sitting in charles de gaulle, about to board my second plane... meant to wake up at 4:30 this morning, get to the airport by 5:30, and leisurely get through customs and on to my plane.... that didn't work out so well, as i woke up, to my horror, at 6:30.. got to the airport at 7:05, thanks to a dedicated and fearless cab driver, and got through customs (thanks to a very nice french couple who let me back in line when i forgot my customs card, ack!) just in time to board my 8am flight at around 7:40... so besides feeling like a totally inept traveler, i feel extremely grateful that everything else besides the failed wake-up call has gone smoothly.
i'll try to post pictures from marrakesh and essouira.. as soon as i get pictures from other people (and off my camera phone.. we'll see how those turned out..). the last week has been a blur of traveling and paper writing as we finished arabic class with finals last thursday and wrapped up our film class with our final papers this week.
this trip has been amazing in that i've gotten to see so much of this country and engage in many fascinating and enlightening conversations about many current topics and events about islam, the role of women, and geopolitics. i've seen the beauty of the sahara, the wilderness of the mountains and waterfalls, and the differing ways of life in various cities.
this has also probably been one of the most enlightening trips of my life, and unfortunately i must say i'm more than ready to get back to the states. it's been overwhelming to see the global changes we have to make if we want to preserve the planet and our way of life as we know it. i've been reading thomas friedman's book, "hot, flat, and crowded" (which i highly recommend), and being in morocco i've seen firsthand how the globalized world, our dependence on foreign oil, and exploding middle class are already wreaking havoc on our planet, our politics, and foreign perceptions of america.
i realize i sound extremely pessimistic here, but the truth is we just can't ignore it anymore. if we continue to shirk responsibility and fail to plot a new course, we're going to destroy our habitat, continue to support terrorist organizations and tyrannical regimes, and drive our world further from peace.
so while i could, and perhaps should, focus more on the amazing parts of the trip and the memories that i will cherish forever, for the moment it seems to me that it's just another way of adopting the silence that blankets the truth about what's going on in the world, and of ignoring the problems that we can't afford not to face.
1 comment:
Great insightful post here Mary. One of the things that travel should bring is perspective but it's amazing how many people take trips like yours and simply check it off the list "been there, done that" without the least bit of self reflection or wider context worldview change. Try not to be too shocked as you get back to the United States of Blubber and Waste, it can feel a bit overwhelming, but somehow I think you'll be just fine.
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