My Darling Host Family

Sharaf Deen is my chubby 6 yr. old host brother obsessed with Ben 10 and Tom and Jerry. I've spent some quality time with him laying on the couch watching cartoons and imitating super heroes. He is quite the creative soul and I would regularly give him my gutiar and be entertained for hours by his mix of songs in Arabic, French and English.

Riham is his adorable 5 yr. old cousin. She took a while to warm up to me, but we have good times whenever she's around now.



Khalid (red) is my extremely laid-back host dad. He's an anomaly in Morocco and probably many other places too as he cooks, cleans, does dishes, laundry, etc. and he's a MAN. Whoa! Since I learned a few Arabic phrases he's taken to speaking to me only in Arabic. We share a lot of laughs. Abdulrafour (spelling...) is the nephew who's been staying at the house. We talked a lot of soccer during the world cup.


Assia, my host mother, speaks quite a lot of English as she teaches Arabic to American students. She's given me numerous inisights into Moroccan culture and Islam. She had just had Yessir when I arrived and according to tradition she was not to leave the house for 40 days. I think her cabin fever was quite extreme, so we bonded frequently at nights as she was desperate for some adult conversation and news from the outside world. She's made me feel very comfortable in her home. But, the comfort's come to an end as I'm leaving within the next two days. Thanks for all the great times, fam!