Once Ramadan was over the Moroccan government encouraged Moroccans to travel within the country to assist tourist businesses. The first excursion we made was to Khouribga, a modern town about an hour’s drive east of Casablanca.

At my last post on 2 February 2021 I expected to be back in England in fairly short order, however several hitches occurred along the way, and I finally arrived back in Wirral on 29 June!

Since my last post we have had what passes for Winter here and Spring is just arriving.

I am writing this on Christmas day. As it is Friday, dinner will be couscous as usual. There were no signs of Christmas when we went shopping for food in Tétouan 2 days ago, though it would probably have been different in Rabat where there are more foreigners. Today will be just another day here in Amsa. This suits me as I don’t usually celebrate Christmas much anyway.

Looks like I will be here until at least January now. As autumn has made it a little cooler I have been wandering further afield and noticing my surroundings in more detail.

Since the beginning of September we have become almost the only people in Amsa who are not full time residents. We have also had much more to do with our nearest neighbour Saffia and her family.

My daily walk here takes me at least an hour, often a bit longer. There is no real choice of route to follow, but many minor variations through the valley with a scattered village, small fields and the beach area.

Eid al-Adha is probably the most important Muslim festival, and is celebrated by the family in accordance with the Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed). In Morocco there are 3 days of national holidays, which in 2020 started on Thursday 30 July.

I  currently have access to wifi at Amsa, so am restarting my posts. This one will deal with the family ‘farm’ and life here to date.