Day 167 - Surf, Tagines and a Rough Night in Morocco

We all woke up around the usual time and ripped straight into coffees. The kids had yoghurt and muesli while I jumped straight into a work meeting I had organised for 7:30am. Kia also had a kinesiology client booked in, so she headed into the bedroom while I took over the little office space in our accommodation. The kids hung out in the lounge area and did their best to stay entertained while we both worked.

I wrapped my meeting up around 9 or 9:30 and Kia was still in hers, so we swapped spots because the office had better Wi Fi. I cooked some eggs for the kids and myself while she finished her session, then it was a mad rush to get ready for our surf lesson at 11.

We made it there right on time for another two hour session in the water.

The surf was completely different today. The waves were way smaller and almost flat at times, with only the occasional decent set rolling through. It actually made things harder because there wasn’t much power in the waves to help us catch them. Kia and I especially struggled compared to yesterday, but we still had a heap of fun out there. Everyone was laughing, falling off boards and having a good time.

We decided not to book another lesson tomorrow because the surf forecast is apparently flat for the next couple of days before picking up again. Honestly, we all feel comfortable enough now to just head out ourselves. On Saturday we’ll probably just hire boards for a couple of hours instead of paying for lessons, which will be much cheaper and probably just as fun.

After surfing we were starving, so we headed to a restaurant near our accommodation that we’d tried to visit the day before. Yesterday they’d run out of tagines, but this time they had plenty.

In hindsight, we definitely only needed two tagines between the four of us, not four. These things were enormous compared to the ones we’d seen previously. Emmett and I got beef while Kia and Maddie got chicken, and there was food everywhere. They also brought out heaps of traditional bread to eat with them, plus another sweeter coconut style bread as well.

Then came the sweet tea.

The first few times we’d had Moroccan mint tea we thought it tasted amazing, but today we finally saw why. Instead of pre sweetening it, they brought the sugar cubes out on a plate beside the teapots. Each teapot had two giant sugar cubes beside it and we had three teapots on the table. Honestly, each cube was probably equal to about six teaspoons of sugar.

No wonder it tastes so good.

Safe to say we probably won’t be ordering much more sweet tea unless we can control the sugar ourselves.

I absolutely demolished my lunch and then finished a good portion of Emmett’s leftovers as well. By the end of it I was sickly full. The kind of full where you instantly regret every life choice that led you there.

We all went back to the apartment and crashed for a while.

Maddie’s had an off stomach for a few days now, and after resting the kids did a bit of schoolwork before everyone just sort of melted into a quiet afternoon watching TV and taking it easy. I tried doing a bit of computer work but my stomach was pretty unhappy all afternoon too. Ever since Marrakech my stomach just hasn’t really felt right, and I think today’s rich oily tagine pushed it over the edge.

Then the evening really took a turn.

Maddie started vomiting repeatedly through the night. We think it may have finally caught up with her after she ate some ham a couple of mornings ago that probably wasn’t good. She just kept getting sick over and over again until she eventually fell asleep exhausted.

Emmett didn’t want to sleep in the bedroom with her because he was worried about catching whatever she had, so he camped out on the couch instead.

It ended up being a pretty rough night for everyone.

Morocco has honestly been tough on the stomach. I normally have an iron stomach and even I’m struggling. It’s getting to the point where I’m almost nervous to eat anything.

We bought a big tray of eggs the other day and tested them yesterday. Every single one stood upright in water, which means they’re not fresh anymore. Not fully bad yet, but definitely getting close. So now we either need to eat them quickly or throw them out.

It’s hard not to get paranoid about food over here sometimes. Hygiene practices just seem very different to what we’re used to. People touch everything, refrigeration doesn’t seem particularly reliable, and with the heat here, it’s hard not to wonder how food is being transported and stored. I honestly don’t think I’ve seen a refrigerated truck once since arriving.

So yeah, we’re probably going to become a lot more selective with where we eat over the next few weeks. Less street food, more trusted restaurants and hopefully fewer stomach issues.

At this point we’re just hoping everyone wakes up feeling a bit better tomorrow.

The surf’s going to be flat anyway, so maybe a quiet recovery day is exactly what we need.

That was Day 167. Definitely a rough one.