Maurreco

Morocco

The weekend after cordoba, we went to Morocco which was just an incredibly impressionable trip. I´m including our iteinary below, but it was really packed of activities and opportunities to talk with Moroccan students and such. I like that the trip wasn´t just a tourist visit, but that we lived with Moroccan families and had real one on one interactions with the people there.

We began our trip by first staying in Gibraltar, which was a completely bizarre city. It’s a British territory on the Spanish coast, the people speak a gibberish mix of Spanish and English, and they use both the euro and the pound. There are British pubs right next to tapas bars and we went a bit crazy buying British chocolate because it was so good. We took a bus tour to the top of the Gibraltar rock and visited the cave and feed some of the monkeys that live up there. They were obviously very used to tourists, but there was a baby monkey that was soo cute and they were all jumping on the cars and running around. That night we had fish and chips and hard cider, at a local pub. However, overall I felt really confused in Gibraltar. I have heard there is some sense of culture shock once you return from abroad, and I think it´s going to feel a lot like that. Though, don´t get me wrong, I’m guilty of speaking English with other people in my program, it was so strange to hear so much of it around me. I would walk into a store and talk to the attendant in Spanish, and they would respond in English and with a complete British accent. After dinner we walked across the border ¨back to Spain¨ which was where our hotel was. The border is actually the landing strip of the airport, so when planes are arriving you can´t cross the border.

The next day we got onto a boat and crossed the Gibraltar straight, arriving in Tánger. Right away after getting of the boat, you could tell this was a completely different place. I find that lot of times once you arrive in another country; it’s more of a transitory process. Airports, train stations etc. all look the same, and as you venture out to the city or outside is when you start to see the more genuine culture. Not in Morocco. You get off and there are people dressed in full hijab and traditional clothing, standing right next to people wearing very western clothing. The signs are all in Arabic, french, english and spanish and it´s just very chaotic. In ceuta, which is still considered a Spanish territory (isn´t amazing to think that the Spanish border is actually on another continent??) they speak spanish, but every where else it´s Moroccan Arabic, French and some people speak English.

We went through the town, visited the market which had beautiful spice stores with rows and rows of all kinds of spices and lots of fresh fruit stands. We then visited a woman’s center where we talked with Moroccan students (who turned out to be a couple and were getting married next year) about their experiences. It´s always a bit awkward starting these kinds of conversations in such a big group, but there input was very interesting. I think overall they were very honest with us, but I think they were very clear about emphasizing the tolerance, acceptance etc in Moroccan culture. I think in this trip, as is to be expected, there are a lot of defensive attitudes,, where people are more interested in trying to break a stereotype than really discuss the issue.

Anyway, they showed us the center which seemed to be a really great organization. They have classes to help the women develop computer skills, sewing, etc and they have their own handicraft store and theatre. They fed us lunch which was amazing vegetable couscous and of course invited us to the famed Moroccan mint tea, that is super sweet but really good.

We then got back on the bus and started the four hour drive to Rabat. Most of us fell asleep along the way, but woke up to a really nice surprise. All of the sudden, the driver pulled to the side of the road and on our right, right along the banks of the river was a heard of about ten camels. We got to ride the camels, which as really fun. I´ve ridden a camel before, but a ten minute ride at the DC zoo is really not the same as a riding a camel named Fatimah while on the banks of a river in Northwest Morocco. After lots of pictures, we got back on the bus and drove to Rabat.

Once we arrived in Rábat, our ¨host mom¨ escorted us to where we were staying. She was very sweet, but only spoke Arabic and a bit of French, so it was difficult to communicate with her. We met her husband (who was about 40 years older, so we thought at first he was her father) and had dinner in the kitchen. It was interesting trying to communicate with the two of them, but between hand motions, lots of pointing and smiling, and us trying to speak some version of French with Spanish we were all right. We had hoops (bread) and pasta for dinner. To be honest, there were times that were very awkward because we weren’t sure what to do, but once the sister arrived home, she spoke English, things were a bit easier.

We found out that the mom was a bread baker and that the guy was her father. They introduced us to some other family members, an aunt and cousin, and the bakery assistants that live with them. There were always people coming in and out, the concept of privacy seems to be an impossible and foreign concept. You would eat in the kitchen at the same time as people sleeping on couches in the same room, the TV would be on, the mother would be yelling to warm water for the tea… it was all pretty crazy but fun.

The next day we started the morning with a conversation with four Moroccan students. We were supposed to talk about “Stereotypes” but the conversation went in a lot of directions and was really interesting. One thing that particularly stood out to me was when the students were talking about the freedom of speech in their country. We were telling them about the peace protests in DC against the war, and they were all very surprised that the protestors didn’t get in trouble. Although morocco is considered a constitutional democracy, the king has the highest and final say, and citizens can not criticize him or “his” government. Some of the students seemed to openly agree with this, while one was pretty adamant about saying that they should have the right to criticize, something that if he said publicly could have landed him in prison.

We also talked a lot about the role of education in Morocco, and how so many students are trying to leave the country for school. They were saying that since Morocco only gained its independence from France in 1956, there is still a lot of struggles in becoming a democracy and still maintain its Islamic tradition. My overall impression of Morocco was that it’s full of contradictions- it’s a democracy with an unquestionable King, Islamic state that has both very fundamentalist and liberal Muslims, and the elites are both extremely proud of being Moroccan but just dying to get out.

After the conversation, we went into tourist mood and visited a few monuments, including las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor. In the roman ruins, there was a pond with eels and an old lady with about 50 cats stays there. For a couple dirham, women buy eggs from the lady and feed them to the eels for fertility. Even though a bit hesitant, we eventually fed the eels and hoped that it was just another Moroccan suspicion (I’m writing this four weeks later and still baby-free, phew!

The Mausoleo was also interesting, another reminder of how important the royal family is in Morocco. Right next to the mausoleo, was the Mezquita Mayor, which is technically the only Mezquita that I, as a non-muslim, can enter in Morocco. It was actually intended to be the largest Mezquita in the world, but after an earthquake it was ruined and they never continued with building it. All that’s left are the capitals but you can still see how incredibly huge the Mezquita (mosque) was intended to be.

After that, we went home for lunch and had some more wonderful vegetable couscous. We met the grandmother, who was an incredibly striking woman and had tattoos on her forehead, I’m not quite sure what that was about. They were very sweet and everyone ate the couscous from a big plate in the middle. Apparently, though the food is communal, there are still important food rules to keep in mind. You can only eat the part right in front of you, and you never never eat or pass with your left hand. The grandmother and mother also showed us how to role couscous balls with just one hand (well I tried to do it, it was very hard) and of course we had plenty of Moroccan tea.

Later we walked to the beach and then met some students to walk around Rábat and the market. I like the two students we met, who were from the city across the bridge and were both translation students. The linguistic abilities of Moroccans is amazing, everyone speaks at least two or three languages, and they seems to have a real talent of learning more. One of the guys said he’s only been speaking English for a few years, and he was incredibly fluent. He knew all about American music, and was a big Nirvana fan so we bonded over that. They brought us to the market and helped us bargain down some deals.

Though both were relatively liberal Muslims, they both had girlfriends, one of the guys really surprised me. He was very open with how liberal he was, and told us that he smoked pot, and smoked hookah with wine and a lot of other things that were prohibited. I didn’t have that many expectations going into Morocco, but I was really taken aback about how such openly liberal and extremely conservative Muslims co-existed. The other guy was much more religious, prayed 5 times a day and we asked him if it bothered him that his friend was so liberal. He was a bit taken aback, as if we asked did he mind that his friend had a different flavor ice-cream, and told us it made no difference at all. I wonder if that’s really true.

That night we went to the Hamam, which was one of my favorite experiences. The hamams are the public baths, well really vapor rooms, that everyone goes to about once a week. We were a bit nervous as to what to expect, bought kishes (scrubs) to wash ourselves, and went with our host sister, host mom and host grandmother. I have to say though, it felt amazing. The room was really hot and we rented big buckets to pour hot water in and really enjoyed ourselves. The other women were really sweet, and complete strangers gave some of the girls rub-downs and gave us mud to use. I thought it was interesting how something totally foreign, a public, semi-nude (we wore underwear bottoms) public washing could so quickly become totally comfortable.

Afterwards we went to talk to a Fulbright scholar who is doing research in Morocco. She was really nice and gave some good insight, and now I really would like to try to get a Fulbright or some kind of research grant as a gap year between going to grad-school. She was really passionate about her research, she was researching educational systems in morocco, and knew about AIESEC which was pretty cool.

Though I loved the hamam, I have to say my favorite memory in Morocco was waking up to hear the 5 am oration. I can’t even describe how it sounds, almost eerie, but unlike anything I have ever heard before. The first time it took me some time to register that it was the call to prayer, I just remember waking up to a completely silent city with this ethereal music/noise in the background. My friend has a recording of the imam (orator) that I’m going to copy, but it certainly won’t be the same.

The next day we left Rabat, drove by the shantytowns, stopped in a small, poor town in the Rif mountains and then arrived in chefchaoun. Driving by the shanty-towns was really sad, they are right outside of the city just like they were in Capetown, and it’s just such desperate conditions. In contrast to the city poor, the rural poor were really different. They told us that the rif mountains has a lot of hashish growing, because it’s such a cash crop, but that the government doesn’t do all that much about it. We stopped to have lunch with a rural family, who we talked to with a translator (who turned out be an NYC cab driver). That night we drove to Chefchaoun, a beautiful town in the mountains that had these amazing blue-washed walls (they even sold the blue paint pigment). Did some shopping there, went out to dinner and went out for hookah with some of the Moroccan student-tour guides. The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise, and left soon after to drive to the port to catch the boat back to Spain.

Going to Morocco was an amazing experience, a place that I would have been much more hesitant to visit on my own, and it was so valuable to spend so much time just talking to Moroccans and see how they really live. And.. I now can add a few Arabic words to my vocabulary, in particular bread (hopps), zween (good/pretty), shukran (thank you), salam uaalikum, waalikum salam ( hello, peace be upon you), and my personal favorite: hashak (excuse my dirt which is responded with aazk llah ‘may god grant you pride and honor’). Very valuable.

Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Algeciras

Algeciras


















Rabat, Roman Ruins


















Rabat




























Us with our host family














Rif Mountains






















Chefchaouen









Itinerary:

Viernes 19 de octubre GRANADA - LA LÍNEA - GIBRALTAR

10:30 Salida de Granada

13:30 Llegada a La Línea: Hotel AC La Línea

15:00 Visita guiada a Gibraltar

Tarde y noche Gibraltar (opcional y libre)

Sábado, 20 de octubre ALGECIRAS - TÁNGER – ASILAH - RABAT

7:15 Desayuno en el hotel

7:45 Salida para la Estación Marítima de Algeciras

9:00 Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Algeciras a Tánger

Mañana:

- Conversación “Cultural diversity in Morocco” con el Profesor Ali Azeriah y estudiantes de L’Ecole Superior de Traduction de Tánger

- Visita a Centro para Mujeres Darna en Tánger

Tarde:

- Traslado a Asilah y paseo por la Medina

- Comida en un restaurante junto a las murallas

- Traslado a Rabat (3 horas)

Noche:

- Encuentro con las familias (Dos o tres estudiantes se quedarán con cada familia)

- Cena con las familias

- Posible paseo por la Medina de Rabat en grupos pequeños

Domingo, 21 de octubre RABAT

Mañana:

- Desayuno

- Presentación y debate:

“West and Arab worlds - images about each other” con el Profesor Zaki

- Visita de las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor

Tarde:

- Comida con las familias

- Paseo por la Kasbah, la playa y el Mercado de la Medina en grupos pequeños formados por estudiantes de IES y estudiantes marroquíes de la Universidad de Rabat

Noche:

- OPCIONAL:Conversación con becarios Fulbright y voluntarios del Peace Corps

- Cena con las familias en la Medina

- Tiempo libre. Posibilidades: Hammam, compras, paseos, tiempo con las familias

Lunes, 22 de octubre RABAT – MONTAÑAS DEL RIF - CHEFCHAOUEN

Mañana:

- Traslado a Akchour, en las Montañas del Rif cruzando áreas rurales de Marruecos (3 horas y media)

- Paseo por un valle en las Montañas del Rif

Tarde:

- Picnic y tiempo libre

- Conversación con familias del Rif

- Traslado a Chefchaouen (30 minutos)

- Paseo guiado por la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Llegada al Hotel (Hostal Andaluz/Hostal Yasmina)

Noche:

- Tiempo libre para explorar la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Cena en un restaurante en la Medina

Martes, 23 de octubre CHEFCHAOUEN - CEUTA – ALGECIRAS - GRANADA

Mañana:

- Ruta a pie hasta un monte en las afueras de Chefchaouen

- Traslado a Ceuta (2 horas)

- Desayuno por el camino

- Cruce de la frontera de Marruecos a España en Ceuta

Tarde:

- Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Ceuta a Algeciras (llegada a las 15:30)

- Traslado en autobús de Algeciras a Granada (llegada hacia las 19:30)