Since loved ones back home always ask me how I'm doing here in Morocco, I thought I would simply provide some slices of life here in Morocco from the last few days. I thought people might appreciate some narrative snapshots, that is, some brief descriptions, of what I've recently experienced.
As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I was in Marrakech this past weekend. While walking down the street, I saw everyone simply going about their usual business. I often enjoy seeing women on motorcycles in Marrakech. I saw a woman, with her head completely uncovered, who was riding a motorcycle. I saw another woman who was wearing a hijab, or headscarf, who was riding a motorcycle. I saw a man riding a motorcycle with a completely veiled woman as his passenger. I looked down the street and saw it filled with the same traffic I always see. People were just going around the city as usual.
Despite my visit to Marrakech happening on typical days there, I had an unusual visit there, since I met up with a good number of my fellow PCVs to say goodbye to them. I knew that I wasn't going to get to say goodbye to them if I didn't see them there in Marrakech that weekend, so I went up to the city to spend some time with them and bid adieu to them in person. I felt calmer, and less separation anxiety, about parting ways with them once I had said proper goodbyes with them.
Once I had gotten back here to the town where I live down here in the Sahara, again I saw people simply going about their business. I was struck by one very brief slice from my day yesterday. In the space of literally one minute yesterday, a man who I'd recently met stopped and chatted with me for a moment or two, grinning from ear to ear. In that same minute, I exchanged waves with a city hall employee who was passing me on his motorcycle. And in that brief span of time, I stopped and shook hands with one of the kids who lives on the block where I live, which made me smile.
So, in case you've been wondering, this is what my world looks like. This has been my recent experience here.
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