Morocco loves company... and Parkour

This is a little interjection into my Toubkal piece about my workout yesterday. I was going to try and devote 100% of my time to getting my writing about the weekend done, but life happens. I decided to make Monday a rest day, seeing as I walked a few miles and climbed a couple of more this weekend. Today a run to the park to do some leg training and parkour drills sounded like a good idea. Around seven-thirty or so, once the sun's intensity had died down, I put on my old Asics, nearing death by now, and began the ten minute jog to the park. "The park" as John and I refer to it is an open expanse of grass and two concrete football fields adjacent to a main road. In the park are benches, ledges, stairs, and thin curbs. All good tools for a leg workout. Seeing as my left wrist is broken, it makes any upper body training near impossible. The least I can do is work on my lower body and be creative doing it. The park provides a good place to do so. The only thing is that you get some funny looks exercising in a park full of people not exercising. I have discovered that fitness and exercise, as well as healthy conscious diets are almost non-existent in Morocco. Men play recreational soccer, and thats about it. Whenever I'm out, I am usually the only person running or doing anything fitness related around me and it can be somewhat awkward. Once I reached the park I hopped up a ledge onto the grass field and walked over to one of my favorite spots. This particular spot is great for mixing leg exercises and parkour drills together. It consists of a ledge about three feet high. Once you are on top of the ledge, in front of you is a shallow dirt gap and a narrow curb about five feet in front and about half a foot high. This allows me to practice precisions, do pistols (one legged squats), box jumps, practice landings, and do calf raises. While women eyed me curiously and kids payed little attention for the time being, I began my routine of drills. I would work a rotation of precisions, pistols, landings, and box jumps, and then combine different parts onto a small routine or route. After a while at this an old man told me to go run and stop doing whatever nonsense it was that I was doing. I just said 'parkour' and ignored him. Soon after a couple of kids came over and started imitating me. They got a kick out of the pistols and were amazed once I did a couple on the narrow curb. I asked them if they knew parkour. They nodded saying,"Oui, Oui". Another few minutes passed by and they pair of boys grew into a group of ten or fifteen. I told them I was doing parkour drills and most of them repeated "parkour" in acknowledgement. A few showed me a few moves they knew to once more convey the understanding. They asked me my name and if I spoke French, as usual. I told them my name was Andre, and I spoke some Arabic but no French. Then one by one, the boys went around the small mob that had formed around me in curiosity , and rattled of their names enthusiastically as if I would remember every single one. By now our group was a spectacle of young Moroccan boys and one American student all brought together by, well, me being me, and of course, parkour. As we walked from my "spot" through the grass opening to another spot they used to practice, one kid being making dance motions and saying "tektonic". Apparently, one of the boys in the group was a miniature Michael Jackson and could "tektonic" as the others put it. After the others pressured all the reluctance out of him, the smallest of the group stepped out into the middle of our circle to do his performance. The kid was somewhat fair skinned for a Moroccan and had a bull-cut straight out of 90's Nickelodeon sitcom. The others created a beat and he began to dance. Surprisingly he was quite impressive. The kid had some moves, I think he's ready for American talent search reality t.v.. He finished his short routine and the group gave him cheers and rounds of applause as we resumed our walk down to a different section of the park about thirty meters away. There the kids all took turns asking me to watch their different vaults and tricks. A few had some good technique and we spent some time trading moves and testing our creativity on the terrain. By now I had incited a parkour and curiosity frenzy of eight to fourteen year-old boys. My time at the park done, it was nearing time to head back home. I said goodbye and exchanged handshakes and high-fives with the group and started back on my return jog home. It seems wherever I go being American might as well mean being a magnet for curiosity and attention. Especially with kids, they have few inhibitions and are usually genuine in their actions. I definitely had my most interesting and fun park visit yesterday as I picked up a mob of new friends and fellow tracuers.