Hey Guys,

Well we made it to Marrakech safely. It was a really long ride .We are more inland now, I love being near the water but the weather is so unpredictable being right on the ocean. It stormed all last night and all today in Rabat. I had enough rain just being in Virginia and DC. Where we are now is sunny and hot. We are staying with a lovely family in their home. They have 4 children much older than the girls. Their oldest daughter is 22 and sweet as pie. She is a Belly Dancer; could this get any more perfect?? Actually it can get more perfect, Maheeyah and Nana Start school on Monday. Yeah!!! The only thing is Nana will have to go back to first grade so she can learn to read and write in Arabic and French. Maheeyah was made to speak French; everyone is asking me how long has she been speaking French?? When I tell them 2 days they are shocked. She will be learning to speak Arabic and French as well, and then we will work on Choctaw when they get home. Tomorrow I will try to get a Mobile so I can call America; I tried to call today and ended up paying like $10 dollars just to hear my mom’s phone ring. Blown!!!! I found away to get my pictures off of the camera, so I will post some tomorrow with more information about what we are experiencing. So stay tuned!!! Big hugs and kisses to all of my family and friends. xoxoxox

So the number one question all women are asking is “What do the men look like”? They are FINE!!!!!

It feels strange being in a place where all the men are FINE AS HELL!!!! Old ones, young ones, light ones, dark ones, short one, tall one, even the homeless men are FINE!!! Just FINE< FINE< FINE….Yes ladies, Morocco is the place to be, if you want non-stop eye candy…..lol

When traveling overseas you can plan to blow your first hundred dollars just learning the money system. African countries have such colorful money, that you may feel like you’re playing monopoly. In Morocco it is customary to tip anyone you bring into you space. Example if you ask someone can you take a picture of them, you give a tip…..If you ask them to take a picture of you, you give a tip……If some helps with your bags, you give a tip..Etc. And they a quick to say “My tip please”. So today I asked this guy for directions, who seemed pretty harmless. He was walking on crutches; he had bandages around his head and leg. After told me where to go he put his little wobbly hand out for a tip. I think I accidently gave him like $50.00, because his eyes got wide, his face lit up, he dropped his crutches, and skipped away, waving the money in the air screaming something like “je suis riche, je suis riche”…  And to made bad matters worse, the directions he gave me were wrong……lol

Tomorrow we leave Rabat and are headed about 5hours inland towards the desert to a place called Marrakech. I really enjoyed Rabat, today we went to the Masjid for Jama. It was so pretty, they had chandeliers all over. Most of the young Muslim girls here wear regular clothes with a scarf.  They are pretty strict when it comes to how woman are dressed at the Masjid for prayer. Only your face, hands, and feet can show. Mostly all of the women had on over garments, but only about 5 had on plain ones. Everyone else had on satin animal print, multi-color swirls, sparkles, polka dots, and plaid. It was super colorful on the woman’s side. I have been Muslim my whole life, but being Muslim in a Muslim country is a whole other experience. It is wonderful! No more random checks at the airport and train station, because the last name Youssef raised a flag. Now, security sees me coming, they smile, ask me if I am okay and have a nice day. I’m really happy I did not go through with changing my last name to Thomas. Lol…I have to admit Morocco is a very beautiful country; the men are so well mannered. They speak really soft and if they are trying to sell you something and you say “No thank you” they just smile and keep it moving. The other thing that’s awesome is that every man here wears their pants up on his hips. No more of the God forsaking underwear showing. Just thinking about it is making me want to throw up.  But like all things there was a trade off. So I gave up saggy and tight pants, with undies showing, and gained jeans with sandals…lol ..In my book that’s a fashion NO<NO for men. But I will take toes over butt’s any day….lol

Until we meet again, this is your Urban Mystic Gypsy reminding you that life is for Living, not Wishing!!!  See you in Marrakech!! Over and out

So we are staying in a Palace (. All through Morocco they have these palaces that have been remolded and somewhat updated and are available for guest to stay in like hotels, called Riads, except they only have about 20 rooms. So the girls are crazy pumped, they think we live here and they keep saying “I knew we were princesses, I knew were princesses”. Every time we come out of our room someone is there to greet us and ask if we need anything (in French of course). They are all over Maheeyah, picking her up to sit on the couch, pouring her mint tea all day, giving her candy, kissing her forehead, so she has started calling everyone her servant…lol… We went to a restaurant and Maheeyah stood by her chair and waited for the host to pick her up and put her in her seat. Then she said “thank you my servant”….. lol…. But if she is doing something wrong and someone tells her to stop, then she frowns her face and says, “you are not my servant anymore” ..lol… I told her “ 1) they are not your servants, 2) being a servant is not a privilege”. She is off the hook!!! Today we went to a Hammam, it is a bath house like the Korean ones we have in the US. The only thing is because this is the desert and they are not wasteful in Africa; instead of the big pools of water they have big buckets of water and keep filling up for you. They also have woman that will scrub you, and you don’t know clean until you’ve been scrubbed down by an old Moroccan Grandma. When we got there I have planned to just get myself scrubbed and washed, but they did the girls too.  Afterwards Maheeyah says “see mommy I told you she is my servant, I’m a princess and that’s why she washed me up”! I don’t think I’m going to win this one.

 Last night we eat dinner at a restaurant called Blue Berry (with a French accent), it took us an hour to order because the menu was in French and I had to use my speaking translator to decode to whole menu. But it was so worth it, the food was amazing and the dessert was even better. Yeah ima be like 400 pounds by the time I get back to the states. Nyamka was blown away by the ice-cream, and she does not even like sweats.  (If you travel overseas get the Lingo Speaking Translator. Ours speaks 40 languages, but they have some that speak more or less languages. It cost about $150 on Amazon It is so worth it.)  We had a very busy day, we went to the ocean, we got henna done on our hands, we walked all through the markets, and went to this place called Les Oudayas. I am so tired, but I promised the girls that we would go back to Blue Berry for dessert. So we’re off…..au revoir.

So let me start by saying… WOW!!!! I CAN’T BELIEV IT, I’M IN AFRICA!!!!!!(THIS IS ME SCREAMING WITH MY HANDS IN THE AIR)  I’M REALLY HERE!!!! MY DAUGHTERS ARE INTERNATIONAL!!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!

Okay now that I’m done with that part; let me tell you how wonderful it is here. The Moroccan people are sooooooo sweet. On the airplane they were relaxed when it came to the girls playing, crying, and yelling. ( this whole tripthe girls only had 20 breakdowns. Not bad at all…lol…) When we got off the airplane, there were so many people willing to help me with the bags, cause the girls were in the middle of one of their break downs and did not want to carry anything.  We were walking through the airport and Maheeyah fell, some random person beside me, dropped the bags and ran over to her, picked her up, rocked her, and spoke to her in French until she stopped crying.  It has been like this alllll day. I was so shocked and you know Maheeyah‘s face was all tore up, looking like who the hell is this. But after the 10^th person or so, came to kiss her on the forehead, hug her, walk holding her handed someone even stopped what they were doing and started being my teacher assistant while I was teaching the girls. Everyone has so much sincerity in their eyes and face. And everyone has been so patience while I stroll through my translator trying the find the words to ask a question.  You know that saying it takes a village to raise a child…..I feel crazy blessed to be in that village. I don’t know how many lives I’ve lived or how many I have yet to live, but something inside tells me that this is by far the most magical life yet. On the way here from Istanbul I had the strongest feeling and sensation that I was going home. What if the shift of 2012 is not a physical disaster reaction, but what if it’s that subtle whisper in the back of you is mind telling you it’s time for great change? What if following that God energy makes the real difference on the planet? What if it’s about seeing a fear, facing it, walking towards, chest up and head held high? What if all we had to do is let go and let GOD? What if it’s as simple as WE ARE THE SHIFT…. What IF????

 

This is where we are staying in Rabat

Here are some fun Turkish facts:

When in Turkey remember to bring washcloths, a clock, and a iron. The hotel does not have irons in the room; you have to take you clothes to a laundry service.  The people are very sweet and thoughtful, but the workers seem like it is a big inconvenience to have to explain things in English. But just keep smiling J

We are on our way to breakfast. See you in Morocco!

Sorry I have not posted any pictures yet, I left my cord in the US. I will try to upload something by the weekend.

Writing from Istanbul.

Hey family,

So here is a little update. My flight was delayed leaving from JFK, Turkish Air offered us food vouchers for the inconvenience, and they also told me to check with the airline once I got to Istanbul for free hotel stay. So immediately I’m like WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!. Our flight pulled out of JFK at 3am, I kept dosing off seeing as I had been up for 40hours straight. When we got on the plane Maheeyah and I were fast asleep, but Nana was glued to the TV and their large kid movie selections. She watched movies for 10 hours straight;, someone has a serious addiction…lol… Maheeyah and I woke up after a wonderful 7 hour rest. We watched the sunrise from the window, it was breath taking and an hour later we watched the sun set, that was also breathing and a little confusing. Yes, by the time we got to Turkey it was time to go back to bed. So, now I know that I am not a big fan of Turkish food, I’m sure they are known for many things but dessert is not one of them.  They use a lot of olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  Every time they brought the food out Maheeyah would say “I don’t understand this food” it was so funny.  When we finally got to the Istanbul airport I was walking down the empty hallway thinking ‘WOW!!! This is really happening’. I sat for a few minutes taking it all in, giving thanks to the Heaven for this opportunity, and then I headed to the Turkish Transit to find out more about this free hotel. After they went through our passports and travel information, they directed me to the Visa line. When I got there the guy says its $60 to get a visa and I need that to step out of the airport. There were a group of Russians at the counter next to me saying “that this is an outrage. Why should we have to pay for your mistake” then one of the older gentle men looks at me and says “ don’t pay them anything, we have to stand together and protest. So I started thing thinking WWJD??? So I did what anyone in my position would do, I got in the group with the Russians and started to protest……lol…. After about an hour of “HELL NO, WE WONT PAY” in Russian the Turkish airline decided to pay for everyone’s visa including ours, and they wanted us out of there quick, so the escorted us to the area where we would be meeting the hotel shuttle. While I was in line laughing, clapping, and giving high fives to my new friends, one of the Turkish airline administrators came over and asked if he could have a word with me. He explain to me that due to the delay in New York the other people missed their connecting flight, but I did not miss a flight and that I was already scheduled to leave in the morning, and that I have to pay him back for paying for my Visa’s…… I was BLOWN!!!!!.....lol…… But since I’m already here waiting he will pay for our hotel tonight….. So here I lay in a beautiful 5star hotel room, free of charge. Well sort of. Lol So all is well that ends well…The other good news is that our visa is good for 90days. I guess I’ll be coming back to Istanbul…. Good night!

I have to thank my family and friends for making the last 2 weeks wonderful and unforgettable. I love you all so much!!!!