So it has officially been a month on Monday!

So we shared our American birthday game with the locals and they were loving it...a few even took a chance...the donkey was so good, he didn't even budge.  The man guiding the donkey is Ali, Stacey (Sana)'s host dad...she is actually there in the right hand corner slightly.

There I am riding the donkey and as you may notice my feet are touching the ground, almost.  Grandma don't worry, these donkeys are bread for this...they usually carry more weight!

So this is my host brother Adam, he is 19 months. He is so fun...every night when I come home, he comes running to me and he loves to play with my books and draw with my pens!

So this is while we were waiting for dinner at the wedding.  All the guests are split into different rooms (salons) and the men and women are separated. At this wedding there were many guests so there were many separate salons. But as you see we had entertainment...the woman got to singing and beating on the drums while the young girls danced and boy they can move...there traditional dance is like a belly dance, it isn't quite Hawaiian belly dancing though.

That is my host dad in the center not dressed liked the rest.  They must have had an extra drum so he joined in...his name is MoHa...many men are named Mohammed in Morocco, due to the faith, but the Berbers traditionally shorten and go by MoHa.

This is our soccer game with the locals.  I scored a goal and I got really excited.  It was great for integration into the community and the exercise...we are hoping to make it every Thursday!  If you look closely in the background you can see the shepherd and his sheep.  He was bringing the sheep in for the night but he stopped to watch...we also had an audience of the local school children.

Just on my way to class one morning...what a refreshing view.  That is one of the 2 mosque in the small village of 300, which is not common, there is usually one.

So that is what is on the other side of the mountain.  I hear there is a remote village on the other side of that other mountain but we didn't have time to go and get back before dark.  If you stay out after dark you have to worry about the stray/wild dogs rather than people.  Also, you can see that some sheperds are ambitious and take there sheep deep into the mountains for their daily herding.

So that is at the complete top of the mountain...you can see my village faintly.

That is me taking a pic down from that rock...it is quite steep...we had to take a certain route to make it to the top.  Wow it was intense looking down from the rock, breathtaking!

That is a pic from the top of my village.  You may notice small villages scattered but mine is the one amongst the trees.

So I am discovering that it is not feasible to flip pictures once there uploaded.  Anyways, that is my host mother Rabha, on the left in the red, and Hydisha, who is our cook at the Lmdrasa.  We are doing a project at the weaving co-op...my mom is the president of the co-op, uhoh.

So these are the women of the co-op and the three tall people plus the two on the right end are us, the trainees. Our teacher is down front in the tan top with the cook to her left in the white.

And that is my sister Sabah! She is awesome... I have learned so much from her!! We have become so close...saying goodbye is not going to be easy!

So much has happened in the last three weeks I hope I can cover it all!  But most importantly I must say GO BROWNIES...way to beat the bungles!! Ya one of the first things I checked was Cincinnati and cleveland.com and saw the news.  Also, I am going to share some other good news, Maddox got an A in reading, which is quite an accomplishment for him.  Hard work truly pays off.  And to Leila who learned how to tie her shoes!! Keep it up guys.  Ok so I am doing awesome.  The language barrier is diminishing daily.  I feel so confident in the progress and the intensity is really not that bad.  I mean honestly I have no major worries or stress in my life right now, as my daily life in America brought. My life consist of going to school and enjoying life after it. Each day brings something new.  I mean I am actually spoiled, each morning my host mother wakes me up, unless the sun comes through my sky hole in the ceiling of my room shines bright enough first, then I am running a little late.  But she says Maria with a roll of the r and it is off to another day full of surprises and lessons.  I don't ever have to cook...I have a 2 hour lunch break.  They do cook here with a lot of spices but luckily none of them are spicy.  I eat chicken that was alive the day before or even the morning of.  I drink milk so fresh that it needs to be boiled!!  I have attended another wedding but got to experience the entire thing.  It is much like an American wedding in the aspect that it last forever, however it does not start until the evening...everything here seems to be a little later and longer, no rush, just living life moment by moment.  I haven't eaten dinner before nine unless we are at a hotel or training, and by then I am mentally exhausted so there is nothing like going to bed on a full stomach!!  Back to the wedding.  Men sing, dance, and drum outside the brides house while she spends hours preparing in her gown and her family makes her all up, including Henna.  She does wear a beautiful white dress and a vail, just as Americans.  Not to mention the men in her family gather her belongings because she is then taken to the grooms house where she will now live and have her new home.  The grooms still may live with his mother but that is now her home.  Once she is loaded into the decorated car, usually an old school Mercedes, the procession goes to the grooms house, which is now officially hers.  Once their new room is assembled and filled with her belongings she is escorted from the car to the room where they consumate the marriage. Then we all our served dinner and after is much more dancing and music.  Dinner can last a long time, especially for the woman because we have to wait until after the men are served.  This is the traditional process of a wedding especially in the Berber culture, although of course there are some variations. A fellow trainee had a birthday so we shared some American culture with them by playing pin the tail on the donkey with a real donkey.  The locals loved it and a few even took a try.  We all also got to ride a donkey.  They are so small I basically just lifted my leg over it and my feet were still touching the ground, almost.  Our LCF arranged a soccer game with some locals.  That was awesome! A great physical activity and I scored a goal...I have been learning from watching Maddox and his skills!!  I have some pics tagged on facebook of the game (and our hike)...the pics look like I wasn't doing much but I was rather productive for never playing before!  As far as the hike...it was amazing!!  It was so beautiful to get to the top and look down on our village and to see what was on the other side.  Curiousity had me wondering and I came to find out there are more vast mountains and some dewars, small villages, that are very remote!  Ok well I am getting the cue that we are heading back to site soon so I must say farewell.  It may be 3 weeks until I am back.  We come back to hub to find out our permanent sites and I am excited to see.  Also, I want to say thanks to all of you for your support and encouraging comments it provides much motivation!! Llay Hnnik.