mrrhaba!!!!!

who knows if thats how you spell it, but that means welcome!!!!

so ive been in morocco for almost 2 weeks now, from dirty casablanca through imperial meknes and the dizzying fez medina, down to the red red dunes of the sahara, winding through the various ranges of the atlas mountains and through the todra gorge with valleys of date palms and alfalfa plots, finally driving past chunks of roadside cactus and thistle out to the windy hippie village of essouira to this sticky keyboard on this second floor cyber cafe. and ive only just begun!!!

before this trip i knew i was lucky to have travelled so much in europe, lucky to have lived abroad and seen and befriended so many cities in the states; to have driven through the yucatan, swam off the islands of croatia, to have seen so many places that the rest of the world can only dream of from fading postcards and posters or at least can know through pixelated images on computer screens in shabby internet holes like this one. but i NEVER KNEW until i came here how lucky i am to have seen all of that AND this incredibly inspiring country, with the friendliest people.

i am going to stay a bit longer than i thought to volunteer at this association for handicapped adults, learn some traditional berber weaving, and teach some english (ok get the chuckling all out right now right now because im serious!!!) the literacy rate is laughable and i never thought that bringing so many pens would be useful. i also never thought i would find a place like this so welcoming, so terrifyingly eye-opening, so helpless and yet ready for change......so sooooooo different and beautiful!!!

now for rebeccas prized advice: go see the world!!!! ive never been a fan of preaching, but im telling you now: spend all of your money travelling the world and come home poor because this is the only thing worth doing in your life!!! forget shopping (am i really saying this!?) forget convenience forget home for a bit and get out there. just dont forget to send your parents an email.

love you and miss you all!!! dont worry dorothy im still bringing souvenirs im not that broke yet!!! i dont have a lot of time to email everyone but write me because i want to know what youre all doing!

photos are coming, just spent an hour on this damn french cmputer and couldnt get it to work. in marrakech, enshallah! (god willing!)