Ferdinand in El Jadida

 Good Morning. My name is Ferdinand and I am not of your kind and do not usually speak your language. But as I have just met the travelling shadows known as Ted and Krysia, I thought I would bring you up to date with their stay in El Jadida. This is where I am from, at least before I landed that is! That's right, I'm not actually from your world and I have a very different sense of time and space. You all move so quickly and are always in a rush. The two beens whom I shall refer to as T n K from now on, have arrived a very stressed out state from the wild freezing lands they call Wales. We here in jadida have not heard of these parts of uninviting lands and do not wish to visit them. Whereas the visitors from Wales seem to delight in basking in the sun and doing their washing outside!

T n K have been wandering each day through the many delights this large town has to offer. Simple pleasures seem to be their favourite. Walking amongst the locals and trying to say numbers in Arabic, please them greatly. In the old part of town they marvel at, to them, a lost treasure. Small shops abundant with all you could desire, teeming with locals buying their wares. Friendly faces eager to sell at the correct price anything from a bunch of mint to an internet modem. Technology has arrived but humanity has not as yet been lost. Social interaction flows like a river. Beggars are courteous and givers benevolent. At a fresh juice cafe, T n K are engaged by a local woman who, as they prepare to leave, insists on paying for their drinks! An onlooking tourist whispers 'Well, you can't get better than that, can you?' and dazed with hospitality, the two de-stressing shadows wander on in amazement, thanking Fatima from El Jadida for showing them heart felt human friendship. Through these market and stall meanderings, T n K's camera remains in it's bag, feeling unneeded as the personal contact, sounds, sights and smells are more than enough to satisfy their senses and 'sneaking' snaps of these folk or thrusting lenses into their faces is an intrusion they would not pursue in their own home town. It is also far less stressful for them to be just onlookers in this carnival.

Their evening walks have been very stimulating. Ted was not able to contain himself and had to record some imagery of these social gatherings. The mile long sea front attracts a multitude of young people, all people, who wander the mile under flood lighting spilling out onto the beach to play on horses and camels, even quad bikes, all for hire for fun. Vendors sell pop corn and bowls of snail soup, candy and cigarettes. Everyone seems to find the Ted shadow as interesting as you probably find me, Ferdinand! The ageing hippie look certainly draws interest from these well manicured, fashionably dressed young people! 'What is it?' one feels they are thinking.

These images might help the reader to get a feel for the nightly experience. And it must be added that at no time in their wanderings here at El Jadida, have T n K been accosted by any touts which are so common in other more touristy places in this fair land of Morocco. As Fatima at the juice bar told us ' Tourism in some parts of Morocco has confused the locals into seeing dollar/euro's walking about instead of people'  Not yet here in El Jadida.

Their own shadows come out to play once more as they slip unnoticed in the glaring floodlights

And wend their way back to their tranquil campsite where they indulge in more de-stressing activities

                                                   Like sunbathing and crochet.

Here, from my home on top of a back wheel, I watch Krysia in the early stages of making a woollen blanket for her sweet Jaimie, which hopefully will keep her relaxed for the whole of their stay here in Mahgreb.

                      And so from in the land where you could say 'castles are made of sand '

                    I wish you a slow and pleasantly relaxing day ( and life )

                    From Ferdinand the outer space, inner space terrestrial

And now to sleep for at 5 am every morning, the local folk are woken up by the sound of prayer!
A good way to start the day but does it need to be 5 am?