Morocco

It’s been about a week since returning to Madrid from Morocco. It’s crazy to think that I have now been to Africa twice in my life, the first time being to Morocco as well however it was only for the day. This trip consisted of a rigorous 4-day schedule in which our group traveled to 4 different cities. We started our journey waiting in line for our flight to Tanger, eating sandwiches and discussing what we all thought Africa would be like. The truth is most in line for the flight looked as though they were flying home and gave us the strangest glares as we downed huge double-decker sandwiches of chorizo and tortilla Española. (Most of our señoras still think we are growing children) But when we finally got settled on the plane we realized we didn’t really know what to expect. All we knew was that the number one thing on the packing list was toilet paper…and that wasn’t a comforting thought.

We landed in Tanger an hour and a half later with our faces pressed against the windows of the plane. We all went and exchanged our now familiar euro to the Moroccan durum. 1€ is worth about 11 durum so walking around with 200 durums in your wallet made us all feel pretty rich. We met our program guide, Alicia, who led us to the bus that would be our source of transportation for the weekend. Alicia is originally from Montana who first came to Morocco after joining the Peace Corps. After her 2 years of service she decided to stay, get married and begin her life in Morocco. Pretty big jump for a girl from Montana.

We finally arrived at our first stop, the Darna Women’s Center in Tanger. Here is where we had lunch (cous cous and beef with vegetables) while discussing Moroccan culture with 2 students, one male, one female. We then had a tour and were able to take pictures. In the center the women learn to read, write, sew, cook and basic computer skills. Next we hopped back on the bus and drove parallel to the Atlantic Coast for a couple of hours. The scenery was beautiful. We even got to see a heard of camels resting on a beach. Just as we saw them however the bus stopped…we got to ride them. It was very scary being hoisted up onto a strange animal’s back and if that wasn’t bad enough when he finally stood up you were about 9ft in the air. A very cliché activity, riding a camel in Africa, but I’m glad to say I’ve done it.

Back on the bus for a little and our next stop was Asilah, a small town once fought over by the Portuguese. The walls they built on the coast to protect the city are still there. Alicia took us on a tour under the stars and then it was back on the bus for a 3 hour ride to the capital city, Rabat. Bus rides are always fun with our group. Mostly they consist of the group forcing me to tell funny stories about my childhood or everyone going around and saying their most embarrassing moment. We always have a great time together.

The room we stayed in at host families house

We got to Rabat at around 10pm and everyone was ready to eat their itinerary. We were all a little nervous too, because we were about to meet our host families. Alicia told us every family had at least 1 person who spoke English so they could translate. Myself, and 2 other girls in our group were paired with a younger family. The mother didn’t work but stayed at home to take care of the 2 boys, Sahd (2) and Sofei (5). Their father was a personal guard to the king of Morocco. They had a very lovely home and were overly welcoming however there was one problem, no one spoke English. Both parents spoke 2 dialects of Arabic and French; no English, no Spanish. Although communicating was hard we made it through our first dinner alright. We had cous cous again (Moroccans love their cous cous) and Moroccan spaghetti. The first word I learned in Arabic was “cooli” which means eat! Our host mother said it every 5 minutes trying to make us eat more and more. We finally got some sleep only to look forward to breakfast the next morning and our first cup of Moroccan tea.

I will never drink Moroccan tea again. We were so excited for the first cup but after the first one, you never look back. Along with the tea for breakfast we had some bread with jam, olives, popcorn, coffee, and dates. Breakfast of champions, I know. We met with our group to swap stories of what we had for dinner and what our families were like, and then got back on the bus to head to a group discussion point. We were welcomed into the home of Mohammed, a student specializing in languages. Our group formed a circle in his living room as he and 5 of his friends were mixed in among us Americans. We introduced ourselves and then began asking questions to each other about culture, life, movies, society, religion and family. The conversation turned to September 11^th at one point, which was inevitable being that we were in a 95% Muslim country. We discussed the media and its influence on our viewpoints of Muslims and knowledge about the religion and how that horrific event played a huge role in the world’s opinion of Muslim nations. All in all it was a very eye-opening discussion.

AnnMarie, Lucy, Me, Kristin and Sofei

We then went for a visit to the Roman ruins in Rabat called Chellah and the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. If it hadn’t have been raining it might’ve been more enjoyable but both places were beautiful still. We had a 2 hour break to have lunch with our home stay families where I and the 2 others living with me met Lucy. Lucy is a study abroad student from GW University in DC and is living with our home stay family for the semester. She speaks English and Arabic, thank goodness, so now we had a translator. We had lunch and then got to try on traditional women’s robes and dance around with our host mother to Moroccan music. After our break we re-grouped and met different students who took us in smaller groups to visit Rabat’s Kashbah (old fort), an open marketplace, have tea and just spend time talking and exchanging information about each other. After, we met back as an entire group and set off for an experience I don’t think any of us were ready for—a hammam.

If you ask someone who knows Moroccan culture what a hammam is they’ll simply say it’s like a bath, however it is so so so different. A hammam is a place, much like a locker room, where people pay to get clean. Most Moroccan homes do not have showers so usually people go once a week to a hammam. After walking around in the rain and being dirty for 2 days we all wanted to be clean so we all agreed to go together. Men have a separate hammam away from the woman so all of us girl headed out together not knowing what to expect. They gave us olive oil soap, a rough glove, and the rules—we had to go topless. This was definitely not something any of us were expecting to do in Morocco. We all go to school together and have become such close friends, but the 11 of us sucked it up and did it. It’s like a sauna and you have a bucket of hot water. That’s pretty much it, unless you want to pay to have someone scrub you down. I kept to myself. I will say I did feel pretty clean after, and all of us walked out of there a little bit closer.

From the top of a peak on the Rif Mountains

Dinner was with our home stays that night, Moroccan soup and plenty of bread YUM. In the morning we had more olives and tea and had to say goodbye to our families as we were heading off on a drive to the Rif Mountains. It was a gorgeous, yet dizzying trip up and around the mountain. We took a short hike to the top of a peak and got amazing pictures. We then got to speak with a family who’ve lived there through generations about their lives and we got to ask about their impressions on Americans. Life in a mountain village of Morocco is very different to that of the family we stayed with in the capital city of Rabat, so it was interesting to see both. After having lunch with the family and getting a few more pictures in we were off to spend our last night in Morocco in Chefchaouen. (pronounced Chef-chawin)

an ally in Chefchaouen

The name of the city literally translates into “look to the horns” because the city is in the mountains and the two peaks closest look alike to horns; however the arquitecture of the city as a whole is all blue, therefore I was hoping it meant the blue city. It is fairly touristy so most venders spoke English and/or Spanish. We were staying in a hostel which we had all to ourselves since our program guides know how loud and obnoxious we are. After dropping our stuff off we had free time to go shop and blow all 200 durums we had, which went faster than we all thought. We met back up around 9 to go have dinner at a place called Casa de Aladdin, which we all thought was funny considering it means Aladdin’s house and we’ve all seen the fake-Arabic Disney movie.

After dinner we went back to our hostel, got dry and warm and had a pow-wow like meeting with Alicia to discuss our time spent in Morocco. We went around the circle and everyone got to share thoughts, surprises, feelings, opinions and anything about the trip. It was a nice time to just reflect and hear everyone’s point of view and what we had all learned. Bright and early we were awoken to the sound of the morning prayer (Muslims pray 5 times a day) So we got out of bed and went on a hike through the city and up the mountain a ways to get a birds-eye view of Chefchaouen at 7am. We then shared a Moroccan breakfast together and headed back to the Tanger airport to say goodbye to Alicia and to Morocco.

I learned so many things during my 4 days in Morocco; mostly about the Muslim culture, the personality of Moroccans and their views on Americans. I’d say the only downside of the trip is that everyone in our group got sick and most of us missed some days of school after returning to Madrid but eventually that goes away. The knowledge that we all took from experiencing first hand a developing country that is so different than the one we have lived in all our lives will stay with us forever. And it’s something we can pass on to others as well. And the toilet paper really came in handy. Hasta la próxima.