LIVE TO LOVE THE ROAD Déja Vu. On the radio, we listen to Khaled´s “C’est la vie”. I smile as I look out the car window. You know that smile you have when you are about to come home? My soul dances to the beating of a drumming heart. Teardrops create salty tracks down my smiling cheeks. We drive on a winding road on our first visit to Chefchaouen in northern Morocco in September 2013. I turn to my husband Joakim and say: - I am home. It feels like I have been gone 40 years but now I am back. The blue city of Chefchaouen mesmerized us. The blue color they say symbolize the sky and heaven and should be seen as a reminder to live spiritually. We made true friends here. Friends, with who we will come to hike many paths in the divine Rif Mountains, and swim in crystal clear mountain reservoirs. But also amazing artisans like Abdellah, the blacksmith and carpenters Noureddine and Said. Little did we know then, how many tracks between Frigiliana there were, where we had just settled to live, and
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The DIRECTORY July 2017
Chefchaouen. The two places became closely linked in history when the Moorish fled and found a new home here. Today, our two cities are sisters. We see the common, we celebrate the shared stories and all brave men and women who walked down the same paths before us. And in a small mountain village nearby, our children led the way to the beginning of the work with our project “Education for Life” with the Vilostrada Foundation – a story I will share with you next month. Follow my Moroccan tracks during 2017. Victoria Ahlén, founder of Vilostrada, is an expert Moroccan artisan buyer, and founder of the Vilostrada Foundation - building the world’s greatest school together with the Nomads in Sahara, Morocco. http://www.vilostrada.com http://www.facebook.com/vilostrada http://www.facebook.com/vilostradafoundation