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!