Guest Blog #3 - Wake Up Calls

Susan and Jim Dowe visited us for 10 days in March. Below is a guest blog from Susan as well as some photos from their visit.







When you walk from the taxi stand into the narrow little street approaching Cait's and Sam's house you're bombarded by sights and smells that are totally alien to anything you've ever experienced. Donkey carts, scooters, bicycles and swarms of dhallabah wearing people...a cacophony of sounds and dust.

Then you walk through their door into an oasis of light and air and beauty. An open courtyard with beautiful tiles, an olive tree with resident birds, an incredibly beautiful terrace overlooking the adjacent mosque. Lovely bedrooms with hand made lamps, rugs, and linens. The incredibly blue Moroccan sky overhead for most of the day.

At days end the cold creeps in a bit so after a late dinner we retire to our bedroom and close the wooden shutters against the night sky. We fall asleep to the sound of a pick up soccer game in the mosque alley. Teenagers are the same all over the globe!
Then...the wake up calls start...the fighting tom cats! They go on all night. And the rooster who crows continually all day and all night. The first call to prayer begins at 5am, a lovely melodic sound that for me is reminiscent of the loon's call on a Maine lake. A little spooky...kind of echoing. It becomes part of a waking dream. After a time you hear the sound of childrens' laughter as they go off to school. Lovely little brown skinned, curly headed darlings with their backpacks and their beautiful smiles.
Of all the sounds of Marrakech the wake up ones are the best.