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Published: October 26th 2007
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Rooftop
This is a photo taken from the rooftop of the home in which I stayed. It has been a whirlwind of activity since the last post. We finished up our Sociology and Arabic courses with a pretty brutal final exam in Arabic, and a quite lax one for Sociology. We spend the previous weekend studying, and making last minute stops to shops, interesting sites, and Marjane—a very large supermarket that gave us a little slice of the huge supermarket scene we were accustomed to at home. In Morocco, most stores are specialized and often quite small, so it was very rare for us to see something this large. If we weren’t making it on foot in the Medina, we were most likely traveling around by Taxi—an experience in which a co-traveler, Monica, documents quite well in this narrative. http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dd4bh73x_1fh66km&revision=_latest
In Morocco, I have felt that I have made a stronger connection with the people living in the Medina, that I did anywhere in Turkey. Istanbul was such a large city, that it had the flavor of anonymity. People didn’t frequently socialize in the streets, and often if they did they knew each other from a different context, i.e. work or school. However in Fez things were very different. Friendships were made with people that you
Hassan
I met Hassan one of my first days in Fez. We frequented his store many times for his famous Moroccan tea and some good conversation. lived by or passed every day to get home. Because no cars are allowed in the Medina, it is much easier for people to socialize. Whether it is on the way to work, school, the store, or any errand, you are bound to run into someone you know or to socialize more in general. This is largely not the case in other ‘western’ societies. I think of namely Japan and America, in which people rely on their cars to travel from one place to the other. Our professor says he believes sociology was ‘invented’ here in the Fez Medina. Because everything is built so closely together, and things like cars and iPods are virtually non-existent a society evolves that is heavily based on social interactions. Our professor says that in Switzerland you can find a bank on every corner, and in Morocco you can find a café.
We found this café scene to be very pertinent to the extreme social atmosphere of the Medina. While alcohol is forbidden in the Islamic religion, coffee and soda certainly are not, and can be found in any café in Morocco. These areas, almost exclusively for men, are a source of life in the
city, especially during the month of Ramadan, when nightlife becomes more abundant as people sleep longer during the day. The culture change has surprised us all. As fun loving American college students it’s hard for us to imagine a culture that separates the genders as much as it is done here, but we figured this out quickly as we spent time with our families and immersed in the Moroccan way of life. Things that many Americans may find appalling such as the teenaged smoking rate and the abundance of litter in the streets are perfectly acceptable in this society. However customs which are typically ‘western’ such as eating during the day and plutonic relationships are frowned upon here. We’ve all been tip-toeing through these cultural faux-pas, however it has been exhausting for us to double and triple think what implications our simplest actions might have.
We departed Fez on Tuesday, October 26th. We were all excited to be hitting the road once again, but have since remembered how tired it makes us. From Fez we drove to Ifrane for a quick picnic. This town has become a getaway for the more affluent residents of Fez, due to its cool
climate high in the mountains. We had to stop and wonder whether we were in Morocco or Switzerland for a few seconds. The streets were wide, the cars nice, and a cool breeze was blowing the leaves off the trees. We were reminded of how much we were missing the fall at St. Olaf. After departing Ifrane it was another long haul en route to the town of Erfoud. Along the way we stopped at one of many desert oasis we would be seeing along the excursion. In this particular one, the movie The Mummy Returns was filmed. We took a few photos, and dodged the obligatory vendors selling little trinkets that were almost certainly marked up 50 percent. Along the way, we were never really quite clear as to what we’d be doing along the trip. We knew there would be a camel ride, and a trek in the desert to a campsite, we knew we’d hit Marrakech along the way, but another cultural difference that we found out, is that none of these were immediately explained to us. Upon arrival in Erfoud, we quickly de-bussed, threw the majority of our luggage into the hotel, and climbed into one
Camels
We could smell the camels before we could see them. of three land-rovers heading for the desert. Here was the real desert adventure we were ready for, and the minute the land-rover off-roaded we knew that it was going to be an interesting 24 hours. We plowed through the sand and rocks as the sun set behind us, rapidly approaching the Algerian border by my best guess looking at a map. The sun finally set, and we ended up in a small camp-site in the middle of the Sahara with only the stars and the moon for light. We enjoyed a nice dinner as well as a drum show—the trip was, of course, not without the obligatory French and Spanish tourists. We went to bed early so as to prepare for our 5:45 AM wake-up call in order to see the sunrise. At exactly 6 we climbed on top of our camels, and made our way across the Sahara with the sun rising behind us. It was an amazing sight to see. Photographs simply don’t do it justice, and even though they turn out excellent, to me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that could not be reproduced by pictures. We road the camels for about an hour-and a half to
Camel and Sand
The sand is really quite yellow. our destination--a café by the side of the road. We ate breakfast and hopped in the land-rovers once again into Erfoud, where we had the day to ourselves.
The next morning we departed Erfoud en route to Ourzazate, a small town in Morocco noted for its Casbah architecture. On the way we had a picnic in the gorge of another oasis we had driven by. In the desert, the Oasis means much to the people who live off the land. It is the place in which they live, in which their livestock can graze, and water is readily available. It was very interesting to hear that at one time it was much bigger, but due to global warming, it has since shrunk and many people have moved to the larger cities. We arrived at a very touristy, but very relaxing hotel in the town of Ourzazate and dumped our luggage and took naps before dinner. Dinner in the hotels has been nothing new to us, usually Tagine (a dish usually including chicken, potatoes, and a broth.) We are glad to have had the traditional Moroccan experience before this touristy attempt to immerse visitors in the Moroccan culture without their
having to leave the comfort of their amenities.
Technically I am in Marakech right now, but I will comment on that in the time to come. We’ve had a good, albeit short, excursion in the past few days and are excited to start helping out at the girl’s school tomorrow.
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