Cinema de Maroc

Several films have been made in Morocco. We saw two large film studios in Ouarzazate (Oz for short)

A short list of films:

Gladiator - in Oz

Kingdom of Heaven - in Oz

Lawrence of Arabia - in Oz

Black Hawk Down - in Rabat, (it didn't look that rough to me, but I guess I didn't go to where they filmed the movie, thank goodness)

Star Wars - in Tunisia, but it looks like it could have been filmed and inspired here. 

Strangely enough, Casablanca, arguably the most famous of all films involving Morocco, was filmed in Hollywood.

For more, check this wikipedia article out.

The Road to Ouarzazate

That is pronounced "whar's it at" and this town, although pretty remote is in a beautiful place. The road from Marrakech was amazing, a tiny little 1 1/2 lane road with busses and donkey carts, deadly dropoffs, etc. It can be closed if it rains or snows too much. I think our bus stopped here, at this wide spot in the road. I bought some peanuts from two young guys named Essam and Ibrahim.

I've posted some pictures of Marrakech and Ouarzazate in the webalbums (link to the right). I liked this part of Morocco a lot.

It's where it at!

Exchange Rate

You pay attention to this sort of thing when you travel.

This as well.

Fes and Casa

A medina taxi in Fes

Fabric spun on the loom

I've uploaded some pictures of Fes and Casablanca to the Picasa Webalbums. It rained for a week in Fes, but now it is hot in Casa. Tomorrow we will go to Marakech.

We're trying to remember some French, but we're lost when it comes to Moroccan Arabic! But, its just another language, it might not be as hard as Basque!

New colors for the blog. What do you all think?

Need some elbow room...

We have spent some time in Fes el Bali, or Old Fes, the most dense, largest, car free area in the world. Check it out here if you get a chance. 

Its a fascinating, albeit cramped place!

Vite, Vite!

Quick, quick! But that is hard to do, as I have become less and less efficient the more time I spend in Spain. I can´t imagine it getting any better in Morocco.

Since finishing the Camino, we have been traveling south, staying with friends of friends. In Madrid we stayed with the Nordgrens and Karin Harper (they are with an organization called SEND). They knew Phil Jolley (with an orginazation called ECM) who needed some help at a retreat in the province of Ciudad Real. So we looked after several English and German kids. We didn´t plan on this before, but it was a neat opportunity that just popped up.

At the retreat, a place called Sol Verde (www.sol-verde.com), we met the director of ECM who suggested we visit his sister in Granada. We said ¨Sure!¨and in a few minutes, he said, ¨She will be expecting you tonight.¨ Its amazing how God brings these things together.

We were very blessed to stay with Rowena (British) and Paco (Spanish) in Granada. We have been learning a lot about hospitality these last few weeks and they are great examples.

From there we traveled to La Linea, the town right at the foot of Gibraltar to visit Melissa McKeehan, from our home church. She is a language assistant in a public school there. We visited Gibraltar, part of the UK, and saw a cool British supermarket.

Currently, we are in Algeciras with Mark and Robin, friends of a friend in Knoxville. Tomorrow, we leave Spain after almost 2 months here. We can see Morocco from here and tomorrow will be a travel day to Tangier and then (as quickly as we can - I´m not a big fan of port cities) to Fés. Mark and Robin have been giving us suggestions and orientation about Morocco today.

We have met a lot of amazing, bi-lingual (or tri- and quadralingual), generous, and hospitable people that we have really been blessed by in the past few weeks. I´ll never be able to pay them back, but I can be changed by my time with them, to learn from them!

I´ve added lots of new pictures in the picasa albums. Some new ones of the middle of the Camino too (that I forgot to put in there!)