rants and raves

So I'm quite sick of the fact that people feel they can take advantage of the fact that you are travelling as a tourist. Most of the time people feel that just because you are white and from Europe or America that you have tons of money to blow on things that are completly trival in the scheme of real life. For instance...I was in Jerba and I wanted to rent a bike. I went to a different hotel that was close to ask if there is a shop that was close in order to rent one. The man at the desk said yes and then got on the fun and called his friend to come an bring a bike. Im thinking great...I don't have to go far...what a nice guy. Then he says, "That will be on dinar for the phone call." I went off in arabic because if I would have known this I would have left and asked someone els who is nice and would tell me for the sake of niceness. But I gave it to him in Arabic and used religious language and then he got quite. I gave him the dollar but told him he needs to tell people ahead of time...will he listen...probably not. I had a few of these experiences but riding with the farmers and haveing taxis give me free rides because they are interested in my story is worth it I suppose.
After Jerba I made a long days travel to Mahdia which is another coastal town and a very nice one at that. By the way I got a haircut in Jerba and it has been the best one since Miguel cut it. These guys are very skilled here. So anyway I walked around the city and got some good photos and then left out the next morning to El Jem where there is a very nice roman ruined ampitheater. Really quite interesting. The same day I jumped on a train to Tunis and here I am. It is always nice to return to somewhere that you know a bit about. Ive been on short edge with the cabdrivers and such, expecting them to stiff me, but all is well. Im starting to anticipate my trip to Turkey now which is in one week. Ill try to keep busy until then.

sand sand and more sand and then beach

So victor, the chilean guy, did give me a boost and from Touezr I jumped in a shared taxi (which Im very good at now) and rode to a village named Tazouer in the morning, got some wonderful pictues of a ruined village and then shot back to Touzer where I caught a bus to Douz which is the "gateway to the Sahara." The ride was beautiful through varied oases of palm groves. It is Date harvest time so all the people are out picking and the markets are a buzzin with fiber. And so am I again thank God. nuff said. Douz is a strange Tourist place but is very cool at the same time. A friend of Nour's in the States hooked me up with her cousins and they showed me around on the back of a scooter and in a 4by4. The hotel was great and so were the people. It was market day on thurs. so I bought a new scrub glove for the shower (i love these things) and some dates, got my clothes washed and walked around the market where they sell the animals. Sad but fun.
I wanted to go to Matmata after that where there are Berber villages undergroundm that served as set for star wars. I was going to have to go the long way and take three shared taxis because there are no direct routes. But this guy who was estatic at my American Muslimness asked a friend of his if he could take me direct. I was a bit skepital at first ecause he said I didn't have to pay so I went to the shared taxi stand and started my route but then I got a call saying the car was leaving. I said a prayer and went. it turned out to be this cool old farmer returning to his village in this little old truck. Very cool experience. We passed by big Tour buses and I just thought how different of an experience this is for me compared to them.
I met some cool loder tourists from Canasa in Matmata and one of the women had done a trip like this when she was younger. From there I headed to Tatouine which is not very attractive and is on my bad list because I spent the most tourist dollars there. It is hard to bargin with these guys...they are good. But I went out in a taxi and saw some very interesing berber villages and had a conversation with a guy about the antichrist and some other interesting topics (weirdo) But all said and done The people were once again nice and I had good conversations with the young guy at my hotel and his friends in Arabic.
And then I went to Jerba. The friend of Nour's in Tunis, Her husbad's brother picked me up from the shared taxi station and fed me and helped me find my hotel. this is a very nice laid back place. I'm just glad its off season. The htel is beautiful and chep and I tried Lableby for the first time to day for breakfast. You crumble bread into a bowl and then they put olive oil beans some tomato sauce stuff and garlic with olives and a parlty bolied egg all together. Sounds nasty but after stirring it all together...it is the breakfast of Champions! or me! Loved it. Then I got the best haircut Ive had since Miguel with a straight razer shave and the works. for Eight dinars (about 5-6 bucks) very nice. That's it for now...dinner time...cous cous!

Funis in Tunis (errrrrrr????)

I wanted desperately to write more about Senegal and indeed I should but the time has somehow pass through my fingers like the last bits of rice and meat did all too many times. I should go for more shorter entries but for now you are subject to a longy. (Littletonese for long one) So I must leqve my 2 year old friend Cheikh Ali...who called me uncle in Wolof (I kept thinking he was saying give me and so I was a bit bitter but then caught a lump in the throught when I found out it meant uncle) and dear sweet friends at the daa'ra espically my new big sister Raissa (soory for spelling) who fixed my glasses, washed my clothes, made my dinner, all with a headache and a smile, my friend and new father Muhammed who I could barely communicate with but somehow managed to see all of Dakar with, the brains of the operation or at least blowhorn, Aisha (no one tell her that!) who educated me in many ways and between her and her husband made the whole experience possible...yes I leave them as words on paper and invite you to take me to tea or coffee (which I drink everyday now...sometimes several times throughout the day) and ask me about Senegal because it was truely one of my favorite places so far.
Tunisia has been a very interesting personal experience (like this whole trip isn't right?) I've managed to spend more tourist dollars here than anywhere else and I still have two weeks left. these people are amazing at the the abalities to get the money smoothly from you. That's why I'm not mad. I get blazing angry (as angry as Thomas can get) when they are blantly trying to screw you but if they have allready succeded and you realize it after the fact...wow...you're good. I've been to the most European city in the Middle east/N. Africa and caught stares from the tres chic as they sip their coffee's on the main ave. I've managed to buy perfumed oil at a higher price than I pay for it at home. I've wandered through ancient Islamic mosques and visted tombs of people who were alive and companions of the Prophet. I have made a million kids and young girls giggle...or flat out laugh...when I pass and say "how are you in Arabic". I froze my but off(which isn't much of one to begin with) with three arcitects from America and Canada (the other America) while being extemely afraid of border police taking us into the desert and stopping the car only to find out that there were taking us to the top of this extremley cool mountain with roman ruins on it because of the issues with algeria....whoo that was a long one. I managed to find a Chilean travel buddy who is also travelling around the world and travel the same distance from another city as I did just to collide in the desert and experience Star Wars sets together. I have been amazingly subdued this go round. Think I geeting tired but somehow I keep going. This chilean guy gave me a boost. He just goes from place to place on couch surfer and does give himself time to get homesick. So I'm following these footsteps. And it's working well. I'm whirling around the south right now and trying to make it back to the capital by the weekend. We'll see. I am having fun though. This is the important part. I still can't believe that I am doing this.

Ka Pout

Perhaps the highlight of Senegal, besides the people, was my trip to Pout. Pout is a village outside of Dakar where Cheikh Ali of the International Sufi School, Khdmitul Khadim, and his wife Ayesha are in the process of setting up a community for people of all faiths but right now is in the early phases. At the moment it is a farm...a very large farm...a very beautiful large farm where you really feel at ease and in Africa. All the Workers were great and extremely nice. Things qre done in q bqck to bqsic style of farming meaning that some tradtional tools are used as well as using what is artound you to make things work.
I actually got my hands dirty and got to work for a bit which was nice for a change to do something productive. But man was it hot!!! My favorite time of the day was mid mrnig senegalese tea break under a huge mango tree. And then lunch under the mango tree, and then qn nqp under the mango tree. These guys know how to respect the heat! I really respected the women and their work ethics. It was crazy how much they did in a day. They would come into the farm from the village on the horse cart and leave late in the day on the same cart. They were extemly nice to me and enjoyed the fact that I was there working. But my favorite worker was this big dude who was built for physical labour! He would hold these huge baild of hay up over his head while singing religious african style songs which really made work easier while listenting to them.
As the day would come to an end, the sun set would light up the country side in beautiful colors and I would eat peanuts fresh from the gound on the roof of the house while watching it all come to a close for the day.
Aysha wqs extemly nice to me and prepared dinners and made time to discuss all of the details of the peace and nonviolent aspects of which the sufi school teaches. Ill never forget this one. My friend Chou who kindof managed things walked to the road with me and we caught the bus back into Dakar for my last few days in Senegal. This all taught me to respect what I have and that I dont need much. I also taught me how to fold up in cars and buses for long periods of time! But seriously bqting from q bucket qnd working hard and remembering to remeber God while your working was a very important lesson for me and I hope to return to Senegal to help the situation of those who can't help them selves some day.

Cheikh Amadou Bamba

One of the reasons I came to Senegal was to find out more about the Mouridya Sufi movement which is very prevelant there and in fact is most probably the majority of muslims in Senegal. Many people don't get to hear about these groups because often times...and this is unfortuanatly the case here...People in mainstream Islam have a hared time dealing with the revernce of saints. The Mouridya is particularly interesting because their figure head, Chieikh Amadou Bamba, is daid to have contacted Muhammed personnaly as well as in recieve miricales from God. This is not so strange among the saints of Islam. However the Cheikh went through some very tough times with the French who were colonizing at the time and he was put into exile several times as well as circumstanses of sure death. He was accused of leading an armed rebellion against the French but this was the complete oppisite. The man embodied non violence. So much so that now the schools that have came in his footsteps teach not only nonviolence but the importance of one humanity through the examples of peacemakers all throught time and the world. (MLK, Ghandi, etc.) He eventually built a holy city in Senegal that was to be entirely devoted to the worship of God in order to be not in same rank of but the perfect servant of Muhammad (PBUH). There are many attacks on the Cheikh and the movement and Im not writing to say right or wrong, but I got a chance to tour these areas and see what is being done now in his vein of teaching and I have to say I have been waiting to see this within Islam for as Long as I have known it to be a religion.
I fisrt went to Dourjbell where the Cheikh lived and prayed and was taken into Exile...visions from the prophet etc. I love a beatiful mosque but I have a hang up on physical beauty over taking the meaning of the person but this case was different for me. The mosque where he prayed is beautiful and it is kept that way but we wnt to the room where he made his prayers ...and it is a specical place. The beauty only inhances this.
We then went to Touba...the holy city. Many things mirror Mecca and Madina which some people have problems with. But once again the place is very fancy and beautiful but I could not help but to feel a bit of specialness there. Phsycological maybye. For me the point was to fully embrace the concepts of non violence through the practice of Islam and have this man be an example of this and to see into what holds a nation of people together. These phenomanon are brilliant to me. Africa needed this man. Black Africans needed this man. Islam needed this man to show that race is truely unimportant. Other wise we are humans and we fall back into the same thinking patterns as we always do. Beyond prophetic examples are other human exapmples in the ways of these prophetic figures, it seems to me, to revive certain aspects of teaching that may have been pushed aside intentionally or unintentionally. There are fakes and frauds but it was beautifull seeing a unifing element for not just for Senegal but for others as well.

Cest Triste

One of the experiences that had quite a bit of impact on me was a trip to Isle de Goree. This is a very beautiful island off the coast of Dakar but its beauty is deceptive. This was one of the major ports for the slave trade and the home of the famous "door of no return." The buildings are gold and red...the gold built by the portuguese and the red by the dutch...and set against lush green tropical plants. There are no cars on the island so it is very peaceful. Many artists have set up bohemian shop there and quite a few rastas having givin it a very laid back friendly vibe.
I even knew that the islan was used for slave trade but it is difficult not to get sucked into its beauty. But my visions of beauty were quickly shattered when my friend Mohammed's friend lead us around and described to me in english the horrors that took place there. Families were seperated into men, women, and children. Young girls under 25 were all in one room and this gave me the shutters to think about what happened there. If the people were under 60 kilos...yes they were wieghed...they were fed peanuts to fatten them up. It is not ironic that one of Senegals main crops is peanuts which were imposed by the colonists in order to make a cash crop. Africans that agreed to keep watch over the prisinors before the door of no return were promised not to be sent off. I couldnt help what this must have felt like to be in either position...not wanting to be shipped off so you do a horrible task or to have your own people watching as you were shipped off.
There are memorials visited by Papa Bush and Clinton and the likes but I was sinical about any peice of concrete having enough meanigh to apologize for such acts. And so went the them of Senegal for me. You take the good with the bad because it is the whole package that is truelly beautiful. Ironic Huh

catching up again

So I am actually in Tunis now but Im going to try to describe the wonderful time I had in Senegal to the best of my abailities.
Senegal perhaps was the most different place I have been to to date. Mauritania was very different and was a good prelude but I could speak arabic a bit there. In Senegal there was a real outsider feeling I had allthough not from the treatment of the people. There are not many white people in Senegal so I was a bit of a spectacle espically for the kids but it wasn't just this. It was more of the fact that colonialism still runs in the memories of people and there seems to be a bit of a hesitancy toward meeting some of the folks. But Im not saying this because I think this is a bad thing...I think it is a warrented response to history. But if you show any bit of wanting to get to know someone the response is huge. I tried to learn a bit of Wolof as I went and this got some smiles. I really cant say enough about the hearts of these people. The African are sooooo hospitable. The feeling is very different from north africa to more central though. I think I liked Senegal the best so far because of the huge plus sides to the character of the people and also the huge downside to the poverty situation there. It was both exterems in your face and this was the intense part. But it was what I liked so much. It is just so different from America. No one eats alone. Genoristy and hospitality are genitically part of the culture. I just wish I knew French! So now Ill describe a few of my favorite parts but a little later...Im hungry.