International Language: Taekwondo! Choo-ahh!

Tim wanted to learn Taekwondo, and I have been itching at the chance to train again so we made plans during this trip to train. And in the beach town of Taghazout, we're finding that we have lots of free time because we don't have surfboards.

This is a laid back, quiet community, nearly how I would imagine a typical surfer town on the West Coast to be... about 30 or 40 years ago! Now I get what the Beach Boys were singing about!

The beach here is big and beautiful. Perfect sand, perfect surf! And there's nobody in sight! We set out for our first formal Taekwondo lesson and it was intense! I really worked Tim hard! Half-way through our session, a young girl walked up out of nowhere and said, "Taekwondo?" She didn't speak any English, just Arabic and French (just!), but had trained in Taekwondo at some point in her past and wanted to work out with us. She knew the first three forms, exactly as I had been taught - half a world away!It's a cool feeling to know that despite our differences, and total lack of communication - we were able to establish a bond with this young Moroccan girl on the basis of world's most popular Martial Art. It's as exciting as the universal language of math - no matter where you are, our base 10 mathematical system is the same! And here we are, in a foreign country, where we don't speak the any of the local languages nor have we successfully integrated into the local cultures, Yet, we were able to make a connection with someone - to teach and to learn - with the international language of Taekwondo to communicate similarities in personal development through exercise and philosophy.We trained for nearly two hours in total, and just after the sun set, I dismissed my new class. Raza, our new friend, communicated that she wanted to train with us again. I showed her on her watch when we could meet - the next day at 10am.The next day, Tim and I ran on the beach in the morning for a warm up and began class at 10am. Raza showed up around 10:30 so I made her do push-ups for being late. She explained to me that she lived three or four towns away in Agadir and had to take the bus to meet us. "Too bad!" I responded! Haha! All in good fun! I taught a new set of material and enjoyed the diversity in students. I felt proud to share a martial art that's become such a significant part of who I am!