Meanwhile, back on the ranch

In the meantime, while Bert works her fingers to the bone on the computer to organize the reunion of the Friends of Iligh, I'm back in Polranny, Ireland where I'm teaching an art class in a local watering hole: McLouglin's Bar, Achill Sound. Once a week on Tuesday mornings Bert and I Skype about the progress of the Graphic Novel. In October and November I did 29 pages using as text the dairy that Bert wrote while in Iligh. I could hand out these pages to the experts at the meeting at the Leyde University. But then I started to falter. There was so much that went on before Bert started her diary and not in the least how to finish the story after the ending of the diary. Also when in Ireland there were other things that ate up time. The Red Queen in 'Alice in Wonderland' would say: 'Off with his head! He's killing time!' Still we managed during the weekly Skype moments to hammer out a structure. Bert left for Morocco again on February 19th. Just before we managed to send off a grant application for funding the Graphic Novel as a 'Special Journalistic Project'.

Aicha meeting the Polranny Pirates

In Amsterdam Aicha was kindly taken in by Polranny Pirate Coby Prins and her husband Tom who live on a romantic canal called 'De Teertuinen' (The Tarring Yards). Riny Meyer, president of the Polranny Pirates also wanted to meet and greet Aicha. That happened in 'Broodje Mokum'(Mokum is the Jiddisch word for Amsterdam and 'Broodje' means bun) on the Rozengracht as seen in the sketch. Riny has occasionally privately sponsored Bert's and mine Iligh adventures and Graphic Novel aspirations. I don't know how Aicha liked Amsterdam. It must have been a change from Agadir where she usually lives as it rained most of the time. She did a lot of traveling by tram between Coby's home and Bert's home and there was a lot of walking to do as she also visited the Ten Kate street market, the Jewish Museum and the Prince Claus Foundation. But I think the most important thing for her in Amsterdam was the 'Primark', the cheap clothes and home accessories store on the Damrak. She had to buy extra suitcases to accommodate all the stuff she bought for herself, her mother, brother's family and her sisters.