"Welcome!" to Morocco

There's a million things I'd like to write about Morocco, but here are some of the experiences that really stuck out for me personally.

Moroccan hospitality: "Welcome!" is one of the phrases I heard the most in Morocco, and I certainly did feel welcome. Especially outside the touristic places, Moroccans were extremely warm and hospitable. There's so many instances I can think of where virtual strangers invited us to eat, to visit them in their homes, etc. Once, we met a family outside the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca and they invited us to their home in Meknes (although we didn't end up making it). Another time, a group of nursing students from Agadir invited us there and taught us about some of their traditional music instruments. In the Rabat medina, my mom was befriended by an Algerian girl and through half French and half English she managed to tell me that she was in Morocco doing biochemical research in spirulina (a type of algae) and how it can be combined with dates to produce nutritional pills. Without us knowing, she even paid for our dinner! While walking through Moulay Idriss, a very very small town in the middle of many olive farms, my mom and I stumbled across an olive press. There was one man (I guess the manager?) sitting near the door, and 2 others working the press. They were very enthusiastic about inviting us in, showing us the press, and even gave us a bowl of olive oil! That was certainly the freshest olive oil that I'll ever have in my life. In Rabat, my mom and I took a small boat across the river to Salé, another town. However after arriving we thought we were a bit far from the actual medina, so we spontaneously decided to hitchhike. A guy (in a very clean and new Renault) stopped for us, and I actually managed to understand that he works for the Red Cross and was working on a HIV conference in Morocco. (On a different note, the actual Red Cross in Morocco is named Croissant Rouge, or Red Crescent.)

Another interesting thing is that oftentimes, after one of the above occurred, my acquaintance (and new friend, why not?) would ask for my contact information (and ask specifically if I had facebook). They were always the ones to ask me, I realized, and I was always happy to give it to them. For example, this happened with the Algerian phD student, one of the girls from Agadir, and also another girl who showed us the way to the train station. However enthusiastic they were at the time, I haven't been contacted by any of them! I'm not disappointed or anything; after all, I lose touch with people I've known for years and close friends, so it's really not a big deal if a stranger doesn't keep in contact with me. It's just funny to me that at the time, they were quite insistent in trading contact information, making sure they gave me their emails as well, and saying things like "Don't forget me!" etc. Who knows... maybe in 10 years I'll receive an email from a Moroccan friend!

So I should also mention the unfortunate but frequent occurrence of meeting "fake guides." These are people who take advantage of the friendly and open nature of Moroccans and either lead tourists astray, spin a sob story and ask for money, or more commonly "guide" tourists to some location and ask for money. It happens most often in the extremely confusing medinas; they'll spot some travelers looking lost, and immediately come and offer to guide the way, often even emphasizing that they're not fake guides and won't ask for money. It's particularly unfortunate because if this happens enough (which it did), you wind up being afraid to make any unnecessary contact with local people from the fear of winding up in an uncomfortable situation or with a fake guide, and this is not a good way to travel and learn about another culture.






Learning about Berber culture from Mohamed, our couchsurfing host. Mohamed was very proud of his heritage and told us so much about the history of the Berbers. Even though they are completely integrated in Moroccan culture, the Berbers still maintain their culture and language. A big issue currently is fact that the Arab leaders of the country had tried for years to suppress Berber culture; they tried to follow a French example, and Berber culture was seen as "backward." However, strides have been made in recognizing Berber culture as an important part of Morocco and Berber as a language was declared an official language (in 2003). Mohamed told us that in his education, he was taught almost nothing about Berber history and culture even though it is so much integrated with Morocco's. He speaks the language, because of his parents, and everything he knows about the history was through Wikipedia!

Anyways, the Berbers have a very rich culture and one part that I found particularly fascinating was the marriage rituals. Mohamed said that they generally marry within their tribe, and once every year (in the summer) the tribe holds a huge wedding ceremony to celebrate the marriages that take place in the tribe (which happens to be around 8-15 every year). When the bride is "delivered" to her husband's house, five of the men who are closest to the bride must arrange for a particular time with the husband's family; otherwise, there are "bandits" who will come and try to steal the bride and prevent her safe delivery. There's a complicated procedure that is still performed where each time a firework is set off, it represents the number of steps one can make, etc. I didn't understand all the details, but very important is the fact that if the bride's family allows the bandits to prevent them from safely taking her to the groom's house, it will bring shame upon the family. If that happened, the men of her family would have to wear women's clothing in shame and not be able to hold their heads up high for a long time. Even though Mohamed's younger sister was recently married a non-Berber, they still performed the ritual; of course, he was one of the five family members to send her off, and of course they did so successfully.