the trip to Ben Slimane

Ok Steve Sapp here...giving you another episode of Universes on the road in Morocco. Yes my people we are in Morocco...I guess if you are reading this you know that already...we just keep pinching ourselves everyday. ok so today we went out to Ben Slimane on a day trip to a teachers conference. They were learning how to teach English to students using music. The experience was interesting because they were very intrigued with how we use language and music. They kept saying we were the innovators of this style, and we kept telling them that we are just in the tradition of great artists like The Last Poets, Ntosake Shange, Sekou Sundiata, and Sandra Maria Esteves and that what we do is not really new at all. But they were excited about being introduced to something that was positive and spiritual. Since they were teachers they kept stressing to us the importance of teaching what we do and the importance of this tradition, and how serious we should take it. After answering numerous questions about how and where we got together, they asked us if we were sponsored back home in the USA, which made us laugh. When we told them that we have to hustle with every gig and dollar they were surprised, which made us feel good, that they thought that what we do is so important thatwe should have a sponsor. Now if we could find one it would help greatly but hey, the work comes first and the blessing are a blessing. After the event and performance, we drove back to Casablanca and decided to go to Rick's Cafe. Now for those who don't know this is the famous cafe from the movie "Casablanca"...now I know thats sounds like a real tourist thing to do and it doesn't really jive with our revolutionary image but we may never get back here, so damn it we decided to go.
AND WE HAD A BALL...Our waiter Semo Muhammad was really funny, spoke really good english and he told us dirty jokes that I can't repeat on this blog. But trust me, we laughed all night long and when you see us ask about the jokes, we'll definitely laugh before we tell you the joke. And if you don't laugh, I guess you had to be there.