The Generosity of Others

Here is the story of the unlucky nomad: Before leaving Paris I had an apartment lined up for one month, after which time I would clearly find something else. After one week the owner's son put me in a hotel for 'a few days' while his uncle was in town. After a week in the 'Shower-Over-The-Toilet' hotel and multiple phone calls I discovered that the apartment would be indesposed until the end of the summer. One week later I found myself in a friend's apartment, the only problem being the lack of electricity due to months of outstanding bills. Two days before my two-week departure to the north of Morocco with 120 kids, my friend's business partner, disgusted that I was not paying any rent, made it clear that my presence was not in any way condoned and only minutely tolerated. I returned to the S.O.T hotel. Two days before returning to Marrakech I was informed that the apartment I had waiting for me upon my return was, in fact, waiting for someone else. Who wasn't me. I stayed with a new friend from the camp and his family for a few days until they left on an impromptue vacation/marriage in Casablanca. I packed my things yet again and moved to the 'Enough-Space-For-A-Bed' hotel. I am 168 cm tall and I would estimate that the bed was therefore 175 cm. Luckily I am getting better with confined spaces. The Marocan family returned and after a conversation with Aissam about my discontentment with being yet again in a hotel his family offered to take me, once again, and very generously, into their home. I am going to see an apartment tomorrow and may have one place to put my things for the last 2 and half weeks of my stay. Yes!!!!
I am incredibly indebted to Aissam and his family, however, for many many more reasons than simply allowing me a place to leave my things and rest my weary self. They have accepted me, whole-heartedly, as I am, into their home, without question, pretention, or alterior motive. They are genuinely good, sincere, hard-working, and above all loving people. It has been a very very long time since I have felt part of a family and it has been a wonderful and unexpected bonus of my Marocan adventure. Moreover, their modest but comfortable accomadation have meant that I am really living and experiencing Marocan culture, down to the very finest detail. I am extatic to have this opportunity that I know is something very rare and special and without getting too cliché or overly sentimental is something that will stay with me for a very long time. I am beginning to see things in my life through a different, Marocan-tinted lense; I am not entirely sure what that means yet but I am discovering. And I like it.
And the nomad will return with much more than she started off with, even if superficially the difference seems only a change in skin colour.