Well, well, well, my trip to Morocco was quite an adventure! I had to go days without hot water, and brushing my teeth was like a scene from a survival movie - bottled water was my savior! I also had some mysterious bites on my extremities, which I'm pretty sure were from some exotic bugs. But the sterling part of the trip was sharing the laughter with the native Moroccan women. These moments of connection stilled the time and are the reason of why I travel.

​

Dancing and singing with the Berber women will always stand out and allow me to remember where my passion lies. I also spent several hours chatting and swimming with two teenagers from Casablanca. I was free to ask all sorts of questions and receive real answers unlike the tourist statistics I was being fed.

 

That being said, Morocco’s literacy rate is alarming particularly among women in rural areas and older age groups. Despite its proximity to Spain, the primary languages spoken are Berber, Arabic, and French, not Spanish.

​

We are such a wealthy nation with our dental care and medical care and our public toilets with furnished soap and toilet paper. We have fast fashion and modern Easy Bake ovens and humming electric cars and NO CENTRAL AREA WHERE PEOPLE GATHER AFTER WORK TO ENJOY EACH OTHER, TO CELEBRATE THE DAY ––TO HAVE COMMUNITY. In the U.S., this is where we are poor.

​

No one is allowed to own a gun in Morocco. And gun crimes are 88 times lower than in the U.S. I grew up in a hunting family and had my hunting license at 16. It’s not easy to have balance, but there must be a better way.

 

Traveling certainly brings perspective. I get bored easily, so beach vacations aren’t really my style! But this is exactly why I work with naturally curly hair. It is complicated. It is stunning. It is fascinating. It is incredibly unique. It is challenging. It is frustrating. It is unpredictable. It is so very beautiful. The same can be said of Morocco.