Agadir Airport! The government guys met us with a mint tea reception! Whisked our luggage through Customs!
The bathroom door!
"Mister the Mayor" Joe Curtatone of Somerville and the city reps of Tiznit.
Mint tea, Moroccan style.
Mike the Musician and David the Artist.
Airport entrance.
Beachside restaurant. The hillside says, "God, King and Country".
View from my hotel room balcony. Balcony! I'm not used to this luxury.
The climate feels like Florida-- surprisingly humid.
Hotel lobby chandelier.
I went running, wearing long sleeves, leggings, a modesty skirt, and a floppy hat. People stared at me.
Mahfoud Namouss, l'Artiste.
Get out of the way, Jawed!
Cynthia Good. She matches Yamine's painting.
This time I match Yamine's painting.
Yamine does video art, painting, and he plays some mean Moroccan music.
Yamine's painting.
Karen the Choreographer goes into a trance dance.
Brokering a deal with the art dealer.
Never take bubblegum from weird American men!!
Sidi Wagag women's agri-collaborative.
Roasting almonds and argan nuts.
Making jewelry.
I presented my gift to "Mister the Mayor" of Tiznit! No ceremony, though.
Marcy of Somerville has a Berber (Amazir) wedding.
Omar draws like a pro. Oh, that's right, he is a pro.
Tent restaurant, "Aftastrip". It's like Oprah's 50th birthday party!
The Brickbottom contingent: David Colombo, me, Cynthia Maurice. Ruth Faris of Somerville is on the left.
This place is beautiful, but I can hear the waves on the other side of the wall, and the security detail won't let us out to see them. Now I know what it's like to be Brangelina.
Imprisoned in paradise.
Free at last!
Another Westerner jogging!
Our hotel.
Inside the wall surrounding the old city.
Ray looking poetic in the breakfast room. He plucked me from obscurity.
Great coffee, small cups. David always got two.
Ray reminds me of Jackie Kennedy in this photo.
Jawed of Casablanca told me these oranges were just for looks and tasted icky. The oranges we ate were divine.
This young lady loves Japanese manga and loves Korean soap operas. She was so excited to meet me.
They forced me to do group art. Just kidding. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, although we should have stopped long before this stage.
More cookies in the ante-room of the big signing ceremony.
Liz the Facilitator.
Mister the Mayor Joe gets a turban. The band was ROCKIN'.
Cyn Maurice dances.
Hala the director of the UME. She is Palestinian and articulate. Go, Cyn, go!
Another enormous room. This is the gala dinner after the signing ceremony.
That silver thing is the hand-washing vessel.
Rockin' band!
Robina Bhasin of Somerville.
Galia Shokry of Somerville channeling John Singer Sargent's ladies.
Rania (sp?) and Latifah. I loved Latifah, whose name means "warm". She really was warm and friendly.
I loved this singer. His head would loll slightly as he sang his sinuous phrases.
The signing ceremony as Brickbottom becomes the sister cultural institution of El Mers Cultural Center. That's the mayor of Tiznit on the left!
Notice all the media! We made national news!
This cool painting was presented to Mayor Joe. Love the scary heads!
Kooky Hossein, who started quoting Neil Young fragments after midnight. Everyone was getting punch drunk from sleep deprivation.
Hotel pool. I'd have frozen my nuts off if I were a man. I managed 16 minutes before it was just too cold to continue.
Women on bikes!
Everyone plows by animal. No machinery in sight.
We transferred to a fleet of SUVs for the mountainous trip up to the Illigh Palace.
Another welcoming band.
Lovely Latifah.
Scary place for "reeducation". Very Maoist.
Ceiling.
Instruments for "reeducation".
A hole for "reeducation".
Carb orgy! Bread, butter, cookies, argan and olive oils. Om nom nom nom!
We're headed for that hotel up there.
Another empty pool. They kept the water running, so it sounded like a fountain.
Ceiling made of plaster.
Every window had a magnificent view of undeveloped mountains.
I want to go to this hotel someday with Ulandt.
Entrance to the Governor's mansion. He wanted us to stay for another tea and pastry reception, but we were all bursting with food and needing to shop during our last few hours in Tiznit.
Nice bathroom, guv!
Eau de cologne!
I can't believe I didn't stay; this is my kind of room, and the pastries looked big and beautiful. I was THAT full.
This is the official state photographer's photo of the signing ceremony. I got a microphone! Thank goodness I didn't have to speak.
Official photograph.
Official photo of where we had lunch.
A dish called Pastille-- puff pastry over chicken with rosewater, almonds, golden raisins.
I did yoga on the canvas before we painted; I wanted everyone to join me, but they didn't so I ended up looking like a weirdo. It was an excuse to get a little rest/stretch.
It looks great at this stage-- we should have stopped before it got all muddy.
Brickbottomite Cyn Maurice on the right.
The standard dessert was a bowl of delicious fruit. The cookies and pastries occurred at other, random times, sometimes before the meal!
This bread accompanied every meal and was the main utensil. Later, they would collect the unused bread in the silver bowl. When I asked if it went in the trash, they all laughed! I guess it feeds the animals or compost.
Salad course. Some people ordered in a pizza on the last night, and it came with tuna and corn on it.
Dish with lamb, olives and hardboiled eggs. Eat only with your right hand!
Couscous. You could eat directly from the platter with a spoon.
We played some getting-to-know-each-other games. I thought that guy next to me was really handsome.
Another getting-acquainted game. That's Rania (Radia?) next to me, then Khadija, then Ellen Davidson.
Trying to guess gestures. I automatically crossed myself when describing my religious mom, then learned how Muslims gesture to designate that someone is dead-- turn both palms face up.
We had to draw our dreams for the Sister City program and then pass them around to each other.
That's me in the lower right. The band was rockin!! I now love Gnawa music!
The guy in the Santa hat brought the food in on his head!
This is the hotel with the amazing views in the middle of nowhere.
Nice dining room.
"Wow! Check out the doors to the Governor's Mansion!"
I shook the Governor's hand! Note that I'm a bit beefier than in previous pix, thanks to a 10000-calorie-a-day diet.
My newly Moroccan husband.
Moroccan hats.
Moroccan slippers. The yellow ones on the right are the traditional men's slippers.
