Advertisement
Published: February 21st 2010
Am in my first African city and already found somewhere I dont want to leave. Tangier has been great, a lot of that thanks to Zakaria who ive stayed with since the second day i was here. He lives in a 'public neighbourhood' outside of downtown and it is full 'real' i.e. non Europeanized Moroccon culture, and he is a musician who plays with a group that does weddings and parties. There were two weddings yesterday and i was able to take part in both (sorry no pics because would have felt weird with a camera). In the first the groom was from Marrakesh and so the ceremony was slightly different than the Northern Moroccon traditions. Basically we (the musical group) went to the grooms house and danced, sang and played drums, cymbols and trumpets. Then gifts for his bride were loaded onto a wagon towed by a mule and the music and dancing continued in the streets with the whole neighbourhood watching and joining the parade, and all the neighbourhood boys doing their best to mimic the dancing of the adults. I sang a lot too ableit my Arabic pronounciation was probably more than a little off hehe. When we reached the bride's house the band's part was done.
After that Zakaria took me around Medina, the older part of Tangier, for a little tour and a few stops at peoples houses. Then to a cafe for tea and the Barcelona football game, because everyone here loves the Spanish league and is either a fan of Barcelona or Madrid. During the game he got a call that another wedding wanted music so after Barcelona won we were off to another wedding, this time a more northern Moroccon type, which involved the same awesome party music but no parade. Actually this was only a prewedding ceremony so maybe thats why it was a little different. Anyway, lots of music in the streets, and everytime the groom came back outside the band doubled the loudness. I should note that at this point all the Moroccon women were inside separated from the men, which apparently is fine for foreign women (im also generally allowed in 'male' cafes) Eventually there was a musical break i guess while the groom was doing stuff inside, and so rest of the men were hanging around outside talking. They tried broken spanish·english·french conversations with me but then someone came out and brought me to where the women were. I have to say their party was even better than the men's. They had their own musical group and lots of dancing and tea and delicious food was constantly brought around. Of course through all of this i barely had any idea what was going on and was by far the oddest and most out of place part of the room, but nonetheless i was completely enthralled by the festivities and the incredible decorations and outfits. When the bride came back out there was lots of commotion and she was slowly paraded around and then sat in some sort of silver hut, although i didnt get to see what happened next because just as quickly as it had started someone from Zakarias band came and got me and we were heading back towards his neighbourhood. The whole thing felt completely surreal and out of some book but now you understand why im finding it so awesome!
Today we slept in then went out of town to visit a popular cave by the sea that has an entranced shaped like the map of Africa. The people say Hercules was born there 😊 Back to Tangier and walked around more, with a few lessons in French, Arabic and English mixed in (me the two former, Zakaria the latter, our common language is Spanish). Ate traditional home cooked Moroccon food and had my first experience with a squat toilet sin toilet paper. Right now Madrid is playing so time for a little writing, and either tonight or tomorrow we'll be going to Tetouan which is a more traditional city a few hours from here and also has a good languages and sciences university. Speaking of schools, i was already offered a job here at the Tangier language college which included a 'canadian level' salary and an appartment, but had to decline because there's a lot more African traveling to do first 😊 So far so GREAT on this continent!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.325s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0667s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
cooper
non-member comment
BUTTERS!!!
Awesome, awesome, FUCKING AWESOME!! Was waiting for you to post updates to facebook but Nina informed me about the blog here so I'm a little late getting to it. Been smiling the whole time that I've been reading this and catching up. So happy to hear that you are enjoying yourself and meeting people and participating in cultural activities. I would say that I am jealous but instead I will say that I am so happy for you that it's all coming together beautifully and that you are having a great adventure! Glad to hear that you didn't take the job either and that your gonna keep moving, don't work until it's almost necessary (really though, who am I to give YOU tips, haha) Loving the updates keep them coming when possible, have an excellent time, I'll also give you the "to-be-expected stay safe" and let you know I miss ya butters, but seeing you accomplishing what you told me about years ago truly is a beautiful and inspiring thing. Muah, ENJOY! Can't wait to hear more! -Cooper