The Old Man in Bourgogne

There was an older,single Moroccan man who was renting out his studio in Bourgogne.  His name was Said. He met me at the bus stop and walked me over to see his place.  The place was perfectly located right near the Hassan mosque, up high on the 6^th floor, and it had a nice terrace and ocean view. It was an older building, but not too old in comparison to others I had seen.  The brand new condos right next door were being sold for ridiculous amounts of money-like a rent controlled building in New York next to a brand new condo on Park avenue-location, location, location.

At first glance, it looked just like a hotel room, but it was his apartment.  He did speak some English, which made this experience a bit better.  The apartment consisted of a tiny room with a king size bed and sheets that looked like they had been on the bed since 1984. The bathroom was quite old with stains in the shower and toilet.  The kitchen was very small and actually reminded me of an old horror movie. 

By no means was this the worst apartment I have seen, but it just needed some work and it had the potential to be a nice apartment (once the whole thing was refurnished and fully cleaned).

With this man’s sweet demeanor, I tried to keep my disgusted facial expressions on the DL (downlow) and my smiles and nods way up.   But he could tell that the bathroom was just not interesting for me.  When I looked at the shower, he said, “Don’t worry, it’s clean, it’s clean.” He bent over on his knees picked up a sponge and was scrubbing the tile to show me that it was just stained not dirty.  He also changed the sheets on the bed to even older sheets and said, “See, very nice yes?”

He did have a brand new Samsung flatscreen that he was very proud of-shutting it on and off and describing the different channels.  The desperation was clear that he was eager to rent out this apartment.  When chatting with him over tea, he said that he owes a lot of money to the bank and he will have to go live with his mother. 

This man reminded me of people on my journeys. The beautiful people who just need a hand.  Life has thrown them curveballs and challenges and their eyes are crying for help.  This man actually made me question my choice, “Is there any possible way for you to give this apartment a make over?”

Sometimes you see a place and the location is perfect so you try and make it work, but this place I just couldn’t make it work no matter how hard I tried.  I told him I would think about it and call him tomorrow, but I really just did not have the heart to tell this poor man, “No.”

Hope the man from Bourgogne found a nice tenant…