Marrakech, Morocco

2-4-09

Marrakech, Morocco

At John the photographer’s suggestion, Heather, Francisco, and I took the 6:50 a.m. train down to Marrakech. He says Marrakech is his favorite city in the world. Rabat is the capital of Morocco, Casablanca is the “economic capital,” and Marrakech is the “cultural capital.” Marrakech (which is the French spelling, it is Marrakesh in English) is the third largest city in Morocco, but for hundreds of years was the largest city in ancient times. The population now is a little over one million, and Marrakech houses one of the largest open markets in Africa. There is a square called Djemma el Fna in the middle of the old medina (old walled city). Vendors sell their wares: slippers, clothing, belts, teapots, lamps, tandoors, tajiks, art, and many many other things. There were easily 1000 vendors in the whole medina. The main square is filled with orange juice vendors and men selling nuts and dried fruit. Everyone tries to get you to buy their wares, since many of the shops sell the same stuff, and can be rather forceful when trying to get you into their store. It can be a little overwhelming.

We ended up walking 9.1 miles that day, a girl in our group had a pedometer. I feel like I saw most of the city in one day. It was raining in the morning, but it cleared up by noon or so. We walked through the city center to get from the train station to the old medina, so I got to see a lot of modern Marrakech. We finally made it to the market, and immediately went to the orange juice vendors. They squeezed the oranges right in front of you, and it was some of the most delicious orange juice I have ever had. It was only 3 dirham, which is less than 50 cents! I also bought some peanuts with a candied coating and sesame seeds for snacks on the long sail to Namibia. We shopped around for awhile, looking at everything. I ended up getting tricked into getting henna on my hand, but it turned out to be a great experience. My friend was getting one on her hand, and I was waiting for her. I started talking to an older woman, who was a friend of the woman giving Aubrey henna. I told her multiple times that I didn’t want any, because they tend to charge exorbitant prices after they are done. I started conversing with the woman, and she was very interesting. She fluently spoke 6 languages, even though she had never been to school. She learned everything from tourists. Her name was Amina. She looked ancient, but she told me she was only 52 years old. Healthcare in Morocco is not widely available to those other than the upper class, and life in Morocco is a much rougher existence. She was missing most of her teeth, and had what looked like scars from a skin rash. We had a great conversation, she told me about her life and her daughters and about marriage ceremonies. She somehow, very sneakily, took my hand and started drawing henna. It was an intricate design, and I really liked it. Many other girls I saw just had flowers or their name written in Arabic. Amina drew a geometric design going from my wrist and up my middle finger.

When we were done, we headed up to get lunch… although I was still full from the night before! We had lunch on the third floor patio of a restaurant; we could see everything going on in the square below. It was fun to see other groups of SASers wandering through the square. After lunch, we wandered and explored some more until it was time to head back to the train.

We got a little lost trying to get to the Royal Palace, as we usually do. We figured the best way to get back to the train station was to skirt the cities edges, and then cut in on the main boulevard. While wandering around the cities edges, I looked left and saw a herd of camels! I called out to my friends and we ran across the street. The herders (owners?) of the camels were sitting under a tree around a fire. They did not seem to take notice of us at all. We walked right up to the camels, which were not scared of us at all. Heather was a little scared of them though! They made weird grunting noises, like they were getting ready to spit. We learned later that it is not a bad noise, and camels don’t even spit! It was late afternoon, and was a great culmination to an interesting day in Marrakech.

I had mixed feelings about Marrakech, and Morocco in general. It is certainly an interesting country, but there is a lot to take in. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and would love to return some day. It definitely made me glad to have been born in the United States to wonderful parents! Especially as a woman, I kept noticing differences between the US and Morocco, and how many opportunities are presented to me. It reminded me that I need to take advantage of all these opportunities because I am so much more fortunate than so many people on this planet. I am so lucky!!! I also want to say THANK YOU again to my parents for working hard so that I can be so lucky!