On Sunday, we spent the day with some underprivileged kids from the Assalam group home. These kids are either orphans or they don’t have their main breadwinner (their father) as a part of their life, for whatever reason. I think the way they were open to some strangers from America coming to visit them is truly admirable. I know that if some foreign strangers came to wherever I lived/ spent most of my time to basically gawk and feel bad for me because of the hand that I was dealt in life, I wouldn’t exactly be very welcoming. But it was like that at all, none of them seemed to be put off by our severe lack of knowledge of their language, or our cluelessness in Moroccan cooking, or the fact that we were all several years older than most of them. In fact, they were sweet and helpful and welcoming to a point where I felt like we I had known them for years.

That is part of the magic of Moroccan hospitality. They don’t really care about making you feel comfortable at first but in a way where they treat you like you have been friends forever; so, inevitably, you do become far more comfortable being around them and you end up treating each other like family.  It was kind of funny cooking with them as well, having them teach me how to make the salads and potatoes because they all did it a very particular way. I like to think I am a pretty good cook, I have been cooking for myself and others for years and years but the second I tried to cut a tomato on a cutting board, they looked at me like I was a lunatic. They taught me how to cut all the vegetables in the air without cutting my fingers off (thank you Selma!) And I’m glad they did take charge like that because the food was INCREDIBLE. They knew exactly what they were doing because they immediately had a course of action when we were allowed to begin. They “cut” and I said “into strips or cubes?!” Even when I was doing something wrong, they were nothing but helpful in making me understand how to do it right! Weirdly it felt like I was making food for my family with my cousins. I have a big family and when all my cousins and I are tasked with making the food, it brings a whole new meaning to ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’. We’re all laughing and playing around with the food, or making fun of each other (but all in good fun). This is kind of what it was like with them. They were joking around, and being loud and playing with the food but all for fun. It made the entire experience so enjoyable!

These kids had some of the best attitudes I have ever seen in other teenagers, let alone ones who have been through the things they have. They were happy to have us and help us as much as we were happy to be there. I left with a smile on my face that could not be wiped away!