Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 19:45:31 -0700
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Retiring to Morocco
In-Reply-To: <154682.60453.qm@web45106.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Thanks for sharing that Malcolm.
Sometimes you just have to go for it and I wish you and Jamila much, much
happiness!!
Thanks for the photographs.
On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@yahoo.com>wrote:
> Dear all: It's Friday and I'm again posting "a personal note" to the list.
>
> In December 2007, I posted a note regarding my wife's death (
> http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0712a&L=vanagon&F=&S=&P=65741)
>
> While I still miss Pat nearly every minute of every day, that damn sun
> keeps coming up and I have to live each day. I could bury my head and
> wallow in my sorrow, or I could 'move on' and grab all of life that could
> have been mine (ours) had Pat lived. I am choosing the latter.
>
> This next chapter of my life actually begins back in 1995/6 when I had a
> job teaching business at a university in Ifrane, Morocco (use Google Earth).
> I met a wonderful woman colleague over in the Humanities Department. Our
> spouses were not with us and we took the opportunity to strike up a
> wonderful Plotonically intimate friendship. I was in a wonderful marriage
> with Pat, and Jamila was in a suboptimal marriage. I left the university in
> 1996 but Jamila and I stayed in contact with each other all of these
> intervening years. FWIW, our spouses knew of our wonderful friendship.
>
> In about 2002, Morocco changed its laws and allowed women to more easily
> file for divorce......Jamila soon took advantage of the change in the law.
> Then when my wife died, Jamila's and my emails took on a different tenor as
> we were now both single. Soon emails gave way to phone calls, then video
> (Skype) calls, then after 13 years of 'separation' I made a visit to
> Morocco. The spark, and intimacy were still there for us both. Over the
> last year, I've made 3 trips to Morocco, and Jamila one trip here to N.
> America.
>
> Re Jamila's trip to N America, initially Jamila could not fathom what
> Vanagon life would be like in a car sized vehicle: eating, sleeping, peeing
> etc. It took her only a few days to learn the routine. It helped that many
> of our initial campgrounds were in Canadian Provincial Parks with our sites
> being at water's edge (No fool me). Our trip was a round-trip from Halifax
> to Sault Saint Marie Ont., then back east through the northeastern USA.
>
> They say to NOT make any BIG decisions for at least a year after a
> traumatic loss........well the year is over and so I have now: Taken early
> retirement, Sold the house here in Halifax, Married Jamila, and am Retiring
> to Rabat, Morocco. I have dropped of my 1989 Syncro 16 Dehler van at the
> port here in Halifax for shipment to Antwerp, Belgium in a few weeks, then
> Jamila and I will fly up and retrieve the van and make our way back down to
> Morocco. Not bad for making no BIG decisions. :-)
>
> Jamila has a PhD in Linguists and is a Full Professor in Rabat. The fact
> that she speaks 4+ languages will greatly facilitate our travel (Morocco is
> only 14 kilometers from Spain).
>
> For those who like photos, a photo of Jamila is here:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/mstebbins/JamMalCI2008#5193696354659916962
>
> A photo of both of us is here:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/mstebbins/NerjaRabat2008#5299030920899807810
>
> You can visit http://picasaweb.google.com/mstebbins for many more
> photos of our recent trips to Las Palmas, Nerja (both Spain), Lisbon, our
> recent 10 day trip around Morocco, and of course our N. American trip.
> There are other photos on this site, and I'll be flattered if you root
> around a bit.
>
> Soon I hope to be able to post some more van travel stories that may even
> match my posts of Pat's and my van trip from Cairo to Amsterdam in our then
> 1991 Syncro Westy
> (
> http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S2=vanagon&L=vanagon&q=&s=Cairo&f=stebbins&a=1+July+1999&b=31+August+2001).
>
> Whether this new adventure of ours fails or succeeds, we are going going to
> have a ball either way. In our new marriage, we have only have one rule:
> If the marriage fails, we fail in such a way that we retain our friendship.
>
> Take care everyone, and may the vanagon gods smile on our vans. Malcolm
> Stebbins (was of Halifax, Nova Scotia, now sitting in Rabat, Morocco).
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
Crescent Beach, BC
www.thebassspa.com
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
| 
