Life Is Simple, We Make It Difficult

or so that’s what they say and I would often get annoyed when I would hear those words but now that I am back in Marrakech, I think whoever said that may have had a point.

I have been back in Marrakech for 3 weeks and I’ve got to tell you, I was expecting many more breakdowns.  So far I have had 2 work related breakdowns and one of them was more my own little issue than because of anything actually happening to me.  I am going to be completely honest when I say that when I was living here, I broke down just about every day for one reason or another.  The reasons for my breakdown ranged from someone being difficult and not giving me what I asked for, someone harassing me all the way home, someone yelling at me in front of a shop full of customers, someone waiting until the last minute to tell me that they didn’t want to work with me anymore…and the list goes on and on.

I left Marrakech last June and there was no looking back.  I wanted out so badly!  I was sad, angry, frustrated, all those negatives you can think of.  What caused all these negatives you ask?  Well, for me it was the fact that my business was not working and I couldn’t quite figure out why.  I was so ready to just forget about the whole thing–business, Morocco, being an entrepreneur.  When I finally got back to New York, the thought of Morocco brought to mind images of me crying on the street (all alone…pathetic, I know, but I’ve never been very good about hiding my emotions.  And yes, people were staring but I didn’t care.), conversations with sleazy artisans I was counting on who only left me feeling disappointed and ignored, images of hauling myself by bus, taxi and finally walking on dirt roads to the village to pick up embroidery samples that were due only to find that nothing was ready because grandma got sick or they were just too tired to do the work or maybe the sign language used to request the job, didn’t quite translate properly, struggling to communicate my needs in a combination of two foreign languages and hoping that someone might understand me.  I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.  Life was rough for this NYC girl.

I think these were all huge reasons why it also took me 9 months to return to Marrakech.  I knew that I couldn’t let these bad feelings stop me from pursuing my dream of being an entrepreneur and starting a business in Morocco, so I did what any big girl would do and I sucked it up.  I have been determined to make 2011 my year of success.

And here I am.  Back in Marrakech.  And I’ve got to say that things have been going quite smoothly.  I don’t want to jinx myself, but things actually feel like they are falling into place.

My new assistant, Fatima, has re-appeared after a month of being MIA.  I spent a month in NY sending her emails that went unanswered causing me a lot of stress and worry about this trip.  I sent emails to anyone I knew who might know her but nothing.  I was getting desperate.  Now my emails are answered, right away, I might add, and because she has another job, Saturday afternoons have become “Danica Saturday”, the day of the week that I get Fatima all to myself.  We spend our afternoons reviewing projects, planning, organizing, etc.  Zakaria, the belt/bag artisan I work with, had no email address let alone computer so when I was in NY, communication with him was non-existent….and let’s not even talk about what communication was like with the women in the village.  But now, Fatima has made a comeback and I feel confident she is here to stay, Zakaria finally got an email address, though for about a week he asked that I send the emails to his neighbor who was also like a “little brother”, who would relay my messages.  Ok, weird, but hey, at this point I was open to anything.  This neighbor happened to be a cute (he thought so too), 23 year old guy who owned a mini laptop that seemed to be attached to him 24/7–Facebook, MSN Chat and every other chat he could find (lucky me got to hear about all the girls he was chatting up).  Once again, not really the way I was used to working but if this was what worked for Zakaria, then I would be open-minded.  After about a week of being called princess by a 23 year old and him asking me to check out his “blog” which only included pictures of himself in various slick, “cool guy” poses–dark sunglasses on, white button down shirt with black pants in front of a pool somewhere, etc, and listening to him tell me about all the celebrities that converted to Islam, I was ready to tell Zakaria that this was not working for me.  Luckily, Zakaria beat me to  it.  He told me to stop sending emails to the young one and deal directly with him.  Yay!!!

In addition to working with the women in the village, I have been working with a few women’s cooperatives.  As much as I love working with the women in the village, I must admit that it has been a welcome breath of fresh air.  The women who run the cooperative speak French, have email, working phone numbers, have systems in place and do beautiful work.    I still trek to the village on a weekly basis but I now feel better knowing that I have a back up plan and have someone I can communicate with once I return to NY.

So, as I was saying, maybe there is some truth to the saying “life is easy, we make it complicated”.  Or perhaps I have just learned from my past experiences and instead of being so rigid about my ideas or expecting the impossible I have learned to just go with the Moroccan flow.  Hmmm, yeah, I think that’s it….bingo!!!

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