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Dear Fellow Travel Enthusiasts,
Welcome to the 8th installment of the Roamers' Report!
General Update:
We are now 1/4 of the way through our year-long Worldschooling adventure and I think we're really hitting our stride. We've settled into the travel life and feel less like tourists (most of the time) and more like expats living abroad, albeit changing countries every month.
We've also got a good handle on the home schooling situation (although still working out some kinks there - more on that below) and the kids don't complain about having to do schoolwork (in fact they seem to enjoy it - most of the time). Francesca and I (and their supervising teacher Mr. Stasey) make their writing and reading assignments fun by incorporating the places we're traveling to into their assignments.
Our spirits are also soaring from the volunteer farm work/stay we recently completed in Morocco that left our minds and hearts full and left the kids feeling proud of themselves for putting in long, hard work days on the farm. More on that below.
Where We've Been & Where We Are:
(An overview of the countries and cities we've been since the last newsletter and an update on where we are currently)
After a lovely month in northern Spain based in a small village called Orduna that we used as a base to visit many of the amazing cities in Basque Country, we left Europe and headed to North Africa and the exotic country of Morocco.
Chefchaouen, the "blue city"
Chouara Tannery in Fez
We spent a few days in the enchanting cities of Chefchaouen and Fez before starting our 8 day volunteer work/stay at Le Petit Fellah an organic farm in a small town about 20 minutes from Rabat, the capital of Morocco. I can't begin to tell you what a rewarding and educational experience it was not only for the kids, but for Francesca and me as well. Our host, farmer Taha, was incredibly gracious and patient with us and in turn we gave him 6-8 hours per day (including the kiddos) of hard farm labor.
Not only did we learn about farming and Taha's method of permaculture, but we also learned alot about Moroccan food, culture and religion as well as a few things about French culture from Jade, the 25 year old French volunteer who was at the farm the same week we were. If you want to read more about our farmstay and see more photos, you can click here for the blog post.
After an emotional goodbye to Taha, Jade (who was staying on a few more weeks) and the other farm crew, we borded a train from Rabat to Marrakesh. I couldn't help but think of the Crosby, Stills and Nash song from the 1960's "Marrakesh Express"
Looking at the world through the sunset in your eyes
Travelling the train through clear Moroccan skies
Would you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express?
They're taking me to Marrakesh
All aboard the train, all aboard the train
After a couple days of rest in Marrakesh (where we just relaxed, shopped and ate), we will rent a car and make the 10 hour drive south to the Sahara Desert to spend Finley's 8th birhday playng with camels on the burnt red sand. More on that in our next Roamers' Report.
Travel Stories:
(Hopefully humorous stories about real events that happened to us on our trip)
Hamam-a-Jama!
"Everything but the bikini!" she barked pointing at my nether regions. I was standing in a cold damp room that was covered in sterile white tile feeling quite vulnerable. It took me a second to process the translation, but then slowly I began removing my shirt. Apparently it was not fast enough for her because she jumped in and starting pulling it off of my torso. Then she yanked my shorts down leaving only my boxer shorts - aka my "bikini". Click here to read more....
In case you missed the previous Travel Stories, here they are.....
Trapped: Parking Garage Escape Room! September 2024
To the Bat Cave Ryan (Vyrises, Greece) August 2024
Gentlemen Start Your Bouzoukis (Anatoli, Greece) August 2024
Between Some Rocks and a Hot Place (Myrtos, Greece) July 2024
Homeschool Update:
(Many of you may not care about the home schooling portion of this, but since it's ostensibly the reason we are doing this, I will provide a brief update during these Newsletters.)
We have largely found our groove with our homeschooling efforts. The kids rarely complain about having to do school work and I have learned to not be so rigid with their school schedule (which makes everyone else much happier). I thought the kids would benefit from a schedule - up at 8am, ready for school at 9am done by 11:30am, but it seems to work better when we play it by ear each day. Sometimes they work in the mornings, sometimes in the afternoon or evenings. Sometimes it's just a 40 mins to an hour other times they get on a roll and work for several hours.
However, from a content standpoint we are still working with Mr. Stasey from Pathways Charter to find the best platform for the kids. We have tried a couple, but they weren't suitable for one reason or another. Francesca discovered an AI online teaching platform that we really liked called Synthesis Tutor created by Elon Musk - like him or hate him, the guy knows how to build innovative stuff! But it is not an approved vendor for Pathways so it would not be covered by the California State funding for homeschooling. We are now trying a platform called Khan Academy and so far the kids seem to like it, but it's too early to tell for certain. Stay tuned.
Blog Posts:
(Blog Posts Published since the last newsletter - in case you missed them on social media)
Truth Serum:
(A does of truth about some of the things that did not go according to plan or worries that we've had about the trip)
Not much juicy gossip to spill this time. A lot of my fears about long, slow travel have not come to pass. My fear that the constant close proximity would tear the family apart has not occured. Yes, the kids fight and us parents yell, but no more than when we are at home. And we are jaaassst starting to see the kids do acts of kindness towards one another that didn't used to happen before. Not always, but sometimes. Which is nice.
Also, my fear that we wouldn't have a lot of meaningful cultural exchanges with locals given the introverted nature of our family (with the exception of myself of course), got backburnered by the amazing 8 days we spent on Le Petit Fellah, an organic farm where we had oodles of meaningful interactions and conversations with locals, many of whom we now call friends (see post about Le Petit Fellah).
I guess if there was one thing that was still a concern, at least for me, it is weight management during travel. As it was, at 54, I was finding it harder to keep weight off, but I was worried that a lot of travel would not be conducive to frequent excercise and it would be a major temptation in wanting to indulge in all of the delicious food from around the world.
Well, I have managed to stay fairly active, including making time for runs a couple of time per week (and Farmer Taha and I ran every morning at 6:30am during our week on the farm). And I find that the entire family gets a LOT of excercise just walking around places. We do a LOT of walking! I have also continued my intermittant fasting routine (2 x 36 hour fasts per week) although I have made some adjustments in that I don't fast on a travel day and I don't miss out on any unique coulinary experiences even if they occur on a fasting day (so quite a few chea days :)).
On balance I am definitely net heavier than when I left, but I am hoping at least maintain and not let myself go completely. I realize my wieght is not the sexy part of world travel, but there you have it anyway. Sometimes the truth (serum) is ugly :)
Trip Stats:
(I'm a little reluctant about this section because this trip is supposed to be more about quality and experience than sheer quantity, but I find stats like this interesting nonetheless)
I am getting a bit more comfortable with keeping the trip stats. As time goes by and the stats grow, it is getting fun to track the various cities we've been to and the modes of transport we've taken, etc.
Here is the link to the trip stats page.
Thanks for joining us on our journey. I have tried to keep to my self imposed routine of sending a Roamers' Report every 2 weeks, but it hasn't always worked out that way. But I do post more regularly on social media (mostly FB, but some Instagram too) so if you want more real time updates please follow our Five Tickets to Roam FB page .
Regards,
The Roamers - Dan, Francesca, Ryan, Austen & Finley
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