Journal Entry: May4th thru May6th 2005
Allah sent a messenger
We left Casablanca around the mid afternoon. We took a train to Tangier, about 4 hour ride. It was to see the countryside for once. At this moment, we all were getting tired of Morocco and the constant hustle of people trying to sell us things from this to that. Even with my broken Arabic for no, didn't seem to go well with some vendors. Even with my Français: laisse-moi tranquille, si'l vous plaît! It got so bad, we decided that we would cease to say anything or give any hint that we were foreigners or even we knew one another. They were not buying that, we dressed like Europeans and we couldn't escape who we really were.
The train stops in some town in the middle of nowhere, we're told that we would have to transfer to catch the next train going to Tangier. Merci! thanks I said..............We got into our next train, and we found an empty cabin room: "fuck yeah!" Moments later, our temporary cabin oasis came to an end. A very tall Moroccian man came in and sat down. Silence returned, as we gazed away from one another, looking towards the outside window of the world on this train. "Bonjour!" Are you guys Français? Without thinking twice about it, Nate said that he was Canada, Attila is from Québec. So I had to ask myself, so where the hell am I from? "Brazil but I study in the USA" Did that go well? So this guy named Sherif told us a story about good health, love and family. One story until this day, sticks with me:
Instead of finding a way on how we were going to find work, the guys started having some weird bullshit competition with one another. I didn't understand why. Attila dominated the knowledge, whereas Nate domainated the spirit of things. I watch this somewhat calm war between the God Jupiter versus Zeus withou having a way to resolve their matters. I dominated the destination. I told the guys that I knew going into this trip that I was going to be fucked with money matters and I took this risk to be my two best friends and wanted Nate to exprience the world of traveling and even with fights, arguments and sometimes a lack of space, was all a part of the travel exprience. We all agreed and resolved our differences. We went out for another night on the town and had a few beers. We left for Granada the following morning.
Listen to:
1)Blur from the Great Escape Album:
Track 11- Ernold Same
Track 12-Globe Alone
2) Juanes from album, Mi Sangre
Track 4-Camisa Negra
Allah sent a messenger
We left Casablanca around the mid afternoon. We took a train to Tangier, about 4 hour ride. It was to see the countryside for once. At this moment, we all were getting tired of Morocco and the constant hustle of people trying to sell us things from this to that. Even with my broken Arabic for no, didn't seem to go well with some vendors. Even with my Français: laisse-moi tranquille, si'l vous plaît! It got so bad, we decided that we would cease to say anything or give any hint that we were foreigners or even we knew one another. They were not buying that, we dressed like Europeans and we couldn't escape who we really were.
The train stops in some town in the middle of nowhere, we're told that we would have to transfer to catch the next train going to Tangier. Merci! thanks I said..............We got into our next train, and we found an empty cabin room: "fuck yeah!" Moments later, our temporary cabin oasis came to an end. A very tall Moroccian man came in and sat down. Silence returned, as we gazed away from one another, looking towards the outside window of the world on this train. "Bonjour!" Are you guys Français? Without thinking twice about it, Nate said that he was Canada, Attila is from Québec. So I had to ask myself, so where the hell am I from? "Brazil but I study in the USA" Did that go well? So this guy named Sherif told us a story about good health, love and family. One story until this day, sticks with me:
A man's father is getting old and possibly he is dying. His son tells him his father that he can't take care of him and sending him to an elderly community would cost too much. He says to his father, I must kill you, because you are too old and there is nothing I do for you, father! The father pleaded with his son. Finally, he told his son, 'if you are going to kill me, please take me up in the mountains in the forest that is where I want to die.' The son puzzled by this, said to his father 'I can kill you here, there....what is the difference? I have to kill you, father' Finally, the son complied to his father's dying wish. He took him up the mountain deep in the forest. The father told his son to follow him until he found the right place where he wants to die. The son asked his father, why has he chosen this paritcular spot to be killed. The father said that 'this very same spot where I stand is the place I killed my father and this will be the same place where your son will kill you'
After we arrived in Tangier and caught a boat going back to Algeciras, Spain, Sherif's message of good health, family and love. We couldn't stopped but to wonder the meaning behind that story and how we were so sudden to prejudice this kind man who just wanted to express kindness and friendship. Was it possible that Allah brought us a messenger to remind us of our hatred has no place in this beautiful world? Or was this a way to strengthen our friendship or our broken relationships with our family? Our fathers?
Ronda, a picturesque town deep in valley of Andalucia. Even with beautiful scene of this town, we came here to contact Attila's friends to get information on getting a job. Attila showed me and Nathan around after we found a hostel nearby. We also found a cheap Chinese restaurant in town for only six euros which included Tsingtao Beer.
The guys spent sometime hanging out in the hostel, I went out and did my usual, taking pictures, taking in all what I could see and exprience. I found a local internet café and I also found the nearest grocery store. I bought the usual and naturally shared with my travelmates, fruit yogurt, bottled water, bread and nutella chocolate and of course nice green spanish olives. By the way, it was Attila's 23rd birthday. We got drunk that same night.
The next day, we took the 12noon train to the town of Cortez de la frontera, another small town like Ronda around the same region. Here, we supposed to meet with Attila's friend Juan, who had or knew about light construction work in the area. We spent a few hours at a local pub drinking spanish beer eating peanuts and chatting with some old men in town. Later on, Attila finally got in contact with the guy and all what Nate and I got was that we could come by this Juan guy's place. But, Attila was concerned that even if we were able to get there, how will we get back to Ronda? Because the train only runs certain hours of the day. I suggested that Juan could take us back to town or simply walk back along the train tracks.
It shouldn't come to anyone's suprise that things were looking good. Juan never returned Attila's text message nor did he answer his phone calls. It shouldn't also come as a suprise that we ended up taking the last train going back to Ronda. Silence, dirty looks and uncertain filled our train cabin room. It was probably the quiet train ride I ever had in my life. We got back to our hostel, we tried to put some understanding to this problem, which we were now facing. My bank account also revealed something even worse, my balance is running really low. This was an alarm. None of us had return airline tickets to go back home and none of us wanted to return home. At least, Nate and I were fully aware that there was nothing back home and there was no home to return. We went out that night to have a beer. Still, we couldn't make any sense of it.
Instead of finding a way on how we were going to find work, the guys started having some weird bullshit competition with one another. I didn't understand why. Attila dominated the knowledge, whereas Nate domainated the spirit of things. I watch this somewhat calm war between the God Jupiter versus Zeus withou having a way to resolve their matters. I dominated the destination. I told the guys that I knew going into this trip that I was going to be fucked with money matters and I took this risk to be my two best friends and wanted Nate to exprience the world of traveling and even with fights, arguments and sometimes a lack of space, was all a part of the travel exprience. We all agreed and resolved our differences. We went out for another night on the town and had a few beers. We left for Granada the following morning.
Listen to:
1)Blur from the Great Escape Album:
Track 11- Ernold Same
Track 12-Globe Alone
2) Juanes from album, Mi Sangre
Track 4-Camisa Negra
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