Ides of March

These were the friendly words offered us as we cleared immigration and re-entered the U.S. yesterday at JFK airport in New York.  These two simple words stirred me and I felt a warmth and joy at being back in my home country.  I felt a welcome familiarity walking down the street in Seattle and hearing people in conversation and in my ability to understand what they were saying.  And all of this only after being gone a week.  I have no idea what the feeling would be like being gone for 3 months or a year or two years. 

Our group arrived safe and sound back in Seattle without any real incidents in our returning. 
To my knowledge, all of our souvenirs and purchases made it back safely.  I’m wearing my Moroccan sandals today attempting to break them in.  Happy to report that we stayed awake on the plane and were able to sleep through the night.  That is in marked contrast to last year’s trip which saw me waking at 3 AM the first three nights in Morocco and also having difficulty the first full week back home.  Ugh!  I walked down to Starbucks this morning and had my first coffee–some Italian roast which was wonderful.  Morocco has its fair share of good espresso and cafe au lait but I really miss good drip coffee when I’m gone.  What I don’t miss is paying so much money for it.  An espresso or cafe au lait in Morocco costs anywere from $.70 to $1.00. 

One thought hit me today as we are coming back to daily life here–we, as a culture, are often busy planning, achieving and being involved with so many things all at once.  And, any moment that is not spent doing something feels like a lost one.  In Morocco, it felt like there was much more fluidity in how people live there lives, even Americans we met with there.  The openness to change plans in a moment or see what the day brings feels like a healthy balance to date books and calendars that are scheduled out weeks in advance.  I’m not exactly sure what to make of it all, but I feel the often frantic pace of life even more after having left it for a short while. 

Andy

Yes!  I was able to get a computer tonight and switch the keyboard to English.  We are here in Morocco for our last night and staying in Casablanca.  We took the train from Fes to Casa today which is a 4-hour plus ride.  In the process, I played into what has been a disturbing, at times comical and strange pattern of leaving items behind.

Today’s episode had me checking out of our hotel in Fes.  After listening to an argument in Arabic and then waiting to have our bill calculated, I paid and then hurried over to join our group for petit dejeneur (breakfast) at the gare (train station) which was a block or so away.  I enjoyed the usual cafe au lait and croissant.  I went to pay and the bill was much more than we thought and ran to get more money from Andrea who was busy trying to get our group discount for the train which was chomping at the bit to pull out of the station.  I ran out to the train (with baggage I grabbed from Andrea) and down what seemed like a quarter mile of train cars to our car.  Andrea and Brook scampered onto the train as the last passengers and we were off.  As we sat down Andrea asked me where the blue duffel was and I told her I assumed that someone had grabbed it with all of the luggage from the hotel.  As it turns out, two of our bags were still sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for me to grab them.  After realizing this and that it meant I was going back to Fes, I stood outside the compartment the others were in and cussed for awhile, stared out at the mountains and then began praying that the bags were still there. 

I got off at the first stop, twenty minutes later, at a one-donkey town call Ain Taoujdate and waited for an hour for the train back to Fes.  Praise God the bags were in the luggage room!  I grabbed them and bought another ticket to Casa and boarded the train.  I spent from 9:20 until 3:20 on my own today riding trains by myself.  I talked with two geologists, one British and one French, on vacation.  Once they got off, I just slept and read Old Man and the Sea.  I was greeted by our team at the Casa station and was very relieved to see them and they me. 

Other installments of “Andy forgetting stuff” have included leaving Brook’s $300 rug at a restaurant in Meknes–the waiter found people in our group the next day walking in a crowded street and chased them down to give them the rug.  I also left my backpack in the trunk of a grand taxi just tonight.  When we got back to the hotel, I went to taxi station and found a cigarette vendor to translate for me and I remembered the driver’s name was Abdullah and another driver took us to his trunk and there was my backpack!  I also forget to return the key to our room at the auberge.  I gave that an American friend who will give it to another American friend who is moving to the town where the auberge is.  Whoof!!

I think it’s time to come home…or move here.  One of the two.

Andy

We made our way from Asrou to Fes–one of the ancient imperial cities of Morocco.  We traveled in grand taxis which are 4-door Volvos everywhere you go in Morocco.  There were five of us in each taxi plus our driver and our luggage–needless to say, a tight fit for an hour and a half drive.  And all the while we were chugging the diesel fumes from the car in front of us. 

Our main visit was to the medina which dates to the 9th century and the reign of Moulay Idriss II.  Our group shopped, shopped and shopped some more.  (I’ll take whatever hits I come in response the the following comments).  Traveling with nine women in a place designed to entice people to buy exotic things becomes exhausting.  Our first priority everywhere seems to involve shopping.  There, I’ve said it.

Signing off for now as I’m tired of hunting and pecking on a French keyboard.

Andy

Tonight we are staying at an auberge in the mountain town of Asrou.  This city of about 40,000 is nestled in the Middle Atlas Mountains.  An auberge is an inn with food.  Not quite a hostel, not quite a bed and breakfast.  Tonight, the house fixed the traditional meal that is used to break the daily fast of Ramadan in Morocco.  It consisted of a traditional Moroccan soup kind of like chili with some garbanzo beans mixed in, soft boiled eggs with salt and cumin, fresh dates, a form of Moroccan pancakes with apricot jam and some Moroccan donut-style pastries.  Wow!  What a meal.  Moroccan Muslims eat this every night for a lunar month during Ramadan.  We chased it all with some coffee and milk and some tea.

Our meal last night did not pan out.  There seems to be a cultural thing here of needing to confirm and re-confirm and re-confirm everything.  Those in our party who had contacted the lady had forgotten the second re-confirm.  We are slowly learning this lesson. 

We watched the sun set over the city of Azrou from a bluff above the city.  What a sight!  We also spent some time singing (in beautiful harmonies) and praying together in the rooms of a new house of the workers here.  Some of us started singing gospel songs in harmony on the first floor and those that were on the roof talking thought it was a CD playing “O Brother Where Art Thou.”  Our group and the couple here really needed that time of worship and prayer over Morocco and Asrou.

Asrou is in the Berber region of Morocco–these often nomadic people were the original inhabitants of the area.  Our group did its part to keep the local craft market alive today. 

Well, off to the auberge for the evening.  We are expecting a cold night here. 

Andy

That phrase means “hello and welcome” in Arabic (my friend Brook taught me that on our way here).  We are on the fourth day on our voyage au maroc and having a fabulous time.  Today finds me in an internet cafe in the midst of the busy and gargantuan medina (market in the old city) in Meknes.  The sounds of men selling their wares and people hustling to and fro fill the air.  I walked amongst the teeming masses of Moroccans and up a flight of stairs into a technology heaven of sorts.  Beside me are a couple of men chatting on the Net. 

I’m taking a break from strenuous bargaining in the medina today.  We arrived back from a trip to see some fabulous Roman ruins at Volubilis and also a trip to the town of Moulay Idriss and walked up to the medina here in Meknes.  The bargaining was mainly on the part of my wife who is positively an oak when it comes to what she will pay.  After one exchange in which we bought a hanging lamp and sconce with beautifully etched glass, the man laughed and looked at me and said “You have married a Berber” in rough English.  Andrea took this as a high compliment as we are sure that the local women drive a hard bargain.

One highlight came during yesterday’s medina excursion when we sought out and found a camel meat butcher talked about in the “Lonely Planet” book.  He made us some camel meatball mix with meat and onions and spices and we then took the meat down the way to the grill guy who made meatballs out of the meat, grilled them and served us mint tea in the dining portion of his shop.  Imagine the grilling, tea making and eating all taking place in something the size of a janitor’s closet.  Awesome!!!

Our group has had an excellent time and has proved to be very adventurous.  After meeting a local on the train, several in our party joined this woman at her house for coffee last evening.  They and she were such a hit that our entire group (10 people) has been invited over for a cous cous meal tonight.  We are sure this will be an amazing time.

Hopefully I will add more when we are in Azrou or Fez. 

Andy

An interesting twist occurred on Monday of this week when we learned that the Moroccan national that we had hoped to work with will be occupied with a different group while we are there.  He was amazing for us last year as a tour guide, interpreter, guy-who-knows-how-to-get-stuff and friend.  He came to visit in the States last summer and we were able to hang out again which was an awesome and unexpected reunion.

So, we have been gathering resources together and contacting every potential person who might be able to assist us in the past three days.  It looks like some other nationals will be able to travel with us for part of the time and also some other Americans in-country will be assisting us.  I have also been chugging the Pimsleur French CDs like so many 24 oz. Mountain Dews.  Unfortunately, the phrases I know best are that I speak a little French and that I would like to eat something–so I won’t go hungry if worse comes to worst.

We leave tomorrow morning at 8 AM.  Yippeeee!

andy