AFRICA - Morocco

This weekend can be summed up by two words: eye-opening. My program took us on a trip to Morocco, we took several buses and a ferry to arrive to the city of Ceuta on Thursday. The ferry ride was awful, such rough waters on the Mediterranean...I, and many others got sick. This city is a property of Spain, so from there we took another bus to get to the Moroccan border (CRAZY, people crossing it on foot, car, or through the mountains!) and then we headed for Tetuan. Tetuan is an extremely traditional city, eveywhere we looked we saw women in full burkas, even their eyes were covered with a sheer fabric. In this city we had a tour through the original-walled city center, or medina. It is filled full of narrow, winding streets, packed with people shopping at the small food stands that are set up everywhere. Our group was about 45, so we had security guards at either end and in between in our group. They told us if we leave the group, we will stay there and make Moroccan babies, never leave...ever. The most interesting thing we learned on this trip was that every Muslim city has five features: a fountain, a school, a mosque, turkish bath, and a community oven. The oven is used at three times during the day, the a.m for bread, the afternoon for dinner foods, and the evening for desserts and sweets! It is surreal to me to think that people don't have stoves or ovens in their homes! It was interesting to me to find out that there is no specific time each day that the 5 prayers occur in Islam. Rather, it depends on the sun, because of this , there are loud-speakers throughout the city to announce prayer time. We heard this announcement and noticed people rushing toward the mosque. If you are occupied, generally you finish your task and then go to pray. Also, we learned the two most important days to a mulsim are the last day of Ramadan, and the day they die. Also in Tetuan, we toured an Artisan school where young kids go to learn the trades. The workmanship was astonishing and took so much focus, you'll see in the photos!
Onto Moroccan cuisine! We ate in all high end restaurants to avoid, the best we could, people getting sick. Some of the food we had included, soup, cous cous, ke-bab, fish, more ke-bab and tea with desserts...and more tea. The Moroccan people love their tea, it is very sweet made with mint and some flowers in it. We drank it after and between every meal. Even though we ate well, we had to avoid the water at all costs, brushing our teeth with bottled water. We stayed in a four star hotel, but is still by what any of us would consider, not that nice. Despite, the small amount of "roughing it" it was an amazing experience. The Moroccan people love America and Americans. In fact, Morocco was the first country in the world to recognize the U.S.A as an independent country. I understand the main reason for this is because they are desperatly trying to westernize their country and to particpate in international trade and commerce. Also, Moroccans are some of the most television-watching people in the world...they love the Simpsons, similar to every Spanish person I have met. This is often their perception of American families, but they love it.
On Friday we woke up early and took the bus to Tangier. This is the second largest city in Morocco and much more cosmopolitan. There were fewer women wearing burkas, more people in general, more commerce, and an actual city center! We toured the city, and quickly learned to ignore the small children that try to sell gum, tissues, etc. Our guide, Abdel, told us that we shouldn't give them money because if they continue to earn money, their parents won't send them to school. With a literacy rate of 40%, you can imagine the problem. Also in Tangier, we toured the Coca-Cola facotry and saw how some of their operations management works. From there, we met up with Moroccan students, who cam with us to visit some caves, and then took us to their University for a tour. They have an extreme amount of pride in their school becuase it is a priveledge for them to attend university. In Tangier, we got to ride camels...in a parking lot. This goes to show that the sterotype we commonly have about Africa and camels doesn't hold true in Morocco. Most of the students had never ridden a camel either. We got some free time in the market-place where you could find knock-offs of everything and anything! Bartering was really the fun part here! We felt rich because 1 euro is equal to a little over 100 der hams (their money).
On day three we made our way to a mountain city called, Chefchaoen. All the buildings are built along the mountain side and are painted white and blue, not that different from Santorini. This city is also very traditional. We got a tour through the winding, hilly streets, where we learned that the people who live in the surrounding towns that come from the mountains every Monday and Thursday to participate in the market. We also got free time in this market place where we found a lot more traditional artesinal goods! The city of Chefchaoen and Tetuan were the most eye-opening. We have so much and are so fortunate. Although these people also live happy lives with their families, they all live in the same house. Also, we saw women doing laundry in the river. We visited a tannery (Worst smell in my life) where young boys work to learn the trade, they work up to their armpits in water holes with fresh hides...it was unbeliveable. The mint stem they gave us to help curb the scent was useless. Just small luxuries we are used too, for example, no flies in a hotel lobby, everywhere...are hard to come by there. Another striking sight was the Moroccan border, this is probably just because I have never been to a border before, but people were being hand-cuffed and dragged off, the lines were so long, and there were a lot of people in the mountains crossing. I spent my 22nd birthday in Chefchaoen on Saturday and traveling back to Sevilla, luckily the ferry ride back was much smoother. My senora, friends, and roomate all worked to make my day special. Coming home to a gift, a note, and cake to share with my friends was very sweet of Araceli. Needless to say, this weekend was yet again amazing....and I can officially say that I have been to 3 continents!