Aniss Safi

... to be an alcoholic who was hoping I'd give him money for beer. At the coffee house the server was a 16 years old boy who looked much younger. My "friend" Ahmad explained to me that the boy was sleeping on the streets and the owner of the cafe had let him sleep at the cafe in return for work. What amazed me about the boy was his constant wide smile. Even when some customers were aggressive towards him, he always had a huge smile. I ...

... and g'rabbed a Tajine over some 500. After the game (have you noticed that the beer drinking is non-existant here, I feel naked not being able to add "so we had a couple of beers", anyway) we joined some locals and the dutch guys and had a jam session. ALex had his clarinet out playin some very deep dark tunes whilst Proudy went to town on the guitar. The locals tapped the beat on anything they could get their ...

... me sticky candy-face kisses are in highschool now! The little girl who used to make me pretend couscous in her toy dishes told us that at least a hundred young men had visited her parents in the last year asking to marry her. I actually brought a soccer ball to give as a gift to some kids who had somehow without my noticing had become grown men--oops!

... and often wear the same clothes after shhh!). Needless to say, there was quite a spectacle when we tried to leave my friend's house for the bath. She was shocked and amazed that neither of us had a towel, or a head scarf, and certainly not enough clothes to bundle up in! We felt like children being sent off to our first comunion or something as all the women in the house commanded us to "Leave that! Take this! You can't wear those!"

... seat was really small and i couldnt get my legs in properly as they were crushed up against the metal bar of the seat in front, every time we went over a bump it was really painful. Halfway into the journey the guy next to me introduced himself so i chatted to him for the rest of the way. His name was Ahmad and he had been in Marrakech with his sister who had been to the opticians. He was a teacher and lived 50kms outside of Essouraira. He told me about how ...

"You see Dorothy, you're not in Kansas any longer". I'm not sure that's exactly how the quote goes but it seems appropriate here in southern Morocco. Everything that we had grown accustomed to in Europe, all the day to day consistencies like the euro, bankomats, breadshops that we take for granted are gone. Morocco moves by a different beat and although only 17miles from Europe across the straight of Gibraltar, it might as well be a thousand. The ...

... traffic in these towns greets you with dozens of kids milling about and rushing off to one of the 3 schools in the area, and countless donkey carts off to work and transport goods. The road out of Imintanoute was equally neat- the Atlas mountains closing away behind us, replaced with red rocky rolling desert hills ahead. The road was sunny, flat, long and amazing!!! Clay, red, rocky villages. The scenery was so different during different parts of the day it kept our interest; every ...

Sunday, time to go home. Of course, we couldn't do things the easy way!!! A big thanks goes out to Thompson Fly for our 7 or so hour delay on our flight!!! boy was I glad to get home that night, at one stage it looked like we were stuck in Morocco!! enough said!!!

... allons manger un bon poisson et réfléchisson au plan C. Un bus doit passer bientot pour essarouira allez on s en va la bas. Eurreur, en voyant arriver le bus on a bien compris qu il y a aucun moyen dy entrer. Des visages écraser dans les fenetres des gens couché, debout et meme dans la soute a bagages. Bref cétait complet. Plan D, on marche 100 km jusqua essarouira. Bien sur une voiture bien que rare dans se coin sarrete pour nous prendre. Le petit darabe ...

... for a good couple of months now.) I did see some plastic Santa toys in the market today; Martin says he saw similar one in the souq in Marrakech. Our last evening in Essaouira is the last time our group will be all together as tomorrow most of us head back to Casablanca to catch flights, but some people have chosen to go back to Marrakech instead. We celebrated the conclusion of a very enjoyable tour by going out to a seafood restaurant.