Salaam ou alaikum! Bonjour!

Let me paint Morocco for you: Snake charmers in the town square. Street sweepers using long palm branches. Groups of women walking with only their eyes showing. A mosque highlighting the skyline. Belly dancers shaking their hips. Signs written in both Arabic and French. Five men playing small drums and singing. Friendly yelling in souks (markets) to barter beautifully painted dishes and wool carpets. Mint tea drinking at the end of every meal. Donkeys pulling carts filled with palm branches. Camels crossing sand dunes. Families ducking in the shade of their mud homes. This is Morocco, an independent Muslim colony from France. They speak both Arabic and French and seem more Middle-Eastern than African. 52% of the population is illiterate, with most of those being the older generations. They have the longest standing friendship agreement with the United States and were the first to recognize us as an independent country. They are 97% Muslim and very dedicated to their religion. Morocco is a unique and astounding country.

My first walk on Moroccan ground was the short distance to load the buses for a 4-day trip. 200 SASers filled 4 buses and we took off. Our first sights of Morocco came as we drove through the streets of Casablanca. We all experienced a culture shock, as we had been in its neighbor Spain 2 days before and they shared hardly any similarities. Casablanca was much more conservative, dirtier, and poorer. We drove through the country, which looked similar to the US but dryer, until we arrived at Marrakech, the most populated city in Morocco. It is neat to get out of the port city because it isn’t fair to base the whole country off of one city. Marrekech showed us this, as it had more painted mud buildings and was cleaned up a bit more than Casablanca. When we arrived 3 hours later we had a very nice Moroccan lunch. This is where we split from the cultural norms… It is Ramadan for the Muslims, in which they fast from both food and drink all day and then break it when the sun goes down. We were still fed, but just not being seen in the public eye. We learned that Moroccan food is one of the top 5 cultural foods in the world! And it was good, especially all the bread they gave us ☺. We then had time to spend in the souks (markets) in Jemaa el Fna Square. This is when I first spotted the snake charmers, which is just quite interesting. We couldn’t get too close though otherwise they’d trick you into paying 200 dirham, which is about $25. We walked through the souks taking in the all the different items they were trying to sell: beautiful dishes, tea sets, mini wood and leather camels, rugs and carpets (which they’re known for), clothing, etc. Then we felt a sprinkle… and another drop or two… then it started DOWN-POURING! The irony in this is that it rains 20-25 days of the year in Morocco, and we were lucky enough to experience one of them! The souks quickly took cover and shooed the shelter-seekers out of their shops. We ran through the flooding (and a little poopy) streets, which I honestly hold as a very fun memory. We later were taken to our hotel and had time to clean up our dirty feet and change for our night excursion.

Our evening was spent Chez Ali, a tourist-dependent show that modeled the traditional Moroccan folklore. It was… interesting. Sometimes it is hard to get past very touristy attractions because it just doesn’t seem authentic. But I had to remind myself that all tourist attractions develop out of truths. There was a very large arena that was surrounded by tented restaurants and groups of singing and dancing Moroccans. Many of them came into each tent as we ate dinner and performed a little more. Then there was the real show afterwards: in the arena there was a flame thrower, belly dancer, racing horses with white-dressed men that shut off guns, camel riding, and horse tamers/dancers. At the end they had “Aladdin and Jasmin” float across on a flying carpet and then an explosion of fireworks. So mostly everything was authentically driven except the very ending. Again, it was very neat to see this spectacle, but it just seemed to be a circus for tourists.

The next day we woke up early and started out on an 8-hour bus ride to head to the Sahara area. Much of the journey was spent driving through the High Atlas Mountains… how beautiful!!! As our buses drove on narrow streets on the sides of the mountains, we looked out and saw these barren clay-like high mountains. WOW! We also passed through the Mid Atlas Mountains, saw a Palm-tree-filled oasis, and many many small mud villages. We passed through Zagora… and then there was another great site: 100 camels approaching with nomads. We were then dropped off at the side of the road in the Sub-Sahara region. Ha! We all excitedly grabbed our things for the night and rushed over to the camels. Since we had such a large group, we walked for half of it and rode for the other half. And then I rode a camel! I RODE A CAMEL! (Sorry, it’s just a bit surreal for me yet ☺) This was just such an awesome experience, camel trekking with many of my new friends through the Sahara Desert. The getting up and going down was a little rocky for the camel, but very fun I might add. The ride itself was bumpy, but again, completely awesome! The nomads guided us to camp and we arrived at near sun-down. Camp had 25 tents for the students, 2 large tents to eat in, and then a really awesome bathroom (awesome as in zipped up stalls to a hole in the ground, but that’s a lot nicer than what I expected!). A friend and I went and watched the sunset on the top of a hill/dune with mountains surrounding me. It was an amazing site… I just want to keep that picture in my head forever! We ate dinner once the nomads could break Ramadan and then some of us went out to hunt for scorpions! We found one and it glowed in the black light. A few of us then went to go lay out on the dunes under the stars that were miraculously bright. Then something hilarious happened. Some nomads saw us and directed us towards a quality start-grazing spot. I was looking forward to them joining us so I could hear about their nomadic lives. But then I realized that wasn’t exactly what they were looking forward too… One beside me whispered asking my name, then laid down beside me but faced me instead of the stars, and then asked if I wanted a massage *eyebrow raise*! Oh wowsers! We soon got out of that situation and had quite a few laughs. We didn’t want to forget the star-gazing because nomads hit on us, so we just went and found another spot where some other SASers were. Ha, wow, what an experience! The view was so beautiful. With no lights for miles and miles the stars just shone so brightly. As it got colder and later we headed to sleep in our cozy little nomadic tents for the night.

The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast, and then headed back out on the camels. We did some walking then riding, and it was still surreal to me. I was just gleaming up on that camel! Eventually we arrived back to the highway, loaded the buses, and said goodbye to our camels and nomad friends. It was then an 8-hour bus ride back to Marrakech through the High Atlas Mountains. The view was still quite breathtaking! When we arrived we were on our own for the night. A group of us walked the streets and then found a local pizzeria to dine in. We walked around a bit more, but not for too long because the streets aren’t safe for foreigners or girls at night. And I was 2 of those. So instead our group bonded over card-playing at the hotel.

The next day a group of us walked 45 min to the souks for a little more bartering, a supermarket, and a taxi ride. Soon it was time to meet the large group for the ride back to Casablanca. As much as I enjoyed the trip, it was nice to have some time to see the port city as well.

The last day started with a presentation called “I Love Hip Hop in Morocco.” We had watched a movie with the same title during pre-port. For this presentation a rising hip-hop female artist, Fati, came in to talk with us. This rising genre caused a lot of tension in Morocco. However, the artists pursued it because it was a way for them to express themselves. They compared it often to American hip-hop since that’s how they were inspired, but they don’t have the freedom of speech for the lyrics like we do. In addition, Fati is also female, which was looked down upon for quite sometime since women aren’t seen as equals in Morocco. She pushed through though and is now admired by many and inspired many others. The music itself is quite neat- they take an American rhythm and add a Moroccan (Arabic) melody line or vice versa. I think it sounds even better than our hip-hop music! It was a very neat presentation.

The last few hours before boarding time was spent walking the streets of Casablanca to get a better feel for what it was like. We went to the souks and saw the Mosque in the distance. It was definitely not enough time there, and I’m finding it’ll be that way in each country. I would’ve loved to see more of Casablanca, talk with more Moroccans, seen the Mosque, and gone to an orphanage or school. I’m quickly learning what I need to do in each country to make sure I feel my time was fulfilled. It was late evening when the ship disembarked and as usual my friends and I went to the top of the ship to watch the city lights fall away in the distance.

Now we are sailing back in the Atlantic paralleling the West African coast at 20 degrees North and 18 degrees West. We have 6 days of classes and then arrive in Ghana on Tuesday! I’ve already had a pretty exciting time back on the ship, but I will fill you in on those in another post ☺

As always, I hope everything is going well with each of you! I’m constantly reminded how thankful I am for all the support I have back at home! Thank you and have a good week ☺