COUSCOUS AND KAFTANS IN WATERLOO

In our painting class we have a vintage girl who is Belgian but stems from Morocco. She and her husband and family live here in Waterloo too. We had been in a Moroccan restaurant together and then she invited us for a "real" home made Couscous !

The house is huge and reminded me the houses in London, 3 pieces following, but they had taken the walls off so it made one big room.

The first one she had decorated in Moroccan style although the sofas had the western height here we had our tea after the Couscous.

On the wall hang an very old framed page, a story of her family, and a beautiful frame with the a Koran page. It was all very cozy.

Her husband is religious and she is not. That works too. Exactly like in Christian families. He enjoys staying home and read and look TV or fumbles around in the yard. She is like I am, she likes to go out, to travel and to paint ! 



The Moroccan room with the tea glasses



The dining area



and a patio where we had our Champagne



Outside was a small garden with beautiful roses and on the table all Moroccan goodies. Her grandson was there with his Philippian girlfriend. He speaks French and Dutch as all Belgians should do, but don't !



I had taken out one of my Kaftans I wear in Egypt. Nicole hadn't found hers and Chantal had forgotten.





and wow ! here is the Couscous ! Simply delicious but what a work !! I got a Tupperwear for Mr. G. he was happy ! We chatted about Morocco and all the wrong things which are published in the press or what ignorant people think. Of course she and her husband have combined perfectly two cultures and I really take them as example. Open minded and funny.

What we didn't know was that a man is allowed to marry 4 woman not more. But he has to ask his first wife if she agrees to the marriage. If she says no, he can't marry another one. I mean officially. He has to entertain them, they are not allowed to work only with the husband's agreement. But as women are expensive, there are very few who have more then one wife and then it is also a question of social classes. Of course on the country side it is practical to have 4 women working in the fields but in a city, only sitting around and let the husband work is another story.

We joked a lot about the different customs and traditions.



Then we had coffee and cake, amazing that we still had some room in our stomachs !

Then she showed us her kaftans ! You can see how keen everybody was to choose one and wear for the tea ceremony.





Here we are wearing the kaftans. They all were absolutely beautiful



And for the first time since I was a child, I drank mint tea ! I had always hated the taste, but here I wanted to try. And was it good, it had a special taste and I even drank two glasses !!

We had a  wonderful afternoon, spending an afternoon in Morocco but being in Waterloo !

more participants here