Let’s face it. I’m broke. I have less than $500 in a bank account that I can’t touch because of a bank error and a little more than $100 in ready cash. I don’t get paid until the end of the month, and I’m worried about that because I’ve yet to get the paperwork I need. I am earning a bit with a weekly blogging workshop but am having trouble getting paid for my other blogging efforts. Financially, I have every right to be worried. For some reason I’m not though.
The good news is that my apartment costs about $100 a month, fresh veggies and fruit are cheap and right around the corner, and I’ve got a job that hopefully will pan out and provide what I need to build a life here.
What I don’t have is extra money to travel, pay bribes for marriage paperwork, or enjoy anything but the simplest of lives. C’est la vie. I’ve a place to read and write and study and friends. Life is good.
Chair and desk in the Casbah
My friend Yassine and his family gave me a chair and a small mattress to start. Hanane and her mom gave me a gas tank and a tea pot, plus a blanket.
TAjine and gas stove
My friend Clark, a Peace Corps volunteer who is leaving here after two years was able to give me some pillows, another blanket, and some various kitchen items, broom, and the essential squeegee.
Jess in Sefrou
And my neigbor Jessica who is remodeling a riad in Fes for the ALC (my employer) was able to sell me two banquets, a writing desk, a small kitchen shelf, book shelf, double mattress, and a clothes hanging thing a majig.
My living room has couches in Sefrou
I’m furnished and as such, I’ve changed my couch surfing profile to the long awaited ‘available’. So if you want to surf my couch, come to Sefrou to the baddest part of the ancient old Medina, pass the whores on the right, then go past the card sharper boys, make a right at the cutthroat with a drinking problem, and then bang loudly on the door and yell “Vago!”
You are welcome…or as we say here “Marhaban!”
Vago Damitio is the Vagabond in Chief. He is also a writer, blogger, traveler, adventurer and teacher. He has spent his life mastering how to have incredible adventures on minuscule budgets. Someday he hopes to have the option of using gigantic budgets for miniscule adventures.
