WALKING ON THIN ICE

first full day:
at last, someone stepped out of an alley and asked if we wanted to buy drugs. AND, we turned him down. let’s hear it for principle and self control. came here to not smoke, and we won’t - at least not for awhile - no sense being too goody-two-shoes about it. but i have figured out the secret - you want it, it’s not offered… you don’t want it, it’s available.

perhaps i’ll pretend not to want fame and fortune so they’ll come my way. though fame is becoming more and more unimportant. only thing fame would do is give us more artistic opportunities, and maybe let me get stoned with willie nelson, have bob dylan record one of my poems. fortune would be nice though… we’d use it for ourselves, help our friends, the world, others.

found food, cleaning supplies, internet cafe on our own. washed the pillow cases, removing dust and must. cleaned floor. found our way through the medina and out along the beach. each day we’ll make our life here more to our liking - i figure in 10-20 years we’ll have made it bearable. for wandering off the edge of the known universe, we’re not doing too badly. it’s an improvement over this morning anyway when we first stepped into the alley and saw large splatters of blood, then came back to find our unlocked door ajar.

day 2:
our marrakech guide hamid was always pushing to make more money off us - tried to do our laundry, offered to give me a massage - even offered the last day to buy hash in marrakech, ride the bus 4 hours here, deliver it, ride 4 hours back. he cost us way too much money (thanks to lady’s kind heart, which is even softer than mine), but he also cost us psychically… it’s hard to be around such calculating naked need. but he crossed the line our last day - he showed up uninvited as we left to walk 3 blocks to the taxi, tried to carry our bags… when i said no and he couldn’t figure out how to get some money out of us, he told lady he had no money for food, so of course we gave him 100 dirham ($12). if he were so poor, how did he pay 3 men to add a room to the top of his house with our guide money? seeing so much poverty here makes me despise the rich.

on the other hand, gave a beggar a dirham today (12 cents u.s.) and got a smile. not a bad bargain. we could get 8 smiles for a dollar, more if there were a sale.

oh dear - our electricity just quit. 10 in the morning so don’t know if it’s just us or the area. if it is just us, don’t know what to do. second full day in this strange city and…