Miharajan and mixed up families

Last weekend we did something a bit different (well, at least different from the weekend before). There was a Berber Music Festival called the Miharajan in Ain Leuh. We went on Friday and Saturday nights, spent Friday night in Toufstalt with my homestay family and then visited Matthew's family in Tagonite for lunch on Saturday.


The festival was fun and we also enjoyed time with our friends. We even had some insight into the confusion with my family. When I lived with them I was always struggling to figure out how each person fit into the family. Well, it turns out that they're slightly related to Matthew's homestay family and his family explained it all to us.

Apparently Hada (who is the grandmother) was married to a man and they got divorced (maybe because she couldn't have children) and she married another man called Driss. He had a son named Mohammed from his first marriage (his wife had left) but they couldn't have children of their own so they ended up adopting the children of Driss' brother (who had been married to the aunt of the Tagonite family), Moulay Hamid and Khadija. Mohammed lives in the desert and has reconciled with his birth mom and she lives with him. Hada lives in Toufstalt with Moulay Hamid and his wife and 3 children, and Khadija (who is the same age as Moulay Hamid's oldest daughter). Hassan apparently lives and works in France and just comes back once in a while.

I know that probably doesn't make much sense to y'all - but try understanding it in Arabic. :)