So Morocco was an interesting place to visit and I wasn’t really sure what to expect before we got there. We had some bad luck with weather and sat for a whole day in Gibraltar waiting for fuel so we missed one day in Morocco. Basically the whole time there I was on an SAS trip in Marrakech. The first day of the trip we took the bus to these palm groves in Marrakech where we got to do a camel ride. That was pretty cool, although it was like 30 minutes long, which was a little too much. We rode in camel trains through these palm groves, which are basically these huge fields filled with palm trees. It was actually really pretty and I got some good pictures of it all. One thing I don’t think anyone was prepared for was that there were people living in the fields basically in shack houses and we rode right through all of the people living their daily lives. They were obviously very poor and there were lots of children around that were running along beside us and watching and waving. That was my first experience with some of the poverty that is in Morocco. Next we went to our hotel in Marrakech, which was very nice by Moroccan standards but probably a 3 star hotel in the U.S. A group of us went to the grocery store to get stuff and it was obvious that girls should be with at least one guy at all times, especially at night. The men in Morocco are not used to seeing women with lighter features and not wearing scarves on their heads, so they would stare very obviously whenever girls walked by and even try to talk to us. I really didn’t like not being able to be independent like women are in America, even just to walk down the street. Women are treated very differently there, which in my eyes was sad to see. Some examples of this are that women are not allowed to go in cafes at all, they cannot pray in mosques with men or they must be behind men, and in general you just don’t see that many women out.
Marrakech seemed like a confused city to me because half of it is modernized and the other half is dirty and rundown. The confusing part is that both the modern parts and rundown parts are on the same street. I would see a really nice hotel with electronic billboards and right next to it was abandoned buildings and trash everywhere and holes in the ground. The same analogy could be used for the people in Marrakech. Some people still follow all of the traditional Islamic practices in regards to the way they act and dress and other people look and act in a more modern way. So there are a lot of women that cover themselves head to toe, some that just wear a head scarf with normal clothes, and some that dressed as any American woman would. My Islam professor explained that some people interpret the religion in a modern way and don’t believe in some of the traditional practices anymore.
Anyways, the second day we toured Marrakech and saw the famous mosque there, a prior King’s palace and the souks (the marketplace similar to a Bazaar in Turkey where there are many vendors that you can bargain with). The souks were kind of insane because all of the vendors were very aggressive when trying to get you to buy their stuff. Basically everywhere I went, the people are trying to scam you in some way to take your money. For example, there were snake charmers and people with monkeys in the main square, which was pretty cool. They lure you in with their cool tricks and then as soon as you take a picture, they demand that you pay them some ridiculous price. At this point you have no choice but to pay them because they will literally scream at you and chase you if you don’t pay. The same thing goes for cab drivers because they don’t really use meters so if you don’t agree on a price in the beginning, they will try to charge you 10 times more than you should pay. These sorts of things made me glad that I was on the trip with SAS because we got fair warning about all of these scams, while people traveling independently had to learn from their mistakes. This practice of scamming was surprising to me because this is so against the Islamic religion and most of the Moroccan people are very religious. I understood that the people are trying to make a living, but it was frustrating that they try to take advantage of you in every way possible.
Overall, Morocco seemed like a country where most of the people are struggling financially. Most people were dressed in old, dirty clothes and there were a lot of people begging for money. Everywhere we went, it didn’t smell very good and there was trash all over the streets. . It was much harder to communicate there than in Spain because the main languages are Arabic and French. I wouldn’t say this is a vacation destination but it was a good learning experience. I also know that this is just the beginning of the poverty I am going to witness along this trip so I am more prepared for that now. The next port is Namibia, which will again be much different than Spain or Morocco, but at least they speak English more commonly! That’s all for now and we have 8 days at sea so I need to catch up on some schoolwork but I’ll post again probably after Namibia.
