https://youtu.be/nX6ZEcwRrw0

Hi Finn,

I’m currently sat in Fez, a few days after Eid 2017. This is the first Eid in years that you and I haven’t been in Loubar and of course I’ve a wry smile on my face as I remember last year when you missed the killing of the goat because you’d been doing maths home work with me…. Running back and jumping on your hat in fury at the wrong I’d done to you.

Thanks goodness for Ghalli having a sheep in reserve for the next day!

Of course it’s very strange being here in Fez, let alone up in Loubar

without you. Everyone asks for you all the time. And I expect to see you running over the path to the tent at any moment. But, as it was always going to happen, you have now moved to the UK. I’m not going to pretend that I’m not missing you, of course I am. The house is filled with your presence. Your absence.

But in many ways I have not only come to accept the fact of your moving, but the opportunities we have had together, now and in the future. I also see that your not being here, in Morocco, offers me the chance to focus upon what is going on in Moroc whilst I am here, but also, hopefully, to focus upon you, whilst I am in UK.

As I’ve explained, there is a plan, though it’s very multi pronged. The farm needs finishing and being set to work. Dar Finn needs over site, the restaurant opening and it’s many opportunities nurtured in to fuller fruition. I need to get a place in, probably Belper, to have a place that we can call home in UK and that needs funding. And all this needs to happen this year, which is to say by August 2018. It’s a big challenge, but I am hoping that I am up to it.

Certainly, I feel confident that if I can get both Farm and Dar Finn running as I am sure they can, then that will

provide the funds necessary to resource my time in UK with you. Fingers crossed. Equally, it should mean that I am able to be more choosy, notably in terms of timing, of the jobs I might take away. Yes, I want to continue that, not just because it offers an alternative income stream, but because I love it. Both the work and the places that I work.

But perhaps I digress.

The thing is, again as I’ve already alluded to, I hope that this project in Loubar, will offer much to you as you grow up and maybe, once you’ve grown up…. Whenever that might be!

Already being here has meant that you have been able to experience a

whole world that you would otherwise not have had access to. By this I mean your on going inter action with a whole different culture of people. Economically poor, but culturally very rich. People who are focussed upon making a life outside of the confines set within our materialistic, consumer based culture in the north.

Over the years we’ve been able to play in such beauty, enjoying simply being surrounded by nature and you’ve had the opportunity to explore, adventure, take risks, in a way that would simply be impossible “at home”.

I’m happy that we’ve had this quality and quantity of time and I hope that it will influence you. The boy I see, is a wonderful man in the making and, if I am honest, I know that you will benefit greatly from the schooling and family you have access to in UK.

I also know that you will be able to benefit from the farm as it grows. To be able to see a different technology,

philosophy, paradigm to life and living, than that which is over taking us in the “developed world”. By seeing both, being involved in both, you will, I hope, be able to consider the challenges and opportunities of both. I hope it will continue to open up new horizons to you in a world that I fear will be so very different for you, than it has been for my generation.

Given the evolution of technology in the West, who knows what opportunities will even be open to you in ten, twenty or fifty years time. I fear for you and your generation and in many ways, part of my aspirations for the farm, is to offer you an alternative learning opportunity to anything you may find in UK.

Am I expecting too much? I really don’t know.

More dreaming!

The last holiday we had here was nothing short of tremendous. Of course you played around with knives and axes. Chopped up wood and chopped down cactus trees… yes they do fight back! Of course you spent most of your time playing with mates, with goats, with chickens, with dogs.

You found snakes and snakes skins. You were bitten by bugs and ate

fruit fresh from the trees. You picked food fresh from the garden and tested your boundaries with red hot chillies. You drove on the bonnet of the car, off piste and went swimming in out of the way lakes and rivers. You amazed me with great ideas; yes my phone can be used as a mirror for shaving if I pretend to film myself. And wowed me with initiatives; be that designs for the farm or simply to take a moonlit shower at mid night.

But amongst all of that I love the freedom you gained from being able to go anywhere, with anyone safely. You’re known by the community in Loubar. Known and cared for. And I like that too.

And of course don’t get me started at how impressed I am when you start babbling away in Deriga…Usted!

I suppose all in all, what I am trying to say is that I love you and this

has been a great opportunity, and continues to be so. One that I can’t explain how happy I have been to share with you Finn and one which I hope will bear fruit for both of us.

Of course it isn’t how I expected it would be, but then the future is unwritten…as Mr Strummer would say. And, as I look around us and all the various scenes I’ve seen from my years away at work, we are already so very lucky.

Thank you. xx