davethegrinch.net

Dave Says:
Stray dogs. We’ve seen ‘em, smelt ‘em, been woken up by ‘em and on a rare occasion petted them. They are the blight of the under developed countries. It’s a well known fact that the Muslims are not too crazy about dogs so our expectation of a surplus of unloved and unwanted mutts was surprisingly met by a surplus of much loved, but filthy stray moggies. There’s hardly a dog to be seen, stray or otherwise here in Essouira but there are cats, and thousands of them. Cats everywhere you look and everywhere you walk. It is a good thing they’re neat-freaks with their poo or we’ll be tripping over that too.
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Dave Says
Morocco is somewhat famed for its mint tea so whilst enjoying a cup of this super sweet and highly addictive local brew I got to thinking about tea and coffee in general. I’ve given up on beer and wine. I know this sounds highly irregular but, to be quite frank with you, if I may, the world’s beer all tastes the same. It’s all lager based - Heineken but with a different label. Wine is wonderful but only the civilized countries vint it and we can’t afford the good stuff so we’re “forced” to drink the cheap table wine and, to be frank with you, if I may one more time, it can be both wine and paint stripper in the same bottle. So I turned my attentions to the staples: tea and coffee.

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Dave Says:
Don’t visit Marakech if you’re deaf. It would be a waste of your money, go somewhere like London or New York where it would actually benefit you to not be able to hear anything. However, if you’re a little hard of hearing or if you wish to be, Marakech is the place for you.
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Dave Says:
The wonder of the world in general lies in the beauty of the small and simple coming together to make the large and complex. For example, DNA to cells to an individual human to a family to a community to a town to a country and so on. The strength of the larger entity relies on the integrity of it’s components. A few bad cells can be policed by the good ones but what happens when the good cells are overpowered by the sheer number and intent of the miscreants? Why the anthropology lesson? Well, I was asked by my good friend Ms. Hearn what was it I was hoping to learn or discover during our travels. I answered quickly believing the truthful answers lie just beneath the surface. I answered that I wished to know if mankind was basically good; were the good cells winning their eternal battle against those who would seek to destroy the whole. Then, a few hours later, I had my camera stolen!
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Sarah says:

I want to say something about Portugal and I think it’s important to be as truthful as possible. However, it will be very difficult for me to seperate the truth from, frankly, one of the only good things that happened to us in Portugal: spending two weeks with our good friends Patti & Leslie. Now how can I keep what I feel I need to document for our diary from reflecting negatively upon how happy we were to see our friends after 6 long months….hmmm, very tricky territory but I must proceed. Wish me luck.
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To: Minister of Tourism
Portugese Government House/Casa
Lisbon, Portugal

Dear Madam:

May we first congratulate you on installing Portugal to the southwest of Spain. Not only does this location insure blue skies, golden sands and aqua clear, albeit chilly, seas but also provides a natural buffer from the bothersome French. I am sure you are very busy, perhaps too busy to have noticed my wife Sarah and I as we have traveled around the world. This is understandable as ministers of tourism should be spending their time concentrating on domestic affairs of their country and not the domestic affairs of their country’s visitors. By the way, are you elected or appointed? We find this makes a difference.

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Dave Says:
A country as devout as Portugal wouldn’t be as devout as Portugal (95% Catholic) without its own site of holy pilgramage. So the story goes, in 1917 in the small village of Fatima, the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in an oak tree. I speak not of children in a oak tree but of the dear virgin. Why she chose an oak tree, I’m not sure. As a fully grown adult, even standing at ground level and even without the celestial light, chorus of angels and the satisfiying glow of a well polished halo it’s not hard to make yourself seen to three small children. However, the oak tree turns out to be an essential prop in our story because her repeated visitations on the 13th of the five sucessive months, to an ever increasing crowd, would have required ever increasing elevation to make herself seen to the 70,000 amassed for her final visit. Had she not first appeared in a tree to three small people the miracle would have become a little cumbersome as she clambored for more height. Perhaps a small stool for her next visit, followed by a mid-sized tea chest for her third, then a humble hay cart, and finally the stool, on the tea chest on the hay cart. At this point the good Virgin would have probably given up and wished she had just levitated in the first place. But, the tree it was and there the tree (or one that looks just like it) stands to this very day.

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