there and back again, a nomad's story

a quick once-over my life would lead one to think that a rootless life - living in place after place consistently finding new homes and recycling the concept of community - is in my blood. a review of the past few weeks since i last wrote here would only confirm it.

here is a list of the places i have been since last writing: ifrane, meknes, casablanca, boston, charlotte, dallas, new york, midelt, rich, amellago, goulmima, ourzazate, marrakesh, safi, rabat, and back to ifrane. in fact, so much has happened that i hardly know where to start...

i travelled in a sort of whirling-dervish manner to the united states now just over two weeks ago. after a few days spent in boston, prepping for my truman interview and soaking up the glory of reconnecting with friends and eating such wonderful things as spinach and hummus, i jetted down to dallas. less than forty-eight hours later, i was jetting back to morocco. there are many tales to tell of my journey - stories of the people i met along the way and the craziness that is just so typical of travel. suffice it to say that my over-all feeling from the trip was that it was just too easy. too easy to cross so many lines of culture, language, development... a brief seven hour trans-atlantic flight brought be across the huge gap between the world i live in know and the world to which i will soon return. the world is so small...

coming back was definitely a crash landing of sorts, battling jet-lag and a nasty chest cold i dove back into an aui campus gearing up for the spring break holiday and cramming for midterms to get there. i jumped back into the middle of it, and three midterms later got to breathe the communal sigh of relief that was whistling through the campus, like the warm southern winds that had brought sunshine and warmth just in time for my return.

and then suddenly there was spring break and the loosely set itenerary of trekking and travel set up with ally and camille before i had left. again, many, many stories to tell, but i'll just put the highlights here - one per day:

saturday: arriving in the little town of amellago at the head of the tode'ghrost gorge and a sunset tour of the community agricultural co-op led by our gracious gite owner, moha 'ousri (or maybe it was his younger brother, hamed...)

sunday: our grand 17 km trek through the gorge itself, and then our surprise encounter with the amazigh (berber) poet, taos 'umar which led to an impromptu private concert of his politically charged and incredibly moving poetry (berber poetry is traditionally sung with or without accompaniment)

monday: morning bike ride through the goulmima palmerie and ksbah with our gite proprietor who i took to calling jedd (grandpa) hassan because of his incredibly generous and warm nature

tuesday: the epitome of flexibilty. travelled most of the day (after tactfully avoiding an offer of four thousand camels in exchange for camille's hand in marriage) intending to spend the night in another mountain town of taddert only to end up in marrakesh instead (there was some confusion when we wanted to get off, and then it was too late to make it back to the little sleepy town we had hoped for)

wednesday: waking up on a rooftop terrace in marrakesh to the bustling sounds of the medina below, spending the day hopping from garden to cafe to garden to cafe in various parts of the city, and topping it off with a delicious italian meal with an adorable elderly waiter who was more than happy to let us practice our arabic

thursday: awoken by rain and the creeping damp of rooftop exposure, it ended up beautifully sunny with the pleasant surprise of meeting up with eva and her boyfriend (visiting from holland) for lunch and an afternoon stroll through the souk (market). follow that up with a cup o tea in a terrace cafe and then a late night train to safi during which our compartment-mates offered us to stay with them in mohammedia with the promise of finding us good husbands...

friday: wandering through the potteries of safi, climbing the ramparts of the portuguese qsar, and generally enjoying the sea breezes as well as long conversations in arabic (with me only getting every other word) with a couple of the younger artisans over a cup of coffee in the ville nouvelle (that was after taking a picture with the giant tajine in the center of town...)

saturday: getting lost in various quartiers of rabat, wandering about all parts of the city new and old, and the easter vigil service at the cathedral downtown - a melange of cultures and languages including french (predominantly), spanish, english, and various sub-saharan african languages.

today: easter morning mass (in english), more travel, and then the joys of reconnecting with friends and hearing stories upon stories as everyone returns from their various adventures. when i saw the gates of al akhawayn, mixed emotions welled up inside: torn between the joys that being in this place brings and the tedium of this (at times) ridiculous bubble. as i sit at my computer and look at my bed next to me, i'm very happy and thankful. it's a definite upgrade from the over-stuffed mattresses, thin cots, and iron springs which have all graced my dreams this past week or so. but when i think about that vigor and life that sings in my blood at the thought of new places and new people and the limitless of adventure that travel can bring and how all of that is dulled here, like a colored photograph washed out by poor exposure, i sort of ache again for that open road.

but maybe it's true what they say. maybe you can't wander forever...