Scorchio!

Phew it has been hot.... Sunday and Monday were super heated - must have been over 40! Too hot to sleep on Sunday night so was feeling very wabbit on Monday morning. Then we had a power cut and then I got stung by a wasp.

We headed off to the coast and had a cool swim which was lovely. Very stupidly I forgot I was wearing my glasses and they got swept away by the surf! Somewhere in the Atlantic now.

When we got home we had a flood of phone calls from Taroudant. Rashid's daughter Aziza had been in an accident. She fell off the ladder (to the roof) and had to go off to hospital in Agadir. The phone calls (translated by Mohamed) had it that she was in a coma and had damage to her head and eye.... so it was a terrible worry. Yesterday morning we headed out to pick them up at the Hospital as Aziza was now conscious and being sent home. Although it must have been a terrible shock, Aziza had not been as ill as I thought... she was unconscious for a while - not in a coma! Apparently she has a hairline fracture but no permanent damage. She is going to have a stonking black eye and was a a bit shocked by it all... but by the time we got back to Taroudant she was starting to get some of her bounce back.

Getting back to Taroudant took a while - we first of all had to go back to the flat where Rashid and his brother and sister (Mohamed and R'kosh) had spent the night. So we had to have tea... and then it was nearly lunchtime so we had to have lunch! We finally set off and then had a puncture and had to stop by the side of the road and change the tyre. Aziza, R'kosh and I sat under a tree and found some argan nuts which we opened. The nut itself is not edible - well probably not enjoyable is more accurate. It has quite a small amount of flesh which has a soaplike texture. You need to shell a lot of argan to get any amount of oil out of them

In the village here, most houses have argan fruit drying on the roof and they use the shells in their ovens. We will have to buy some local argan oil this year.

As I said it was around 5 pm when we finally made it to Taroudant. J'mia and Mina were just about besides themselves with anxiety but everyone was much relieved to see her up and about. J'mia's dad had been feeling dreadful as Aziza had climbed up to the roof to see him - they were sleeping up there to try and catch some cool breezes. No doubt the story of Aziza falling will be retold again and again whenever there is a family get together.

Mohamed and I headed off to the flat and did some more packing and came back to Wikaren around midnight with another car load of stuff. There is still a lot to move .... and of course some cleaning to do.... but it shouldn't take long now. The little house here is now full to overflowing and I don't know where anything is or where to put anything else!