sure are a lot of rocks in morocco

A few weeks ago I met my dad and Linda in Morocco. We traveled all over the North of the country seeing amazing sights. We went to many places in our short week including Rabat, Meknes, Fez, Marrakech, Essaouria, and Casablanca. We were chauffeured around by a hot-headed Moroccan man named Abdellah. He gave us his opinions on the wonders of having a king to Algerians being lazy. He was a very kind guy who wanted us to love Morocco as much as he does. Speaking for myself, I think he succeeded, I now see Morocco in a different light not solely as an exotic travel destination. It like any place has it’s positives and negatives as well as it’s scandals and little secrets.

I looked at Morocco from a Senegalese perspective while my dad and Linda must have seen it from an American one. To me Morocco was nicely developed with clean and smooth roads, infrastructure, organization, and a vibrant culture. I think my dad and Linda saw much less development and organization. In Senegal the roads are overcrowded, filled with garbage and holes, and are not well planned. Horse drawn carts, taxis, buses, motorcycles, scooters, wheelchairs, bikes, and cars share the biggest roads in Dakar, which are only two lanes. People either stay at home with their families or sit under trees talking the day away. In the cities we visited people seemed to be out and about strolling along. Like in Senegal, the majority of people walking around are young men. Women are expected to stay at home and keep house. Women’s place as inferior beings, while not formally stated, is felt. Many more women veil and wear full-length garments than in Senegal. It was surprising to me since Morocco, while an Arab Muslim country, it is the most lenient by far.

Some highlights from the trip were visiting Otman’s family in Fez. His family was incredibly hospitable and kind. They made us a delicious lunch, made tea, chatted through our guide who acted as the interpreter. His mother gave me gifts including a carpet she made and a djeballah, which my dad has decided, looks like Obi1Konobi’s robe in Star Wars. His family made us feel at home and welcomed. It was a wonderful experience.

Another exciting part of the trip was the Sahara Desert experience. We stayed in a little auberge in the Sahara. We slept in Berber tents with heavy (and smelly) woolen blankets to keep out the cold and sand. We also took a memorable camel ride to the dunes and climbed up a small one to watch the sunset. Riding a camel is much like riding a horse except it moves at a far slower pace and getting off is very jerky.

Essaouria was an all-around cool city. After the sunset shop owners broke out their guitars and had a jam session while people walked unhurriedly around the medina. The seascape looks much like Dakar. I think it was the rocks on the beach and small islands off the coast. Linda and I did the hammam at our hotel. A hammam is usually a public bath where you chose hot or cold water then proceed to dump buckets of water all over your almost naked body. Since it was in the hotel Linda and I were the only ones in the hammam and that was fine with modest me. A woman at the hotel scrubbed us down with black soap and an exfoliating mitt that aptly took off layers of my skin. I was horrified to see how disgustingly dirty I was thanks to the pollution and grime of Dakar. I have not felt that clean in a long time. These Dakar cold-water showers are not doing their job.

In Fez we visited a tile and pottery cooperative. We got to see the many steps of making tile mosaics and painted pottery. I think, personally love both objects made from tiles and ceramics so I was in heaven. To make the elaborate shapes used in mosaics people chip away with a heavy hammer at square tiles until they make the desired shape. Pottery is painstakingly painted with horsehair and bamboo brushes in complicated designs. How some painted pottery comes out almost identical is mind blowing. Everything was created by hand without using molds or machines. In the United States we rarely see objects made by hand without the use of heavy machinery. There slight difference between objects is accepted and people’s handicraft skills are valued. I bought a few items to give as gifts and in retrospect I should have purchased more. A la prochaine fois as we say in French. Until next time..

As a complete and utter sidenote, Morocco is covered in rocks. They look like as if they were sprinkled on the ground by chance. Also, I have never seen as many sattilite dishes as I did in Morocco. Even little shacks that probably lacked running water had a dish.