Since arriving back in Spain, I have been putting off writing the entry on Morocco because there is simply too much to say. I could write a short novel about my week in Marruecos, but I'll spare you and try to recap the most memorable parts. Overall, it was an incredible experience and I had a fantastic time. At the same time, I have never felt like such an alien as I did out in the streets. The blonds in our group were treated like celebrities. It was a cultural, eye-opening trip, and luckily, a very un-touristy one.
We were accompanied by our Lewis & Clark leader, Roger along with our professor José and his wife Ana. But our real tour guide was a Moroccan named Abdul. He couldn't have been more different than Carmen: time and schedule were the last thing on his mind. However, he was very religious and sometimes left us during meals to go to the Mosque and pray. Although there are 5 ritual prayers a day, he said many people only actually go to the Mosque on Fridays, the Sunday of their religion. Although he seemed to lean towards liberal, his marriage was very traditional. In his mid-30s his family gave him a list of women's names who fit his requirements and then he chose his wife. I never met his family, but he says he is very happy with his wife and children, so I guess arranged marriages can work out...but I don't think I could ever be happy with having no say in who "picked" me.
We spent our first two days in Tetouan, a city near the border. We saw two very different sides of the city during our stay: the French, luxurious Sofitel hotel where we stayed, and the Medina where the people and markets were. Although our hotel was beautiful, we only spent the evenings there and since it wasn’t the summer, we were some of the only guests. We asked why we weren’t staying in a more authentic, Moroccan hotel, and Abdul told us that in Tetouan there are only very nice and very poor hotels, and we were not paying to stay in the poor ones. During the days we visited various women’s associations; places led be women fighting for rights and education for women. It was inspiring to hear their stories and see the work that they are doing. We visited one association where girls are taught how to weave, sew, etc in order to start their own businesses. The main objective of the centers is to encourage women to know their rights, to be able to support themselves and to fight against violence and marginalization of women in Morocco. It must be very difficult for the women who run these centers and I’m sure none of them are married. Another aspect of these centers that I liked is that they don’t exclude males. In one classroom I saw a man helping a young woman with reading/vocabulary. It is good to know that there are also men in the country (besides Abdul) that would like to see a change in women’s rights.
After Tetouan, we rode the bus for a couple of hours to the mountainous city called Chefchaoen. Immediately, I liked this city better: the whole city is painted blue and white, everything is on a hill, the streets were filled with young children, students, families (In Tetouan we mostly only saw men on the streets), and our hotel was adorable. Although it was by no means a 4 star hotel and the shower never got hot, everything about it was Moroccan. The lobby was decorated with colorful rugs, Moroccan bench/cushion seats, wooden, painted tables and different colors and patterns everywhere. Unlike in Tetouan, where we spent most of our time in centers rather than the streets, we were given free time in Chefchaoen to wander the streets and do some shopping of our own. It was a little difficult to barter prices, but I got some fun gifts for you guys back home!
My two favorite parts of the trip were both in Chefchaoen, and occurred on the same day. In the morning, we took a short bus ride to the country right outside of the city. We spent the first half of the day at someone’s home/farm where we learned how all the food is made. I even got a turn at crushing fava beans with this huge concrete roller. We also saw how they make olive oil, bread, and couscous, all using old fashioned concrete tools and pots. The family was so excited to have us there and the food was incredible- probably more so because we saw it all made from scratch! Since the sun was out, we took a short hike up the mountain next to the house and the view from the top was too beautiful to describe. It was hard for us to leave that place…it was all so perfect and serene. But when we got back to the hotel, we were met by a large group of high school students and their teachers who were going to spend the afternoon hanging out with us and showing us around the city. I spent most of the day with a 15 year-old girl named Iman. She was adorable: she had only been studying English for a couple of years but couldn’t have been more excited and eager to talk to us. It was clear that there is huge American pop influence in Moroccan teens because she and her friends dressed just like us. Only one of the girls wore a headscarf but Iman explained that once she got married she might wear one too. She also told me that she’d had an American stay with her last summer…from Seattle! And she will be going to Seattle this summer to do the exchange again! We are now facebook friends so I told her to let me know when she is in Seattle and we can meet up again.
After our wonderful stay in Chefchaouen, we packed up once again and rode the bus to Assilah, a city along the ocean. Like Tetouan, there weren't nearly as many tourists as there would be during the summer, but it was obviously a tourist destination. There were guys with monkeys to hold and even camel-riding on the beach (the equivalent of riding a pony once around the track). I passed on the camel riding...it just seemed too fake for me. We were led around the city by another group of Moroccan students, this time mostly young men in their 20s. They were also eager to talk to us and show us around- they were also much better at English than the young girls had been. They were also the students who we were told would be hosting us in their homes for lunch, dinner, and sleep. However, when it came time to split off into homestays, the situation was complete chaos. None of the adults even seemed to understand what was going on. I was sent off with Ariel, another girl from my group and 2 random guys who told me that we would not be eating/sleeping at their house; that we were going somewhere else. I tried to run back and ask Abdul where the hell I was going, but he was stressed out and the boys just kept saying "It's OK, we take you to ___" which meant nothing to me and Arielle. So we walked with them for a ways until we reached a house which we realized was their neighbors. A young woman came down the stairs and welcomed us into her house. Apparently, we weren't all staying with the students...we were staying with neighbors too. Luckily, the woman who owned the house and her daughter (and cousin?) were very nice and fed us a delicious, but interesting lunch of whole fish, salad, and tons of bread. They dug in everything with their hands, but considerately gave Arielle and I forks and plates. We nervously ate our food and tried to talk, but the mother only spoke Arabic and the 2 girls spoke only a little Spanish and no English.
The house itself was very cool. It was 4 stories, but each floor was very small, mostly just a sitting area with cushions around the edges and a small bedroom. But when I went to go use the bathroom, I was taken aback to find a hole in the ground with just a bucket of water next to it, and no toilet paper...I tried to drink less water after that. After lunch, we were picked back up by the boys and taken back to the group to shop and visit an orphanage before dinner. It was a huge relief to see everyone from my group again and have people understand me! When we returned for dinner later that night, we were taken home by 2 older men, apparently the woman's brother and cousin? I'll never really know, because they didn't speak English or Spanish either! But we had delicious soup for dinner and after taking 2 sleeping pills, I crashed on the twin bed with Arielle. It was a stressful experience doing the homestays with the unknown families, but it was interesting to see how Moroccan families live, and not something I ever could have had the chance to do if I'd traveled to Morocco on my own. It also really made me appreciate my Spain host mom and house!
Well that was my trip, but before ending, I need to mention the tea and the food. Morocco is a dry country, but they drink tea about as much as the Spanish drink wine (all the time). Every morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening, we were offered Moroccan tea, usuall with a platter of cookies/sweets. The tea is made by combining green tea, mint leaves, pounds of sugar, and sometimes special other spices. It was so delicious, but also incredibly sweet and hard to drink after big meals and desserts. We had all kinds of food in Morocco, but nothing beat the fresh vegetable salads and the couscous. The couscous was full of huge pieces of cooked vegetables such as pepper, zucchini, eggplant, carrot and then was topped with a sweet sauce made of caremalized onions and dried fruit. Wow. My mouth is watering just thinking about that meal again! We also had a lot of fava bean soup, which by itself was simple, but made the Moroccan way, very delicious. What they do is pour in generous helpings of olive oil, cumin and a little pepper and then eat it by dipping in pieces of fresh bread. When I go home, I am definitely going to buy a Moroccan cookbook and learn how to make some of those dishes!
Sorry for the ridiculously long post! :/
Besos, Theresa
Facebook album of Tetouan
Facebook album of Chefchaouen and Assilah
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