Morocco's Modern Life!

Sarah here.

Morocco… what to say about Morocco? We had a delay on our arrival into Morocco due to a storm. The rough waters prevented us from bunkering (taking on fuel) in Gibraltar. So instead we floated off the coast for an extra day… I began to curse that giant rock (Gibraltar: photo below) because I wanted to be in Africa! Sailing into Morocco was an experience in and of itself as the waters were so rough, everyone fell out of there seats at dinner and dishes fell out of cabinets or off tables…basically it was a big broken mess!


Things I learned about Morocco:
1. Women cover themselves.
2. Women do not make eye contact with men
3. They love dates
4. They have 33 political parties
5. The government gives away free satellite dishes, so you will see a small clay/mud house with three dishes, providing cable television goodness!
6. Cows live in the house
7. Many keep a picture of the King and his son in the house
8. Cats are loved
9. They speak several languages- Arabic, French, Berber, etc.
10. Most women speak Berber but are not taught Arabic or French… newspapers and tv broadcasts are in Arabic or French, so many women do not have access to information.
11. 80% of women are illiterate, this makes me so sad since I love to read and had read 6 books on the voyage so far…..

Morocco Day One: We finally arrived and headed straight for our tour. I lead a group of 33 students on an overnight trip to Marrakesh. We drove through the beautiful countryside while farmers waved at the bus. We learned quickly that Marrakesh was a bustling Arabic city! Marrakesh looked sort of like Indio, mainly the desert with palms that had been given by Saudi Arabia. We had a lovely lunch of eggplant (pictured to the left), lamb with dates, bread and yogurt (which I did not eat because dairy is not pasteurized here.) We then traveled through a garden, spice store, palaces, mosques, a library, square and the Souks (market). The Souks were barely large enough for two to three people to walk down, yet motor bikes zoomed through the crowd constantly! We walked through the Souks for over 4 hours and did not see the same place twice.

It was mentally and emotionally exhausting being bombarded with peddlers, children touching us, the poverty, trying not to be run over by the bikes, making sure our passports were not stolen (because people were crowding and touching us) and of course making sure that the 33 students I brought into the Souk came out of the Souk (photo below). Our counselor on the ship, Carol, keeps imagining parents waving from the dock and saying “you lost my Susie or Johnny!” And that is all I could think about!


The market and square was full of snake charmers, henna, monkeys on chains and in diapers, water sellers, food vendors, etc. The square was beautiful… there were cats EVERYWHERE! Not to stereotype, but Nate and I are Disney kids, and the market was very reminiscent of Aladdin (edit from Nate: I never wanted to be a street urchin more than at that moment, breaking out into random song and dance about petty shop-lifting crimes with a monkey wearing a fez at my side)! After checking in to our hotel we went to a dance/music show with dinner (bread, soup, meatballs, couscous, chicken and oranges!) Followed by a folklore reenactment of Arabian wars with horse running and men shooting and ladies making crazy sounds with their tongues… I was sad for the horses.

Day Two: I found a huge brown spider in my backpack, AHAHHHH!!!!! We traveled to Ourika Valley, which was beautiful and looked sort of like Colorado. We visited a Berber house and had mint tea. We also went to a pottery house. Then back to the Souks for lunch and shopping.

Day Three: I was feeling a bit under the weather - so Nate went out for a few precious hours in Casablanca. Shortly after Nate left I became violently ill, throwing up constantly (the high double digits here people) and was so dizzy! The nurse came and gave me a shot, then had to come a second time and give me additional meds because I still kept throwing up. Nate had fun in Casablanca though and did bring me a lovely silver tea pot! (edit from Nate: While in Casablanca, I went to the nearest market (souk) and got to know the locals on my own terms, and how to haggle like the father from 'A Christmas Story' (except he haggled for Christmas trees, and instead I bought monkey paws (not really) and came to realize everyone was named Abdul and were somehow related...it was awesome).

I finally stopped throwing up around 8:00pm- which was a blessing. Because a few minutes later we pulled out of the port and the ship was rolling. Everything flew off surfaces and the bed (which I was laying on) rolled across the room practically pinning Nathan who was falling back in a chair, it was scary. People fell (stitches, broken arms, a few crutches), televisions fell and our phone broke. But we made it back out into the Atlantic! It was fun, but very mentally and emotionally stimulating, and a unique experience for sure. Here is Nate and I in the Ourika Valley. That's snow on the mountain behind us.


Love, Sarah.