Morocco: Part 2

Hello All!

As promised here is my second blog for the week. I am going to rewind my time in Spain a bit and post about the second half of my time in Morocco. Here you are!

January 29, 2012

            Hope, Amy, and I woke up around 7 am this morning. We ate breakfast that consisted of apricot jam, bread, cheese, and tortilla-like bread that was warmed (apparently it is very popular in Morocco). After breakfast we had to find our way back to the meeting point because our group was heading to Salé today, it is across the river from Rabat.

            In Salé the group visited an organization called NGO. This organization provides a place where children and people who do and do not have their high school degrees can come and take classes to help them to better find a job. They offer a variety of classes. We talked with three men there, Ab du Fatal, Nasime, and Hossene about their point of view on politics, religion, and misconceptions/differences between the United States, Europe, and Morocco. All three men commented on how they have a corrupt government in Morocco, but even through the corruption there are a few men within parliament that are doing good and that hopefully over time the corruption will lessen within the government. They also commented on how religion is a choice and how many people chose not to be devout Muslims and only pray and go to the mosque when they want to. The three men were split between their opinions about the U.S., one loved the U.S. and thought it was a great country. The other two weren’t very favorable of the U.S., they thought the country was too extravagant and over the top.

            After visiting the NGO the group headed over the Chellah, which are Roman ruins. We spent about an hour in the area. It was stunning to look at the ruins and see how the town was set up. You could see remnants of stores, cemeteries, and a mosque. There were also many cranes that were nested along the top of many of the buildings when we were there and we think that they were in their nesting season because they were making clicking noises with their beaks and they stayed in pairs when near the nests.

            Once we concluded admiring the ruins we had lunch with our host families then met up with some students from the university to hang out with for the afternoon. The larger group was broken into smaller groups of 5-6 students. I had five other girls in my group plus two Moroccan students, Sarah and Ab Dullah. They were very nice, even though Ab Dullah didn’t talk very much until the subjects of politics and music came up. They took us through the Medina of Rabat to a look-out point with a view of the sea, then we wove through the market area and ended up relaxing at a café for an hour or so.

            After hanging out with Sarah and Ab Dullah our group met with a small group of Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars to hear about their experiences about living and working in Morocco. It was very interesting to hear their stories, especially since I have thought about joining the Peace Corps for a long time.

            The experience at the Hammam was an experience to say the least. It started out by me putting a change of underwear, a towel, 2 plastic scoop cups, flip flops, and my makeup kit into 2 plastic bags and walking to the bath house with 6 other girls in my group. Two Moroccan women took us there.

We entered the bath house, climbed a narrow staircase to a room that resembled a locker room. There were plastic benches along three of the four walls. The women told us to undress, leaving only our panties on. I was a little insecure about going into a public bath house topless, but I just told myself, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", and went topless.

Once all of us had changed the women led us through a narrow hallway into a foyer/lobby area that also resembled a locker room. In this foyer area were doors leading to other rooms. The women chose one of the doors and let us go into the room.

The new room we entered was a large room with only one light above the doorway, the rest of the room was fairly shadowy. By only having one small light in the room this allows more privacy to the people using the Hammam. To the right of the door was a small ceramic tile tub with a faucet above it, the tub was full of hot water. To the left of the door were large buckets that the women instructed us to fill with water to clean ourselves.

We filled the buckets and sat on the floor in a circle. Using the plastic scoop cups our host mothers had given us and the scrub cloths and soap the women had given to us on the way in we bathed in the Hammam. We scooped water out of the buckets onto our bodies, then when our skin was sufficiently wet we used the soap and the scrub cloths to scrub our skin. Once the scrubbing was complete we rinsed ourselves with the water and returned back to the locker room the dry off and dress, then we left the Hammam.

I have to say that going to the Hammam was a very unique experience, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Even though bathing in a public bath house does not sound like the most sanitary place to bathe I actually felt quite clean once I was done. My skin felt exfoliated from the soap and the good scrubbing; it was also very soft. 

            After the visit to the Hammam, Hope, Amy, and I ate supper with the host family and watched Raising Helen (in English) till bedtime.

January 30, 2012

            Morning came very early on day three. We had to be up by 6:30 am and out the door to meet the rest of the group at 8 am so we could begin our journey through the Rif Moutains to a family home in a small village situated in the mountain. First off, the mountains are B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!! They are filled with trees, steep ridges, deep valleys, and a multitude of animals grazing. After a couple hours of driving through the mountains we came to a village close to the top of one of the mountains. We stopped at the village and ate lunch and enjoyed a nice visit with a family there.

The family we visited was incredibly kind and gracious to us. When we arrived to their home we were ushered into their home (to be described in a minute) and into their (what we would call living room) were there were couches along all the free walls of the room. There we sat and talked with the family about life in the mountains, weddings, and the measures they have to go through for healthcare.

Before I go into the description of the conversation let me first say that even though this family is living below the poverty line by American standards they did not seem like they resented their lives for not having more money or a better job or life. They seemed content and happy with their life. They did not seem like they would have changed anything about their lives. I thought this was incredible, especially coming from the American culture where we are always wanting something more or better or different. They are the type of people I admire because they are happy with what they have, not wishing for something else that may not be possible to have.

Ok, back to the conversation. First let me point out that the family we visited only spoke Arabic, and no one in our group spoke Arabic other than our guide who only know a few words and phrases, so we had to bring a translator along with us on this journey. Like I said, we talked about life on the mountain, weddings, and the measures they have to go through to receive healthcare. They described life on a mountain as very tranquil and peaceful. They have their daily chores (taking care of the children, dishes, cleaning, cooking, etc.) and their job (mainly farming, but the man is also a transporter on the side, where he takes people places they need to go outside the village in his van). When weddings occur in the villages there is a grand celebration. Everyone gets together to watch the marriage, then there is a large party afterwards where there is tons upon tons of food and the people sit around and talk and enjoy themselves. There is no alcohol and no dancing because that is frowned upon/not allowed in the Islamic culture. For healthcare people from the village have to travel down the mountain to a clinic that is situated at the bottom. This clinic only handles simple matters such as colds, fevers, etc. If someone is in need of major healthcare services they need the transporter (the man who’s home we were at) to take them to the nearest town (30-45 minutes away).

For lunch we ate off common plates. We ate vegetables (carrots, avocado, cucumber) and couscous. Once our bellies were full from the meal we trekked up the mountain a little further to a spot where we stopped to enjoy the view and take in the beauty of the countryside.

            We continued on our journey for the rest of the afternoon to a city in the mountains, Chefchaouen. That evening we stayed in the Hotel Yasmina in the middle of the city. We had some free time that night to explore the tourist shops in the city. Everyone bought souvenirs with their Dirhams.

             On our last night in Chefchaouen our guide quoted Howard Thurman, “Don’t ask the world what it needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” I feel like everyone should live by this quote. I strive to live by this quote every day.

January 31, 2012

            This morning we woke up early to hike up the mountain to a mosque. The hike was a steep climb and with the thin mountain air everyone was breathing pretty heavily once we reached the top. Even though the hike was fairly difficult the view of Chefchaouen from the top of the mountain was stunning. We enjoyed some time up there then hiked back down the mountain for breakfast.

            After breakfast we checked out of our hostel and piled back into the van to drive to Ceuta, Spain where we crossed the border. Ceuta is a Spanish city located on the African continent. It is a city where many people from the continent of Africa travel to in hope of finding a better future. What many people find when they arrive to Ceuta is that they are not able to cross the border into Spain and they are forced to continue their not so great life in Morocco. If I haven’t mentioned before immigration from Morocco to another country is incredibly hard. In order to immigrate one must be extremely lucky or rich (in order to pay money to the government to get the correct paperwork). So, when we were crossing the border we had no problem, but you could see signs of the immigration turmoil. Most of the fences were topped with barbed wire and there were guards everywhere. It was a little nerve-racking at times, but we were able to get through fine.

            After we traveled through the border the group boarded another ferry to take us to Algeciras, Spain and then a bus to take us back to Granada. The bus ride lasted about 3 hours and we returned to Granada about 8:30 pm.

Just so everyone knows, I will not be updating my blog again till next Thursday. We have a break from school this weekend because it is Andalucia's state holiday on Tuesday, so I have no classes from Friday till Tuesday and Amy, Tesla, and I are traveling to Paris, France. I will let you know how Paris was on Thursday!

My Weekend

Hello All!!

I had a fantastic weekend in Spain! My group from Central and I went to Sevilla (approximately 3 hours to the west of Granada via bus) and to a fútbol game in Granada! I had a great time and there are more details below...

February 18, 2012--Sevilla

Today was Saturday and the day trip to Sevilla with my Central College group. We left at 8:30 am this morning and took a 3 hour bus ride to Sevilla. When we arrived we stopped first at the Plaza de España, which is a grand, gorgeous plaza in Spain. It is famous for being the site for a scene in one of the Star Wars movies. I fell in love with the plaza. It was stunning; it looked like a palace that was shaped in a half-circle. There was also a creek/river around it that people could rent boats to row in. Over the creek were multiple bridges, and these bridges were decorated with perfectly hand-crafted porcelain.  Absolutely stunning!

Next, we were allowed free time for a couple hours, so Amy, Shannon, and I started walking around for a while. We started by walking down one of the typical neighborhoods of Sevilla, Santa Cruz. The buildings there are typical Spanish buildings, with the colorful buildings and cafes and shops on the lower floor. It was fun to see.

After, we headed down to the river where we saw the Torre de Oro, unfortunately we couldn't climb the tower. We also saw the Teatro de la Maestranza and the Plaza de Torros (a bull-fighting stadium), both of which we did not go into either. After that we wandered the streets for the rest of our free time. We got some helado (ice cream) while wandering. One of the shops we passed had a tiara made with diamonds and pearls that cost almost 1400€! I thought it was very pretty. We also wandered through a couple streets with wedding dress shops.The dresses were very different and slightly different from wedding dresses in the United States; lace was a very common theme between the dresses. Also, during our wandering time we came across a man doing a show where he was bent over and on his back were puppets that he made to dance by moving his hands and feet. It was very interesting to watch!

At 3:30 pm we met up with our group again to go to the Real Alcazar, which is the palace used by the current royal family. We walked through the perfectly manicured gardens and the detailed rooms of the palace. All the walls within the palace were perfectly preserved, detailed, ceramic tiles. All the tiles were in a different design depending on the room.

In the palace we started off in some of the common rooms used by everyone in the palace, then to the room where all the business transactions took place concerning the Americas when they were first discovered. The room was paneled in two shades of pinkish red, there was also a picture of the saint that controls the seas (because the Catholics wanted to pray to the saint that the boats would make it safely across the sea). Next was the king's quarters. He had his one wing basically, which consisted of a courtyard area surrounded by a building two stories high (the rooms in the surrounding building were for his use as well). In the courtyard was a small, long pond stretching the length of the courtyard. It was amazing to see. Next was his actual bedroom, which was kind of uneventfully compared to the courtyard.

After the king's quarters we moved over to the princesses' quarters. In this area were the play rooms for the young children and the birthing room for the Queen to give birth to the princes/princesses. Our professor/guide said this is where ALL the kings were born.

We continued on our journey through the palace through various courtyards used for different purposes, we saw from a floor below, the quarters were the current royal family stays when they are at the palace, the ballroom, and part of the old Arab part of the castle (this is actually one floor below the current palace because the current palace was built on top of it.

After finishing our tour of the palace we departed Sevilla and returned to Granada. Overall, I loved Sevilla. It is a gorgeous, bustling city (over 1 million people live there) and I would love to return.

February 19, 2012---Granada Futbol Game

Granada Fútbol! Yay! Obviously I went to a Granada Fútbol game today. It was fun! Granada played Real Sociedad (I have no idea where that team is from...) and Granada won 4-1.

The atmosphere at the games is very interesting, in that it is very similar to the atmosphere at an American baseball game. Everyone is there to watch the game, cheer on their team, and to have fun. There are the calm members of the crowd that sit and watch the game and cheer and shout when necessary and there were the fans that were standing the entire game singing various cheers, waving flags and scarves for their respective team, and cheering their absolute hardest. They were the fans that in was enthralled by the entire game. At this game there happened to be a two large groups of people (enough to fill an entire section of the stadium) cheering on Granada and Real Sociedad. At a couple points during the game that two sections were having a cheer-off, it was the pinnacle of entertainment.

Oh yeah...the game was fun to watch too! Lol... Granada is a very fun team to watch. They are aggressive with the soccer ball and not afraid to get down and dirty. I enjoyed watching the game because it was very fast-paced and always moving.

Even though the atmosphere of the game was very similar to American baseball games other parts of the game were very different. There is a lot less entertainment during the breaks (the only break during soccer games is half-time) and there is a lot less of the glitz and glamour, they prefer just to focus solely on the game, which I think is great!

Now, I know I said that the atmosphere of the fútbol game was very similar to that of an American baseball game, but I also want to compare the fútbol game to an American football game.
1. Obviously they are two completely different sports.
2. The game is focused much more on the game, there is no announcing of the players when they run onto the field, nor a half-time show or commercial breaks.
3. There is no one announcing the games like there is during American football games
4. There are no breaks for commercials, like there are during football. There are two halves during a fútbol game that last for 45 minutes each and the clock runs continuously the whole time.

Before today I have watched a couple other fútbol games in bars around the city, boy is the atmosphere in there crazy! It's fantastic! Everyone in the bar is staring at the tv, shouting, and cheering when necessary, and this is not normal cheering where you clap and shout a bit, everyone in the bars screams and jumps up and down when their team scores. It is so entertaining to watch!

Most people have to go to bars of they want to watch the games because you have to pay extra to have the tv channels they are watched on, and plus it is much more fun to watch the game in a bar full of people than alone in your home. This is one major difference between game watching in Spain as compared to the U.S. I have grown up where you watch the game in your home, I have never gone to a bar to watch whole game nor has anyone in my family.

I particularly enjoy going to a bar to watch the fútbol games because you get to enjoy other people's company. I wish this atmosphere would be more pervasive in the U.S., but watching the game in your home is also nice too...






I will update my blog again on Thursday, just to give you all a heads up. :)

P. S.

By the way, I apologize about the previous post and the numbering mix-up...I wrote the post on my iPad and only copied parts of it for you all to read and then I forgot to change the numbers. Also, I apologize for the lack of paragraphs in my posts. My iPad doesn't like to add paragraphs for some reason. :) Thanks for reading!

Observations

3. Less sugar-coating in the news The news in Spain seems to sugar-coat issues and events less than the United Staes does. In the United States when a bit of news that comes up that might be a little bit upsetting or disturbing it either won't be covered or if it is covered the newscaster will only give the bare minimum of details. In Spain the tell every gory detail. An example of this, one night Amy and I were watching the news during supper with Carmen and a story about the circumcision of women and girls in Africa came up. As the newscasters were talking about what happens during the circumcisions and the effects of them footage of girls being circumcised was being shown. Amy and I decided that this story would probably never have been covered in the U.S. because it is too gory and would upset many people, especially the footage if the girls being circumcised. Another  example of the difference in news between the United States and Spain comes with another story Amy and I saw while watching the news during supper with Carmen. It was a story about the violence in Syria and the rising death toll. The newscasters were speaking about how the violence is escalating in Syria and how many people were either badly wounded or dead. While they were speaking footage of people who were badly wounded and dead were being shown. With the wounded you could see with perfect detail how badly they were wounded, i.e. you could see bones, muscles, tendons, etc. Withbthe dead people they showed footage of the bodies lying on the floor most uncovered so there bodies and faces were exposed to the camera. Amy and I decided that this story would have been covered in the United States, but the newscasters would not have given as many details about the destruction and devastation and the footage of the dead and wounded would not have been shown. I think it is sad that the U.S. sugar-coats the news as much as they do because they are being dishonest to Americans. By having such sugar-coated news we are being coddled and babied when we should know all the facts to be as informed as possible. A way for news people to better inform Americans would be to decrease they censorship in the stories and to report everything possible, especially politics and world events. I realized that a number of Acts are in place in the United States to censor the media. I wish these Acts were not as strict because they are helping to contribute to the quality of information Americans are receiving in their newscasts. 2. 95% of the time American songs are played on the radio, not Spanish songs Approximately 95% I have heard songs on the radio in buses, taxis, stores, etc. the songs have been American songs. This has surprised and disappointed many of the people in my group from Central College. A lot of the people were hoping to come here to learn more about Spanish music, but have been disappointed by the lack of Spanish songs they hear on the radio. I think is because the U.S. Is one of the largest producers of music in the world, so it is expected that the country would be one of the largest exporters of music in the world as well. I, myself, am disappointed by the lack of Spanish music on the radio because even though I am not very into music (I basically listen to whatever is on the radio) I was hoping to hear more Spanish music just for the fact that by hearing the music it might help me to learn Spanish faster. It is always very surprising to go into a store and Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, or Adele is playing on the radio. Amy was trying to learn more Spanish music and she tried going on itunes and changing the country and what did she find in the Top 10 songs? She found that out of the 10 songs listed, 8 were American, 1 was Spanish and the last was Portuguese. That is a simple example of how invasive the American culture is with respects to music. 3. Electricity and it's usage compared to the U.S. Electricity is a big topic in Europe, it is very expensive and most Europeans attempt to conserve as much energy as possible by turning off lights and electronics when they are not being used, turning the heat down (or having no central heat) and by not having/using clothes dryers. One of the rules in Carmen's home is that we turn off lights when we are not using them and during the day when we are not reading. During the day unless you are reading it is quite easy to function in the apartment without using the lights, there is plenty of light coming in through the windows. Turning off the lights when you are not using them makes perfect sense, you aren't using them, so you don't need them on...it makes perfect sense. I think if Americans did this more (1.) the electricity bill would be a lot cheaper, which would help everyone's pocketbooks and (2.) by turning off lights we conserve energy, which helps everyone in the long run. Most homes in Spain do not have central heating. Most of the year it is warm enough that  having central heat in the house is not necessary. For about 8 weeks during January and February it is cold enough that small heaters are used and heavy clothes and slippers are worn to make up for the lack of central heating. By not having central heating Spaniards are able to save on their electric bills. I know that not having central heating in Iowa during the winter is not an option, but Iowans and other Americans could modify their use of central heating by turning it down a few degrees and wearing more/warmer clothes in the house during the warmer months. This would help to decrease your electric bill. Finally in another effort to conserve electricity almost all Spaniards do not own a clothes dryer. They wash their clothes in the clothes washer and then dry their clothes on their decks. Normally Carmen takes our clothes on Fridays and has them washed and dried by Monday or Tuesday each week. By using their decks instead of clothes dryers to dry clothes they are able to save on electricity as well. Even though it is slightly inconveniencing to air dry clothes I think it is a perfectly fine way to do laundry. It seems to work very well for the Spanish. I realize that not using a clothes dryer during the winter months would mean everyone would be wearing icicles, but I think it would be smart of people to consider using their clothesline more often during the warm months than the dryer. I know it is slightly embarrassing to see your underwear drying on the line (I have looked our on the patio in our apartment multiple times and seen mine drying out there, but everyone does it, so when in Rome...), but it is a great way to save energy. Overall I think the Spanish do a much better job at conserving energy and I think that Americans need to take one or two of the many things they do to conserve energy and do it. If everyone in the United States would turn off lights when you don't need to use them we would save an incredible amount of energy.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone reading this post! I hope it finds you all happy and healthy on this holiday. I am sure most of you are getting quite sick of seeing ads on television, in the newspaper, and other ads for Valentine's Day as I normally am by this time. Thank goodness they will all by gone tomorrow. Some of you may be surprised to find out that Valentine's Day is not very popular here in Spain as it is in the states. I have seen no television commercials or newspaper ads for the holiday. The only way I can tell that Valentine's Day was approaching was from store displays in some (not all) of the stores on the streets of Granada.  Not very many of the stores have displays for the holiday. It seems that most stores are simply ignoring that the holiday exists. Most of the displays that I have seen consist of lingerie and flower bouquets. The push from stores to celebrate the holiday is not very prevalent in Spain as compared to the U.S. One does not feel the need to celebrate the holiday with their significant other as we do in the United States. I have to say that it is refreshing not to feel the push from businesses to spend your money on this consumer-driven holiday. Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to school again!

Sorry I have not updated the blog for a while, but there really is not a whole lot to report since I last posted. I still have no access to my computer because my computer charger stopped working, but BV is sending me another. I am sooo thankful they are sending me a new one. Classes started this week. They are really not much different than the classes I have taken in the U.S. They are 90 minutes long each. I am taking History of Spain, Introduction to Spanish Business, and POE (it's a composition class) all on Monday/Wednesday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Grammar and History of Art in Spain. Also on Tuesdays I have a 60 minute Tutorials class and on Wednesdays I have  Granada Seminar and Phonetics, each for 60 minutes. I think I will like all my classes pretty well. If you didn't notice, I didn't mention any classes for Fridays, well that is because I don't have classes on Fridays!! Yay! There is a catch to this no class on Friday thing though, there are 4 Fridays during the semester that I do have class, this is to make up for classes that are missed due to breaks. Also, if you haven't assumed already, all my classes are taught in Spanish. This makes the classes all that much harder, but it will also help me to learn the language faster. I noticed today during class that at times I was able to write notes and listen to the professor at the same time. I wasn't able to do this for along period of time, but it is still a step to becoming better at Spanish. I don't have any exciting plans for the weekend...my friends and I are just going to hang out. I will update you all again next week.

Side note...

So I realize that I promised that I would update you all on the rest of my Moroccan experience, but time has gotten away from me and also my charger for my computer decided to die, so I cannot use my computer at the moment. I will update you all about my time in Morocco and what is going on currently as soon as possible.

My Incredible Moroccan Experience: Part 1

Hi! I made it safely back from my trip from Morocco. I uploaded pictures to Facebook for anyone who would like to look at them. It was a great time in Morocco! Our days were packed full, so in order for me to tell you everything that happened during the 4 day trip I am going to break the trip into a couple different blog posts. The first one will be today and I will post about the rest of the trip tomorrow.

Currently I am trying to recover from the exhaustion from the trip and a cold that I acquired during the trip. At least half of our group got sick and I was one of the lucky ones! Yay! (I am being very sarcastic right there if you didn't catch it. ;)  ).

So here is the first 2 days of the trip...

January 27, 2012

Today was the level test, the determination of my future for the next 2ish years…Everyone got there at 11 am for the test. It consisted of multiple parts: writing, listening comprehension, and multiple choice grammar. The hardest part for me was the listening comprehension. I don’t know why but I just was not able to catch much of it. The test lasted for 2.5 hours and after it was done Amy, Tesla and I headed home for lunch and to finish packing. Veronica told me on the bus that I tested into level 5, which is fantastic!! That is exactly where I needed to be! My worries were over.

The bus took us three hours south to Algeciras, a Spanish port city, where we spent the night and met up with our 4 guides. That night Tesla, Shannon, Amy, and Elizabeth (last name) played cards till we were tired.

January 28, 2012

            Our journey began early in the morning when the group woke up, ate breakfast, and departed from Algeciras by bus to the nearby port of Tarifa. There the group and I took an hour long ferry ride from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. All went well passing through security and customs. I did notice that compared to the United States the security at the port in Tangier is very poor. All we did was send our bags through an x-ray machine, the screen of which was barely looked at by the guard, and walk through a metal detector that did not even seem to be turned on. It was different to say the least. After security we exchanged Euros for the Dirham (Moroccan currency) and met up with our bus driver. Our large group of over 40 students was divided into 3 smaller groups each with a guide and a driver of a 15 passenger van (our guide called our van the "Magic Carpet", I thought it was a nice touch since we were in Africa).

            We piled into the van and took a drive into Tangier to the DARNA women’s center. Before going into the center we ventured through a market where many not so sanitary looking meats (poultry, fish, beef, etc.), vegetables, fruit, and other products were sold. Our guide, Jess, bought some oranges, bananas, and Spanish cookies for the group to enjoy. The oranges were incredibly delicious and juicy!

            At the DARNA women’s center we took a tour of the facility and met with 2 Moroccan students studying English at the university in Tangier. The girl, Hajra gave us a tour of the facility. The women’s center is a non-profit organization with the purpose creating a place for women and children of many different ages and backgrounds to come to learn some skills to better help them to earn money for themselves. One of the main skills taught at the center is sewing, both traditional (mainly weaving using looms) and modern (using sewing machines to make products). The sewing skills learned by women coming to the center can help them to find a job in order to support their families, since many of the women that come to the center are divorced or widowed. Classes in language and other subjects are also taught at the center as well.

            After the tour my group sat down with Hajra and another student, Buhow. We had a long conversation with them about many different subjects including but not limited to: Moroccan life, government/politics of Morocco, their thoughts about the United States, favorite pastimes, movies, and on and on and on (details are in the next paragraph). It was a great conversation and I was able to learn so much from them. After the conversation we ate lunch with the 2 students. 

            Many of you may or may not know that Morocco is a developing country in northern Africa directly below Spain. The main religion in Morocco is Islam. Each day they have 5 calls to prayer, which is when an Islamic priest chants on a loudspeaker to let everyone in the city know that it is prayer time. Just like the U.S. people have the choice to pray or not to pray. There are many people that say they follow Islam, but do not pray, just like the U.S. 

            The political state in Morocco is generally stable. The country is mostly controlled by a king and parliament. In past years the king was able to choose parliament, but in the past few years the current king is allowing Moroccans to vote for parliament. Even though people are able to vote for who they want in parliament there is quite a bit of corruption in the government.

            Moroccan life is very similar to life in the U.S. in many ways. Moroccans get up each morning, go to work, spend time with their families, etc. Moroccans also share many of the same pasttimes as us. They enjoy going to movies, hanging out with friends and family, and walking around the cities. I found it funny to watch many siblings arguing and fighting with each other; it made me feel at home. ;-) Ten percent of the population of Morocco lives in poverty. They live in shanty towns in various parts of the cities. It was crazy for me to see shanty towns in the middle of the cities and no more than a half mile down the road were nice, luxurious homes. It made me sick.

            Beginning very early in school kids begin learning various languages. They begin learning French and English in elementary and middle schools, and they begin a third language while in high school. At home most of the time Arabic is spoken, so by the time they graduate high school many kids know 4 or more languages. No wonder the U.S. is behind! Most of the schools are public, only the rich are able to go to private schools, and the public schools are not always the best school systems either, but many kids are still able to graduate knowing multiple languages. The U.S. needs to pick it up. We talked about so much more during that conversation, but sadly I did not bring a notebook to Morocco, so many of the details have slipped from my mind already.

            We left Tangier and drove along the Atlantic coast for a few hours to Asilah. The view on the ride was gorgeous; I will never forget it. Along the way Jess (our guide) surprised us and had the driver stop along the road so we could ride camels…That’s right, I said CAMELS!! It was an experience that the entire group was looking forward to.

            Camel riding concluded and we continued our journey to Asiliah. There we walked around the Medina, the old part of town that has a wall built around it. In the past the wall was used to keep invaders out of the city. Asilah is known the blue and green walls and doors around the city and also for the artwork around the city, as well as the festivals they have to encourage artists to come to the city. Many of the walls in the city have commissioned murals adorned on them. One of my favorites was a mural about the countless people who have attempted to travel via boat to Spain in order to find a better life. Too many of them perished on the journey. At the bottom of the painting was a saying, “A todas los personas que han perdido su vida en el Estrecho”. It means, “To all the people that have lost their life in the Strait”.

            We continued our journey to Rabat, the capital city. By the time we arrived there it was night fall. We settled in with our host families for the next two days. I was rooming with Hope and Amy at the home that was the base house for our group. Hadija was our host mom, I am not sure what the dad’s name was because we only saw him twice in passing. Hadija had 7 children, but only 3 were still living at home. Fatima, 20, was the best at speaking English. She had two younger siblings, a brother, who’s name I do not know because I only met him once, and a sister Karina, who I am guessing to be 16 or 17. They were a very nice family and had been hosting students for over 8 years, so you can imagine the three of us weren’t very surprised when they didn’t want to talk to us very much since they were probably asked the same questions over and over and over again.

            The home we stayed in was set up as follows, we entered through the front door (there is no back door) and we walked into a large patio area. It was covered with an awning over part and a frosted plastic roof over the other part. In the center was a group of plants and around the edge of the room were doors leading to the rest of the house, a sink next to the door for the bathroom, a stereo, a computer, a moped that was stored in the room and a plastic table with chairs where we ate breakfast. All the rooms for the rest of the house were accessible from the main room. Besides the door for the sitting room we stayed in, there were doors for 3 other bedrooms, a bathroom, and the kitchen/dining room/living room.  The bathroom consisted of a western toilet, a Turkish toilet (aka a squat toilet), and a very simple shower; the sink for the bathroom was outside in the main room. The kitchen was small with appliances lining 3 walls. On a fourth “wall” was a curtain that divided the kitchen from the dining room/living room. In here there were similar couches to the salon and these lined 3 of the four walls too. In the center of the couches was a table used for eating. A tv was also situated in the room so it could be viewed anywhere on the couches.

            After we got settled in Fatima took us through the market area. It was incredibly packed with people and the three of us were a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. It also didn’t help that we stood out as tourists and we were receiving cat calls, being told that our eyes were beautiful, and harassed to buy things on the street.

            We ate supper, which was an array of things. Bread was a main staple at the table, along with soup, hard boiled eggs, miniature beef patties, and many other things. In Morocco they eat most foods with their hands from a communal plate. This may sound weird to many people, as it did to me before I tried it, but it is actually a pretty fun experience to try. In order to pick things off the plate they used bread as a type of scoop, and it works pretty well. I enjoyed eating off a communal plate during my time there as well as the food.

            Next was bedtime, because Hope, Amy and I were pooped. We all slept in the salon, which is very common in Moroccan homes. It is a large room lined with long couches along each wall. We were all able to sleep comfortably in the room with plenty of extra space. The room could have easily slept 3-4 more people.

This was only the first day and a half of traveling! There are still 2.5 days to talk about! I hope you look forward to reading about them tomorrow!