On Day 10, we would leave the desert, our farthest point from  where our adventure started,  and head west to the oasis town of Ouarzazate [pronounced where’s Zazate]. When we awoke, Nick said he was coming down with a cold. I had  the meds he needed  with us, so he  started taking  Mucinex immediately.

After breakfast we  got into the 4 by 4s. Soon we reached our bus, and we transferred to it for a long day  on the road. We saw khatarat, an old underground water system.  We continued to Tinejdad, where we learned  about  the history and daily life  of Berber Muslims. We entered the ksar, a Berber walled city that  kept desert raiders out of Roman coastal cities in ancient times. We visited a museum that was founded a local Jewish activist. Then we visited  a preschool class of mixed three- and four-year olds, which was of interest to me, of course. The teacher was working with one child at the chalkboard while the remaining thirty of her students sat in their chairs ignoring her and talking with children near them. Later Kathy and I, both former educators, discussed with each other ways that more of the children could have been engaged  in the  activity rather than just one.

Then the teacher had the children sing a song to us in French. Steel suggested that our group should sing Three Blind Mice to the children,  a song in which  chaos happens involving  the farmer’s wife, a knife, and the mice. I was glad the children didn’t understand English!  We walked on and met a group of women from Germany who were learning embroidery from the local women.

We ate lunch outdoors in an oasis, next to an orange tree, and it was absolutely delicious.  Nick’s first course was garlic and bread soup,  while mine was  a patty that had been stuffed  with veggies and fried, kind of like fried ravioli.  We both had lamb tagine for our main course, and  then flan for dessert.

After many more hours going  west, we reached our  riad and went to the rooftop,  where we took in views of the city. We noticed that a stork had built a nest on  a nearby minaret. We thought we could smell a farm, and we were right. The rooftop of the neighboring building was the site of  a small farm, and we could see and hear the  chickens and turkeys.

Our dinner started with a traditional harira soup, made of tomatoes, chickpeas, lentils, and a little pasta. I don’t like tomatoes, which were the main ingredient. but I  found the soup to be  delicious. Our main course was  beef tagine, and that was followed by a banana mousse.

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