Thursday night and I am sitting in my salon, drink in hand, music playing and computer on my lap after a day of painting and working... Today I finished a small project that involved the health sector. A PCV friend who has been working in the health area (she is in the YD program) contacted me a week or so ago about working with her on creating a form for illiterate people who are given medication for such illnesses as diabeties. The doctor when handing out with the meds would include this form so that the patient could know when to take his/her medication. Right now they mark the box with slashes to tell how many pills to take a day. So I took her idea and created icons that represented morning / afternoon / evening and spaces where the doctor could mark the number of pills to take and what time of day. She was very happy with the finished artwork and I hope it is put to use and helps. It was a fun little project Next I moved onto the Art Resource Manual that the PC has asked me to edit and layout... this is a huge undertaking and will take me most of the summer. The original was done in Word so I have cut all the copy out of Word and started to reformat it in InDesign... I look at my list of possible project on my wall and there must be a dozen or so... I like to stay busy, but maybe I am crazy. In between I painted and now have two oils completed and another almost there... I want to try to finish a few paintings a week for the next month of so and get a body of work. Today I painted theMosque out my window, Yesterday I completed the tannery in the Fes Medina and hepainting of the door. Pending News on Morocco: There are rumors protests this weekend around Morocco... it is hard to get a gage if it is just talk or if the movement is picking up again. Because of a few articles I have read and some talks with some locals I have decide to repack my "flight" bag and get some of the things I treasure together in case the worse happens and I need to flee. If that is the case I have talked with my friend here that if I leave some my things with him I may have him ship them to me if needed. I think the chances of any of this happening is very slim... but I have decided to error on the side of caution. That is about it from Morocco...

Happy Birthday Stephen... wish I was there to celebrate.

Day Two...

Fes Medina...

Working on a painting of the Fes Medina and it leather dye area... this section of the medina sits near the bottom of the maze of streets... travel down as if you are decending into hades. I have been told that families have done this work for centuries... passed on from father to son, it is the only way to get work in this place. The painting is moving quickly as I want to capture the massive collection of building and angles on top of each other. I am not looking for too much detail and want to the eye to fill in what is not there. Set in sepia tones with muted colors and milk liquid haze sky. I think in will be done in a few more hours and it is time to tackle another one. Reference image belongs to my friend and fellow PCV Tyler... thanks xyua for capturing a moment.

Cubans and Jamesons

Sunday night in Sefrou so I went up to my roof sparked up my last Cuban (17Dhs or $2) and made myself a Jamesons and Coke and sat down and watched the dusk drap the city while I contemplated life and relationships. The struggle in my head was breached by the bustle below and the mosque across the road. Cigar finished, drink polished and many things unresolved I found myself sitting in the dark with the city illuminated all around me. The day's warm air had acquired the night chill as I picked myself up and walked down the twisting, narrow stairs to my landing... in the dark I fumbled for my key and thought about the next drink as a pushed the door opened with the back of my hand. Life is playing games with me these days and am I up to the task? My heart can be heavy yet my resolve is steady as it ever has been. I have many friends yet I feel isolated and alone.... is it self-imposed or just my lot in life... I find relief only in my work and art, it centers me and shields me from the drudgery of life. The Peace Corps has not given me what I had thought it might... it has given me more, friends for a lifetime, memories and adventure that few can claim to have tasted. I have come to understand I have an anger in me that I have been carrying for close to five years, I have tried to lay it down a few times but I can never seem to ever fully release my grip on it. I know one day I will drop this mantle of inner rage that I keep hidden for the most part... when, I have no idea. I have asked and thought about how or when I will find away to fill the hole that sits in the center of my soul... I was told by a wise friend that I may never and that it is OK... some loses we are never meant to get over nor should we. I think of my best friend and the lose her sister has endured and I how all these years later she still burns with the same dispair, pain and sadness she must have felt when she heard the news... I understand her, what her heart feels... robbed of a life together. The Cuban was wonderful and the Jamesons has helped a swiya... Night is deep upon me now and work beckons me. This entery was for me

Random Thoughts...

Sounds and Fury... The other day while hanging out with a few friends as dusk settled down the call the prayer commenced and as the call went out... "Allah 3ckbHar..." Jimi Hendrix's version of the Star Spangled Band qued up and the moment became surreal... It you have never heard Hendrix's version it is violent, moving and raw America and layered over the call from the mosque for the final prayer was a moment I will not forget as the clash of two cultures played out around me and I paused to savor the moment. Give me America everytime over any place in the world. Night Moves... As I have mentioned before the warm weather has come to Sefrou and sleeping at night now requires the windows to be wide open and this brings the night sounds into my living space. I live in a very busy intersection and I don't mind the commotion and sounds, but the past few nights I have noticed that life outside my window is very strange after the midnight hour, men gather and talk as if it is the middle of the afternoon, wild dogs roam around and the men cheer and yell as the dogs "hump" and I am repulsed by it to the point of wanting to confront them but lack the language skills to tell them they are mentally sick and people are trying to sleep and just to GO HOME. The other aspect is that I now see women out at that hour and in this culture that can mean only one thing "sex workers" as they are called here. Welcome to the neighborhood. Puberty... I have come to the conclusion that in a nutshell sexual repressed men and women are living in a constant state of puberty here. Because of the isolation of the sexes and taboos or religious dogma most of the population that I have observed are in living in that crazy world of early puberty, hormones raging and the wherewithall to undersand and control thus urges and feeling have not been developed yet and that is my take on it. Just my humble opinion.

Bab...

Just finished my first oil painting (well maybe a swiya more to go)... it is of a typical doorway here is Morocco, ornate tile, beat-up old wooden door that is all of five feet in height. Not sure why I chose my first subject to be a door, at first i had a young boy siting on the stoop with a snarl on his face, but I painted him out with the idea of putting him back in and he never made it back as i liked the composition better without him. The canvas is a little too small for the composition but in general I am pleased . I started another painting the other day of the Fes Medina it is a larger than this and right now it is in the underpainting stage... not sure where it is going at the moment but I am leaning toward an earth tone painting, stark and old looking.

So one down and many more to come ...INSHALLAH!!!

New Time Old Time...

Ok here is my story... As of this past Saturday Morocco changed it time by springing ahead one hour. As full disclosure I hated that we jumped an hour, once I again I am five hours ahead of my beloved family and let me take it one step further, my dearest friend and the person I love the most in this world (outside of family) is even harder to connect with and this causes me to be less than happy most days... so tonight I am hanging with my friend Ali and we are talking about getting together in the morning and we agree to 10:30... not a problem right? Well as I am about to take my leave for the night I remind him of our getting together and he says and I quote "new time or old time" ?????? I say 10:30....10:30 and he wants to know if i am on new time or old time and I say i am on the time I was told the country was on and says no, only the government changes time.... we spend the next 10 minutes with me laughing so hard I was crying...that I don't understand... how can there be two times...are you kidding me or what. So it appears that the people are still living one hour behind and only the government and 260 peace corps volunteers have changed time. How can this be is it pure insanity or pure genius?? I for one want to live in old time as it makes me a little closer to the people I love...so I am changing my clock back one hour. Inshallah... Moroccan time is usually an hour late for everything anyways, so I can beat them at their own game, if I make all my arrangements on new time but show up at old time... maybe I have figured this all out.