The American Language Center in Fez has been renovating a riad in the medina for use as a study and cultural center.
My neighbor Jess has been overseeing most of the work and this week hosted a party there on Wednesday night.
As with most parties in Morocco, the absence of alcohol was noticeable since the guests, mostly bored American students studying Arabic through the ALIF program and the staff of the ALC who are almost at finals didn’t linger for a long time. There was however a bit of mulled wine which was interesting to observe within the mixed crowd of Muslims and non- Muslims. Since the guy who was doing most of the serving is pretty devout, I ended up pouring the wine and found myself a little surprised by who was most anxious to have it and who avoided it. But of course, I ‘ll keep those observations to myself.
Jess hired a number of musicians to perform at the Riad and Hanane who loves to sing joined them for a good portion. In addition, both Hanane and myself helped out in the kitchen with food prep and some serving duties. I had intended to take a lot of pictures, but my battery was much weaker than I expected and so it was only a few that I actually got.
I also managed to get a nice video of Hanane singing with the musicians. She has won a couple of competitions and while a little out of practice and not used to singing with a mike, it is really a joy to hear her. If I can put the video here, she has given me permission to share it.
Vago Damitio is the Vagabond in Chief. He is also a writer, blogger, traveler, adventurer and teacher. He has spent his life mastering how to have incredible adventures on minuscule budgets. Someday he hopes to have the option of using gigantic budgets for miniscule adventures.
