about Essaouira
Essaouira, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a bustling city of 80,000 people. There is an exciting blend of European, Arab, and North African cultures with a touch of Bob Marley thrown in to add some excitement!
Our founders have delighted in being a part of the global community for over 40 years. Choosing to raise their children in vibrant Southeast Asian villages (where everyday was a new classroom,) they discovered the joys of cross cultural living. As entrepreneurs they have helped to start local businesses and encouraged skill development among marginalized peoples in every country where they have lived. Today, in their retirement, they value a steaming cup of tea on a terrace as the sun breaks over the horizon, or a shared delicacy by a crackling fire on a windswept evening! From their first visit to Morocco in 2013 until today, their love and respect for the rich heritage of local Berber peoples has shaped their welcoming of guests into their home.
This poem by Wendell Berry has touched their hearts and shaped their respect for stillness and rest. The Dar Arraha Inn was named after they read this poem about “coming” into the peace of wild things.
about dan & mary
The Peace of Wild Things
”When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
Wendell Berry
About our logo
Our logo incorporates the image of a heron with the African symbol of “Sankofa” with the emphasis upon not leaving behind that which is dear to you. Whether it is a culture or an emotion or a memory….it is important to hold onto what was once important to us. At the Dar Arraha, we believe that the busy-ness of life can cause us to forget what is dear to our lives. We want to be a safe place where upon reflection we have space to restore our life map and the key components that make us who we are.
