Writings

So a local man recently cleared up a myth for me. Barack Obama cannot be the first black president because Abe Lincoln, who took office right after George Washington, beat him to the punch years ago.

Once, this same dude was telling me how Morocco needs to build as many nuclear power plants as possible to create cheaper electricity for the rural areas, when I casually mentioned the issue of toxic waste. After convincing him that yes, nuclear reactions give off useless, hazardous waste he simply said "Well so what? That's why we have Mauritania." Touché.

I was riding in a cab last week with a seatbelt on when the driver suddenly noticed something which drove (yep, it's a pun. deal.) him to laughter... I was wearing a seatbelt. By the time he had calmed down he had also secretly unbuckled it for me.

So a few of us went to Marrakesh in order to celebrate new years with other people who were aware of its existence. I mean, Halloween without booze, however absurd, is one thing, but New Years sans brew is completely inexcusable. While there I was once again overwhelmed by the amount of hot chicks dressed in attire that revealed elbows, hair, neck and all sorts of other riské shit. For those of you who understand this (it is fairly straightforward), the hottie alarm was going off left and right. Anyway, the whole time we were there I was unsure of how the lot of us fit into the whole scheme of the city. We aren't really tourists or locals; we get quoted the prices with the additional white people tax, but can generally argue it down to something reasonable; we are looked down on by random tourists who think we are morons for coming to kesh solely to drink, be loud and speak English. Who comes to a Muslim city to get hammered? People who live in rural Muslim towns.

I had sheep at my host family house recently. It continues