Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Saturday, April 4, 2009
What If?
My speculation leads be to believe that some things would be easier. Ignorance is not bliss, but it doesn't require reflection or action. Sometimes I feel like a walking contradiction when I think of my kids in Africa. Why should I have so much, and they so little? Should I sell everything I have so that I too, only have little? This is not the answer, but a question that plagues me. The only thoughts presently are that the things I have seen motivate me to compassion and understanding. I don't want to "fix" everything, its not the messiah complex, but perhaps more of a rubiks complex. I want to understand why things don't work there, to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, I am not God, and doubt that I will ever come close to an explanation that my brain will accept. So what then, you ask? I trust that He does understand and is capable of more love and compassion than I can fathom. My job is not always to do, but to trust, not lose faith, and be willing to say, "I don't know."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Leaving Casablanca
Getting out of Morocco was quite an adventure. We were on time getting a taxi to take us to the train station, which would then send us to the airport. It became obvious to us that the driver did not speak English, nor did he understand at all what we were trying to say. The map we showed him probably would have helped, but he must not have been looking closely. Instead of dropping us at the train station, he had us get out by the “Twin” building. Similar sounding, yet very different In meaning, right?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Overall the weather has been wonderful, but tonight was a bit chilly as we were walking back to go to sleep. Don't worry, these ladies of the night are working nowhere near our hostel. Actually, they work on Gran Via, which reminds me of Nicollet in downtown Minneapolis. They are really overt about their profession, which is something that you just don't see in the U.S., especially in good parts of town.
Today was packed full, as everyday before has been. We found a cafe this morning for breakfast, and had cappuccinos and croissants, it was picturesque. After, we ran around Madrid trying to find H&M to get a few more shirts for Chris since his luggage is still gone. We also found him a hat because his forhead is turning about as red from the sun as the imitation Dolce and Gabanna jeans from Casablanca turned his legs blue from the dye. And his legs were BLUE.
After finding him some clothes, we walked through the El Retiro park, which translated, is a park that is much like Central Park in New York. We were on our way to El Prado, an art museum that people make special trips to Madrid just to visit. It was amazing. Out of the 56 masterpieces, we were only able to view about half before the museum closed at eight. We may make another trip there tomorrow to view the rest, or there is a lesser known museum called the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which began as a private collection, worth around 1 billion dollars, but was purchased for the bargain price of 350 million. It should be pretty impressive.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Mosque
The Hassan II Mosque is quite a sight. The mosque sits on the Atlantic Ocean, near the Casablanca port, and is the second largest mosque in the world. We were, for obvious reasons of faith, not allowed inside, but were able to walk around the courtyard. In some ways being there made me think of Babel. There were tourists from all corners of the globe, speaking different languages. I have been in Godless countries before, but Morocco is different. Aside from the few children that were playing soccer in the street, there is little joy. After talking to the locals in the old city, which is not tourist oriented, they have shared that everyone is working an angle. In some ways, we feel bad for them, most things here are dirty and the apathy towards life is evident as you meet the town.
We will post more tomorrow, we are presently using a trial of the internet at a bar/cafe in Madrid. CW loves it here already. Today was a bit too much of an adventure AGAIN, but we are here and happy.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
New places, New faces
Friday, March 20, 2009
What?
You would think we would be wearing happy faces since we are on vacation, right? Truth be told, these are posed angry faces, but valid nonetheless. Our flight to New Jersey got delayed four hours, making us miss our connection to Madrid. This in itself is sad, until you realize that by missing our connection to Madrid, we also missed our flight to Casablanca. Boo.
We ended up getting routed through Amsterdam, so while it was a pain to get jostled around, and finally arrive in Casablanca at around midnight without Chris' luggage and two pairs of shoes stolen from mine, he did get another stamp in his passport. His luggage should arrive tomorrow, and we are safe and sound at the Hotel Central, in Old Medina, Casablanca. This is turning out to be quite an adventure, but at least we're together and still laughing, right?