While not as emotionally and physically draining as India, Morocco is still a country that is different from Europe and the US. With flights on easyJet from Madrid to Casablanca at $30 one-way including taxes, I decided to take the plunge. I also booked a flight out of Marrakech to Madrid for $40 one-way including taxes. I was waiting to hear back from a former co-worker of mine who had some relatives in Morocco but he never got back to me with phone numbers when I got on the plane to Morocco. I just turned to the Lord in prayer and casted all my anxieties on Him because it matters to Him concerning all our anxieties (1 Peter 5:7). I also did not have a place to stay upon arrival, nor did I know French or Arabic which is what they speak (Business is conducted in French). I also read very little on Morocco and had no guidebooks. The fact that there had been terrorist bombings in the past was also on my mind.
Upon arriving in Casablanca (White house in Spanish), I exchanged my dollars into dirhams ($1 = 8.1 Dirhams) and I met this Spanish couple on the train from the airport to the Casablanca train station. I actually did not introduce myself, rather some stuff fell from my bag in the overhead compartment and scared the girlfriend. I apologized to the Spanish couple and that is how we started talking. They asked me if I knew how to get to the bus station and I said I had a map of Casablanca (I thought the $6 small map I bought at the airport was a rip off but it turned out to be useful). Adriana and Alfredo were visiting Adriana's father who is a Spaniard working in Morocco. They needed to catch the bus to go to a really small Atlantic coast town 6 hours away from Casablanca. I offered to help them since I had an idea where the station was (In Morocco and France, a train station or bus station is called a "Gare". I figured that out from the icons on the French map).
After we stepped out of the Gare Casa Port train station, we were besieged by taxi drivers. We declined and it took us about 20 minutes walking to the Gare CTM bus station. I got a chance to know Adriana and Alfredo through the 1 hour we waited at the bus station. Alfredo was telling me that if I do go to that small coastal town, they would be glad to have me over. Furthermore, they gave me their phone number in that city in case I had any troubles in Morocco. Thank you, Lord Jesus! They are from Madrid so they also gave me their emails in case I decided to return to Madrid for dinner with them. Adriana took a year off to study to be a diplomat so her English was excellent.
Alfredo and Adriana were impressed that I knew so many people in Madrid thanks to the church in Madrid that I fellowshipped with. After they left, I was able to easily find a hotel near the bus station. The next day at the breakfast room, I surprised a few Indians from the UK about my past India trip to visit the churches over there and to volunteer work. I thought my hotel had too many unnecessary luxuries so I moved to a hotel with the basic necessities the next 2 nights.
Casablanca
Casablanca is the economic engine of Morocco and the hotels where I stayed were among several Western companies in the downtown area. My first night in Casablanca I decided to take a stroll. People came up to me and asked me if I was in the American Navy. I guess the US Navy must have some presence in Casablanca somewhere. Others were telling me how they spent some time studying in the US and loved the country. Others brought me into their shops and were trying to sell me things. They were offended by the low price I was offering them. Everything is subject to bargaining in Morocco except for the food. After all was done, I did not come back to the hotel until 2 AM in the morning. I walked about at 12 AM or 1 AM a few more times in Morocco and was never bothered.
Casablanca has nothing to do with the romance or intrigue of the famous movie, "Casablanca." It is a bustling, working city full of white apartment buildings that have been blackened over time by pollution. I used the tall buildings in downtown as well as the tall landmark mosque on the Atlantic ocean shore as guides to help me navigate the city. Like all Moroccan cities I visited, the streets are winding and not in a grid pattern.
I did not bother to consult with my map as to where I was so there were a few times where I was in some rough neighborhoods. I expected to see a lot of homeless people and beggars in Morocco but that was not the case even in those rough neighborhoods. Morocco is a kingdom and the king has done many things to westernize his country, especially with regard to tourism. People in Morocco can buy a satellite dish, pay for the installation, and pay nothing each month for the 500 or so Western channels on their TV. I was told that the king wanted to build a tunnel under the Straits of Gibraltar to connect Morocco to Spain and Europe. Every store I went to in Morocco has a picture of the king. Every Moroccan I spoke with has said that Morocco has changed in the past decade or so.
The Medinas
A medina is basically a walled city. The first medina I went into was in the capital of Morocco, Rabat. The Rabat medina was a walled city within the city of Rabat. I took a day trip there from Casablanca, 1 hour and a half on bus going there and then I took a 1 hour train going back to Casablanca. CTM bus company is efficient, comfortable and clean, and only costed $2.50. The trains in Morocco are fast, comfortable and clean, and cheap as that ticket costed me $4.
The medina in Rabat was crowded, noisy, and punctuated with smells of food, perfume, and sometimes waste. The streets are so narrow that only the smallest of cars can go through. There are gates leading into the medinas so you cannot easily find your way out. The medinas were built before cars so it was meant for pedestrians, bicycles, and beasts of burden such as horses. I played it safe in the Rabat medina and walked pretty much in one direction. I got out easily and saw a protest in action near the government palace. There were hundreds of protesters but I did not know what they were protesting since the banners were in French and Arabic.
When I got back to Casablanca, I decided to try the ancient medina there and this time to walk in random directions inside the medina. I got lost somewhat but once again those tall buildings in Casablanca downtown helped me with navigation and I was able to escape. The third medina I tried and actually lived in was in the tourist friendly city of Marrakech. I took a 3 hour train ride from Casablanca to Marrakech and it was about $15 first class.
Upon getting to the Marrakech medina, I had a difficult time finding this youth hostel (Heart of the Medina Backpackers hostel through hostels.com). In these medinas, I could never figure out where they put the street signs. For me it was aimless wandering. I finally asked this young man at a shop and he was having a hard time talking to me in French so he brought me to his friend. His friend could not talk in English so he motioned me to come over to his dirt motorcycle.
I climbed on his dirt motorcycle and the next thing I know is I can feel the wind in my hair as we are blasting through the narrow streets of the medina. It was a lot of fun! In 5 minutes, this young man dropped me off at the youth hostel entrance, spoke to the owner on my behalf, and drove off. For the first time, my impressions of the medinas being slums changed once I entered the hostel. There was an elegant sun-filled courtyard with very long sofas and tables for eating. The courtyard along with the surrounding rooms all had intricate colorful Middle Eastern patterns on the walls, doors, tiles, and fabric. This type of living environment in the medina is called a riad. It is a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden. I saw a few other riads, mostly restaurants, and they all had that elegant ambiance inside even though the outside makes you think you are looking at a slum.
Casting your anxieties on the Lord Part II
My former KIS co-worker, Salah Bouacha, is from Morocco originally and he finally sent me the phone number and name of the city where his family is from. Beni Mellal? I wondered how I was going to get there. I looked at a map and saw that there were no trains going there. I was debating whether or not to even go there because I received his email a few days before I was to leave the country. Every one I spoke to in Marrakech told me that this not a place for tourist to go to. I had told Salah that I would make an attempt to reach his hometown so I decided to go for it even though it was the day before my departure flight back to Spain.
At the CTM bus station (I recommend using CTM bus company if you are ever in Morocco), they told me that the only avaible time was 12 AM to go to Beni Mellal. I asked them where the other bus companies were and they told me that they were at a very big bus station. After an hour of wandering around and asking people for directions, I finally found the "bus station" which resembled a big parking lot with a lot of buses. There were no ticket offices but there were men standing next to each bus writing out tickets. I inquired about Beni Mellal and the next thing I know is a few men were fighting with each other to get my business.
I called Salah's family and told them that I bought the ticket (close to $5). I got on the bus and was not 100% sure it was going to Beni Mellal. I called on the name of the Lord and trusted that He would guide me since He is the great Shepherd. I did not bring my backpack with me so I only had my wallet.
The trip was supposed to be 3 hours but the bus broke down at the end so it was a 4 hour trip of no air conditioning, people sitting very close to you, and sellers trying to sell you things at every stop. What really caused me to be anxious was that none of the stops had signs indicating what city or town you were in. I kept asking the person next to me if it was Beni Mellal or not. When we passed a building with the words "Beni Mellal Court House" after 30 minutes on the highway, I started to get nervous.
When the people told me that the Shell gas station stop was Beni Mellal, I got off and started looking everywhere for Salah's nephew Amine. I did not find him (I also did not know what he looked like). Luckily, I saw a phone boutique and went there and called Salah's niece who speaks English. The phones in Morocco are really easy to use and you won't get cheaped for unused minutes like those payphones in Spain and Sweden. I looked around the gas station one more time and decided to venture to the surrounding buildings. It turns out that one of the buildings was a bus station with ticket offices and waiting area unlike the "bus station" in Marrakech. I finally saw Salah's nephew Amine who also spoke English. Thank you Lord for getting me here!
A big feast up in a village in the Moroccan mountains
After dropping off his friend Rachid, Amine and I proceeded up the Atlas Mountains in his car. He was waving to a lot of people as he navigated the treacherous curves along the mountains that looked like the mountains out in California. He is one very popular person in town. He is a young man who works as a nurse and runs his own clinic by day and sometimes by night, he plays the piano at parties.
One thing that impressed me about Morocco is the roads. They are so well paved and smooth for all the buses I have taken in this country. Amine and I stopped by the town of Timoulilt for some sweets and then we drove to this beautiful lake high up in the Atlas Mountains to relax. We saw a lot of people wearing traditional Moroccan dress and shepherding flocks of sheep along the way.
After leaving the Beni Mellal bus station, it took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach his hometown of Ouaouizarht. At his home, I met his sister and also his mother who happens to be Salah's sister. They were preparing the main dish for us so we had some typical Moroccan sweets. Then Amine and I went to the downtown of Ouaouizarht. As we were sipping an avocado shake (I never knew that avocado with milk mixed would be this delicious), I noticed the slow pace of life here as elderly men are sipping mint tea and children are playing on the streets. There was not much car traffic.
After we got done, we went back to Amine's house and he took me up to the roof of the house where he showed me the school where his father is a director and where his mother teaches Arabic. I learned how to say thank you in Arabic too. I was surprised to learn that a 3 bedroom house with a huge dining room costs his family $60 a month in Ouaouizarht! I paid $60 for 2 nights stay at a hotel in Casablanca. The family dining room is huge with a continuous sofa that takes up 3 sides of the dining room. I think that purple sofa can accomodate about 20 people for large feasts or events.
Besides Coca-Cola and salad, there was a very large portion of lamb to be eaten with traditional Moroccan bread. The lamb was very tender and filling. It was the best meal I had during my whole time in Europe and Morocco. After I was done, Amine's father arrived so I had a chance to know him a little more. He is originally from the desert and values education. He asked me if I wanted to stay overnight. I had to decline since I had a flight back to Spain the next day. Amine drove me back again to Beni Mellal and in an hour we were there at the bus station. I finally got back to Marrakech at 2 AM in the morning.
A spice shop and the Moroccan knife
I was walking in the labrynth streets of Marrakech one day and this shop owner asked me where I was from. It turns out that Zack runs a Moroccan restaurant called Marrakech in San Francisco but he also comes to Marrakech occasionally to run his spice shop. He was pointing out to me that he saw Steve Jobs of Apple Computer one day at the knife shop across from his shop and has seen other famous people in Morocco. We were both talking to the owner at that knife shop who was trying to sell me an authentic Moroccan knife.
Zack explained to me that this 19 year old boy is running the family business and needed money desperately for a bus ticket to see his 3 wives. Amine had explained to me that men in Islam can have up to 4 wives if the first wife is OK with her husband having another wife. I was hesitant about buying a knife that would require me to keep checking in baggage every time I was at the airport and I knew I was flying a lot. However, the craftsmanship of the knife cover along with the fact that the handle was made of camel's bone appealed to me (you light the camel's bone handle with a lighter and it does not burn). I bought it at $40 and thought I could ship it back to the US. However, when the Moroccan post office wanted $27 to ship it to the US, I said forget about it. After losing that knife in a checked baggage in the Geneva airport and meeting someone who lost his baggage also, I praise the Lord for His sovereign arrangement.
The second time that I saw Zack and the knife owner again was my last day in Morocco. Over mint tea and what looked like sliced and spiced thick pepperoni, we were talking about Moroccan culture. Zack has fairly light skin which is unusual and said that many times people have mistaken him for being white. But he tells people he is proud to be Moroccan (he is drinking a lot of Jack Daniels liquor while cracking nuts to eat) and values the family mentality of Moroccans versus the individualism of whites. He said he likes Asian culture a lot and I was pretty impressed that he has helped several Chinese people in San Francisco with problems.
Zack was telling me that he liked the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament because it talked about respecting your parents and he thought that was important. I told him I hate the 10 Commandments because I know everyone has broken at least one. I told him that I am thankful that by following the first 2 commandments (loving God and loving your neighbors as yourself), one can fulfill the law (Matthew 22:36-40. The Lord was answering the question of what is the greatest commandment).
I also told him that the 2 tablets of the 10 Commandments were stored in the Ark of the Covenant and the cover on the ark was sprinkled with blood from animal sacrifices by the priests in the Old Testament days. God promised that when He saw the blood, it would cover man's sins. I am thankful that the permanent blood is that of Christ on the cover over the Ten Commandments which convicts everyone as a sinner.
While Zack and I were talking, the knife shop owner was drinking too much and missed his bus to see his 3 wives in the desert. Talk about not being responsible to your family and parents. From what Zack was telling me, I was getting the impression that Morocco was a liberal country but then again, I don't know that many people to come to that conclusion. Zack and I had a really good conversation and I plan to drop by his "Marrakech" restaurant in San Francisco some day to talk more as I loved the smell of spices in his shop and his passion for Morocco.
Some advice on traveling in Morocco and food
While I don't think this is going to happen to you, make sure you check your luggage for any sign of hash or marijuana when you are going to the airport for your departure flight out of Morocco. The security guards did a thorough search of me and went through any bag I had. I had met 2 people from the country of Slovenia in Europe who went down to Morocco to buy hash only so the Moroccan authorities are aware of people like them.
I also recommend trying the food in the stalls if you are not scared. In Marrakech, I would try a lot of the open air food stalls there at night while listening to men play powerful beats on the drums in the main square of the medina. So I had lentil soups, couscous, lamb, tangine (kind of like stew), freshly squeezed orange juice (there were a lot of wheel stalls with oranges), snails (They are boiled and you use a tooth pick to bring the snail out. Goes well with orange juice. Yummy!), and others. I am a testimony that you will not get sick and I liked Moroccan food of all the food I had in Europe the past 6 weeks. Make sure you bring a French dictionary to know what you are eating exactly and to communicate with the locals.
There is a lot of shopping in Morocco, especially with regard to carpets, wooden products made of cedar, lamps, jewelry, leather goods, and others. There were some specialty stores that I saw such as one with a lot of Chicago Bulls memorabilia and one with artifacts from World War II in North Africa. Beware of the soccer jerseys in the shops as most of the ones I saw were fake but well done. Again, all shopping requires bargaining.
Chi
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