Life in North Africa

I lived in Morocco for 10 years. We were missionaries in a city called Agadir, on the coast of Morocco. You might wonder, where is Morocco? Morocco is in North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea from Spain. I moved there when I was 8 months old. I experienced many amazing things, had struggles and challenges, and learned more about different cultures and people groups.

One of the amazing things I experienced in the years I lived there was a camel trek in the Sahara desert. We slept under the stars and slid down sand dunes. We had to wear turbans to block out the blowing sand. We traveled through many small towns to get there, eating tagines (a Moroccan meal that may sometimes have cous-cous and beef) and drinking mint tea along the way. Another amazing thing about Africa is that goats climb trees. They stand precariously on skinny branches eating the argan nuts and leaves. The beaches along the coast of Morocco are also beautiful, and I had many great memories of riding ATV's on the sand, playing ultimate frisbee with friends, and swimming in the ocean.

My time overseas was filled with joy and adventure, but I also encountered struggles and challenges. They mostly revolved around school. My parents wanted me to learn the local language so they put me in school when I was 4 years old. The teachers only spoke Arabic and French, which I did not know. I eventually learned French, but never did well with Arabic. All of my schooling up until 5th grade was in French. I was able to stop Classical Arabic after 2nd grade. Another challenge was not getting to see my grandparents. We only went home every 2 years. All of my grandparents and aunts and uncles came to visit during our 10 years.

We spent a lot of time with the Berbers (the Berbers are a people group who are Muslims) who lived in our area. They spoke Tashlyhat and Darija. They are mostly Muslim and celebrate different holidays than our family. They celebrate Ramadan, a month long holiday, in which they don't eat or drink during daylight hours. We would often break fast with them during this month. Their holy day is Friday. It is a day of prayer. We would have a longer lunch break on Fridays. They would always eat cous-cous on Fridays for lunch, and we were very lucky because our neighbor would bring us a plate of cous-cous every week.

I know I was very fortunate to have had this opportunity of living overseas. I have many great memories and definitely grew as a person through my experiences there.