My program includes a four-day trip to Morocco, Africa. This trip is something that I've been looking forward to the whole semester so we were pretty pumped to go.
7 a.m. Thursday morning, 28 of us hopped on a bus to the Port of Tarifa, the southernmost part of Spain, to catch the Ferry to Tangier, Morocco. We then met our leader for the rest of the weekend--Allen, a middle-aged man who is one of the head honchos for Morocco Exchange (the program we went through). Allen lives in Madrid and has been taking students to Morocco for the last 9 years. Allen was a character to say the least.
So Allen is taking 28 females to Morocco...obviously he whips out a "Snack bag" within the first five minutes we get onto the Ferry. It's full of cookies, chocolate, chips and all sorts of junk--definitely his scheme to keep us happy and quiet for a while (worked for me). Minutes after everyone devours the snack bag, we embark on the ROUGHEST 45 minute ferry imaginable. People were puking everywhere. Meanwhile, I am taking some videos and dying laughing at this scenario. It was like a bad scene from a movie. We finally got to Tangier and settled into a 15 passenger van which would be our travel means for the next three days. The trip was planned PERFECTLY. We would spend time in one city, then drive the van around to different locations and through the countryside to another village or city. It was the best way to see as much as we could in the short amount of time there.
First, we went to the Darna Center for Girls in Tangier. It was basically a place that provides safe and stable temporary daytime communal learning environments, with an education in job skills. This was our first interaction with Moroccan people. We met two girls and a guy who were roughly our age. Over lunch we had a discussion about our different cultures. It was pretty incredible. They also spoke beautiful English. One girl, Nora, wore her jibab covering her hair and we asked her why she wore it. She responded that it was something personal to her and her way to be modest and preserve her beauty. That when she meets a guy they like her for who she is and not for what she looks like. I thought that was outstanding. They basically told us about their lives in general and how they pray a lot. Mostly the men go to the Mosque to pray because if the women go, they stay to the back because they may distract the man's mind and he needs to be completely focused on his prayer. Also, they can't really date, only in private. Girls don't really go to bars or drink at all in their Muslim culture. This was our first time trying their mint tea which was delicious but SO sugary. They love sweet things and have one of the highest rates of diabetes. They even eat their desserts first sometimes (which I believe is the right way to do it).
We then rode some camels. Unfortunately it was in the middle of a monsoon so it was only for a short time but it was really fun. We walked around another city with a lot of cool street art. After, we took our bus over to the capital city of Rebat. Oh yeah and not only did I drink one glass of the tap water that you aren't supposed to drink...I drank TWO by accident. I was fine, though. We then were assigned to our homestay family for the next two nights and Florencia and I met our woman, Johanna (we think). We had the best time with her. The first words she says to us is, "AH.. My princesses. My girls. I treat you like princesses." In Morocco they speak Arabic and French mostly. She spoke a bit of English. After everything she said she would use "my love" at the end in a whisper. First, she comes into our room with tea and cookies and pours the tea from like 3 feet above and motions us to eat her cookies, "Have more of my cookie...Please, my love." HAHA Everything we ate she would give us more and more. At night, we had a chicken dish with some sort of sauce and vegetables. We notice that there is not any silverware on the table. She then showed us 'how to do it' and reached into the big dish with her hands and started to eat. She then continued to pick up food and put it on our plate. It was quite the experience. Since I'm the worst person when it comes to laughing in serious situations, I had to kick Florencia under the table so many times to help me. She would always eat her own food and be the first one to say, "Ahhh delicious." If we ever said how good it was, or laughed at a joke of hers, she'd say, "AHHH I love you. Please stay with me." Another funny thing she would always say is, "Ah yes, You're welcome." For example, I'd say, "Oh I think it's going to be sunny today." She would respond, "Yes, yes you're welcome," haha This may really not be funny but next time I see you, I'll reenact her voice. (I'm sure it STILL won't be funny but..)
Florencia is gluten-free, so of course all we were offered was bread and foods with wheat. We actually had to pocket some bread at times (horrible, I know.. desperate times, desperate measures) We really had an awesome experience with her. The last night we stayed there, she was telling a story and she started laughing hysterically. Next thing you know, the three of us were crying laughing for about 10 minutes. One of the coolest things about being abroad has been my experiences with the locals. It's like no matter where you're from or what language you speak, we are all the same and think the same basic thoughts--like what's funny or not (obviously with room for variation). I am sitting around a table in Rabat, Morocco, 3,600 miles from home with a women in a hijab and a girl from Seattle I just met 3 months ago (who is one of my very good friends now, might I add. Hey FLO) and we are so comfortable and just laughing about God knows what. I feel like this everyday with my host family. THAT is one of my favorite things about being over here. After an exchange of contacts and a plee for us to move to Morocco, we said goodbye to Johanna and Rabat.
We had a conversation with a girl from the Peace Corps in Morocco. We thought we were going to get a spheel to join the cause, but she was real with us. She said everything is to the extreme, that she has had some of the best of the best days and the worst days were some of the worst of her life. She said that the men in the streets were the worst part for her. It was awesome to hear about her time there. A mission is 27 months and she said that some people leave the first day. She has been there for two years now and I completely respect that. If it wasn't 27 months long, I would strongly consider doing something like the Peace Corps.
All of us girls really wanted to get a taste for the culture so we went to the "Hammam." It's basically just a public bath. I won't go into detail about that one but it was definitely an experience to say the least haha.
We went to the Hope for Sale house. We met some really cool people.We asked one of the girls at Hope for Sale if she had the option to choose faith or freedom what she would choose and she instinctively said, "Faith because my faith allows me to be free." We also asked if she thought, as a woman in a Muslim country, that she was free. She said she thought she had complete freedom. After this and all of our preconceived notions on how oppressed Muslim women were, we were reallllly questioning things about women in the Muslim society.
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| Shanty Town |
We first stopped in a little town to get some tea and food for lunch (and to replenish the snack bag, of course.) The snack bag was a running joke because we would eat SO much and then being the typical women we are...we were all mad at Allen for getting so much junk food. We blamed the weight we gained/how much we ate on him (Fellas, you can never win!) Probably one of my favorite moments of the trip was when we rode the bus up this crazy steep mountain side to a small village to visit a family. We had a nice conversation about their lives and what not (with a translator, of course). They were SO hospitable. There were three women there. One was 26 years old with three children, another was 17 years old with a baby, and the other was 20 years old. We helped them to prepare lunch and played with the kids. It was just really cool to see the lifestyle in which they lived. We asked what was the worst thing about living in this village and the father responded, "Nothing. There isn't a bad thing about living here." I had chills after that. This was a family who didn't have a toilet, some of the rooms didn't even have a roof, they lived over an hour from the closest city, and so many more "unfortunate (to us)" things. I was completely thrown off and humbled when he answered that. Reallly, really puts things into perspective. Us girls had a discussion after about how we always want to save these people from their situations but in reality some are really happy/don't want to be saved. Sometimes as Americans we think that everyone who doesn't have as much as us envies us, when in reality many people are completely content with the lives they lead. I actually envy them a little bit. Although they work hard during the day, they have just a simple lifestyle. Someone also asked the father what he wanted for his daughters when they grew up and he said whatever they want to do as long as they are happy. We also asked one of the women if she would ever like to leave the village and do something different with her life. She responded that it's in the hands of Allah and whatever is meant to be will happen. It was really incredible how much faith they had.
The 20 year old woman was not married and I think she really wanted to get out of the village and do something with her life. In an exchange of some hand motions, we proposed switching lives. Although we couldn't communicate, I really had an affinity for her. I felt bad that the two other women had husbands and children, and I could tell she really wanted more. Right before we left, I gave her my "Pursue Happiness" bracelet. I figured she needed it more than I did. It was an awesome experience. We actually almost hopped on the other trip back the village the next day.
We then were off to Chefchaoeun for our last night. It was a fantastic city. We walked around and shopped for a while. You are supposed to do some bargainning but as you can imagine...I'm not too good at that. We then got henna tattoos and had a nice meal in this Aladdin restaurant. We went back to our hostel and kind of wrapped up the weekend. Then as a perfect end to the weekend, we sat up on the terrace that overlooked the city and the mountains. It was SO beautiful. That night a few of us sat and talked for a while with our new Moroccan friend, Bachir. It was beautiful
We took a nice morning hike before we left. A complete influx of blue and white buildings. I definitely didn't want to leave. We then took the bus back to the border. We got out of the van and walked across the border which is pretty cool thing to have done. We crossed the Ceuta border fence, which is the barrier between Morocco and Spain. We also got to see the Rock of Gibraltar from a distance. Luckily the ferry back was much smoother.
The weekend was crafted perfectly. We got to interact with so many awesome people and learn a lot. It was one of the best trips that I've taken so far. I can't wait to go backkkkkkkkk!
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