I Have A One Legged Eagle

True to peace corps spirit, I went an entire week without showering. I spent the last week with my homestay family in the village in the valley of the roses. I have to admit, I wasnt looking forward to a whole week of "i don't understand" and 8 hour days of language instruction, however, it went much better than I had anticipated. On the first night there my host brothers (ages 8 and 11) gave me a tattoo of an eagle. One leg wouldnt stick and since I didnt shower the entire week that I spent there, I arrived back in Ouarzazate with a one legged eagle still on my arm.
I have finally started feeling like I have integrating into the community. Walking down the (only) road in the village is a constant barrage of greetings. Here is an example of the usual greeting:
- salam aalaykum
-waalaykum ssalam
-la bas?
-la bas, hamdullah; la bas?
-la bas; hamdullah; bilxir?
-kushi bilxir; hamdullah
-hamdullah
and this is the shoerter of greetings. sometimes they ask about our health and then about our family.
its really kind of tiring to do this with every person that you encounter, but it feels great to be able to finally understand it all and to be able to respond correctly :)
oh yeah, another way that I feel a bit more integrated is my berber smear. Thats right a berber smear haha
My host mom wanted to do henna on me so i agreed to, but this henna is unlike anything I had seen before. she just smeared the henna "doughy" stuff on my hands and wrapped them up so i had stumps for hands for a whole night. i have redish browish stains on the underside of my hands and my fingernails. though it looks dirty and really odd, i appreciated it because it was her way of making me more a part of their culture.
also my next door neighbor gave me a jellaba and head scarf!!
ill try to take pictures of both my berber smear and the jellaba to post on here soon.