Morocco Day 2 (February 4, 2009)

In my last entry I had forgotten to mention that a few of us had had a great late night talk with our guide Sashim that night at the Nomad Camp. He basically told us his life story in addition to interesting points about Morocco and Islam in general. Here are some of my notes from that night:
- The Muslim culture is not focused on sacrificing oneself for salvation. Suicide bombers more often then not commit those acts in search of a better life for their family – their family receives payment after the act is committed.
- Unlike many other people we have met, Sashim is not “obsessed” with Barak Obama as president. He believes that it gives the United States a better image around the world (which I can agree with), but says that it is essentially just another man in the same seat, and stated that a number of Moroccans share this same view as well.
- The Moroccan government is currently working to give women more rights within the country (I have noticed so far that there are no waitresses, women drivers, etc.).
- A few of the largest problems in Morocco are the lack of schools and poverty.
- Morocco used to be heavily dependent on agriculture; but has since moved to immigration and merchants.
- They don’t really celebrate birthdays. Sashim even sometimes forgets when his birthday is.
The second day in Morocco was packed with a bunch of stories. We trekked back through the Atlas Mountains via bus to Marrakech. As soon as we arrived in Marrakech we set out to eat lunch. We ate at a nice place in the infamous Market Square (Marrakech’s main bartering area). As we walked to the restaurant we passed produce stands, guys selling bootleg movies and music, snake charmers, and leashed monkeys. We got to the restaurant, and like every other Moroccan meal…it was meat tagine. I really like it, but the dish is starting to get a little old. A few of us headed to check into the hotel after lunch. The hotel was a very nice and classy place (students always stay at nice places while on S.A.S. trips). As soon as I got to my room, I hit up the shower to wash off the bonfire stench…Thank God. As you can probably imagine, the bathroom facilities were not that impressive back at the Nomad camp. After the shower the real adventure started. Three other friends of mine and I attempted to head back to the market square where we had eaten lunch. We unfortunately ended up in a different market square though. We must have walked a mile from our hotel before anyone even approached us to ask us where we were going. In Morocco, there is a piece of wardrobe that is very popular among the men. Essentially, it is a full body cloak with a pointed hood, and they come in an array of colors. Anyways, a man, dressed in one of these cloaks, came up to us and asked us what we were looking for. He was a smaller man, about 5’6’’, spoke fairly decent English, big nose, no teeth, and was holding what looked like a plastic grocery bag filled with I have no idea what. So, us being the typical American tourists, decided to follow this man – he spoke decent English, so it made sense…right? He tells us that he knows where the market is. We walk with this sketch-ball for about twenty minutes, through dark corridors, covered walkways, unlit streets – no other American or even legitimate looking person in sight. We see blind men singing for money, women holding babies asking for offerings, and just plain beggars. We ask this guy where he is taking us, questioning him numerous times and he keeps saying “No confidence? Only 10 minutes away, I don’t want any money.” The “no money” thing is what really freaked us out because he is honestly the first person in Marrakech who we had talked with us, who didn’t ask us for money. We continue to a “Mosque” surrounded by what looks to be homeless people, handicapped men and women and a few children. He says “take pictures”, so we American tourists continue to follow whatever this guy tells us to do, and take out four cameras and start taking pictures. It starts to get dark, and we have already been walking with this guy for about 40 minutes, so we finally stop. A 12 year old kid sees us, doesn’t speak English, but we can tell by the look in his eyes, he was saying “what the hell are you guys doing here?” The man yells something in Arabic to the kid, and says to us “he is just a kid, don’t listen, the market is only 5 minutes away”. We finally come to our senses that we are not supposed to be there. We start speed walking back to where we had come from. The man follows us for awhile but we finally lose him. As we are walking back, a taller man with a moustache, wearing a Nike stocking hat asks us if we want to go to “the market” – we don’t even respond. Frustrated and a little freaked out about what could have possibly happened to us, we stop by McDonald’s on our way back to the hotel – amazingly tastes exactly like back in the states. However, the portions were much smaller than in America; there was no “double” anything, you were only given one packet of ketchup. Instead of the dollar menu, they had the 20 dh menu (roughly $3) which included a single sandwich, small fries and a small drink. It was a very comforting meal however. That night our S.A.S trip took us to what seemed like some sort of “Moroccan Disneyland”. Obviously set up for tourists, the place was full of entertainment and music. I got to sit on a camel too, so I guess all is not lost in the SAS trip -- no camel trek but at least we got something. Dinner was good too though; it took until the last night but we were finally served couscous, and not meat tagine. After dinner, we told Sashim about our story with the guy who we followed around for an hour. Sashim told us that these guys will search for tourists and take them to markets which aren’t out in the open. The owners of these stores will then pay these men commission on what they sell to us. So, we were probably fine, but it seemed pretty sketchy at the time. Overall, great day though.