The Artists' Eye

The Koutoubia and walls of the Medina

I am amazed at the photographs that have emerged from our camera.  We, collectively, seem able to capture images that portray the symmetries and vividness of Marrakeshi architecture and life. The temptation is to try to take pictures of everything, but there are definitely times when you just have to put the camera down and record the scene in your mind's eye.  It is strange to be back in France - there is so much space and so few people.  And very little interaction.  Everything in Marrakech required conversation - buying food, walking down the street.  Here, people complete transactions wordlessly.  

The Saadian Tombs



Our last days in Africa have taken on a dreamy quality.  Did we really see these palaces, walk around the night market and watch snake charmers?  Were we really there? The pictures are so vivid, the colours clear and bright.  Here in France, it has rained for days.  Everythings is dilute, muted.  The mountains hide in the mist, the rain blankets us in cool shivers.  It seems impossible that we were in such a different place.



Villa at Le Jardin Marjorelle

Life is brighter somehow when the daily business of living is all consuming.  We seem now, to have the luxury of time, and space - chores like groceries are accomplished in the blink of an eye  - everything that one needs is available in one place, for a fixed price.  I think we are suffering from reverse culture shock.  We reminisce about Essaouira as if we were there for 2 months instead of 2 weeks - remember Fatouma's pastilla? the vegetable and fruit market?

The return to real life is dreamlike.

Sunset at the Night Market - Djamaa El Fna

Symmetry at Palais El Badi

Decompression

Sun dog sleeps, dreaming

Everyone is in readjustment mode.  Long, slow days, spent in Commugny at my sister's house - walking the Sun dog, cooking meals, readjusting to our life of plenty.  We all seem to need time to assess and absorb the last couple of weeks in Africa - it has changed us, but we're not yet sure how.  Trying to plan the next instalment is a little like paddling upstream - we're happy to not do much - reading, laundry.  Our lives are so blessed.  The time change this morning was a complete surprise to all of us...the surroundings of real life are so distant.  I don't think that any of us are wearing a watch anymore...it's pretty great.  Easter Egg hunt tomorrow, and Mackenzie's birthday...and then we're half way through our odyssey.  Hard to believe that the days pass so quickly and the things that we've done - skiing, camel riding, surfing, learning and expanding our universe.  Or we could just accept it all like Sunny and sleep, dreaming of squirrels in the forest.

Africa

Africa... Wow is that place breath taking. Even as you fly in, the houses and people are so much different then You would imagine. The road side is piled with garbage, and the scenery is blocked periodically as a man riding a donkey rides by. You arrive in a high walled city, where every street is a market. Your roof top patio has a view of roof tops for miles, and the waves as the soundtrack. The ocean is breathtaking, and the beeches are just as amazing. They are lined with soccer games, where every ones hero Messi is playing on every team. Surfing the waves and feeling like the coolest surfer bro there is! And arriving back home... Yeah il miss the place, but I'm glad to be home.
Toby

Morning Symphony

Spirituality, and religion is everywhere here in Morocco. We can see it much more than in Western, or Christian society: in the dress of the women, those who wear varying degrees of the hijab and those who choose not to; In the streams of men emerging from the mosques in the afternoon. (the boys and I got caught in such an exit on Friday, we actually had to duck into an alcove as we were headed “upstream”! We stayed to watch the parade.); And we hear it especially in the calls to prayer.

The first night we were here I was woken by the 5am call, I listened for what I thought was a half hour (although I have learned that it’ a mere 15 minutes) to the different voices that sprung up from different parts of the town, calling the men to the mosque. It seemed magical.

It was that first morning that I knew that I must capture some of that sound for my new piece that I’m slowly working on. Originally the sounds in the piece were to be vocal sounds from various locations, including some of the great cathedrals we would be visiting in Europe: Not necessarily sounds of worship, but sounds from places of worship. After hearing the call I realized that the piece must be more about those sounds spirituality of several cultures! Spiritualty here is very obviously found in the sounds we hear four times a day: morning and afternoon and evening. In Essaouira we hear at least three different mosque’s calls, all starting at slightly different times…..

So I got up at 4:55 this morning to record the call that starts each day. What I heard under the brilliantly clear stars was a symphony!

The piece started with seagulls, (the earliest risers here) panning through my field of listening; Then the church bell that quietly yet faithfully rings every quarter hour from the Portuguese church in town. Around a minute after, the first call: a low chant, repetitive, then the second: in the same register but with a few melodic leaps, (not as many as I heard the night before from my bed, sadly, I liked those) finally about 5 minutes in, the third, louder (closer) but more spacious, providing accents, in a higher register. The three together, mixed with the wheeling gull’s calls, and the light wind sounds, built to a wonderful cadence, and with a final call from a gull, the loudest call finished, the other two continued for a minute, almost an echo of themselves, until the church bell at 5:15 seemed to cue their silence. A final gull, very close this time, was the final coda.

Some of my favourite music is that which is created in the moment: that may not be repeated (or repeatable). It doesn’t need to be rendered by a master of an instrument. I believe nature, and even humans can create music, sometimes even together, interacting without intention, to make something that can be truly inspiring.

It sometimes even gives me pause to think about things we cannot hope to understand.

This morning’s symphony was one of those times. I doubt the recording will do it justice, but I’m happy I was there for the premiere!

Re-alignment

Our street

I guess we’re learning about all kinds of things here. We’ve decided that culture shock (or culture re-alignment) runs in cycles, and we are working through. Since my last post, my stress has dropped and my trust of Morocco has risen! We realize that here, we are a visible minority for the first time in our lives, they can see the tourists coming a mile away. I think we’ve all learned to appreciate that. Fatouma has also helped us put things into perspective. She is clear on who are con artists and who are not, and what some of the stresses are that Essaouarians experience. I’ve learned that everyone is not trying to rip us off because they can see us coming: sometimes they’re following cultural norms, sometimes they’re having fun, and sometimes they really are just trying to help! And sometimes they shortchange a dirham or 2, meaning we should be more attentive.

Yesterday I had a haircut from a barber: cutting in the same spot for 30 years. He cut like an artist with a straight razor, and I managed to make him laugh en francais. His sign said 50 dirham ($7) for a cut, but he charged me 70. I didn’t dicker.

Sue is such an expert bargainer, after a particularly involved purchase process for a ring, a bracelet for Meg and some earrings for Eva, she was invited to tea by the salesmen, and called a Berber (the native Moroccans)! I think that’s a sign of respect…... Certainly she is in her element here, and our designated negotiator when making purchases!

We’re settling in. Today the boys and I are going for a surfing lesson! Surfing’s on my bucket list…..

The beach and clouds

Happy Sue on a camel!

Trail Riding - Africa Style

Mind-expanding experience number 342...yesterday we rode camels.  That is way beyond my particular wish list of experiences, however, having done it, I am glad...after the inevitable negotiation about price (sometimes these involve several people, some with calculators) we all mounted our beasts - some more gracefully than others, and set off on our trek.  The camels all seem to be named either 1. Cappucino, 2. Jimi (Jimi Hendrix visited this area for a few days in 1969) or 3. Dromedaire.  They make amazing sounds and are perfectly suited to their environments - huge nostrils that can shut against blowing sand, long, long eyelashes that keep dirt out, soft padded feet for staying on top of the sand.  Each camel had a distinct personality.   It's quite a way to travel. Thank goodness it was only an hour - by the end of it, I think we were all glad to dismount.

To Be Honest

Today seems to be blog posting day here in Essouira!
I think we are all coming to terms with where we are now, being able to articulate the sights and sounds and smells of Morocco.
Today was a down day for me, I worked on a grant, tinkered with my computer music piece and sat on the wall looking at the street.
To be honest I find this place beautiful, strange, exotic and exhausting! There is constant negotiation: verbal, and physical. To get around in the streets, or in the souk, we cannot walk 2 abreast, there is a constant jumble of people on foot, pushing carts, on bikes, on 3 wheeled cargo motorcycles, or mopeds. We have to be alert at all times to dodge the traffic, even in a car free town. The crowds are starting to get to me, it's impossible to stroll, or to walk briskly, it's a constant dodge and weave!
Talking to local people is a negotiation as well, I speak in French to those that speak maybe as well as me, sometimes not as well as me. I really enjoy the collaboration that talking takes, but it does drain me over the course of a day.
And to buy things we have to bargain, The prices will always be higher than that for a local, and there is often short changing, or smaller amounts. We have to on our toes all the time! Even walking by a shop and looking at an item will draw the salesman out, talking, offering low prices, engaging, trying to draw us in. I've taken to wearing sunglasses and looking at things out of the corner of my eyes, never slowing down to look!
So I need time off to hide here, or look out over the waves of the Atlantic. and listen to the sounds of the gulls, my back to the crush of the medina.
Don't get me wrong, this is a profound place for me, for all of us. Seeing the way people live, seeing how efficient and how tough they are, gives me pause to appreciate so much about our life, and to remember how lucky we are to be here, and to get to live there!

Where to begin?

Overwhelming life here in Morocco, but yet so simple. I have been thinking of cleanliness. Here we are covered by a layer of dust and grime all the time. Food at the souk is in the open, meat hangs from hooks, dates are dusted constantly and fruits are partially dulled by the dirt. We would shudder in Halifax. The tastes are magnificent, truly food from the source. Do I need to buy the pre washed salad in a package back home? Now that seems so foreign.......
We are living in a tourist area of the country. (Right now I am sitting at the edge of a hotel pool listening to the kids play, not our usual routine!) Our Riad, in the middle of the medina, is at the end of a long alley. The ground is rough and the sewer drains are partially exposed. Disconcerting on the first night as we arrived in the dark. Now, after 7 days, it is normal. We greet the sellers on the street, I have my favourite fruit stand and bargaining is standard. As we begin our second week in Essaouira I worry the time will speed up. So much more to do, couscous royale by the ever helpful Fatouma, camels to ride, argon oil delivery (from our trip to the country)beach walking, ever present daily food searching, souvenir shopping (I want it all, I wonder how it will translate back home.....?) swimming, and then two nights in Marrakech on the way back to Geneva and the first world.
I will never forget this.

Camels are Awesome

This is the local scenery: camels!!!!!

I love Morocco!!! I have already accomplished 3 things on my bucket list, which is growing all the time. They are going to Africa, petting a camel and  standing on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean! When we went to see how argan oil is made I saw and took pics of this camel. That is all for now.  written by meg

Greetings from Africa!
It is Toby at the moment, and I thought id write about the fantastic times I have been having here.
I just came in from reading my book on out beautiful roof top patio, and realized how lucky I am to be here.
Just walking through the town as I do everyday is still thrilling to me. The small market stalls lining the streets with colorful cloth and wooden carving, to the fishing market where you can buy an entire eel fresh from the boat. Hearing the water crashing against the rock lined beaches, and seeing the spray collapse over the rough, rocky surface.
Thats all the imagery I have for today!
Toby

Hello, its Kenzie today!
I, along with the others, really enjoy our current home in Essaouira, Morocco. We live very close to everything we need and we are very near the ocean. It is quite different to think when we are looking out over the water, we are actually looking back over to Canada, as opposed to being on that side of the Atlantic. We have already had two swims in the ocean at the nearest beach, and Toby and I love it! The first time we went swimming, the waves were enormous and perfect for body-surfing, the second, the waves were smaller, but still very impressive.

One thing I really enjoy about living in this area, is that we are very near the city wall, overlooking the ocean. Recently Toby and I have been going to the small shop at the end of our road, buying bread for both of us, then walking up to the wall to eat it. It is neat coming here and buying bread as a nice treat instead of candy or something like that. I think when I get back to France, I will refrain from buying candy as much, maybe Ill will stop by the bakery for a nice snack!

Experience

Everything about this place is so far from <Nova Scotia> (insert any place in the "western" world here) in so many ways, that words and even pictures can't capture it. It's a place that has to be experienced.

The beach in Essaouira - almost always windy

For example, today's experiences included: haggling over the price of bread, peas, beans, lemons, hand-made chips and Moroccan donuts, swimming in the Atlantic (in March), discovering that one can purchase a whole roasted sheep's head with horns still attached, smelling the overpowering scent of fish, eels, skates, shrimp and octopus laid out in the souk, sketching and  writing from the ramparts, learning that Muslim-run shops are usually closed on Fridays for jumu'ah prayer, buying fish fresh off a boat in the port (decapitated and cleaned for 15 dirham) and cooking it for dinner, learning to light a gas oven with a scrap of burning paper (yes, eyebrows are still intact), hearing the call to evening prayer echoing over the rooftops, and saying goodbye to Eva's best friend, Aris, and her mom, who visited for a few days over March Break and are returning to Halifax by way of Marrakech, Madrid, Frankfurt and Calgary.  An average extraordinary day here in Morocco.

The ramparts overlooking the Atlantic 

This is fresh, even for us Maritimers

Our 3-story riad (apartment) - outside...

...and inside.  An oasis

Reality Check

For me it's about global reality. The rest of my family have experienced this, and finally I am too. And I guess I understand the excitement better too. Seeing people that live so differently and knowing that they are the global majority.
Yesterday we were taken to the countryside by Fatouma, our house keeper. She took us on a local bus about 45 minutes inland to her family compound. There we met her sister, her mother, and a few other women that shared the compound. One room for each family. One window for each room. Making Argan oil to trade for food. Goats, sheep, dogs, camels (camels!) and a donkey or two. I was struck by the bond the women felt, and the hospitality they showed us alien strangers. I guess it gave me a new world view, or at least a personal experience of the world view I knew was there.
Morocco is amazing - More to follow!

Essaouira, Morocco

We have all been talking about how on earth to write about this place.  Adjectives, poetry, words about the five senses, culture shock, experiences, categories - we're all a bit overwhelmed by it.  For me, it is that it is familiar yet not at all familiar - like a mirror that is broken down the middle and misaligned.

Adjectives: Blue, windy, hot, dry, maritime, crowded, noisy.
Or
Grey and rainy, rocky, silent, huge, isolated

The teens are being absolutely fabulous - open to everything new, but exhausted by the end of the days.

We managed to find a birthday cake for Meg and celebrate her 14th birthday.  So exotic, and yet, the dailyness continues - finding water, groceries, navigating the narrow streets, bartering for fruits and vegetables.

Amsterdam

My steed. Check those panniers!

I love Amsterdam! It was my second visit, and this city is really cemented as one of my favourites. Sue and I snuck away for 2 nights alone, and we both had a great time there.
Sue was taking some lessons with fabulous teacher, our dear friend, and great host Maarten Veeze. During lesson time, Eugenie van der Grinten (Maarten's lovely partner) gave me her bike! I rode and rode, in street clothes senza helmet, no water bottles, just like the locals. And this is really the way to experience the city! I travelled from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, rolling along canals, and popping into streets that looked cool.
The youth, the art, the architecture, the bikes, the people! All enjoyed from the perspective of a local, from the stream of bikes that own the streets there.
The traffic is an organic disaster waiting to happen, that never seems to happen! Bikes weaving around, cars hesitating, giving way, pedestrians dodging, bikes laden with up to 4 kids sliding through, women in high heels, the young and very old, all pedalling along. Not hammering, just joining the flow and streaming past the canals!

bad picture, great orchestra

And we went to hear the Concertgebouw Orchestra! What a group, in one of the greatest halls. Every time I can't believe music can sound so beautiful! That the quality of the sound can bring tears to my eyes, even with out the music, but the music is so dynamic and unified, the tears come in double doses.
I think I could only manage one concert like that every few years, it's too emotionally draining! Sue and I talked and talked as we walked home, about how special it was to be there. To hear Brahms 1 played by such an ensemble. Chuck out your cds people, and fly over there, it's WAY better!
Again it made me happy to be involved in such a pursuit as music, even though I'll never get to play with that band, in that space. Just to be trying is pretty good.

favourite view

We took time to see this lady at the Rijksmuseum

We are home again in Divonne, prepping for Morocco, our next stop on Monday! The adventure is really picking up now!

Museum of Amazing Things

Today, we went to the Ceramic and Glass Museum in Geneva.  There were breathtaking pieces there - an Iranian jug from the 1100's, a life size monkey made of pottery, a plate of olives, all done in clay from the 1800's and this amazing, useful (?) object which was constructed to hold a pocket watch to turn it into a clock.

I am amazed by the teenagers - they actually found it all interesting (or so they said), but in unguarded moments, I could hear them being amazed by the pots. I think, at their age, that I would have been scuffling around outside rolling my eyes and waiting for  my parents to finish their boring visit to the boring museum.  These teens must have some good parents...:0)

After the museum, a somewhat harrowing drive to Manor Department store in downtown Geneva for "tranches de pizza" and then home where the teens prepared their own pancake dinner...good parenting indeed.

Pure French - Neuchatel

The Hainsworth/Bennetts drove to Neuchatel.     Me, in search of what is called the purest French in Switzerland - bringing me full circle in some ways, to the place where I can just love to listen to people talking and revel in the richness of language.  It's mortifying for the girls, who can't get over how dorky their mother is.  Oh well.

Once again, Meg was the official trip photographer - she is amazing in that she is never still and seems to just snap a picture in motion without paying too much attention and then you look at what she has taken and the composition is perfect.  We are all getting quite excited about Morocco - Meg will turn 14 there - what a neat thing to be able to say - that you turned 14 on a different continent.

 Quiet times here, today it is raining and we are talking about whether it's a home day or a museum day.  Everyone seems to have switched into a lovely lower gear - hopefully, it's a sign of active interior dialogues in all of the teenagers - they are sleeping and eating and getting exercise and growing.

Talk about Perspective!

The Atlas Project building at CERN. This is one of four big projects at CERN. 3000 scientists work here alone!

Today we went to CERN. I suggested it to Sue and the boys, because I'm reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. Also because I thought it would make my Dad happy, he had a good time there with Mum, on one of their visits.

So, CERN is the home of the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest series of science experiments in history, basically looking at where we come from, and what we're made of, and how all this happened. (CERN is also the birthplace of the world wide web, but that's another story). This place is packed with theoretical physicists looking at, amongst other things, atoms: particles so small that a million of them laid side to side would be the width of a human hair. And the particles that make up those atoms, and what happened in the 10 to the -11th power (can't figure out how to type that properly....) of a second after the big bang, 13.7 or so billion years ago! These scientists spend their whole careers thinking about a fraction, of a fraction of a second, 13 billion years ago!

Wait a sec..... the other day we were in Lausanne at the Cathedral (built between 1170 and 1275 in large part, more stuff was added in 1536). Those stonemasons took their entire lives to build something they, or their sons and daughters would never see completed. And the point of that great building was to look into where we come from and so forth.....

So it got me to thinking, again. 

Lausanne Cathedral

Religion? It's asking very similar questions, as the CERN scientists: who made all this? Where do we come from? These are mysteries we can only answer through Faith. Physicists? Same thing! How can we possibly know what happened in that split second, but to ask questions, try to prove them, and hope not to be proven wrong. Certainly there's a little faith wrapped up in all those formulae.

My favourite quote was in a video, in one of the displays: one of the scientists was asked what happens if he's wrong. His reply was something like: "being wrong means we don't know anything! We celebrate that because we have much more to learn". I'm heavily paraphrasing, but the crux was that these men and women are searching for knowledge, not answers. 
Mysteries excite them! 

I love that. Hope for failure, eliminate that one possibility and try another way! 

Einstein said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world."

Good one! 

Einstein also said (it was on the wall at CERN): The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science"

Oh Albert you're slaying me....

Perspective

The rhythm of the days is lovely - a busy day, a down day, a walk around the lake, some reading, sleeping in, getting up early - it's so fascinating to watch everyone reach their own thresholds for relaxing.  Here are a few favourite photos from the last few days.

 Meg took this one from the ferry from Lausanne to Evian.  The front of the boat had a French flag, the back had a Swiss one.  The ferry was quite fancy - even the 2nd class lounge where we sat.  It was amazing though that once out on the lake, we couldn't see anything - you would never know that the Alps were right there.

Evian was an interesting place - lots of hotels that are somewhat past their glory days.  Public art is a big thing in these cities - Evian had paintings on the buildings - trompe l'oeil concoctions that were so realistic you had to look twice.  Huge sculptures made of sticks.

I love this picture of a building next to the Lausanne cathedral - the symmetry is pleasing.

This pic is taken in the cathedral - almost unposed...

Today is market day again in Divonne - our fourth.  Everyone will do their own thing.  I'll take a walk down to the brook that flows through town - my favourite thing to do.  The sound is of spring.  In a week, we head to Morocco - have no idea what to expect.

Religious experiences....

Three experiences in the last few days have made me aware of the bigger world around me. Firstly a before supper hike up to the small church in Vesancy. (I didn't go the first time, at the beginning of the trip, I don't think I could have made it up the hill, frankly.) What greeted me at the top was a perfect, minute church, doors open, hard benches and candles flickering at the altar. It made me think of my Mom. Norm, the boys and I lit a candle for her and spent a few moments recalling memories. I, of course, blew out the candle when blowing out the match! Mom would have giggled.

Next a trip to Lausanne, to see the huge cathedral at the top of the town. In the morning we took a boat across to Evian to drink the waters, no view of the alps, we could have been crossing a lake in the prairies! After we docked back in Lausanne, we took the metro up (and up and up) the hill to the cathedral. The hill was so steep that at one of the stations, Toby noticed that the benches were on a slant so that people could at least sit level. After disembarking, we climbed many stairs to get to the cathedral. Built in the 12th century, and taking nearly another century to complete, the cathedral is grand, ornate and makes one want to whisper in awe. I find myself imaging the workers and the conditions back in 'the olden days', what it must have been like. All this for a monument to another power. The stained glass windows were gorgeous and intricate. Some were made as late as the 1950's  which was surprising to me. We had an hour on our metro tickets so had to get back. Could have been lost inside for a long time sitting under a beam of sunlight.

Now the United Nations: We parked down at the lake and walked up the hill to the UN headquarters in Geneva. Outside the gates is the huge three legged chair, built to honour those who have lost limbs due to land mines. We went on the tour inside surrounded by art, marble and exhibits about the importance of birth certificates and newspaper headlines of important events in many countries from the end of WWII to the death of Micheal Jackson and every thing in between. We went into one assembly room in which the topic was the banning of land mines. There needs to be 100% agreement from all 193 countries to make it pass. They are at 75%, really people? Once again I could have stayed longer just to absorb, it was profound for me.

Maybe it's the history, maybe the surroundings or maybe it's just the climbing.