Thanksgiving in Morocco: A Family Event

Thanksgiving in Morocco was a great family bonding experience. We all played important roles in getting a turkey and turning it into a delicious meal. I had to have someone at work call a butcher to order a turkey and then was given directions in French, Arabic, and English to give to a cab driver.


Mom, Katie, and I went Thursday to pick up the turkey ("bibi" in Arabic) in a petit taxi. Luckily, the taxi driver agreed to wait for us and bring us back home as the butcher shop was not in a busy area of town.

Katie and I had the 9.5 kilo bibi in between us in the back of the cab. Note the great packaging - two purple, plastic grocery bags. We all laughed pretty much the whole way home!


When we got home, Katie was in charge of carrying the bibi up to my apartment. It was quite the arm workout.

Not only was our bibi very large, it also had an enormous neck!

Mum and I used tweezers to finish plucking the turkey. It was a long process....

Pops' job was to remove the organs and clean out the turkey.

The bibi barely fit in the oven and my oven's not the most reliable appliance out there, but we managed to get it cooked. We had our Thanksgiving dinner with Julie around 8pm the night before they all left - it was wonderful!