Younis' First Day of School

Unbeknownst to us, Younis started his first day of school today. Imad's sister sends her daughter to a really nice child care center so we wanted to go check it out for little Nouni who we could tell was itching for some more action with others his size.

We left around 8:30 thinking we'd go take a look, see what we thought. Through my work, I've learned more than I want to know about child care centers and what makes them high quality (shout out to any SOWA folks reading this). We could tell right away that this was a really nice place where Younis would be safe, have fun and learn lots of new things first and foremost language since it's all French and Arabic speaking. We went on a tour and then the director said, "ok, vous revenez dans 2 heures, on verra comment ca se passe." Basically, leave Younis here for a couple hours to test it out and we'll take it from there.

Imad and I were not expecting to drop off Younis. We thought we were going to take a look then would make a date for the trial run then settle things after that. But that's just not how things work in Morocco. The motto just do it fits well half the time here. The other half things linger on for what seems like forever. In this scenario, it was a just do it moment. The teacher brought out a big box of lego blocks, Younis was in heaven. He gave me a quick glance as I blew a kiss goodbye and then got back to business.

Imad and I spent the couple hours looking around for an apartment (more updates on that in a post to come). Around 10:30 we headed back to the center. We went in the room and little Younis was sitting with the other kids listening to a story. When he saw us, he came running over to give a big hug. That has to be one of the best feelings! Everything went really smoothly.

For all the working parents out there, this next part will make your mouth drop. For this child care, which is way on the upper end in terms of cost, you pay approximately $90 per month for 10 full days, $160 full time including meals. Now this is expensive. Other child cares cost between $20 and $40 per month full-time. Some things in Morocco are surprisingly expensive like rent, but then others it's just hard to believe how cheap it is.