who can tell where these good feelings come from. they seem to belong in the very air.
they are carried alongside friendly cries. from all corners of the countryside there comes a friendly cry; bonjour, ca va; bonjour, ca va,
if not then eyes of curiosity. that is something i will not miss about morocco - the constant attention and eyes glued on me wherever i go. some men, dressed in fully monkish traditional robes, spin a string of regal nods, giving the whole of morocco the air of being a monestary, albeit one with motorbikes and the tooting of cars. i have left a trail of greetings behind me,
and exchanged thousands of smiles along the way. it feels a little like morocco is inhabited by one big family, everyone concerned about the wellbeing of everybody else; very ready to lend a helping hand.
a man at a roadside cafe selling fish tells me in french: it is islam which requires that we all help each other. if your neighbour comes to your door hungry, you must give him food. the individualism of europe is arriving along with the commerce of the cities, but only little by little.
i think: the power of religion. the positive power of religon.
islam is at the forefront of everybody's life values. i am sketching the details of a little minaret at the side of the road when adolescents greet and pose the question: am i a muslim? in my pocketbook arabic all i can muster is "no" with a smile, wanting to say "but i do desire good". i don't want to be seen as an indifel in the sense of malicious rebel, turned away from the good path. so i say "Allah akbhar" (God is great) which i perceive to be the first line of the call to prayer. i perceive that they want me to repeat some words (this happened twice), only two of which i can understand - Mohammed and Allah. some of these encounters have to end with me just smiling at them, some sort of sincere eye contact, the gesture of the hand placed over the heart (a gesture i quicky adopted here) and a "bessalama" (go in peace) as i cycle off. another youth at an orange juice bar in casablanca gives me a fuller explanation. "we humans are not here for no purpose. God must be the creator of the universe just as there must have been someone who made your bike - even through you don't know him. this life is like a test for us. the prophet mohamed has given us God's rules we must abide by. it is easy to be a muslim - do good to others, this many europeans do, but you must also pray five times a day. it is a time of peace and calm to be with God. you can be proud to become a muslim and still be proud to belong to your country and family. you can meet me here anytime if you want help with anything - he tells me. he insists on paying for my orange juice.
i am writing some final words coming from my impressions of morocco and they are about God.
i am impressed by the people i have met and the things they have said. i say "i am impressed". i mean "an impression has been left on me". these are the people of the world. these are the people we share the planet with. how can we get along?
late at night at a roadside internet station, and the owner comes out to see me about to pedal off and warns about the dangers out of town "il y a des clochards" he lowers his tone of voice - there are homeless people. he indicates a safe place to pitch my tent round the back and then has me inside his house for some mint tea and after a while telling me i can sleep in the room of cushions. he poses me the question: am i religious? and i give my response about my christian upbringing, but now being made aware of the variety of spiritual responses to life and....."ah, you are finding out about other religions before deciding which one to follow. you may become a muslim..." and i think: "for him the possibility of a real personal spiritual experience unattached to the prescribed ways of understanding as handed down by religious traditions is not possible"
all that peddling and rolling has put me in a real cycling frame of mind; unwilling now to be parted from my freedom machine. if i only had my two feet.....the possibility of ending the day 100km from where i started would not be mine. i could get into a car, but the vrrroooom vrooom burning petrol i'd rather have the wind in my face. i have been admiring all these palm trees so much, the soft sand gleaming in the moonlight at night, the banana stalls stacked high with yellow, orange carts brimming with orange, everyone riding on donkeys pulling carts in the countryside. it is a real encounter of traditional farming way of life with cars and modernity, mobile phones and music-playing electronic devices, the cocacola signs have been here for a while, big trucks full of building materials, construction springing up in key spots along the coast. morocco is a melangee of dirt lanes, palm trees (the symbolic palm tree) with a fringe of modernity; actually a centre of modernity in the city. practically everybody is fully faithed muslim. i would say somewhere around ninety out of every hundred are extermemy friendly and welcoming. "welcome to morocco" the words ring in my ears, echoing through daily repetition.
tomorrow i am going to get on a bus and not get off till milan. take my bike with me and pedal to keep warm on the way to visit brother gerry in austria. a nice new chapter of europe begins and lots of warm memories of warm morocco to keep me warm in the winter still low temperatures warmth is something to seek to be warm is very warming to the soul.
they are carried alongside friendly cries. from all corners of the countryside there comes a friendly cry; bonjour, ca va; bonjour, ca va,
if not then eyes of curiosity. that is something i will not miss about morocco - the constant attention and eyes glued on me wherever i go. some men, dressed in fully monkish traditional robes, spin a string of regal nods, giving the whole of morocco the air of being a monestary, albeit one with motorbikes and the tooting of cars. i have left a trail of greetings behind me,
and exchanged thousands of smiles along the way. it feels a little like morocco is inhabited by one big family, everyone concerned about the wellbeing of everybody else; very ready to lend a helping hand.
a man at a roadside cafe selling fish tells me in french: it is islam which requires that we all help each other. if your neighbour comes to your door hungry, you must give him food. the individualism of europe is arriving along with the commerce of the cities, but only little by little.
i think: the power of religion. the positive power of religon.
islam is at the forefront of everybody's life values. i am sketching the details of a little minaret at the side of the road when adolescents greet and pose the question: am i a muslim? in my pocketbook arabic all i can muster is "no" with a smile, wanting to say "but i do desire good". i don't want to be seen as an indifel in the sense of malicious rebel, turned away from the good path. so i say "Allah akbhar" (God is great) which i perceive to be the first line of the call to prayer. i perceive that they want me to repeat some words (this happened twice), only two of which i can understand - Mohammed and Allah. some of these encounters have to end with me just smiling at them, some sort of sincere eye contact, the gesture of the hand placed over the heart (a gesture i quicky adopted here) and a "bessalama" (go in peace) as i cycle off. another youth at an orange juice bar in casablanca gives me a fuller explanation. "we humans are not here for no purpose. God must be the creator of the universe just as there must have been someone who made your bike - even through you don't know him. this life is like a test for us. the prophet mohamed has given us God's rules we must abide by. it is easy to be a muslim - do good to others, this many europeans do, but you must also pray five times a day. it is a time of peace and calm to be with God. you can be proud to become a muslim and still be proud to belong to your country and family. you can meet me here anytime if you want help with anything - he tells me. he insists on paying for my orange juice.
i am writing some final words coming from my impressions of morocco and they are about God.
i am impressed by the people i have met and the things they have said. i say "i am impressed". i mean "an impression has been left on me". these are the people of the world. these are the people we share the planet with. how can we get along?
late at night at a roadside internet station, and the owner comes out to see me about to pedal off and warns about the dangers out of town "il y a des clochards" he lowers his tone of voice - there are homeless people. he indicates a safe place to pitch my tent round the back and then has me inside his house for some mint tea and after a while telling me i can sleep in the room of cushions. he poses me the question: am i religious? and i give my response about my christian upbringing, but now being made aware of the variety of spiritual responses to life and....."ah, you are finding out about other religions before deciding which one to follow. you may become a muslim..." and i think: "for him the possibility of a real personal spiritual experience unattached to the prescribed ways of understanding as handed down by religious traditions is not possible"
all that peddling and rolling has put me in a real cycling frame of mind; unwilling now to be parted from my freedom machine. if i only had my two feet.....the possibility of ending the day 100km from where i started would not be mine. i could get into a car, but the vrrroooom vrooom burning petrol i'd rather have the wind in my face. i have been admiring all these palm trees so much, the soft sand gleaming in the moonlight at night, the banana stalls stacked high with yellow, orange carts brimming with orange, everyone riding on donkeys pulling carts in the countryside. it is a real encounter of traditional farming way of life with cars and modernity, mobile phones and music-playing electronic devices, the cocacola signs have been here for a while, big trucks full of building materials, construction springing up in key spots along the coast. morocco is a melangee of dirt lanes, palm trees (the symbolic palm tree) with a fringe of modernity; actually a centre of modernity in the city. practically everybody is fully faithed muslim. i would say somewhere around ninety out of every hundred are extermemy friendly and welcoming. "welcome to morocco" the words ring in my ears, echoing through daily repetition.
tomorrow i am going to get on a bus and not get off till milan. take my bike with me and pedal to keep warm on the way to visit brother gerry in austria. a nice new chapter of europe begins and lots of warm memories of warm morocco to keep me warm in the winter still low temperatures warmth is something to seek to be warm is very warming to the soul.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento