Tea Parties

Moroccans really know how to have a good time, sans alcohol. They drink mint tea and have Marrakchi Bands come to sing and dance along with everyone. During Explore Morocco (back in October, but I finally got around to posting this one), each grade level came up to the Moroccan Salon to have a tea party. Here's a pic of the tea guy who came to serve traditional mint tea to each grade level.

A Moroccan tea party is NOT a bunch of people sitting around with their pinkies up sipping tea. Some people sit along the Moroccan froshes (couches) and sip their tea as they watch the others dance and sing together in a huge group. At a quiet moment, before the band came in from their break, Fatima Zhara and I posed for this picture.

During the party, the band plays music and everyone claps along to a different rhythm (this is to emphasize each person's important contribution to the overall sound - works out great for me as I'm too musically challenged to clap along to anything but my own rhythm!) Check out these awesome horns - they were just as loud as they look!

Once tea was served to everyone, the tea guy got up to dance along with everyone else. The swinging towel was a pretty nice prop.

As I was not tied to a classroom, I got to spend lots of time trying to capture how much fun this all was with my camera. I came to the conclusion that it was an impossible task - but it sure was fun trying!