PACE

Salaam Walechem.

Walking through the main square of Marrakech, Jemaa El Fna, I am blasted with color, sound, and a beehive of activity. There are snake charmers coaxing up cobras with flutes and drums yelling and singing, attracting a crowd. People gather round to see whats going on.

There is a crazed looking man in the center yelling and dancing around with a knife in his hand and a pile of snakes in the ground in front of him. A few cobras have their hoods up and behind them are about 4 or 5 other men banging drums or playing something that look like flutes.

There are stands of fresh orange juice vendors lined up one way, for 3 dirhams ( about 35 cents) you get a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Next to them are fruit and nut stands, with piles of fresh fruits and nuts. Walnuts and some other nuts I’ve never seen, apricots, dates, and figs are all piled up. You get a huge mixed bag for about 4 dollars.

So this is a huge square bustling with activity and opening up into a huge market selling rugs, shoes, clothing, spices, and all sorts of other things. As you walk by people try to talk to you ‘Bonjour mon amie’ Hello my friend. Please come inside, what do you like? There are alot of people that just try talk to you to get you to buy stuff, or to lead you to their store or their friends store. I got taken into a tannery where they had pits dug into the ground filled with skins and different mixes to soften or color the skins. One second your walking down the street and the next second your walking over a mangy dog on a the communal lot of tannery families.

I wake up alone at 5 30 am. Im in Southern Spain. Its August already. I’ve been travelling for about nine months. Living out of a backpack. I havent shaved in about a week, but I dont have any cares, so this bothers me not.

I grab a taxi to the bus station and get my ticket. Two hours later I’m in Algeciras, the southern tip of Spain and entry point into North Africa. I walk to my friend Freddy’s house, who I stayed with the last time I was in Algeciras, but he isnt home. I duct tape a note to his door that says I’m going to Tanger and I’ll be back in a few days.

I walk to the port and make the typical travellers mistate. I buy my ferry ticket from a travel agency – one of the many lining the street to the port. ALWAYS buy tickets direct. The actual port sells tickets for alot less than these guys, just like bus stations always sell cheaper than small agencies. Rookie mistake, but oh well. I’m still on my way to Morocco.

I chill in the back corner of the cafe with my feet up on a chair, watching the people. Alot of Morccans speaking French. French is the second language, Arabic being the other. I dont have a place to stay in Tanger, but I have the names of a few hostels if the overnight train to Marrakech is all booked up. If the train is full and I can’t find a place to say, I can grab a ferry back to Spain and stay in Algeciras. My escape route is fully formed.
We pull into Tanger and as I’m going exit (sortie -brushing up on my French) the port, 2 people approach me and ask me if I speak English. Indeed I do. 2 people from Cali, they want to know if I have a place to stay or know whats going on. I tell then that I dont have a place, but I know whats going on.
They follow out of the port and on a whirlwind tour of Tanger.

A driver took us around to all the major spots- the rock of Hercules, the med side of the ocean, the atlantic side, and the point at which the 2 oceans meet. After than he dropped us near the Kasbah, the old part of town and some guy I thought he was a scammer showed us all around. He called himself the ‘Mickey Mouse’ of Tanger. He turned out to be a good guy.

Alot of people seemed to know him. Walking buy people would yell out -Hassan! then tell us ‘you’re in good hands.’ So I find myself sipping mint tea and getting show hand woven carpets and different goods. We walked all through the old section of town, through the local markets, and to some vistas. This took a couple hours and we were being shown around to places I never would have found on my own, at least not in 1 day.

The overnight train was not sold out and left Tanger at 9:30 pm.

I wake up in the morning at about 8 am. Been wearing the same clothes for about 3 days. The view out the window is like watching a movie. There is a huge hill/mountain in the background and different layers of hills coming closer. The contrast makes the hills in the back appear to hardly move, and the closer hills to zoom by. It looks really strange, the colors of the ground almost sand colored, but not sand.

After looking around a bit and winding through these narrow streets, we grab a place for 50 dirham a night – about 6 dollars. Inside is a square with the centered hollowed out. The center goes put 3 floors to the roof and the rooms overlook the opening. I grab a shower and wash the grime off. I realize that after you wash off the filth, thats all you’ve done. I’m ready to see Marrakech.

Tapas, Cervezas, and Flamenco!

 Barcelona is really busy right now. Having a great time amongst the crowd. Its really hot during the day, but the nights are really nice. I found out there is a casino here, but couldn´t get a straight answer on what the Hold em tables looked like. I think he said it was a 10-20 limit and a 20-40 limit , where the buy-in for the 10-20 is like 250 euros or something. I havent got down there to play, even though I really wanted to.

Been busy every day checking out the sites of the city and some of the nightlife. Last night I saw a Flamenco show- guitarist, pianist, a guy on some kind of box drum thing, and a really crazy Flamenco singer guy with massive stage presence, as well as a Flamenco dancer. It was in a pretty small spot and I was right up front. really cool.

Tonight I saw a Master of Spanish guitar play a concert in a small cathedral. He played about 7 songs and was by far the best guitarist of any style I have ever seen in my life. he played so effortlessly and with so much passion in his music. And technically, the things the guy was doing were on an entire other level. After he played about 7 songs or so he took a break and a full orchestra came on to play some Mozart. After they played a few peices the guitarist came back out to solo for the orchestra. Amazing. It was a fairly small church, I was in the second row and the sound was amazing.

Tapas are what they have here in Barcelona for food. Its an assortment of all kinds of things that you get along with a beer, kind of snack food things, but on a much better Spanish scale. Fried peppers, prociuto & cheeses, calamari, etc. They have been a staple.

I´m staying right next to a famous place called Las Ramblas, which is a long walkway that leads from the city center to the sea. There are a few shops & things along the way, eateries, but mainly just a bunch of people hanging out and some really cool street performers like this guy – lamarioneta.com

There was a Rasta out there last night singing Bob Marley songs for change who was planning on walking from Cape town to Cairo in November. So there is all sorts of craziness going down here.

After this I´m heading south to try to catch a ferry into North Africa.

I just got back from a 3 day adventure where I was part of a 3 man crew that sailed a 30ft Yacht from Poole, England to Cherbough, France across one of the most heavily trafficed pieces of international water in the world, The English Channel. Both there and back were night voyages so we had to take two hour turns on watch, piloting the ship while the others got some rest.

On watch you have to be vigillant for other ships to avoid collisions. Falling asleep is not an option, since you basically have other peoples lives in your hands. Its pretty cold actually so it’d be pretty hard to fall asleep. You could easily get run down by another larger ship if they didn’t see you, or courses were miscalculated, etc. The ship is outfitted well for night voyages and I was able to get familiar with the navigation equiptment fairly quickly. There was alot of equiptment – GPS, radar, NCIS radar, radio, compass, as well as depth, speed, and wind gauges. But these things as well as how to tie a few simple knots were all fairly easy to get a hang of. I also had to wear complete wet weather gear, more for the cold actually since the seas we mild.

It was amazing being out on the open water at night. For two nights I watched the sun go down and the moon come up, as well as the sunrises over the ocean. One of the best parts was coming onto deck at night and being the sole night watchman. Its only you and an expanse of sea under the stars and moon, which shine incredibly bright out on the open sea.

One of the most halarious and discusting incidents of my life occured aboard ship during the voyage from England to France. The captain was on watch when he was suddenly overwhelmed by the need to evacuate his bowels. He made way for the ships latrine and as he was evacuating disaster struck and, in what after further inquiry, seems to have happened in equal propulsion, he vomited whilst evacuating his bowels.

Now, as horrible as this is, its not the worst of it. In a valliant effort to not spew all over the bathroom any more than had already been accomplished, he then got on his knees (kneeling in his own puke) and figured that he’d empty the rest of his stomach into the toilet. Unfortunatly, as he did so disaster once again reared its ugly head and dealt another blow. As hes puking, in what after further inquiry, seems to have happened in equal propulsion, he exited his stomach, yet again, out both ends. Again.

So, the puke that was spewed forth at first was all over the wall and floor, but the shit was at least in the toilet. The second time ruined everything, however, and the fecal matter was added to the puke on the wall and floor. wow. just wow.

I’m in my bunk and he calls down ‘hey! look down there’ and shines a light over into the corner of the bathroom area. I look down and see this rancid sight, and furthermore smell the most horrific disgusting stench, which would continue to permeate the cabin for quite some time. It was halarious. So we are dying laughing, just losing it. Just being there where the evidence was still shown and having him recount the details whist yelling and laughing about it was priceless.

It may have to do with the fact that we ate in this sequence – nearly a whole roasted chicken, a whole box of cherries, a bag of pistachios, creamy tomato soup, a bag of mixed fruit and nuts, some questionably dated wheat bread. Not to mention that at about 3 in the morning the night previous, this man had mad himself a personal feast of 6 lamp chops, 3 eggs, a large salad, another whole box of cherries, and a pint of grape juice. I’m fairly convinced that this portion was still resident in his bowels at the time of evacuation/vomiting. Hence the melange of smells and toxic fumes that resulted.

Anyway, this in no way took apart from the joy of the voyage. We all laughed uproariously and continued on. French food is really nice. We didnt stay in France that long, however, and proceeded back to England making it 2 crossings of the English Channel by yacht in well under 72 hours.

Today I was driving with my friends John and Frieden. Frieden has a job as a driving instructor and picked up me and John so we could get John’s car at the mechanic. There was a younger girl driving becaues at the time Frieden was actually in the middle of giving a driving lesson when he stopped (or instructed the girl to stop) to pick us up, which is itself funny in a way.

So I find myself in the middle of a driving lesson, in a small red hatcback, me & John sitting in the back. ‘Ok..straight ahead’ Frieden is instrucing. ‘Ok…left here.’ We come up to a right turn and there is obviously a huge mac truck (in England they call them ‘Lorries’) coming down the other side of the road. We’re supposed to turn at this road, and that is exacly what the girl attempted to do despite the several ton truck coming the other way.

This is where things happened. Or didn’t happen, as it were. Frieden just reached over, grabbed the wheel and turned us back onto our side of the street and the truck whizzed by. Then we turned and continued on.

No words were spoken. Nobody jumped. Nobody’s eyes widened even a hair. The girl didn’t even know what she had done. A great calm reigned. A minute later we got out of the car and bust up laughing. How can you have 4 people in a small hatcback almost get plastered into the road by a Mac truck and have a response level of absolute zero? The mystery remains.

So, arguably Frieden chalked up a save for at least 3 of the people in the car, I was on the opposite side and may have survived, so I won’t count myself. That however, was the 2nd incident of the week.

The day prior Frieden saved his son who had stopped breathing after having some crazy accident on a trampoline. Frieden ran out and attempted some resuscitation techniques such as pulling the tounge out, turning the boy upside down, and shaking him. The techniques worked however, and he saved his son, who was turning blue.

Frieden is 26 year old German living in England. He saved 3-4 people this week from death and/or serious injury and is truly the Hero of the week.

p.s. there have been some after effects of the fast to the likes of me dropping strange unidentified deuces. Other than that, things are normal. Except the deuces. It looked weird…I was strangely intrigued. Like wood compost. With some plastic wrappings hanging off. Or a peanut and honey snack bar made of sponge.

Suprisingly, not eating is one of the healthiest things you can do for your body. Fasting is the bodys natural way of healing itself and has been used throughout the generations. Upwards of 30% of the bodys energy is devoted entirely to digestive processes, and when digestion is no longer neccessary, the body can immediatly harnesses this extra energy and put it towards cleansing and healing.

Have you ever skipped a meal and a headache came on, or you felt irritated, stomach growled, etc? Well, none of these are signs of actual hunger, but rather the first stages of a detoxification phase, known as acidosis. As soon as the body has a chance, i.e. as soon as you haven’t had any food in you for a while, this detox phase will start. During acidosis the body cleanses itself of stored up toxins that are in the body due to poor diet.

The food we eat today is not exactly the cleanest and healthiest. Most of it is artificial, full of preservatives, pesticides, colorings, and hormones. (At least the typical American diet. Hunter-gatherers of the early North American continent are exempt) These all contribute in part to sickness, disease, premature aging, and even a reduction of the efficiency of internal organs. Fortunatly the body has a built in capability to cleanse the body – all you have to do is stop stuffing yourself with food long enough for the body to do its thing. So thats what I did.

heres a excerpt on acidosis from a great article about fasting:

“Mild states of acidosis are a common occurrence. While sleeping after the last meal of the day is digested bodies normally work very hard trying to detoxify from yesterday”s abuses. So people routinely awaken in a state of acidosis. Their tongue is coated, their breath foul and they feel poorly. They end their brief overnight fast with breakfast, bringing the detoxification process to a screeching halt and feel much better. Many people think they awaken hungry and don”t feel well until they eat. They confuse acidosis with hunger when most have never experienced real hunger in their entire lives. If you typically awaken in acidosis, you are being given a strong sign by your body that it would like to continue fasting far beyond breakfast. In fact, it probably would enjoy fasting long beyond the end of acidosis. ”

Acidosis is interesting. It lasted for about 4-5 days. The first couple of days I was pretty wasted. My body was heavily lethargic, as was my mind. I wasnt hungry, that passes after day 2 or so. So, with a mug of water as my constant companion I trudged around from couch to chair to bed, in which I would then set into in a most soporific manner. My rate of speech was severely curtailed as it seemed more effort was required to give verbal utterance. Toxins were obviously infusing my blood stream in preperation of exiting (through the pores). Apparently, years and years of toxins can be eliminated by extended water-fasts. If you want to go completely hardcore, you can clear it all out by doing an extended water fast – one day for each year you’ve been alive. However, you do need to build up to that, and 10 days is about right for a beginner. Also, if you’re extremely toxic you should do some pre-fasts, juice-fasts, and the like to prepare yourself so your own toxins don’t overwhelm you.

After acidosis is normalization and then accelerated healing. This is the is the good part. Its great to get some toxins out and cleanse the body, but I wanted to really set into it and let my body repair and heal itself. I came out of acidosis and could tell a huge difference. My mind became lucid and although my body was a little weak it wasn’t a big deal. My mind was going pretty well and I came up with book ideas, inventions, travel plans, and social insights. I also spent much time in a state of rest where my body could devote maximun energy to regeneration.

This is the part of fasting which is known to increase spiritual awareness, and indeed it does. I read the book of Proverbs every morning, which is the book of the wisdom of King Solomon. The opening of Proverbs:

‘A Wise Man Will Hear’

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Isreal:

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgement, and equity;

To give subtitly to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discrection.

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.

To understand a proverb, and the interpretation: the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

Wisdom, justice, understanding… I’ll take it. I believe I gained alot of wisdom and revalation from this book which speaks on many aspects of life. For example, here is another quote:

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest regard descretion and that thy lips may keep knowldege. For the lips of strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as any two edge sword.

How true. Watch out for ‘strange woman’ i.e. – prositutues or whores. They may look good, but how much of a pain are they? Not worth it the hassle. Seems obvious, but how many have gotton burnt by a ‘strange woman’?

‘Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell.’ (Shes a plane wreck)

‘Lest thou shoudest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable…’ (and p.s. shes crazy)

So, this is some of the wisdom of King Solomon. If you don’t know who he was, he was basically an ancient king who if you ammassed his fortune today would be the richest man to ever live. He was also known to hold tremendous wisdom. One of the most famous incidents being the following: Two ladys in dispute over a baby brought the matter before the King. They each claimed to be the baby’s mother and so Solomon just said ‘Right then… just cut the thing in half and we’ll give a half to each of you.’ The real mother, out of instinct, protested vehemently that she would rather just let the other woman have the baby, thus Solomon knew who was the true mother and pronounced judgement.

Now remember, back then it was seriously hardcore, and if the King orders a baby cut in half, its actually going to get cut in half. Theres no standing up and being like ‘hey.. um. thats a baby, man. you shouldn’t cut that in half.’ Whoever says that is probably going to get cut in half too. In this atmosphere, both of them are completely exposed when the king says ‘ya, just chop it in two.’ So they were totally nailed in that moment. The reaction of the woman who actually wanted to take a baby that wasn’t hers was probably utter shock, while the reaction from the true mother in that moment was to throw her life before the king and protest publicly in order to save her kid. He called out the bluff in a brilliant use of position and with a bit of inspired wisdom. Kind of like me heads up against Beno.

Of course, that particular technique being now known might not exactly work again since the precedent has already been set, and everyone knows the whole ‘just cut it in half’ technique. But nevertheless it remains a jem and could probably be applied to other situations.

Back to the fast..

Breaking a fast is tremendously important. Reccomended as a first meal is stewed tomatoes, then for the next meal – cabbage with grated beets and carrots. After I had finished on the 10th day I had cabbage and carrots, but unfortunatly someone presented a South African Lemon Merange pie, so I had a small taste (piece) of that. Then they brought out lasagna and it happened to fall into my mouth. Then I chewed it.

After 10 days with no food the mind is sharp, the body is dragging a bit, and for me, I severely reduced the amount of communication that proceeded from my lips. I tended to exist in a sort of meditative state. I probably spoke more in the few hours after eating than I had for the past few days. I also noticed that my nose was clear and I was completely mucous free. My sinuses were finally not inflamed. Everything tasted wonderful. I mean, a peice of plain lettuce tasted fantastic. I’m convinced that its extrememly healthy to fast and would recommend it to anyone who is serious about their health. I would also recommend it to anyone seeking God. An interesting note is that the first part of proverbs notes that respect for God is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Really well written article:fasting

oh, p.s. I definitly dreamt of going to Pats and ordering an american & wiz wit. For you non-Philly people, I feel bad for you if you havent discovered the Philly Cheesesteak.

Pace.

Its been about 8 months away. Things have expanded. Possibilities, mindsets, understandings, patience, courage, love. Things have contracted and even dissappeared. Fear, stress, worry, anxiety. We really do create our own world around us. I’ve realized the importance of what you input into your life. Where you sow your time, and how you use your energy are of utmost importance. There are alot of people in this world who accept the flow, the thoughts, the trends, and the emotion of everything around them. There are many who succomb to fear and negativity. There even exists whole cultures (music, clothing, etc.) that revel in the darker side of life, misery, dispair, depression and even anger.

Some would say that it doesnt matter what kind of books you read, or what kind of music you listen to. They’d say it wasnt going to affect you or the way you think. The truth is that everything affects us in some way. The music that goes in our ears, what we watch on TV or in a movie, the books we read, the thoughts we think, and the people that surround us. They are all inputs. Yes, we can judge what we will take on and accept in thought, but if someone is constantly surrounding themselves in positive and uplifting things, over time this person will become someone completely different from someone who constantly inputs negative thought patterns into their life.

I’ve realized that the choice is ours, and its really made a tremendous difference. Your life is yours to create. Your mind is your own, and what you put into it is important. So be careful what you put into yourself. You only have so much time, what do you want to fill your mind with? What does your life consist of? What have you made the most important thing in your life? What are you living for?

You can tell alot about a persons heart by what comes out of their mouth. What is inside you, I think, is the most important thing. Everything you do will reflect the state of your heart and mind, and the state of your heart and mind depend upon what you put into them – thats why monitoring what you think about and what you put into yourself are top priority. Over time, you will become what you put in, and ‘out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks’.

Therefore, I suggest taking a look at what inputs are currently being fed into your heart and mind and into what things you are investing your time. Are these things good, are they noble? Are they beneficial to what you are and what you want to become? Take hold of them and conform them to what you want to be, what you want your life to be, and guard your heart with all dilligence.

On another note, I thank God for all my friends that have been with me and in my heart through all these new experiences. You all know ywho you are. Family. ‘we float together.’

Ladies and Gentlemen.. welcome to Salisbury, home of the tallest cathederal in England, Salisbury Cathederal, (founded 1220) and also that ancient place of pagan worship…Stonehenge. Tonight is the summer solstice and the witches and warlock heathen will be out to pay homage. As well as their new age folk with their power crystals and such. God bless em.

Stonehenge is pretty cool to see. Its set on a plain, and all around it is farmland. In reality, its just a bunch of stones set up in a feild. Granted, there is alot of history to it and mystique, but it wasnt enough to keep me there for more than a quick photo. What I’ve learned is that while famous places are great to see, its the people that make the trip.

That being said, we transitioned from Stonehenge to a poppy field. I think it was my suggestion that the girls (Jess & Rosie) take the opportunity frolic. I mean, a feild of flowers, how can you not frolic? And frolic they did…

Being incapable of frollicing, I lended little needed moral support.

A good time was had by all.

I also got to sail around the southern coast of England for 2 nights, anchoring one night off the Isle of White. Its really amazing that I’ve transitioned from the beaches of South East Asia, to sailing around the southern coast of England. I still havent lost my wonder on this trip. Standing on the bow of the ship looking out onto these white cliffs and ocean, its just incredible. John, the rightful captian of the ship has outfitted the yacht with GPS, radar, several radios, and automatic tiller, and anything else we would need to survive on the open water. Apparently the craft is quite sea-worthy and could be used to sail around the world, escape from a crumling society and/or the wicked authorities of aforementioned society. Brilliant.

The Needles

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Tags: Salisbury, yacht, Tag Index

gnp

June 13th, 2006

george, drop me your email, the one i have doesnt work!

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Tags: Travel, Tag Index

I read the news today, Oh Boy

June 9th, 2006

Abbey Road. The guy that took this picture for me said afterwards ‘you just walked where John Lennon walked, maaaan.’

Posted in England, Travel | 1 Comment »

Tags: England, Travel, Tag Index

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