The Road To Marrakech

I missed a few days of blogging because we have been traveling, and obtaining internet access has been costly. Look at me talking about blogging, last week I wasn't even clear about what a blog was. Now I think I understand its place in our fast paced, technological, impersonal society. It's helping me keep tabs on what I did the night before, a journal of sorts. I must say, as I get older, and day-to-day events become meshed and mushed, it is a good way of sorting and recording my life (especially on the road). Yesterday, we were on the road to Marrakech. Our reason for being there was to perform a concert and meet with a well-known Moroccan hip-hop group (Fnair). They looked more New York than we did. You could put them on any corner in BK, the BX, and they would have blended right in, multi-colored Nike's, Designer jeans, oversized tees, and polo shirts. The concert was held at Dar Ettakafa Theater. When we arrived there in the afternoon we meet with Fnair and we rehearsed a number we were to perform with them at the end of our set. They were mad cool, but there was this cat there that was playing Steven Spielberg, trying to direct the end results of our show. Basically, he was getting in the way, frustrating everybody. The performance went fine, but I have to say it reminded me of an Award show finale. You know, when they put, Bruce Springsteen, Snoop Dog, Steveie Wonder, Tom Jones, and Aretha Franklin on stage together to sing the "we are the world" segment. Later that night we headed out to the Medina, one of the young ladies in our enterouage got her ass grabbed. Definitely not cool. But all the travel literature tells you that this kinda shit might happen, and that it would be a big mistake to retaliate or engage. So we kept that New York shit in our back pockets. One of the highlights of the evening and the entire Morocco trip has been the food. The travel literature also tells you don't eat this, wash this, don't drink that, but our friend, Abdelkirim from the State Department chipped away at our apprehension by exposing us to tasty breads, tajin, mutton head, camel hump, cinnamon ginger tea, and more bread. I know I am leaving some stuff out, but most importantly, Abdelkirim, Charles, Mars, and Abdul were gracious and caring host. I was re-introduced to my Islamic roots, and we all have grown fond of Morocco. Now it's time to pack, and head off to Tunisia. We'll be back, one day.

Salam,
Gamal Abdel Chasten