Omar Ammor--Father Extrodinaire

I thought i would do a little profile about my host father because i find him infinitely amusing.

Omar used to work at the Royal Library in RAbat, translating ancient arabic texts. He recently retired and now his week goes like this:

7:00 a.m. wake up and shave
7:20 a.m. warm up the car--im not sure if his car is just really old or what, but he usually wiggles the shift thingy for about a minute before he thinks the car can turn on.
7:30 tell maggee that we are going to be late to school (Omar is the only person in morocco not on moroccan time...he must be 10 minutes early at all times, even though everyone else in the country is 30 minutes late very regularly...even professors)
7:30-7:50 ask maggee once again whether or not she knows the way to the bus stop and whether she will call when she gets on the bus. Omar does not seem to think that i am capable of finding the same bus that i have taken every day for the last three months each morning. he says, are you sure? you know where the bus is? what if it rains? do you remember the covered route i showed you to the bus stop? bus 57? youre taking bus 57? the same bus as yesterday? bus 57? will you call? so when you get on bus 57 you willl call me? do you know where to get off the bus 57? class ends at 5? and then you will take bus 57? bus 57? okay, c'est bon. bonne courage. bonne journee.
From 8:00 until 5:00 i am not exactly sure, but on mondays i dont have class until the afternoons and im usually not traveling, so i have a good idea. it consists of watching a lot of sports. handball (which until morocco i didnt know was an actual competitive sport), soccer, tennis, volleyball...pretty much anything that is on one of the sports channels. Then around noon, he goes into the kitchen where mouna (his wife) has left a large amount of food for lunch. he then proceeds to heat all of it up and usually he grills chicken or sausage skewers. AFter lunch he takes all the food back into the kitchen and leaves the cleanup for mouna. Then he gets in the car and (after warming it up of course) goes to Temara to see his family or visit friends. About once a week he goes on a 10 km walk with his sister Cediya (sp?) and on fridays he and his brothers visit the grave of their father.

Of note on fridays, Omar also likes to question maggee about her travel plans. where are you going? Who is going with you? what are you going to see? what train will you be taking? do you have tickets yet? what train will you take to return? oh, a man is going with you? oh good, i have more confidence in you. (then he winks because he knows it pisses me off)

Generally Omar and i are like a real father and daughter. We get in political discussions. we complain, we get in heated arguments. the usual. Omar also likes to pull practical jokes. Especially if i am contentedly reading on the couch. It usually consists of him yelling loudly and then laughing when i jump. it is actually kind of funny when he does it to other people.

Fun Omar Facts:

He is not allowed to play sports with the rest of the family because he is too competitive

He loves to talk loudly at me. Sometimes others mistake it for a yell, but i know that he thinks that if he talks more loudly in slurred french, i will understand better.

He is convinced i am lying to him about having previously tasted some suspect food until he sees me put it in my mouth. until then it is just goute! goute! goute! koul! koul! (just so we are all clear, i taste everything, but sour rotten milk is really not my thing)

He is kind of frightening when he helps me with Arabic (he talks really really loudly when he is explaining ARabic)

he does not understand why i am not jsut using arabic verbs more often (i have been in an Arabic class every morning for 2 hours and i can barely read)

He loves to check in on everyone in the family. Madiha and STeve purposely did not get an appartment near Omar because a cousin warned them that Omar would be checking in with them at least once a day. When questioned about this accusation, omar answered, yes, i will.

He prays, but i am pretty sure he hates every moment of it. he doesnt perform ablutions, and he does it in the living room so he can listen to the sports channel

he love love loves freecell on the computer. I have seen him play it for 2 hours at a time before. granted i am playing solitaire at the same time on my ipod but still.

he has the most amazing eye roll. he uses it on me when i tell him that really, i have no idea where im going this weekend, but im going somewhere. and he uses it a lot with selma, his daughter, for various reasons

he is almost always in a blue tracksuit, or pjs.

this gives a pretty good basica description of my host dad. But to be honest, you kind of have to meet him to believe it.

love and peace.
mags
p.s. i am working very hard on my impression of Omar, so im sure you all willsee it