the diverted mind

questioned They look at each other. 'sharida, sharida...', a discussion in (Moroccan) arabic follows. with a thoughtful look on their faces, the men wave with their hands high in the air. it seems it wasn't clear for them from the start, but after a minute they come to the conclusion about what 'sharida' means. 

i'm in meknes, morocco. curious to find out the exact meaning of my name, i asked a few local men about the meaning in arabic. 

'it's like, you are here, but your mind is somewhere else... you're thinking of something else, as if your mind is floating'.

this was not the first time i asked somebody with an arabic background for this translation. i also asked the moroccan men in the shawarma restaurant in Amsterdam, my turkish guest in Zanzibar, and the Egyptian friend of my friend. 

all of them had that same look, making the same hand gestures, eyes looking up in the sky. 'the person that stays with you, but with his mind in another place', 'anything lost in the dessert', 'the one that strolls along with no place to stay, but keeps on going', 'no real mind direction'...

 ZANZIbar, Tanzania, 2025.