa, brother in law Yassin and their sons Abderrahmen (13) and Soufiane (10) have been sleeping and taking most of their meals here since before I arrived.

Here are the boys with Abderrahmen’s favourite item, an electric bike which only works with electricty; it is not an electrified push bike. He is very upset today as his parents have banned him from riding it outside due to the virus.

Of Assia’s other siblings, one sister lives in Madrid, one sister and brother live in Paris, and one sister (with husband and, at least, a teenage son & daughter) live with Fatima. The rest live somewhere in the Rabat area.

This is a middle class family. Yassin works as a programmer for the Customs, can afford a car and to send both boys to private schools. Everyone I have met so far speaks at least a little French, and Havsa and Yassin speak good English. The boys started French at age 3, and English at age 7.

The family is quite religious, and the women will not remove their headscarves except in the presence only of close blood relatives.

I am now having all my meals with the family. Breakfast is at 9.00 am now, but was at 7.00 am when the schools were open, as school starts at 8.15 am. Breakfast varies, but always includes bread, mint tea, olive oil, cheese (in the form of spreadable cheese triangles or similar) and jam. In the photo we had eggs ‘scrambled’ with onion and garlic, but every day is different, with a wide variety of Morrocan ‘pancakes’ which are really very flat breads made with lots of olive oil and different types of flour. ‘French bread’ also features sometimes, as I said I liked it a lot. There are also many different varieties of bread, all excellent. It is served with mint tea. I have a special teapot, as I prefer it made without sugar.

Lunch is about 2.00 pm and is usually the main meal of the day. Today was a variety of vegetables and chunks of beef, with other vegetables on the side. Always, of course served with bread. The most used item in the kitchen is a pressure cooker. I am provided with a plate and cutlery, but everyone else uses their hands and the bread to eat from a central dish. Often this is served with home made lemonade – which seems to be straight lemon juice and sugar. Made with their own lemons from Tetouan.

About 8.00 pm (or sometimes later) is the 3rd meal of the day. Apart from the bread, there may be harira (a spicy vegetable soup with some vermicelli and chickpeas) or a potato and cheese bake, or any other light(ish) dish. Then there are cakes and pastries, all with a high honey or sugar content, and all delicious. Sometimes these appear at breakfast as well. Another excuse for mint tea.

If anyone calls round (presumably no more with the virus around), it is an excuse for more cake and mint tea, whatever the time of day.

My main problem is that, although I am a paying guest, Moroccan hospitality insists that any guest get the best and most of all food.

Until the football matches were cancelled, the TV was on most of the time, showing football from all the main European Leagues. Now it is usually only on in the evenings, when it changes from BBC News, to French News, to (occasionally) Moroccan News.

There is an excellent internet connection, with an interesting place to keep the router.

The house is rarely quiet as everyone has a mobile phone, and many many relatives and friends to talk to. Moroccan Arabic makes it seems to me that they are often quarrelling, but they assure me that is not true. The only problem seems to be keeping all the phones charged. If you are female, the headscarf is useful as the phone can be securely tucked inside by the ear, leaving the hands free for the household tasks, eating etc.

Keep yourselves well.