THIS IS PARADISE ON EARTH, PURE NATURAL BLISS!

TROPICAL LEARNING FIRST HAND AND THOSE GIANT TORTOISES AT LAST!! Post No.46 (A 7 minute read)  

I do not know if you, like me, have ever really looked at your own parents and actually evaluated them as two people in their own right. I was at this point in time, now 23 years old, and could see that it was in part my own mother´s influence which had shaped me and my elder sister. The interest in documentaries of all natures and informational programmes were absolutely fundamental in my own choices of paths to follow.

Both my elder sister and I, had been solidy travelling for the last five years and had been able to do and experience so many of the wonderful places and peoples of this great big world. It had been my mother and her pushing and encouraging us to go out and explore, that had actually made us two explorers. Two people who had no blinkers put on their eyes at home.

We were living lives that my mother could have wished to have had herself at a similar age. It was she who had been trying to drum into us, that we must live our lives for ourselves and not look to marry and have children. Three daughters and not one marriage. Three daughters and just one grandchild and that because of no access to medical services within sufficient time to change the future.

She came very close to achieving a full score there! I wanted to give my mother a taste of dreams coming true and experiencing for herself much that she had seen only in documentaries. So, the Seychelles it was and we had a wonderful time, we really did! She came alive and enjoyed every moment with full gusto.

WHAT WAS IT? RED SKY IN THE MORNING, SHEPHERD´S WARNING?

Good morning to you ALL, wherever you are in the world today. This is the view out of my window this morning at 8am. Oh, how those plam trees annoy me. This is the Mediterranean basin, not desert terrain or tropical terrain. So many things out of place, just like me!!!! BOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

It felt wonderful to this young INFJ to share this with my mother. Oh, how beautiful are the islands of the Seychelles. And the people are some of the happiest peoples on the planet earth, I think. I found once again, like the Wodaabe peoples, that the matriachal society still exists here too. No violence towards women at all. They have their full status as the sexually dominant!

They choose who they have their children with and who they have their sexual and sentimental relationships with too. Marriage is for those who want it only. These societies show us how to breed independent males. The males here, are not expecting to get married. Why do that? Why not live your own life? Ah, there it is? These men CAN live their own life because they are taught how to be independent of women!

As fathers, they must contribute financially to the upkeep of their children but they have no obligation beyond that to the mother of their child. They have free access to the children, by agreement with the mother of the child. My new friend being just 33 years old at the time, already had 7 children with 5 different women.

You may remember that I talked of gene pools and yes, this is how small populations continue to survive well. The distribution of genes. His sisters and brothers, half-sisters and half-brothers, I should say for your benefit, well, some were his mother´s children and some were his father´s children. But he only had one brother who was the child of his mother and father. Yes, it was quite complex but yet so simple, if we put aside the male obsession of his DIVINE RIGHTS and where he places HIS seed!

This diversity of complexions I have never seen anywhere! They are all Seychellois. If you were born on an island that is part of the Seychelles, then you are Seychellois. The harmony amongst the people of the Seychelles is I think, the best that I have known anywhere. These are possibly some of the happiest peoples that I have known myself. 

Life is good down there, what a beautiful world and they love their beautiful islands. They live outdoors and this is a place where my theory of living, working, breathing is a daily practice. We met a scientist and were given some very inside views of the Seychelles and the issues that they faced. Yes, this was 1989 and the sea levels were already worrying them then.

The said scientist was working with a small team on an uninhabited island, on a save the sea turtle mission. We had the pleasure of staying on this island by invitation and were able to experience having an island to yourself. An island where dozen of giant tortoises wandered free! This was such an exotic experience. We were flat out first-hand exploring and enjoying. 

The phrase, `It is not what you know but who you know´? The said scientist having access to a boat well, we really did get some island hopping in and got a very personalized visit. My mother was radiant at all times and I will always be so happy that I was able to make that dream of hers come true. She has done her dream safari to Kenya too, late in life but hey? Better late than never!

I was asked to return by the said scientist and gleefully accepted the invitation. Therefore, in the autumn of the same year, I went and spent another month in the Seychelles but this time living with the locals and as the locals. Now that is to see the real Seychelles and to learn really how life is for the people there. The economy is very low but food (natural food) is not in short supply and is not expensive.

Maybe it is the location, which on my second visit, just the there and back flight cost 1,850.00 pounds sterling!! So by remoteness, there was a very remote chance of being able to go anywhere other than your islands. A very healthy, happy and harmonious life though within that. But once again I could see that working in a place like this was not feasible and so, I put aside those thoughts and returned to Spain.

Where to find money to finance this travelling was always the issue. And I was finally caught for being without a work permit in Spain and it was time to move on. I returned home prior to Christmas for a rest and a re-think. What I had as a surprise when I got home, was my heavily pregnant elder sister, who had terrified, just returned from Australia to give birth in the UK.

I went back to Spain foolishly but then returned soon after to see my newborn nephew. I could not believe that my beloved elder sister had been through pregnancy and actually given birth to a child. We had never even contemplated that, we had never even so much as talked of that. "What do you do with IT?" I asked. "I am not really sure!" she replied. "Mum seems to know, thank goodness!"

Where we would all be without you MUM? Our eternal teacher but it is time for me to start teaching you now!

On returning somewhat ignominiously just six weeks later, I found that my sister and Puppy had gone back to Australia to be with his Dad. I did not know what to do anymore. I was confused, I was lonely, I wanted a home again. What was the rest of my life to be about?

The next chapter is entitled THE PATTER OF TINY FEET and having just alluded to the birth of my nephew, you have an idea where I might be going there. But first, I had to get a stint of living in Paris under my belt. That is for the next post.

Have you made your dreams come true? Do you have dreams that can become reality? They may seem far flung like mine did but they were not impossible, were they? Have you made the dreams of others come true? That my friends, is one of the best sensations that I have FELT, making someone else´s dreams come true!

Thank you for reading as always. Please do FEEL free to comment below or send me your e-mail address via my contact box if you prefer, I have also got a follow tab should you wish to keep up to date! I am sure that I would enjoy hearing your thoughts.

Until next time, happy learning! You can now find my book on Amazon with these links: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

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FLYING NORTH FOR CHRISTMAS! WILL I MAKE MY FLIGHT?

JUST ONE WEEK TO GET TO ALGIERS; COULD I GET THERE IN TIME FOR MY FLIGHT? Post No.45 (A 7 minute read) 

FAREWELL BEAUTIFUL SAHARA; I WILL RETURN! Photo by Azzedine Rouichi on Unsplash.

There really is nothing like having a deadline for any number of things to go wrong and ramp up your stress levels, is there? That is just how it turned out for this female INFJ who fortunately for her, does not have taboos! I read through this chapter last night again and yes, I felt it all anew, I did. It was raining steadily here where I am, it was bitterly cold yesterday night. It brought it all back to me so vividly.

I wrote in retrospect too of an exchange of words with a neighbour who actually had me put aside my writing. I had met my African friend and that is why I was not writing. It was when he left in the November, that I picked up my pen again and went in search of earrings!!

So, by the end of chapter forty-two, I had found myself at last, back in Algiers. But having missed my flight by some hours! I had been able to re-schedule but still had to resolve a rather worrying issue. I had had some of my possessions stolen down in Tamanrasset as I write in this chapter. Oh, how sad that made me, how sad.

Of the greater importance was the loss of my foreign bank notes which had been declared on arrival in Algiers and not stamped as exchanged in banks. The Declaration de Devises, it was called and this needed handing in for approval before departure from the airport. It was worrying the hell out of me. Seek and you shall find! I quote you from chapter forty-three titled, FLYING NORTH FOR CHRISTMAS:

I was chatting to those on my table, they seemed fairly regular folk and so I mentioned the money declaration issue! They went very quiet and urged me to keep my voice down. They are consummate hair-splitter´s in these parts, as I had found out before in Morocco! But I had not done wrong in taking a chance! Word passed around! Some went out and came back in!

I was actually getting worried that this was an ominous sign. Two gendarmes came in and walked to our table and introduced themselves. I explained my situation and left them willing to believe me! Not that that in itself was going to be enough!

A plan was hatched! Oh, my goodness! This was the plan! These two were on duty in the airport tomorrow afternoon which was when my flight was due to leave. There was a real `stickler´at the passport desk, HE was our principle concern! I did need to show my passport and get it stamped but I also had to show this blasted declaration, the remaining monies (or receipts from exchanging them elsewhere) and have that stamped OK too!

"Well", I said. "What I need is a timely distraction, is it not? So that HE stamps the paper without looking at it!" "NO, HE goes over them with a magnifying glass!" was the reply. We all felt that distraction was the only chance, but how? They had to get off for their shift and we arranged to meet for lunch the next day.

We would keep thinking on it! Of course, it did occur to me that they might not turn up! So I had an uneasy night´s sleep! I could see our Dachshunds sat on the back of the settee, tails high as I came up the driveway. I could hear their excited barking. I could hear my mother´s voice asking if I had any dirty washing to put in the load. I kept picturing the `stickler´in the airport and being led away in handcuffs! End of quote.

The fact that I am here today writing speaks for itself. I had a flight to Paris and was on stand-by to London. My new friends were faithful. They did come and accompany me to the airport. The `stickler´ was there. But the perfect distraction came of its own accord, divine providence, real human will to help being what it is, I got through with my passport stamped and the `stickler´ did not even look at the declaration form!!

I had a long wait in Paris before finding a seat free for London. I was physically and emotionally done in now. The culture shock is so dramatic when you have been so very far away for a long time. I shall give you a taste of that culture shock in this quote from my first book ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, chapter forty-three:

Not for the first time, I found myself on the first train out to Norwich of the day! Now sat comfortably on an eastbound train, an Indian twang in the announcer´s voice welcoming me on board this service, which will be calling at these stations and terminating in Norwich Thorpe Station. Almost there, I was going to be home for Christmas!

Very rarely have I slept on that journey headed either way. This run was strange though, my visions were overlapping. What I was really seeing in front of me and what my inner eye was seeing, both outside of the windows and in. The English winter for me is so beautiful. The bare branches with thick, green lichen growing all over them in large clumps!

Thick, long, lush green grass and foggy skies suddenly became my Wodaabe ladies and the lush green of the Ivory Coast. Our laughter as we splashed in the Falls of Banfora and swam in the Atlantic Ocean. I looked at my bracelets, felt my necklace, my earrings. Yes, just like Mr. Benn, it did really happen. There was a truly wonderous world out there and it is my wish to return to the African continent many more times, should peace and money make that possible. End of quote.

Somehow, my Dad was on the platform. "Get held up down Sahara way?" he asked. "They can be darned unreliable those camels, can they not?" How I loved my Dad! Easing me back into beautiful HOBBITON, as I now think of my country village of birth. Long walks over the frosty fields with our dogs and beautiful food and decorations, my birthday too and new year.

I had to get back to Spain though and get the cash flow going again, so, after my 23rd birthday and the new year had gone by, I flew back to Spain to pick up where I had left off. And start planning the next trip.

I had changed though and needed to move on which I did. A change is as good as a rest, is it not? This was a positive change of place and I was enjoying myself again. But it was a day spent wandering around Gibraltar, that saw a complete change of direction in my travel plans. And I will share more of that with you in the next post, on chapter forty-four, PARADISE ON EARTH.

Do you know culture shock? Do you find that you want to go back to the other culture? Do you see the positives of every culture that you experience? Does travel help you to see your own peoples differently?

So, I hope that you can join me for that. Thank you so much for reading. I have many viewers, I do not actually know that you are readers as I have had no comments from any of you! Please do FEEL welcome to comment or make communication by e-mail (contact box, top right). Why not click the follow button and keep up to date? (right-hand panel)

Until then, lift those taboos from your mind and start really thinking! My book is available on Amazon: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

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PEARLS OF WISDOM; POLISHED AND PLACED AT LAST!

THEY ARE STRANGE COMMODITIES THOSE PEARLS OF WISDOM! MANY PEOPLE ARE UNAWARE THAT THEY POSSESS ANY AT ALL, THEY JUST HAVE NOT BEEN POLISHED AS YET! Post No.44 (A 7 minute read)

There is so much wisdom known and unknown to us as individual people but whether we see our wisdom and use it to good purpose, is another thing. Knowledge and the understanding of that knowledge, equal wisdom. Then we have to be wise and see, is this useful wisdom, do we need to apply this wisdom, or can we see wisely that this wisdom, whilst good to have, is not essential for the well-being of all.

Good afternoon to you readers, a warm welcome to a new reader from the Czech Republic. Lovely to have your eyes looking my way. I have a wet day outside, a rare occurrence for us in Almería. There is snow in the high peaks of the region and the cool air is being FELT here. Having had a spell of above average temperatures, a full 5ºC above average, now we are having the reverse effect. It is 3ºC below the average for the time of year.

The extremes are here. Dramatic flooding in the north of the country, heavy snows in the centre of the country and the mountainous areas. I say it again, how we all survive these extremes will depend on our ability to cope with them all! Adequate clothing for the conditions! Homes prepared to withstand these conditions! I go round in circles and no one wants to listen! Poor little INFJ ADVOCATE!

I spoke in the last post of the two Tunisian sisters, Fatima and Maryam a-Fihri, whose wealthy father left them with a good inheritance each. Instead of building palaces for themselves, they used their wealth to build two mosques. A mosque was in its beginning, a school, a place of study and learning. They both wanted spaces where learning could be imparted and aqcuired by all.

Women have always wanted to share. What is the point in having only a few people who can read and write, just a few people who have gathered together some knowledge in their memory stores. This is how these societies evolved way ahead of the ancient Homo Erectus, now in his Homo Neanderthalensis form, who were occupying north, west and east Europe at the same time.

Even before these centres were established, learning was always shared. I witnessed this daily on my travels. Any and every little scrap of information is shared. There is a communal sharing of all information. As such, we were as communities all evolving together, it was to our mutual benefit to all evolve together without taboos.

THERE WAS MUCH THINKING GOING ON BEFORE MAN-KIND FORCED HIS TABOOS ON US ALL! Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash.

Sadly, usurpers, conquerors and colonists, have stamped their rules and laws (taboos) on to other established cultures by brute force. Writings and manuscripts destroyed, causing a breakdown in that continuous accumulating process of evolution of the communal human brain. I spoke of the local scholars and residents hiding underground hundreds of manuscripts even as destruction was coming closer.

New languages are given to these people, new customs and rules to live by (new taboos) and it remains only the word of mouth/story telling cultures, that have never suffered a breakdown in their people´s continuous life journey. That is what has broken down in so many cultures. The regular coming together of all the community and sharing information, past, present and future!

It was at this point in my writing, that I had another slump. Why am I bothering to do all this? My partner was making it so clear that he disapproved of my attempts to follow my intuition. He was saying, "Who do YOU think YOU are? Why would anyone be interested in what YOU have to say?" Well, when you hear it said the number of times that I do, eventually you start thinking like them!

They have got you down on your knees. They are grinding you down, trying to break your faith and belief in yourself. They do not want you to have any hope of happiness. They want you to continue doing their bidding, only. Thoughts of suicide crowded in again. WHY live when life means nothing positive to you?

When your only reason for living is to serve the purposes of others. That would be fine if their purposes were for the greater good but they are NOT. Their are their OWN purposes, all that they cannot do, or do not want to do, they expect you to do. This is to be used and abused. Completely one-sided exchanges.

We were heading towards winter 2020 and the fridge box homes that we have here, would be at their coldest. Fuel costs increasing and scarce income meant that another cold, bitter winter was on the cards. I had had such high hopes at the beginning of this year and COVID-19 had changed everything. We were worse placed this winter than the last!

Wrapped in many layers of clothing and a blanket, I picked up my pen again and continued to follow the trains of thought that were asking me to follow them. I go all over the place literally. An inspired rush of piece placing as I began to search through my stores of pieces and look at each one. I could see that they belonged to different time periods.

I began to build a picture of my own home land, Rome and the Arab lands at simultaneous points in time and could see how I had in my possession, so many pieces that did fit together. It was a joyful spell of writing for me. Suddenly it did not matter whether any ever read this book. I did not even have to type it up.

I just had to enjoy these flushes of inspiration. Allowing myself to leave here and today and go wandering in the past, placing my pieces in their relevant time spaces. I could see how we were always, all over the world, living and evolving in very different ways. In relative peace and harmony until others came on the picture and turned those peoples lives upside down.

Civilization though, how do we interpret civilization? Is that when the man-made concrete jungle started to grow? Was there civilization before man-kind built the concrete jungles? YES, of course there was! This is a totally trains of thought chapter, this one numbered forty-two, PEARLS OF WISDOM.

Lots of interesting facts and bits and pieces of some significant realities through time that have shaped how we are living now today. If anyone is wondering if I am going to be in Africa indefinitely well yes, I continue across Mali, over the land border with Niger (in the north east of), down to Niamey again and buy my flight ticket home, from Algiers to London.

So, another desert crossing ahead and now with a time clock ticking down. Chapter forty-three is titled FLYING NORTH FOR CHRISTMAS, check back for that.

Are you a wise person? Are you possessed of wisdom? Are you able to share your pearls of wisdom with others? Do you apply your own wisdom to yourself and your life?

Thank you as always for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts too, so please FEEL welcome to comment in the box below or send me your e-mail in the contact box top right. Why not click the follow button and keep up to date?

Until next time, happy learning! You can find my book on Amazon with these links: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

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BOATING UP THE RIVER NIGER TO THE CITY OF GOLD!

LONG TIME DREAMS FINALLY BECOME MY REALITY AS AT LAST, I TAKE A RIVER BOAT UP THE RIVER NIGER TO THE CITY OF GOLD, TOMBOUCTOU! Post No.43 (A 12 minute read) 

Dreams, dreams and more dreams!!!! But what are dreams if not our own visions of what we would like to see and FEEL. INFJs FEEL their way INTUITIVELY through their lives, using their own JUDGEMENT, not being cramped by the man-made taboos which are designed to cover up the truth. Our time spent INTROVERTEDLY searching within, leads us to become our own leaders. Those with support are generally ASSERTIVE INFJs and those without support, generally TURBULENT INFJs.

What I am learning of late, is that INFJs of the TURBULENT nature, must learn to be ASSERTIVE even though they have NO support. We have got to possess the power of our own convictions. Yes, we are right! The others are ALL wrong. That is the truth! If they will all be in denial of their truth, then what can we say to them all?

Belief!!! I started my introduction to my first book ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, talking of faith, belief and hope. We have got to BELIEVE in our own righteousness and worth. We have got to have FAITH in our own ability and its worth to the greater good. Therein we will find our ray of HOPE, that these visions that we can see so clearly could be possible, if only?????????

A very good morning to you readers around the world. It really is a great pleasure to me to know that I have been read in now twenty different countries, across the five continents. Yes, INFJs, we know that we are few and far between, we know that! But the silence of all of these readers does give me some food for thought, it really does!!!!

I am actually giving myself a long, slow torture session by re-living these wonderful years of my life again. My dreams used to become realities lived, just like Mr. Benn. That is what had stopped. The dreaming stopped, there were no more visions, no more blissful realities. My mother´s voice, "No one is forcing you to go, but you might regret it if you do not!"

Whether I would have given up dreaming of those childhood desires, I do not know. Having lived my dreams always, I expected to carry on doing so. Not so, that is the difference of settling down with an incompatible partner who does not share your visions of the world. All your dreams will be snuffed out from now on.

So, you stop dreaming, why bother, to be let down and deceived? Do not get your hopes up! And so the transformation of the ASSERTIVE INFJ begins. Bringing them down off their flying high on life to chaining them into the ignominy of grovelling on the ground and hoping that death comes to them quick.

Marriage, is the death of dreaming for a woman, unless you share the same dreams that is. So girls, look for the dreamers but check out what their dreams are about first!!!!

LIFTING THE MAN-MADE TABOOS, COURTESY OF A FEMALE INFJ!!

I am now in Mopti, Mali, I have booked myself a first class cabin on a river boat going upstream to Tombouctou the ancient crossroads city, formerly known as `The City of Gold´. I had seen documentaries of travellers on expeditions along the River Niger and of course, I had seen some years back in southern Morocco a sign post which said, "TOMBOUCTOU. 52 DAYS BY CAMEL!"

The name had become synonymous with the `middle of nowhere´ but it was of course, in its prime time, the absolute centre of a whole Empire and a major trading centre. Any one who was buying and selling in Africa, came through Tombouctou. I am using the French spelling for Tombouctou as that is how I have become accustomed to knowing it.

This was therefore, another of the major highlights of my adventure. I quote myself from chapter forty, GOING UPSTREAM, RIVER NIGER:

I walked up the gang plank and was welcomed on board by the boat´s steward, who directed me to my cabin. "MY cabin, oooh, I am looking forward to this!" I said to myself! Images of Hercule Poirot´s elegant cabins above deck, which could leave you wanting to live on that boat! Dressing for dinner and dining in a sumptuous dining room! That was the Nile of course, NO, I was not expecting the décor and Poirot too, had to share the toilet and bathroom facilities on board!

But when I walked along the deck looking for my cabin number, I was taken aback by the number of people in each cabin. Well, I am not averse to `roughing it´, as you will be well aware by now, but I had bought a first class ticket. Of course, these were second class cabins, were they not? I walked to the end of the line of doors and asked another steward, who led me back down the line and stopped me at my door!

"This is my cabin?" I ask, feeling sure that there must be some misunderstanding. "Yes!" he says. "That is why they recommend that you come early! So you can choose your bunk!" Choose my bunk??? What in first class??? Well, well, well! There were eight people in the room. A triple set of bunks on the three sides and the door way on the fourth, opened where I was standing right now having all my Poirot fantasies totally blown apart!

"Good afternoon!" they all said cheerfully. "Welcome, come and have some tea!" My bunk therefore, was the only one not yet taken. The top bunk, would you know, on the back wall! I put my baggage on the bunk, as a trestle table was put into the only space. Three to a bottom bunk, we were lined up nicely at our makeshift table. I had arrived just in time for dinner!!

My head was reeling as a trolley came into view at our doorway and plates, cutlery and food were produced. Maybe if I tell you that it was `riz-sauce´, you will not be overly surprised but my roomates, all eight of them, swooped on the food with hunger as opposed to gusto! End of quote.

They were many the moments like this one that really changed me permanently from the molly-coddled, cotton woolly European that I had been brought up to be. I could see so vividly that choice here was not an option hardly ever. You took what there was, full stop. You could not dare to turn your nose up at anything that was available. I could see how picky and choosy we were in our westernized lives and how unimportant it all suddenly seemed to me.

I learnt what is truly important to living, working and breathing. What is absolutely essential and what are nice extras. Whilst this all belongs to my past, I recognize that there lays my big issue. This should have ever been my ongoing living, working, breathing but I have never met another human being who FELT the same way!

This whole book is entirely off the top of my head which is why I am so proud of it. The only research I did was this following part, as mentioned in this chapter. And like I say in my book, oh, I wished that I had known that information at that time. But I explore the attempts of European explorers who came and tried to find the source of the River Niger.

That is rather funny, it is. And of course, the title of first white man through the gates of The City of Gold, Tombouctou, was a highly sought after one as well. White man being the eternal unevolved fool that he is, well, there were many failed attempts of course. Very interesting details and at the same time, the organization named `THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING THE DISCOVER OF THE INNER PARTS OF AFRICA´ was born. 

In today´s world, that organization is now called THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. So, yes, it would have been good to know all of that. It was an incredible week spent and I was able to see real, live hippopotami and crocodiles on the banks along the way. 

Chapter forty-one, UP THE RIVER AND ROUND THE BEND, continues this river journey and sadly, the river was running low and we could not make it all the way to Tombouctou. We were able to make it to Kebara not too far off and continue by land to Tombouctou. These are dense chapters, I am skimming over them, hoping that some day there will be those sat peacefully in their own space and time, who will glide down the River Niger and FEEL it with me.

Tombouctou is an incredible place. It was an important centre of learning too. The Sankoré Mosque is more than one thousand, one hundred and forty years old. That was paid for by a woman !And I wander off again into the Arab tradition of teaching and learning. The very first teaching centre ever built was in Morocco by a Tunisian woman. It was ever the intention of the Arab women to share learning and see learning shared.

The Al-Karaoiune Mosque of Fez el-Bali, Morocco, is the oldest centre of learning in the world. It was founded in the year 859AD and is the centre with the longest continuous use in the world too. I knew Fez el-Bali held much wisdom, I FELT it when I was there. Fatima al-Fihri founded that one and her sister Maryam al-Fihri, founded the Al-Andalus Mosque also in Fez el-Bali.

The wealth of learning available in Tombouctou is immense. The collections of ancient works that remain still intact is spectacular. I comment that their maths instruction was equal to our second year university material of today. We used to have many wise men!!!! We still have, except that they are not our leaders anymore, MAN-KIND is!!

I round off this chapter looking at how we have lost wisdom along our respective migrations. I look at what is our learning and its worth in real terms. I look at the usurpation and colonization of the poor folk of Mali through time and explore how cultures and languages change, not through choice but by MAN-KIND´s domination and dictatorship. 

I will close up with the last paragraph of this chapter which has set things up nicely for chapter forty- two, PEARLS OF WISDOM. I was in full inspirational flight now, in the writing of this book. I was no longer here, I was wandering Africa again, I was alive and living again. I want to live but I want to FEEL that I am living and FEEL that I am alive!

I quote myself: 

What is the point in channelling tens of thousands of young people through to university degrees and doctorates for, if they have no place to fill? And then of course, MAN-KIND will make HIS own decisions in spite of HIS expert´s learned advice! Why surround yourself with experts to systematically override them because they are singing from a different song sheet to you?

They are on the song sheets written by the wise and learned! And what is MAN-KIND´S  song sheet after all, if not HIS own little ditty? Whilst it may amuse a few cronies who stand to gain from the rendition, for the rest of us though, it will surely mean a negative change of some sort! End of quote.

Pearls of Wisdom next post my friends. Thank you for reading today and please do FEEL welcome to comment or communicate via e-mail. I have a contact box and a follow tab in the right-hand panel. Have yourselves a very positive day wherever you are. 

Do you sing off the same song sheet as anyone that you know? Are you in tune with anyone that you know? Or are you, just like me, always finding the song sheets of other´s so ugly, so lacking in any lyrical depth, totally lacking melody, rhythm and tempo, to say nothing of harmony, that you FEEL permanently out of tune with other´s? Let me know, why not!

Until the next time, happy learning! My book can be found with these Amazon links: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book

Interested in more INFJ reading: https://lifestyle.feedspot.com/infj_blogs