Under Construction

This is Brindisi in December 2022.

Saturdays in Tangier borderline suck. While all I want to do is just relax in my apartment and chill after a week in the classroom, the owners of the apartment beneath me have deemed Saturdays the only day for renovations. I’m reasonably confident they aren’t even home, but the two or three-person crew appears at the most random times to pretend they are hard at work adapting two or three cement rooms. 

Who cares about the signs in the lobby stating construction noise is only from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.? That would be too easy to follow and would make sense to any person. No, instead, sometimes I hear the melody of hammers well after eight on Saturday evenings. Lo and behold, today is the exception. This amazing crew loaded up the elevator with tiles and began hammering away at noon. 

Thirty minutes in the choir continues, but I have faith that in all their industrious activities, the lull will begin shortly to continue at thirty or forty minute intervals intermittently. That’s Tangier construction for you. 

The fun part, though, is that Ramadan has now begun. While many are preserving their strength while they fast the daylight hours away, this team of building experts is hard at work while the homeowners are living their dual citizenship dream in Spain or France. A different crew begins their work time melody, and I am off to wonder how Islam’s holiest month becomes the best time for construction renovations and projects. The cafe five floors below has a team working their magic while the call to prayer echoes across the walls and the surrounding buildings.

While I should be busy on my next writing project, I wanted to chime in and share that with March now upon us, Brindisi and Me is done. It only took four years and some additional weeks to fix the initial draft to something that can be shared with others. All told, it took about a month to rewrite each chapter from scratch. Some sections were salvageable, while others needed complete revamping. 

I’m relieved to check this off the writing list, so I can now focus on other projects in between my travel vlogging. My newest book, sharing my adventures with money, will be out in mid-April. There’s one more read-through before I give it the go-ahead to be published. 

If it had been one of my fiction books, I would have sent it to my editor, but nonfiction is a different type of writing, one that I know is part style and traditional form. As for Brindisi and Me, the plan is to release it in June or July. I’ll keep you posted while I dive into my latest book, Forever Poland, a memoir of my time living in the country and several years of extensive travel to all her wonderful regions. I’m even returning in late March to hit a few more cities and spots that can be added to this growing book. 

We will see how long it takes to write this new book, and then I imagine I’ll return to fiction. Enjoy March and the approaching spring season. I will share more updates as they occur. 

Peace,
JFK

---

This is why you need to get up for the sunrise. Taken on an April 2022 weekend trip to Greece. Might go back this May.