Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999

S'bah Alkhir,
I made it back. I think I wrote you all that I missed my first bus out of Agadir. There were some other PCVs who stopped by Agadir, so we HAD to go out and have some fun. I missed the bus and had to take the next one. That put me on the night train to Fes. Not a great place to be. In fact, I had my first incident with the police. I was sitting on the train, talking with a Moroccain about a bunch of things, the youth of America and Morocco, violence, TV, religion, etc. When two guys in plain clothes came up and grabbed him by the coat and flung him to another car. One of the guys comes back and asks, "Do you know that guy?" "Of course not!!! He was just sitting there." I figured that was the best response, since they didn't seem to care for him too much. They asked where I was from, and asked to see my papers and passport. After I had shown them these, they asked where I was going and what I was doing. I explained as best I could, the emergency involved in having to go to Fes to buy a guitar. They seemed to lighten up a bit and told me not to fall asleep and watch my bags. They made me move to a different (safer?) part of the train. About an hour later, they came back through the train with a long line of about 8 guys in handcuffs and rousted out a couple more in my car. I made it to Fes about 4 in the morning, and dragged my butt to my friend's house.

The next day, we went down to the medina and I found a zween (awesome) guitar. It's an acoustic/electric Yamaha, that someone must have sold to get out of the country or something, because they just don't exist here. Allah was smiling upon me. I got a hard case AND a softcase with it, and 2 new sets of strings!!! (they are very hard to come by here) *hint*hint*

The next day we toured around the city and I took some pics and bought some postcards. The oldest Mosque in Africa is there, and so were most of the tourists, but it was still an amazing city. The King was planning a visit, so the whole city was cleaned up, and it explained the police presence all around the city.

Later that day, I went to Meknes and visited a friend, took pics, etc... The whole time I was gone, I tried to go on the internet and somehow , I was always dissapointed; Closed; no connection; Full; The day I went to leave, Paget (my friend) and I got in a taxi and asked to go to the train station "All the roads are closed", said the taxi driver. "The King is coming today" "Well, what about the bus station, It's not far", we asked. So he took us there, we walked inside. "No buses running today, the King is coming" Do you see the pattern? So...... I got in a grand taxi, which are these Mercedes Benzes that pile in 6 people and drive between cities. I managed to make it to Rabat and caught the train to Marrakesh, where I took the bus home. A typical journey and The guitar made it back allright too.

Today was a fun day in class, I had the students bring in American Music and interpret the lyrics. In general, they did well, but I had to re-interpret a few. They brought in Celine Dion (yeah), Bob Marley, Mettalica (they're huge here), Toni Braxton, Nirvana. It seemed to work out well and the kids loved it. Just a break from the typical, dry technical language we usually study.

The rain is still coming down here..... I thought this was a dry country?

I'll be sending those pictures soon. I took alot. I've been sending postcards out to people, but I think I'll be sending a bunch to my dad, so that everyone will get a chance to see them.

Miss the states, But not the earthquakes (only heard about it through the emails) Go Chargers!!!!

m'a ssalama (with peace) thella frahsek (take care of yourself),

Fritz