Marakesh? Where's that?

Last weekend, I went to Marakesh with 10 people from my school and 20 or so Moroccan students studying in a nearby school for tourism. We were picked up only an hour late (quite early for Moroccan time) and packed onto the bus like fish in a can. Since there were not enough seats for several people, this was also quite Moroccan. However, since the driver got his own seat, it was also better than some cars I've seen driving around here.

We arrived without incident to Marakesh, saw some famous thing that I forget the name of and didn't really care about since all I wanted to do was to find a bathroom. From there, we were dropped off about a 10 minute walk to our hotel (a recurring theme it turns out), which I guess no one could find. All of the students stood around in the huge, famous square in Marakesh, Djemaa el Fna, which happens to be the biggest square in all of Africa. Clearly this was a great place for us all to stand around with our bags at 8pm on a Saturday night. Good thinking. I guess someone finally figured out where the hotel was and I can see why it was such a problem. Turns out that the "hotel" is a building squished between two others exactly like it in an alleyway in the souk within the old Medina. Basically, our hotel was located inside a giant flea market. And trust me, it looked like it. Whatever, it was a cool experience that I never would have had on my own because I would have been too scared to book a place like that. So, that was cool. I was not so into the fact that there were five people sleeping in our room, but what the hell...when in Marakesh.


After waiting for everyone to get ready for an hour and a half, we (the non-Moroccans) decided to leave for dinner without them, as we were STARVING. So, we walked into the square and were accosted by men hawking their restaurants. I guess restaurant is about as good a word to describe this as hotel was to describe where we slept. Really, it was a bunch of long tables with people cooking scary looking meat products nearby. However, they were running some really good specials on whole sheep heads (including the brain), which ran for only $15 or so. However, if you were not that hungry, you could order just a brain sandwich for about $2.50. We settled on shish kabobs of very identifiable chicken. Afterwards, we walked around the square, listening to music and taking in the sights. I had at least seven men try to pick my pocket in the most obvious of ways and I kind of felt bad for them and how lacking in any dexterity they had. Finally I had enough and told one of them in my stellar Arabic to go play in traffic. Really, I was surrounded by my two professors and the school manager. One of my profs has a black belt in Karate, so I really felt quite safe. Also, since I had nothing to steal, it was all pretty harmless. I was also molested by a monkey. Some random guy grabbed my hand and thrust a monkey onto my arm as he held me in place. This was NOT cool. The poor monkey was dressed up in the dumbest costume ever and was chained to the guy. I squirmed away, screaming at him while my friends laughed at how ridiculous it all was. Needless to say, there were no pictures taken of the occasion (they do this so you'll take a picture, then charge you a ton of money for the "privilege".)

Some of us went to a cafe for a coffee after the excitement and there we planned my wedding to one of my teachers. Just a heads up that we're engaged, in case you missed that. He has promised me that I will be allowed to work, as long as I work from home and call him to tell him when I leave the house so he does not worry about where I am if he comes home. He will pick out my hijab for me each day so I don't have to worry myself about what to wear. He also promises a housekeeper (since I'll be busy taking care of our children) and a summer home (a compromise since he's not letting me get a dog). The wedding is in October for all of you who want to attend.

Seriously, this was quite an interesting conversation for me since my teacher was serious about wanting his wife to stay home and make some babies. He, in my mind, is a very educated man (in the midst of getting his PhD in linguistics) and grew up in Meknes, a decent sized, progressive city. However, he did not understand why any woman who was married would possibly want to work outside of the house when she could be at home, cooking for him and reproducing. I clearly have a lot to learn about this culture!

The next day, we left Marakesh (I literally did not see anything besides the hotel, the square and the cafe in Marakesh) to go to Orica, a small town in the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous and we got to climb to the top of the mountain to see a beautiful waterfall. Meanwhile, tempers flared and I was again reminded of how dumb it is to travel with such a big group of Moroccans, Europeans and Americans. Everyone wants to do what they want to do and there is no communication to be had. For once, I was not the one trying to figure everything out. My attitude was just to go with the flow (something I'm not really that used to) because I knew we EVENTUALLY had to get back to Rabat. And, I've figured out enough about this country to know that any complaining I did was not going to make a difference. I had nowhere to be, so I enjoyed the beautiful day and tried to find some patience.

We finally left Orica after much discussion between leaders and someone determined that we did not have enough time to go to Casablanca before returning to Rabat. Duh. I was talking with another student and he has a good theory about Moroccan travel...there seems to be a whole lot of travel involved to get somewhere, only to allow for a few minutes to actually see or do anything in the destination. We sure sat on the bus a lot for the trip, but I can't say that we actually did very much in any of our destinations. I think his theory is pretty valid and I have to remember this for the next time I agree to travel with anyone around here.

We drove back to Rabat and on the way, got shaken down by the bus driver for each of us to pay 5 dirhams so he would take the faster, toll route. We paid, then found out that the driver was already given the money for the toll by the other leader and Iman was given back the money. Typical.

Once we got to the city limits of Rabat, the bus stopped next to three taxis and told the group that was from my school to get off and take a taxi the rest of the way. No joke. He was tired and wanted to go home and did not want to take us home first. I wish I were making this up, but alas, even I could not come up with this story. So, we forced him to give us money for the taxis and we got out and took cabs back to our houses. The taxis in Morocco are of two types: petit taxis and grand taxis. Petit taxis cannot leave the city they are registered in and are all painted colors specific to the city they have permits for. So, in Rabat all of the petit taxis are blue. Petit taxis can only take three passengers (which is a huge pain when you are traveling with four people and there is totally enough room to put three in the back and one in the front. And, on the other end of the spectrum, there are grand taxis, which scare the hell out of me. They are allowed to travel from city to city and pick up and drop off people at specific places within those cities. They're pretty cheap, considering, and can take six passengers. How this makes sense, I have no idea. The grand taxis are all old model Mercedes sedans and with the driver, having seven people in the car is ludicrous. There are two passengers who sit in the front with the driver (in a bucket seat) and four passengers in the back. Now, imagine taking one of these on a three or four hour trip. No freaking way! You can always buy up the extra seats if you don't want that many people, but that can get expensive. A grand taxi will wait around until its full before leaving, so there is no way of getting around the fact that you're going to either pay double or triple, or get squished.

At any rate, I arrived home in one piece and although I would never take this trip a second time, I think it was valuable to experience such extreme chaos just to remind me that I should enjoy those moments of peace in my life. Or, just to pat myself on the back for not flipping out and killing anyone. I'll take that as a positive too!