h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm hooked on this series already. Can't wait for the next one.

Icy

Thank you - I hope that it will continue to amuse.

Extraordinary dear PedanticBarSteward.

You build up the story and then tell us how happy they are.

Your assessment was excellently done but you do not ask the question "why are they so happy?! Perhaps you do, but not overtly.

I was trying to see it as well, from the "squatter camps" which we had in South Africa. There the postion was different in that most of the squatter camps either had water - which they managed to "filch" from mains running past them, and also some sort of electricity again sometimes taken from a passing "live" line (how they were not electrocuted always bewildered me! .

Is it something perhaps in the tempreratment of the residents which makes the two types of "bidonvilles" ,approach the difference of their lifestyles so differently.

There is an expression in French which my father frequently used to use which is

"je m'en fou"

This may be perjorative, philosophical,or slang I do not know, but I do know that I have expanded it to use it when looking at a social situation when people appear not to be bothered./care/feel strongly about. as being in a state of

"m'en foutisme"

Couldn't Fatima be able to throw light on why the community are so happy?
also what made her leave is they were so happy.
And did she return because she missed it?

There appears to be a gentleness and a sense of community which sadly is lacking in our materialistic economy.

I cetainly think that there was a sense of community in the Squatter camps in South Africa, but I must say that every squatter house I went into had evidence of trying to have some of the comforts which bricks and mortar houses have. I remember one squatter house I went into and the gentleman who owned it had put wall paper on the fluted corrugated iron which were his wall.

I was totally mesmerised by it..

Gosh I have enjoyed talking to you. Now I must go and make breakfast and tidy the "dirty" kitchen which my great-granddaughter called my kitchen yesterday! I think she is one of those wonderfully tidy, neat little people and the general air of cooking and last minute confusion was just a little too overpowering to her!!(At least that is how I rationalised her comment!) Her mother, my granddaughter , has a very tidy kitchen. I might add that my granddaughter does not enjoy cooking. Anyway, that is my excuse. I certainly did not take umbrage. I just thought she was an adorable little lass.

A tel logo - a marvellous Portugese expression which means, I think, Till Later

Christiane
AlsoRan80

Hi AlsoRan80
I am really pleased that people are finding the story interesting. Thanks for the comments and I will try and deal with them sensibly (and not get yiked for using some word that offends the moderators).

First of all, the tale was originally written in 2001 (after I had lived here for seven months). It started out as an attempt to write a serious report, with the aim of getting some help for such ‘bidonvilles’. The trouble was that, as I wrote, I became more and more frustrated with the illogical stupidity of so much – bot in the village and with the people – so I ended up writing the ‘story’, just to get rid of the frustration.

BUT – the entire thing was cobbled together from letters that I had written (to friends and family) and from hand-written notes that I had made her (no electricity, then, so no computer at all, unless I went into Mohamediah and to a cyber café).

This means that everything is written from ‘the present’ although – for the Post, I have tried to make the grammar consistent. This means that, although much of the tale is told retrospectively, every though and comment (of mine) is what I thought ‘at the time’ NOT as I remember it. I have been VERY careful in editing it (under the strict eye of B’Elana) not to change any of the facts, descriptions or comments other than remove lots of irritatingly repeated words and phrases (‘the people’, ‘in the place’ etc) – just to try and make it ‘read better’.

If there is one thing that I may have ‘added’, it is only that – because the story is being serialised – I have used comments, regarding the women’s attitude to things – as a tool to build up some sort of suspense (Why do they do things together? Why do they seem so happy? Why are they- and not the men – interested in this strange man’s cooking etc). These are NOT things I have added – they are there in the original as they were questions that aroused my curiosity. What I am guilty of, is moving the questions to the end of each chapter, but I don’t think that this ‘alters’ anything that I wrote originally.

The questions continue but the do – sort of – get answered eventually, although there is still much that I don’t understand and some of the ‘understanding’ didn’t come until four or five years after we first went there.

In the same way – the immensely complicated relationships will unravel in due course. You will also find the answer as to why the women are (generally) pretty happy. However, if you look at the Benshasha blog, you will find my view of the problem that we have here now. It is VERY different to the Benshasha of 2000.

http://benshasha.blogspot.com/

The other thing to remember is that Benshasha is a RURAL shantytown and the differences between them and the inner city ones is VAST. The questions that I try to answer, apply only to rural bidonvilles (where there IS a solution) – the urban ones are very much more complicated. Again – some of the questions do get answered in the tale – others are in my submission to the Moroccan government (about which NOTHING has been done – yet).
As an architct/town planners – I have – as said – some little experience of the problems but from the outside. It is strange how different it is from the inside.

As to why Fatima left – that too unfolds in the tale. However, Fatima’s life is another ‘very different’ tale of woe that I am still working on. As I have said at the end of the introduction – I owe everything to Fatima and without her, I would have understood nothing other than as an ‘expert’ looking at everything from outside with totally incorrect preconceived ideas.

In this (it does come at the end), I have been extraordinarily honoured in a strange way. Because of Fatima, I have been able to live inside the village and be accepted, not just as an étrangé married to Fatima (the émigré) but as both a member of the family and member of the community. In this I have had the chance to see the real life here – warts and all – and thereby the opportunity to see the real problems, not just that it is dirty and squalid and should be cleared away as soon as possible as it spoils the view. Even my Moroccan friends (those that I teach and who are from the opposite extreme of Moroccan society) that have read the story (or bits of it) are absolutely staggered by the revelation as – they too – have completely erroneous preconceived views and would never dare to go nead such places, let alone actually live in the middle of one. They regard me as ‘strange’!!
Yes, there is a community and I am proud to be a part of it. As also comes later – I found (an the death of the last of of Fatima’s great aunts – that I am now not just part of the community but regarded as on of the ‘village elders’, even though I can still barely speak a word of their language!!

"je m'en fou" – for living here and Benshasha is certainly ‘majnoon’ (Moroccan for crazy – slightly dangerously crazy).

Fatima gets cross with me because I tell the people that I teach about Benshasha and such things like having a donkey (rather than a car). No ‘respectable’ Moroccan would ever admit to living somewhere like this but I am NOT Moroccan and I haven’t any social stigma about it as I live here by choice. I suppose that does make my position abit different (and my sanity suspect).

All of that though - is food for another book!

But again – I am glad that you have enjoyed the read – so far!

Dear Pedantic Bar Steward,

How wonderful to receive your reply. I hope that you did not think that I was in anyway criticizing it. I was intrigued with the difference between the two ends of Africa. i believe my family were in both Morocco and Tunisia at the beginning of the last century. My paternal grandfather was an electrical engineer and my maternal grandfather was n the French army. !! All I know is that they loved North africa and hopefully did not exploit anyone. !

I have not lived in a squatter camp but I certainly had many friends in them. I know that I am going to love reading the rest of your stories. I hope that you get your book published very very soon.On the meantime I shall enjoy the next instalment as a treat tomorrow.
very sincerely,

Christiane AR80

Dear Christiane

Thank you – again.

Yes – there are huge differences between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa (although I only really know Nigeria – lived in Lagos for three years) and we so easily forget that Morocco has a long and rich history, (such as the small fact that it ruled Southern Spain for about twice as long as the United States has had a post colonial existence!).

The French – in their relatively short stay here – certainly didn’t ‘exploit’ it, other than to leave an impossible administration and their ridiculous ‘rules of the road’. I am glad to say that the country is finding its feet again, whilst retaining something of its identity. Tourism and retiring 'ex-spats' - looking for somewhere cheaper than Spain - are ruining the place but as they congregate in ghettos and would be petrified by somewhere like Benshasha, they are easily avoided!!!

I love the country and they people and, having spent about twenty-five years in the Middle East, it is astonishingly welcoming, open and friendly to people such as I. Mad – but friendly.

Moroccan wine is excellent as well. I once asked the head of one of the banks here, why it was that one so seldom saw Moroccan wine abroad. His answer, “Because Moroccans drink it all,” really sums it up. Strange for a Moslem country but – in that respect – Morocco isn’t at all hypocritical (like the Middle East). It is refreshing.

I’d love to find a publisher for the book (s). Unfortunately that is one of the most depressing occupations in the world and every time I attempt it I give up in a furious rage and total despair. It’s even worth than trying to get sense out of the F&CO!! I haven't completely given up hope though.

Regards
James

Hi James,

I have just answered your charming note and and pressed a key and it all disappeared.

Will write again tomorrow.

You must get an agent. !! Tres important. I have enjoyed our afternoon's chat. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Greetings

Christiane

Don't you have to have an agent?

I am also trying to write, and I bought a book and it said that one hadto have an agent. They felt that the publishers were to difficult to deal with. !!

I am glad that the French did not do aything too terrible. it is always difficult to admit that I am a 100% French - and it is for centuries. I must adait however, that one of my cousin's daughters has married someone from Morocco, and the brother has a girl friend who is half Moroccan and Half French - so we are slowly being assimilated

It is freezing cold here. Had a lovely surprise just now. A American friend who used to visit me fairly frequently in Sevenoaks, popped in to see me. She also has a son who has problems. It was the first time he had met me, and he kept saying
"We must go now.We have to leave!" Very off ptting when we have not seen each other for six months. " M<ine just refused to arise from his pitl Still we had a busy day yesterday and he was excellent. so what can one do ?

sincerely


~christiane.
AR80

HiChristiane.
YOUR ‘pressed a key and it all disappeared’ – sounds horribly like the c-nile virus – I suffer from it increasingly.

No – I don’t have an agent. That was what I had been looking for. A more pompous, arrogant, off-hand and downright rude set of people I have seldom found. “We only accept manuscripts, hand on and vellum and bound in Morocco leather, delivered by hand between the hours of 08:30 and 9:15 am” and - of course – they won’t even look at anything by any other than a ‘known’ author. Sorry – but if ‘publishing’ means that anyone like that makes one dirham out of anything that I have written, then I would rather remain Unpublished and give it away.

Yes – I hate it when people arrive and then immediately look as though they want to leave. Fortunately, here, nobody comes to see us unless they really need to. It’s the same with our flat in Casa – it’s on the fifth floor and there is no lift. People think twice before they ‘drop in’ (or rather, ‘up’) and when they do, it is usually about an hour before they can even get to their feet, usually coinciding with the point at which I am beginning to think that they have outstayed their welcome!!

Regards
James