The Top 10 Most Interesting Things About Living in Morocco According to Abigail

These are in no particular order because trying to explain what a top 10 list is to a 6.5 yo is a battle.

1. All the houses are made out of cement.  This might be too that all the houses look similar as well but there are no house bits we can see that look to be made of brick or wood  - or the ever popular stucco that is seen around San Diego.

2. All the houses have fences, walls, and gates so you cannot see people's yards. One of our favorite things to do in San Diego was to walk around and look at people's plants, pets, and yard decorations. Not happening here! There are a few blocks where we have seen some grass and plants in a larger area in front of peoples gates/fences with a driveway but there aren't too many

3. There really aren't any sidewalks. I have mentioned this before and I am sure it will come up again. The sidewalks around our neighborhood and many of the places we have visited are inconsistent at best. This, combined with the crazy drivers, makes walking with 2 small people who tend to wander quite a challenge. 

4. There are piles of trash along the street. There are a decent number of vacant lots (probably 1 every block) and they are mostly overgrown with plants and piles of trash. There are also piles of trash along the streets in the city centers and along the area where the beach is. We haven't investigated the beach area much yet so more on that later.

5. There are people who sit on the sidewalks in plastic chairs or on boxes who just look around. These people are known as community helpers and the guy who sits on our corner happens to live in the house he sits outside of (or at least that is Chris's theory). Many sit on plastic chairs, plastic crates or even boxes along the side walks but some have fancy little shacks. These men are the live-action neighborhood watch. Some people will bring them food or pay them a couple Diram but it is not required for their "services".

6. The people use palm leaves to sweep up the street. This just seems clever to me but A seems to think its really quite amazing. Large palm fronds are frequently used by gardeners we see to sweep up the sidewalks and streets. I don't think we've actually seen anyone using a broom outside.

7. They don't really recycle. From what we have seen/heard, there is very limited recycling. In San Diego we were use to recycling almost everything (even though there were issues within SD county regarding how much was *actually* getting recycled). Here, it doesn't seem to be a thing. We are able to take cardboard to Chris's work for recycling and have learned that we can leave beverage bottles outside for the people who collect them - assuming there's money in it somehow. This is adding fuel to my efforts to reduce our consumption and limit single use items. Challenge accepted.

8. There are stray cats everywhere! This is pretty sad honestly. It seems there is nothing here like the SCPA and there are skinny little cats and kittens all over the streets, hiding in trees, and even in some restaurants! We have only seen what seems to be a few stray dogs.

9. Our neighbors have a peacock. Not sure what else to say. There is a peacock that lives on the block behind us. We think it lives at the neighbors house. It occasionally walks around the neighborhood. NBD. 

10. The money is different colors. Yep. She thinks it looks fake. Perhaps. They don't have as many coins as we do either which I think is interesting. We are able to use our credit cards at the big grocery store, gas station, and restaurants but we use more cash than we did in the states!