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“ hi ”. He didn ' t even try to see if I was ‘ someone good ’. He just told me “ You now come to my house , and we will share a meal together ”. I don ' t know if it was because I was alone or because I appeared more engaged than a regular tourist , but those kinds of gestures continued to happen repeatedly . Sometimes , people would stop next to me on the side of the road and tell me “ I just wanted to say that you are welcome in my country . Let God be with you ”. The novelty never wore thin ; every time this occurred , I got emotional with gratitude and even if these people will never see these words , I would like to use the opportunity to deeply thank all the welcoming people .
Many of the people I met were Berbers , also called Amazigh . They represent more than half of the Moroccan population and live predominantly inland . The most widely known Amazigh symbol is the ‘ yaz ’, represented as ⵣ , whose design has deep philosophical roots and translates to “ the free man ”. For some reason that I still can ' t quite put my finger on , I fell in love with these people . It might sound like a whimsy , the romance of the open road , but I have travelled enough to know that what I felt was and is a genuine connection to their art , traditions , and customs . I have never experienced this intense sense of affinity during all my years travelling the world and it is something words can ' t really explain but I have been profoundly influenced by my encounters with the Berbers .
I established Take A Way as a long-term humanitarian project and with the help of generous donors and contributors I ’ ve managed to support local communities in several ways on past travels . The idea of Take A Way isn ’ t to make radical change because I don ’ t yet have the resources to make huge waves , but every little bit helps , especially to those who have
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