Inshallah

In some countries you really find every day the difficulty that people have in planning the future, (except our guides, who both lived for a while in western countries). It can be frustrating some times, when you are trying hard to make a plan and organize details, because often people say “yes”, but that doesn’t mean that it will still be “yes” a few weeks later, or that things will be at the same conditions. Exception made for our two guides (local) and a few other people we actually met.

The same happens about “early morning”, it is a very relative concept, it could mean 10 o’clock for some. If you explain about the best light, any kind of light is good – which it is in fact if we think about it as photographers and not as tourists trying to make postcards instead of photos.  Our eyes can only see what our minds are ready to see. Our mental and visual laziness is bizzarre sometimes.

At the soukh, when we were already feeling nearly invisible and mixing well with the locals (thanks to our guides)

Distances also seem to be subjective, specially when the unit of measure is “time by car” and not  Km, so twenty minutes is the normal answer you get for any distance 😉 . Except for our guides 🙂 Did I tell you that we had the best guides in the world? 🙂

the door of a pubblic hammam, attempt of digitally painting it

There is no drama and no hurry and no regrets if things don’t work out the way they should have done, quite often. Fatalism mixed with Inshallah.  You just need to adapt yourself, and try to think in the same wavelenght. Be happy. Carpe Diem. 🙂

We thank God we had the perfect guides who showed us around also in “mentality” and “feelings”  and not only in latitude and longitude.

Most people don’t want to have their photography taken, true, they are not in a zoo, they are not landscapes, they are human beings, with their beliefs and their feelings. Think about it this way: if you went around in YOUR country, IN YOUR TOWN, taking photos of people who you don’t know at all, what would happen? I can guess 😉

I loved the djellabahs, and the caftans

That is why I appreciate so much the help of Consuelo’s agency and our two experienced local guides, in Morocco. They were the catalyst in that chemistry of cultural melting pot, that you must accept as unavoidable or you will simply float and see nothing with your heart.

The results we had were unforgettable, our experience tasted slightly bitter at times, but the whole trip changed our vision of the world  about so many things. We were there only for two and a half days. We felt like if we were plunged in the past quite often, but in a positive way, which made us think about some big mistakes we are doing in the western countries, like taking things like availability of water for granted.

There are some countries that are not for the petty-minded, nor for the people who don’t want to make an effort to study, well ahead,  other cultures and their history. Those people will only get to the first layer, the pretending layer, and not to the real treasure which is a few layers down. For a photographer it is even more difficult, many photographers tend to accept the outward appearance, because they are not ready (prepared) to see any further.  Some don’t see past the collective imagination of that country, which they know from TV documentaries, the News and some movies. Many don’t see the country from the “inside”, because it is easier to just take and not to give – and I am not talking about money. We did that too, some times  😦     but we were learning, every minute, and I believe that next time we go there, we will behave the right way from the moment we land.

Inshallah!

street view late at night