Ridin' on the Marrakech Express....

I’ve been reading every day at lunch lately in order to finish a non-fiction book I am reading for the International Literary Colloquy (the country of focus is Morocco). We meet tomorrow at noon. "A Street in Marrakech" has been a very interesting read for me. This past fall I read "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" by a Moroccan author who now lives in the United States. Now I am learning much more about Morocco and it’s fascinating culture. Interestingly, my mother and father visited Morocco for a day when they traveled across the water from Spain while on a rare international vacation (their only one and the only time, to my knowledge, that my mother has left the United States, excepting Mexico). It was the only time that my brother and I were left with a bonafide, card-carrying, nanny. She was about 100 years old and we didn’t like her. But I digress. I remember my mother saying that they were taken to the suq (the market) and the men were told to put their wallets in their front pockets to avoid being pickpocketed. Elizabeth Fernea gives an accurate and colorful account of spending a year in Marrakech, in a traditional medina (neighborhood), with her husband and their three children. She exhibits an important level of patience as she gets to know the women who are her neighbors and eventually become her friends. I have really enjoyed this book, as I really enjoy insight into other cultures. Last night I even dreamed about looking for "baraka" (grace, blessing) and woke up thinking, "Did I really have a dream that included Arabic words?" I did. That’s the result of how my subconscious mind works when I read before sleeping. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s discussion. Surely we will dine on couscous; and maybe even tajeen (a stew of meat and spices). Enshallah.