An extra hour of sleep in the morning slightly masked the sleep deprivation which was nice. We headed over to the neighborhood school to watch a soccer game and a school celebration event. It was an eThe ventful time as Dav can now proudly say that he refereed for a championship game but he can also say (maybe not as proudly) that he's gotten kicked out of a game while refereeing. It was nothing against his amazing abilities as a ref, the one team was winning by quite a bit so the coaches of the teams exchanged some words in Hassaniya and they ended up taking the whistle from Dav without an explanation. At the school celebration, awards were handed out and there was also some singing and skits.
The afternoon was filled with food, more tea and some appreciated naps to once again help mask the sleep deprivation. The real activity of the day for the women of the group started around 5 pm and continued until 1:30 am in the morning. Our host mom and some of her relatives came over to do henna on our feet. This process really did take 9 hours and to add to it, we couldn't move. The process started by placing stencils on our feet and then applying the henna ink. From there we had to wait for 3 hours until until they removed it with a knife. While it was difficult for me to sit still for that amount of time, I'll cherish the experience. Our host mom has been an amazing hostess and this is just another moment when were served with unconditional love. Plus my feet are going to orange for the next couple of weeks and I can't wait to retell the story about how I experienced such kindness in the Sahara desert.
The men were fortunately able to be mobile in the afternoon and they had the chance to go play soccer. They won 12-10 playing 5v5 on a small concrete court and there was no (serious) injuries so I think they had an enjoyable afternoon as well. In the evening, everyone came into the room while my henna was finishing and we played an intense game of heads up. With this group, there is always laughter and a bunch of silliness and tonight was no different.
Thanks so much for all your support and making this trip a possibility,
Zayna
P's. sorry mom, I changed my name. I'll explain later