Two weeks ago, my wife Wendy and I spent 10 days in Morocco. In addition to being fun and educational, it was a great way to clear my mind. Indeed, I've felt mentally refreshed since my return. Of course, we toured Fes and Marrakech, but my favorite part was driving east over the Middle Atlas mountains past Erfoud and then on to the very small town of Marzouga to the western Sahara Desert. We then rode camels 2 miles out into the dunes. What a trip! We spent the night in a Berber tent under a gazillion stars. It was one of the 10 best things I've ever done.
We met many friendly people there. We learned about 30 words of Arabic, and that made a huge difference in the way we got on. "Al-hom-du-le-la" (phonetic spelling) meaning "Thanks be to God" and "Zuween biz-zeff" meaning "it's all very beautiful" worked wonders where ever we go. We also learned the words for "thief" and "criminal" which we used when we kidded about the lobbyists and cronies around the monarch, King Muhammed VI.
We had long conversations with our guide whose father was a ceriff (or Islamic holy man; he had memorized the entire Koran by the age of seven). On our long drives, Wendy asked about religion and I would ask about politics. We've both learned a lot. It's a very different world.
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