My third day in Morocco I started on my adventure to Marrakech. We had to take a very long and very hot train from Casablanca to Marrakech. Thankfully the hotel we decided to stay at was right next to the train station so it wasn’t long before we could put our things down in a the tiny room. We were planning on meeting a couple other friends there but we decided that there was enough time before we got there to pregame and get a quick bite. For some reason we decided to go to mcdonalds……yeah. The only differences at mcdonalds was that there wasn’t any apple pies, and the drink and fries sizes were all small. Besides that the food tasted basically the same. We decided that mcdonalds probably produces their products in one factory where they are then sent around the world frozen….I think that is pretty accurate.
We met our friends and accompanied them as they got something to eat as well. They went to actual restaurants and ate decent food. One of the girls was vegetarian and the first place we stopped at didn’t serve vegetarians so I went with her to a place across the street where she had a veggie pizza. This was one of my first experiences interacting with the Moroccans. The waiter was sooooo nice. When we were done with our food he asked us where we were from and shook both of our hands, he repeated welcome to us over and over again. Many of the people I talked to in Morocco were like that, very kind and sincere in their welcoming.
From there we decided we had to go to the Medina so we started walking. The way the cities in Morocco work is that there is the Medina which is the original city, enclosed by a wall. Outside of the Medina is what the French added when the colonized Morocco, that part is usually very modern with office buildings French shops and restaurants. Like I said the Medina is the old town with markets places and mosques and homes. Also inside the Medina is the Kasbah which is a more fortified part of the city. That is where the royal palace is and it was also a place of protection for the people if the Medina was attacked. Inside of the Medina we spent most of our time at the market place or the souk. Our first experience there was at night. It was crazy! The place was packed full of people, a lot of tourists (mostly European) and a lot of street merchants. One of the best parts of the evening was the street restaurant that we ate at. Apparently right as the sunsets a whole bunch of displays of food and then tables are set out and about 30 “restaurants” appear. We were invited to eat at one of them and the food was amazing! The greatest part was that they displayed all of the food, raw meats, vegetables, fish, all right there in front where they can be seen. Besides eating it was cool to walk around and bargain for items. My friend really was a tea set that she found, the merchant wanted 300 dirham (about $35) fo the whole set. She sat there and bargained with him and they settled on 150 dirham. It was really funny to experience. In the market there were also women giving people henna tattoos, Berber musicians performing, monkey displays, and of course snake charmers. I stayed away from most of that because if the people even see you looking at them they will ask for money. I wish right now I could post a picture because I have a perfect one that shows the exact feeling of that night, I could not express it better in words. I don’t want to spoil it right now but look forward to it when I actually do get to post some pictures.
By the end of the evening we were all super exhausted and gross from sweating all day, so we went back took turns taking showers and then went to bed. Four of us lying sideways on a queen sized bed. It was surprisingly not too uncomfortable.
Then next day we tried to see some things like the palace and the Kasbah, and some of the beautiful gardens, but unfortunately we weren’t able to see some of those things and we ended up just going back to the market in the medina. During the day time the experience is similar but not as exciting. The best part of that day was sitting up on the roof of one of the restaurants overlooking the market and then all of the sudden the call to prayer started to sound, a few seconds later a second call to prayer sounded from the opposite direction. It was sooooooo cool, and I actually got a video of it. OH! Another thing we did….which I gave you hint about in one of my pictures, is the riding of the camels. On our way to the Medina we ran into a guy with a bunch of camels, we paid $25 to ride them for a half hour. It wasn’t like riding in the Sahara Dessert or anything, but it was pretty cool. And there were babies which were soooo cute! The rest of the day was spent on a really, really, hot and humid and crowded train that got in to casablanca a lot later than it was supposed to.
The second to last day I had was dedicated to visiting the SOS Childrens village. One of my least favorite things in Morocco was the amount of men…..everywhere. There were women too but usually it was a man that we would speak to. That was basically all the children’s village was. I was expecting to go to this place where orphans live, do some kind of service for them, and then play with them. That is not what happened at all. First we took a short tour of the George Washington Academy, an American school, k-12, where they teach in Arabic, French, and English. We got to eat lunch there, all American food, and on the wall in the cafeteria was flags of all the countries that support the school and then also a picture of the king, and a large U.S. flag with a picture of Obama underneath it. I thought this was very interesting. From there we drove a while until we came to the village, we were given water, a tour of one of the homes (actually it was very very nice) and then a tour of the neighboring organization which homes and teachers people with physical and mental disabilities who are outcasts in normal society. We were then split in to two “tree planting” groups. My group of about 15 people was given 5 date trees to plant. That whole experience was so superficial. It’s like they decided let’s give the Americans a couple trees to plant, they probably won’t want to get their hands dirty so we will do all of the hard part. I swear! There were only a couple of us who actually got down and dirty in the pre-dug holes and tried to help them plant the trees. It was very frustrating that the other people refused to help in any way that would get their hands dirty. After we were given cokes, more mint tea (I really loved that stuff), and some delicious snacks. They played some music, had some art pieces which the men that live there had made for sale, and a man who was writing people’s names in Arabic calligraphy. It was a nice little reception. We then took a picture as a group and waited, a long time, for the buses to come back. While we waited some people played soccer with some of the kids (all boys) which was very entertaining.
The rest of the time I spent in Morocco was spent mostly walking around Casablanca, exploring the beach, the mosque and some of the market. It was really cool to experience such a different culture, before I didn’t really know much about the Muslim religion, now I feel I have a strong understanding of their beliefs and their culture.
I think one of the things I will remember the most about Morocco, besides the prayer call, and the mint tea, would be the traffic. Walking around was crazy, it was like walking around downtown, only I’m not sure there was a speed limit and there were absolutely no pedestrian signs, or lights or anything. Sometimes there were pedestrian walkways….but that’s it. So basically you had to watch the traffic and whenever there was the slightest break, that’s when you would go. Usually the traffic would stop but sometimes it wouldn’t just go around the pedestrians. Really scary at first but after a while I got used to it. It was fun. Hahahaha
Okay….Thats about all I have to say about Morocco. Life back on the ship has been crazy. I just had 7 days of classes and they were rough. I feel like the traveling part is a break from classes…..and classes is a break from the traveling part…..but I haven’t had a break from either one. The ocean is still very beautiful. The other day it was very calm, so calm that the ocean looked almost like a dark blue tinted glass. That day we were able to see flying fish outside the dinning room window. They would jump up and hover just above the water skimming it for about 20 seconds and then they would plop back down in to the water. At first we thought they were birds, but no. They looked like little silver humming birds. That was cool.
In global studies we talked about sustainability, and Family, Gender and education. We learned about many of the oppressions of women that STILL go on in the world. Genital mutilation, bride burning, acid burning, human trafficking, gendercide, there is a statistic that says somewhere between 60 thousand and 1 million women are missing from the world, they should be here, but they aren’t. I could go on and tell you about the 10’s of millions of street children there are, about how two million girls under the age of 15 are sold in to sex trade each year, about the 121 million kids in the world who aren’t receiving education and that instead they are forced to work. I could go in to detail about all that stuff, and rant about how the world seems helpless because every effort we try to put in to help these people is turned around in to something that is hurting them instead….but unfortunately I am running out of time. That is a conversation for another time.
So for the seven days we have been at sea since Morocco we have had two very special guests with us. Joe Baami, a very amazing man who helped Ghana’s constitution in 1992, and Rebecca, a college student who lives in Tokoradi. The two of them were so good to us, joining classes, giving presentation about Ghana, teaching us about the culture, drumming and dancing with us in music class. Last night at our port logistics meeting, where we learn all of the important stuff we need to know about Ghana (phone numbers, transportation, medical) We were also given a talk about how the group as a whole needs to do better at representing the U.S.. Like I have told you before some people on this trip don’t realize what a huge opportunity this is, and how they are wasting it on getting drunk. In Spain, a woman who was riding on a bus with a ton of sas kids said she would never want to be around Americans ever again. Some students got up last night and confronted the community telling us that the way some people were behaving is just not acceptable and it makes all of us look really bad. After that Rebecca got up and told all of us exactly what we needed to hear. WE ARE NOT SUPERIOR TO EVERYONE ELSE. It is not ok for us to go into a country and disrespect their culture and USE their hospitality, because we are tourists, or elite Americans, that just isn’t ok. We need to realize what an incredible once in a lifetime gift this is, to enter in to the people’s home and culture and witness all of it. We should be careful, keep an open mind and not put it to waste. The whole time she was talking I was saying “yes!” in my head maybe some people will realize what they are doing and stop being such fools. I know some people won’t listen, I don’t get it. Why is it that she gets it, why do I get it, why do the teachers and some other people here get it, but a lot of people here and at home in the U.S. don’t get it? Is it really that hard to think of all people as equals? Sure America is the richest country in the world, sure other countries wish they had the economy that we do, the freedom that we do, but I haven’t even stepped foot in Ghana yet, a country full of poverty, and I can already tell what it will be like. It is a place full of sadness, but rich in culture and music and dancing and happiness and love. Every country has it weaknesses, poverty, disease, famine, crime. And it’s in the U.S. too, we’re just good at hiding it. The way I see it, the people in Ghana are just as superior as the people in the U.S., we just have more money. After her speech, Rebecca told us she felt very blessed to have met all of us, that her time with us was very fun and she was sad to leave. I was also very sad to see her go, she and Joe Baami were both very inspiring people, and I hope they were able to touch the hearts of some of the students here.
I know I said I wasn’t going to rant but I couldn’t help it……I guess I am my mother’s daughter….hahaha. Well I am going to get ready to explore Ghana now. Dancing and Drumming today!!!! I can not wait!!!!!! I am sure I will have some amazing stories for all of you when I get back! Wish me luck!
Jya ne!
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