0198. The Gully separating Two Nations (Mor 047--new)
It seemed like Ahfir was going to be another uneventful small town, as I stopped in a little neighborhood plaza to play my set. A couple of fellows stopped by and seemed to enjoy my material. One of them invited my over to his house for tea.
He showed me pictures of his brother who lives in Florida--then I asked him "have you ever been out of the country?"
"Of course--I've been to Algeria a couple of times. I've got relatives over there."
"I thought the border was closed"
He smiled "I'll show you"
And so finally I was able to find out the "real scoop" on this so called unreconcilable 16 year rift between Morocco and Algeria. We walked over to edge of town.
"That's Algeria over there" He said pointing to a little gully about 200 feet away.
"But where's the fence? the guards? the razor wire and motion sensors?" I exclaimed incredulously. "I thought Morocco and Algeria had a 'Cold War' going on between them!"
"Nope, you just keep walking--and you'll be in Algeria... you'll have to pay someone a little something and that's about it."
Amazing. This is clearly the most open "closed" border in the world! The border between the US and Canada is harder to get across than this!
We wandered along a dirt road along the gully that had constant car and donkey traffic going back and forth. I took a little video clip playing my guitar with "Algeria" in the background...
...I did, however stop short of actually crossing the border...
My new life in Morocco is too important to jeapordize on a little stunt like that... Would've been fun, though...
It was very heartwarming to see that these two neighbors actually get along a lot better than people think...
