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Apr 16, 2009 Sometimes life goes funny ways.
Sometimes it does exactly what you expect
and sometimes it surprises you so much that it makes you fall out of all clouds.
GOODBYE BIG GROUP
All over the last months I so strongly wanted this tour to be something particular, my mind and my heart were so full of ideas I felt hindered to realize because of several circumstances such as our big chaotic group.
I was occupying myself a lot with defining-questions and theories about group processes; it was such a great experience to live and travel with this big group - with all these amazing individuals with their wonderful ideas and visions, to manage a variety of problems or difficult sittuations and see how in the end anything would work out after worrying a lot, to share responsibility as well as every-day life, to enjoy life together.
But, at the same time I felt frustrated and stuck - vainly I searched for common and concrete goals, and for ways how to bring them to reality. There were, in fact, so many different intentions, needs and goals creating so many different flows that for me it was impossible to bring together the two aspects of project work on the one side and the life and processes in this wonderful crazy changing group on the other. So in the end most of the time I went into withdrawal and took myself out of the group; which was not the way I wanted to live and do this project at all…
Finally, just before leaving Beneficio after six weeks - lying in my bed with fever and a cold having plenty of time for thinking - I decided to let go this fight and instead give away responsibility and be open to whatever comes. Life is wonderful, it wants to be celebrated, not fought. What I did not know then was that my first practical lesson of this being open to life, of going with the flow would come soon…
So it came that at the Rawfood Gathering Jaqueline, Mandus, Laura, Henrik and me decided to go to Marocco. After being the person to often encourage the discussion about the size of our group, to make it a little smaller I finally realized this idea in a very different way than I would have expected: by going away myself…
AFRIKA!!!
It feels so different travelling without a bus, but with only the things you need on your back; independent and free from a certain route, just folowing the group spirit. Marocco is a perfect place for this. Behind every corner, there is opportunities, invitations waiting to be chosen. Here someone inviting you to a marrocean mint tea in his carpet shop, there some other person inviting you to visit Marihuana fields on the mountain…
This fairy-tale-like mystical country offers its miracles to be discovered in many ways. The landscape, for example, is amazingly diversified: from coast to mountains, from snow in the mountains to hot and sand in the desert you find everything; but only in beautiful versions; Maroccos lines are soft and gentle, its colours bright and shiny. The life on the streets is, hmm, different. It is loud and happy, poor and miserable, colorful, open, welcoming and hiding, hiding behind the alien sound of the Arabic language and the long wide Kaftans who make old Marocceans look like Wizards…
In the narrow alleys of the old towns, the Medhina, there is paradisiac food everwhere - dates and walnuts, figues and almonds, marrocean patisserie - amazing sweets with nuts and honey, there is spices in every colour and smell, hundreds of different corn and grain - there is a cockaigne next to poor people selling ten pieces of plastic crap to survive, rotten food and more dead than living cats and dogs under the tables of beautiful shoes and scarfs and jewelery. Marocco has many aspects and every aspect has two faces.
You look one time, you see the good, the cockaigne. You look twice, you see that there is something else, something strange, maybe miserable. People here keep saying “In Marocco, there is no problem. No problem, nothing is problem.” How can there be no problem if obviously this question is in peoples minds?
IMPRESSIONS
We are invited to a carpet exhibition. The old Berber man assures us “No pushing, just looking, no pushing.” He shows us a lot of different beautiful carpets, has a lot of work with opening and showing them and putting them back afterwards and serves us some mint tea. We feel a little bit uncomfortable, tell him we dont have any money to buy something and offer our help to put back the carpets. He answers “No worry, no pushing” and this time “I only try my luck with you”.
mint tea, more carpets, Arabic lessons, “How much would you pay if you could have it?”…Finally, after three hours, after entering the “exhibition” without any intention to buy anything, we leave the place with one blanket and one west. Talented sellers they are, the Marrocean.
Donkeys. In the countryside; along the road they stand and munsh. On the road they walk and carry things. In the city; they are ridden by Berbers. They stop cars by standing in the middle of a high traffic street. Donkeys, everywhere.
Evening. We walk through the Medhina. A young Marrocean comes : “You feel good? Good! Its good to feel good. Fucking good” and walks away.
On the road somewhere in the Atlas. A small boy comes to me “Madame, Madame, Euro! Dirham!” I give him a sweet and tell him its nicer to get sweets as you can eat them and it might be difficult to eat money. The boy smiles and nods his head as if he understood. Then “Madame, Dirham!”. Again I tell him no. He touches his head: “Ah, le…”, touches his stomach and walks off.
LESSON : GO WITH THE FLOW!
After the first days being quite touristic city days, getting to know Maroccos Street Life, sleeping in hostels and eating in restaurants while not really getting in touch with local people other than those who want us to buy something we decided to go to the countryside, to smaller villages to dive deeper into the country, to meet and have real exchange with its people.
In Fes we slowly started focusing this intention by living with a Couchsurfer, Taha. It was great staying with him, really lovely guy, but still in the city and not really a lot of time to share as he was working most of the day. But finally, the day before we wanted to leave Fes, Jaqueline and Laura met a marocean family in a parc; who invited them to stay in their house with them to have diner together.
The next day the girls and the women and children of the family went to Hammam, the traditional public bath, together. This changed the plans of the rest of the group: Mandus, Henrik and mine. So we changed our plan which was actually to go to some small villages around Beni Mellal and decided to hitch-hike to Azrou, a small town in the middle-Atlas surrounded by monkey-cidre-forests.
Which was a wonderful decision at least for me personally, as here I made the first beautiful experience with not sticking to unflexible plans doggedly but instead see what happens and listen to my intuition. After spending the night in the forest we met some lovely local people who even were signed in couchsurfing and knew people we had met in Fes; after a while they invited us to stay in their house.
Although I had planned to move on fast and meet the girls in Beni Mellal, I had the feeling it could be important to stay and get in exchange with these guys. So finally we ended up in their old traditional house drinking yummi tea, listening to Berber music and having good times teaching one of them some Makrame. And suddenly, after looking at some desert photos, we all three decided spontaneously not to go to Beni Mellal to rejoin the girls again, but to go to the desert.
That is where I am sitting now and sweating, enjoying the heat and the funny paths life goes; after hitch-hiking the whole day yesterday and being invited to sleep in a house which was only for us in this one night - amazingly hospitality experiences.
just got an email from Sam that they arrived in Marocco yesterday - would be fantastic to meet you soon somewhere, guys! Another email from Jaqueline and Laura said that surprisingly they are already on their way back to Europe because in the moment there is no possibility of public transport due to the strike the busses and taxis are in since a week; and they dont want to get stuck in Fes…
Good travels; girls, take care y hasta luego! So, in the end, life happens… Anyway I am happy I got this lesson which let me come here, to the magic Sahara and meet all those beatiful people along the way…
ALLEGRIA!
Last 5 posts by anna
- How to bake delicious bread from sourdough - February 9th, 2009
- About our friends and partner-project Migrobirdo - January 22nd, 2009
- Masia La Torre - January 1st, 2009
- From a bus' point of view - November 17th, 2008
- La Lune Nette aux Lunettes - November 13th, 2008
marocco
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