Miscellaneous thoughts from travel to Mali from my journal

Here are some random thoughts from my journal during our journey to Mali:

1. Lots of borrowed items -- I borrowed a bunch of my mom's clothes, wore one of Tom's fishing shirts (lots of pockets!), borrowed dad's sleeping bag, and used Abby's suitcase.
2. Not only was there no queueing at the Casablanca airport, there is a significant lack of signage. Hard to find anything!
3. My phone worked -- didn't expect it to, but in most of the towns (not the village), it worked so I was able to call and/or send e-mail.
4. Surprise at the transit hotel -- the music system played "Amazing Grace" two times -- first with a jazzy/bluesy vocal arrangement, then later with an instrumental arrangement. Didn't expect to hear that in Morocco!
5. Women pictured in billboard ads are in western dress, although more women are "covered" on the streets.
6. In Casablanca, the biggest homes are often right across from homes without power and laundry lines strewn over the yards -- interesting juxtaposition.....
7. Casablanca has at least KFC, McDonald's AND TGI Friday's if you get a craving.....
8. Quote from my book: "The token didn't go in the first time, and the smack (to the machine) does the trick. Percussive maintenance, the oldest and still most effective way to deal with recalcitrant machinery"

More to come!