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!