Canada, Morocco, and Friendship: Old but Gold
How many of us are fortunate enough to have an old friend, one who’s hung around for close to 70 years? Enduring relationships are more precious than gold, especially when life tarnishes our edges, bangs up our knees, and wrinkles our faces as the years pile on.
Nance enriches my life in more ways than she’ll ever know, and we’ve been best buddies since kindergarten, She’s trouble; we both are. Isn’t that fantastic? We never did find out what our moms did with the white rats we brought home from the school fair. Smart moms, though: They recognized our fast friendship (bandit bonding?) and did the work to keep the two of us connected once we attended different schools. We joke that if someday “they” put us in the old folks home we’ll drive motorized wheelchairs tricked out with honking clown horns and rainbow flags.
Canada and the United States have been good friends three times as long as Nance and I, after settling that little 1812 White House torching incident. Within the past year, however, U.S. leadership has made unreasonable demands, treating its longtime friend as a freeloader. (The 51st state? Seriously?)
Yet despite such abusive behavior, Canadians and Americans will stay friends, if Tod Maffin has anything to say about it. That’s because at the people level, our countries’ longtime friendship still thrives.
We affirmed this fact when we ferried over to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to attend Maffin’s April 2026 Nanaimo Infusion, a celebration of Canadian-American friendship and healthcare workers, for the start of our current road* trip (*if ‘road’ means ferries, cars, trains, planes, buses, hot air balloons, and camels). This was the first leg of our trip, after which we ferried back to the mainland to catch a flight to Casablanca, Morocco.
The Canadians we met in Nanaimo reassured us, profusely and repeatedly, that they still loved Americans and welcomed us, despite the unfortunate behavior of U.S. leaders. That’s what best buddies do, of course: They love us, no matter what.
That doesn’t mean friends must tolerate bad behavior, of course. Our mothers swiftly disposed of those rats, after all, and Canadians aren’t signing up to be the 51st State any time soon. Or buying Americans products. Or caving in to threats and bluster.
Yet our visit to Canada showed us, in multiple ways, that Canadians still love us, the everyday Americans who wish with all our hearts that we could get rid of the awfulness, but can’t. Yet.
Photo credit: City of Nanaimo, and Tod Maffin. We’re somewhere in the back right, just behind two ladies wearing platter-sized curling hats.
RELENTLESS DECENCY
In a time when coarse insults, threats, and corruption dominate our headlines, normal people like us struggle to remember that no, disrespectful behavior is NOT the norm – for Americans, Canadians, Moroccans, for anyone. I taught oodles of humans of all types, shapes, sizes, religions, and nationalities during my teaching career, and most of the students who passed through my classroom wanted the same thing everyone wants: Kindness. Fairness. Consideration. Respect. Decency.
Maffin is on a mission to remind us that most people want these same things and always have. He’s the one who coined the term Relentless Decency, which we’ve adopted as our new life motto. And yes, we bought the t-shirts, because we’re Americans! Americans love our slogan-slathered ballcaps and t-shirts, and we pair them with bright sneakers so Europeans and Moroccans can spot us from space.
Canucks have every right to shun Americans right now, from the unfair tariffs slapped on Canadian products, to childish insults, to threats to be demoted from a sovereign country to the 51st state. If Canadians said ‘good riddance’ to their long time American friends, we’d understand. Really. It’s so disrespectful to treat your best buddy that way.
Yet did Canadians shun us on our recent visit? No. Quite the opposite. Here we are, in a Nanaimo bookstore, where these two lovely ladies had been scouring the shops to find Americans to greet. They gifted us with our Canadian leis as we shared a long chat about the current situation, during which we repeatedly apologized. They insisted that no, it’s ok, we understand, we still love Americans.
We couldn’t keep track of how many similar conversations we had while we were there, all in the same vein.
MOROCCO: AN EXOTIC PLACE FAR, FAR AWAY
Yet after we crossed back over the Canadian-US border and headed to the airport for our flight to Morocco, we wondered: Would Moroccans resent us for the bad behavior of our leaders, or welcome us as the Canadians did?
The U.S. has been close to Morocco even longer than Canada: We share a 240+ year strategic alliance, which began in 1777 when Morocco recognized U.S. independence, the first country to do so. In 1786 we signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which today is the longest unbroken treaty in U.S. history. (We hope our current leaders don’t mess it up…..so far, so good, but with all the chaos who knows?)
When we signed up for our Morocco tour, we weren’t thinking about global friendships, but the word ‘exotic’. Simple as that. Just one word. A fellow traveler on last year’s Central Europe tour sparked a yearning in me for someplace far away from all the stressful headlines, when she used that word to describe her recent Morocco tour.
Yes, please: Somewhere exotic, with camels. Far away from the madding crowd. Sign us up right now.
Ah, but Morocco is so much more than exotic. Sure, it’s that: I bonded with my camel Stella, who might have been a boy but I named him ‘Stella’ so I could yell ‘Stella!’ from atop a camel in the Sahara Desert. We felt thrilled to be alive on our hot air balloon ride, and the medinas, souks, tagines, dazzling gemstone colors, and all that gorgeous geometric tile felt totally exotic to us.
That’s all wonderful, but what we’ll remember most about a country we now adore is the relentless decency of everyday Moroccans. We did not feel resented; we felt embraced by Tod Maffin-style decency from the moment we landed at the Casablanca airport, from the syrupy sweet mint fragrant tea offered to us at every stop, to constant acts of simple human kindness.*
*Mostly. In the larger souks? Not so much. Clutch that bag and strap on your money belt, and never trust the cobra handlers or fake tourists with rolling suitcases swirling through the crowds.
Just one representative example of typical Moroccan kindness: In Ressina, Morocco, a tailor spotted this old gal wearily leaning against the wall of his shop. We had just navigated a warren of labyrinth walkways and dingy tunnel-like alleys, where exquisite dark doorways to hidden riads beckoned. Suddenly, the tailor rushed out from his shop to prop me up with a small stool. Then, he shyly retreated back inside his tiny shop without a word to hunch over his old sewing machine.
I can tell about twenty more tiny human kindness stories like this; the tailor’s thoughtfulness was not a one-off. Moroccans seem to have structured their society around graciousness and hospitality, and sure, at the leadership level and in conservative areas, Morocco may not be all that welcoming to everyone. Women disappeared from café storefronts once we left the cities, for instance, and laws against gay behavior are harsh but seem to be ignored when it comes to tourists who visit. Yet the general vibe, consistently, seemed to be: We’re glad you’re here. May I offer you a cup of sweet mint tea?
GATE 1 TRAVEL: A BUSLOAD OF FRIENDSHIPS
We didn’t have to get off the bus to find friendships, though. This was our fifth Gate 1 tour, and the 27 Americans on our tour morphed into the most congenial group we’ve encountered of all five trips. Together, we survived the labyrinth of the Fez medina, for instance, and bumped over the twisted roads up and over the astonishing Atlas Mountains. I mean, how could we not bond once we successfully fended off all those peddler assaults as we navigated the twisted lanes of the mysterious souks?
It’s not so easy back in the States to make new friendships once you reach a certain age, especially if you live in a typical American home like ours. We tend to live in large houses on large lots, without easily accessed walking and gathering spaces because everything is designed for cars.
And once retired, Americans typically lose the easy friendship supports of schools, dorms, and workplaces, so we must work much harder to make new friends.
But not on a Gate 1 Tour. Our group, mostly retired from a wide swath of professions, formed fast friendships: A teacher or two, a pediatrician, a radiologist, a hospice nurse, a federal investigator, a tool-and-dye maker, and more. So many interesting people to talk to, and so much to talk about! And give me a large enough group I can pick out the book lovers, so of course I went home with a new East Coast book friend. We’ll text each other great book titles and keep in touch, of course!
It helps, in these situations, to have an expert cultivator of friendships in charge, and sure enough – we had Abdou. Abdou, our Gate 1 tour leader, shepherded us through our adventures with the practiced skills of a true people lover. He did everything he could to make sure we became a family on that bus. Much more about Abdou’s skillful management of our trip, as well as Hassan our driver and Mohammed our helper, coming up in later posts.
Oh, and one of the last things Abdou told us, before we had to say goodbye?
“Once you’ve been to Morocco, you’re our friend and we’ll always welcome you back.”
Coming up next:
The amazing hot air balloon adventure, the astonishing camels, the wonderful lodgings, the tasty food, and so many more adventures! You can subscribe here to get a notification when I put up a new post, but don’t worry about me clogging up your in-box – I’m a slow writer:-). I’m also over on substack sometimes at https://substack.com/@blakeislandjourneys.
Thanks, as always, for following along, everyone! Or as they say in Morocco:
شكرا لك
FYI: To thank you, Moroccans might also pour you a sweet syrupy cup of mint tea and offer you a plate of fragrant dates. They may encourage you to recline on lounging beds piled with soft comfy pillows, as a warm breeze wafts in from the lovely garden.
Now that’s Morocco.
Wouldn’t that be grand? More on Moroccan hospitality, next time!
