Day 41: Morocco
The pain that I am in is indescribable. My back feels like it is in knots and compressed down on itself all at the same time. I guess that is what a total of 30 hours on a bus over 4 days will do to you.
But it was worth it.
We left a little after 10 on Thursday morning. Face to face immigration took a while, although they called us as one of the first group since we were on a scheduled program and needed to get out of there.
There were 92 people on the trip with us divided into three busses. Two larger coach busses and one smaller coach bus. Molly, Cody and I got on one of the larger busses with the hopes that there would be less people on it but nope, there were only two empty seats on the entire bus. We went for the very back row on the left side, Molly on the window. This ended up being a terrible life choice.
Our guides name was Mr. Mohammad. Or Mo for short. He had a big personality and seemed to think that he was in charge of everything. He was terrible at giving time estimates. "We'll be there in 20 minutes" turned into an hour a few times. One time, at 7:40 he said that we would be there in 5 to 10 minutes and then said that we would be there by 8 o'clock. That's 20! Oh Mo.
We learned a lot of things from Mo while we were on the bus. Morocco is the #2 agricultural country is Africa. They speak both Arabic and French. Casablanca is the most expensive city in the entire country. There are taxis in each city called petit taxis, they hold three people, and the color of them changes depending on what city you are in. Merrakech, the city we were going to, means 'to get the hell out of here.' That might have been a joke, I am not sure.
As soon as we got on the bus Molly had to pee. Really badly. And our bus didn't have a bathroom. She had to go so badly that a little bit later when she went up to the front of the bus to ask how long it would be until we stopped we ended up pulling over at the next gas station for her to go. Molly had power.
Pretty much as soon as we started on our way again another kid, Marshal, who was sitting right in front of us, had to pee. But he didn't have power, and when he went to ask he was told that we would stop in 30 minutes.
He wasn't going to make it that long.
He ended up taking a gaterade bottle from the kid sitting next to me, going into the stairwell of the back stairs of the bus, and peeing in it.
He peed in a bottle. On the moving bus. Oh, this trip is starting out great.
By the way, the kid sitting next to me is named Cody. But not that Cody. Cody and Cody were sitting next to each other on the bus. Isn't it a rule that you aren't even supposed to use characters with the same first initial in your writing so that you don't confuse the reader? The good news is that he isn't featured very much in this story. Except for one point when I borrowed his headphones, but that doesn't happen for a while. So, until I tell you, Cody is the same Cody that has been in every other story.
We drove 4 hours before we stopped for lunch in Merrakech. It was amazing to watch the land go from city to rural and then the ruralness go from green to orange to yellow to red mountains. At one point when we were headed towards the mountains it was absolutely flat and then just BAM, mountains. The mountains did have trees on them, but the soil was red, so it was a very different look.
The buildings that we saw everywhere reminded me of the pueblos you see in Arizona. But, except for it being the houses that people built when they lived on the land 9 gazillion years ago, this is their architecture. Everything was clay and packed dirt with tiny square holes punched in the sides for windows. That was what basically every building looked like. It was completely different from anything I have ever seen.
Lunch was our first true Moroccan experience. And it was a good one. We were lead through the streets of Merrakech for a bit before entering this sketchy looking establishment. We could hear music and singing, the walls were covered in white and blue tiles. We walked down a long hallway where a guy was playing a violin and women were singing. The main dining room was also intricately decorated all in white and blue tiles.
We sat around tables that were fairly low to the ground. It was against a wall lined with couch and the rest of the table had chairs. I chose to sit on the couch side. We were given two bottles of water, a bottle of coke and a bottle of some kind of Hawaiian fruity soda that I have definitely tasted before.
All 92 of us were seated in the restaurant and there was still plenty of room, the place was huge. We speculated if it had always been a restaurant or if it had been used for something else originally.
We were given bread and we were brought a bunch of tiny plates with different things on each of them. There was rice, beets, cabbage, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, and some mushy meat thing. They were all cooked and spiced different ways. Someone at our table asked if they were supposed to be eaten now or with the meal. The guy didn't really understand the question but it looked like other tables were eating so we dug in. We passed all the plates around and everyone took a scoop or two of each item. It was all delicious. The mushy meat thing was especially good.
Our second course was chicken brought to us in a tangeen, which is a large clay bowl with a cover that they use to cook their food. The chicken was amazing. It was basically just herb chicken but it was crazy moist and cooked perfectly. The chicken came with a side of cous cous and carrots. We devoured all it.
Dessert was this crazy delicious melon that I will be eating regularly in real life. It was something that I have never seen before and I am a fruit crazy person. It was white with a yellow rind, apparently when it is whole it is football shaped. I still don't know what it was called. But I ate so many pieces of it, it was addicting.
The whole meal was simple but delicious and filling. And it was accompanied with live dancing and music. The violinist and a drummer walked around the restaurant with two women who would sing and right at the end a belly dancer came out. It was a great time, we had so much fun just observing. What could get better than that? If only we knew what was coming. This was nothing.
We stopped for lunch for a little over an hour before it was time to hop back on the bus. On the way back to the bus we saw the tiniest, saddest looking kitten all curled up in an alleyway. It was adorable. We drove for 5 more hours in order to get to Ouarzazate.
How the heck do you say that word?
It took me until basically the end of the trip to get it right. War-za-zet.
That's my phonetic spelling of it. War-za-zet.
On this five hour stretch of driving we learned some interesting things from Mo. Moroccans covet fat women over skinny women. So much so that they have a procedure that they do to turn women fat. Mo explained it, but it was kind of hard to hear him and at the end of whatever he was saying Molly turned to me and went, "So they put milk up her butt?"
Apparently the women has to stand upside down, they put milk in her butt through a tube, and then they have to shake it up. This process is repeated three times a week for three weeks. And that is how you make a women fat.
What.
Mo, are you pulling our leg?
No apparently its a real thing, called Holgna. Well then.
Don’t worry, we didn't drive for 5 hours straight without stopping. That would have been torture without a bathroom on the bus. Although we didn't stop that often so we got very good at strategizing how much water to drink.
One of the places we stopped during this 5 hour stretch was a market on the side of the road. There, they had lots of things to sell and had samples of some of their sauces with bread that you could try it with. One of the things to dip the bread in was honey. It was delicious honey. And it had bees in it. And they were alive. There were bees literally drowning in this honey. You would think that that would freak me out, but it didn't. And the honey was some of the best honey I have had.
We got our hotel in Oaurzazate at about 8 o'clock and checked in as fast as possible. We were given about 20 minutes to freshen up before it was back on the bus to head to dinner. Molly and I had signed up to be roommates in advance so we grabbed our key and made our way through the labyrinth of rooms. It was an outdoor hotel, so you entered all of the rooms from the outside. Kind of. It was like apartment style. So, we opened one door and it lead to a small landing that then divided into the original rooms. It was small, and fairly average on the quality scale.
It took about 2 seconds of exploring to discover the giant lizard hanging out on the wall. And by giant I mean it was something that could crawl on my face in the night and that is not ok with me.
I got me freaking out upon seeing the lizard on video. It also shows the guys staying next-door coming at that exact moment and us trying to get them to get rid of it. Instead he just took pictures of it.
It ninja jumped from one wall to the other and then scurried into the corner so none of us would be able to reach it. We ended up leaving for dinner with it still in the room.
The place we ate dinner was not that far away. We were told that we were going to have a night of dinner and dancing. And we sure did.
I don’t really know how I am going to paint a picture of this evening for you. It was one of the most unique and incredible evenings I have ever experienced.
When we got out of the bus all we could hear was drumming and as we got closer, singing as well. We were going to be spending our evening in a fort so we had to walk through this huge passageway to get to the main courtyard.
The entire floor was covered in carpet. On one wall was a row of tents, tables were set underneath them. Opposite the tents was a large stage with a set up stairs leading up to it directly in the middle. The area was dimly lit and highlighted in purples and greens.
Lining the front of the stage was a group of men and women singing and playing various musical instruments. I was one of the last people to walk in and everyone else was already gathered in a large crowd in the center of the room. They were dancing and were encouraging us to join in with them. There wasn't anything specific happening, it operated more as a call and response dance style. One of the guys would do something and then everyone else would join in. One of the guys took his top robe and hat off and put it on one of our guys. They liked to share their hats.
The song eventually ended and they welcomed us and then encouraged us to take our seats at the tables under the tents. We were served bread and bottles of water. While we were all sitting the local guys that were the leaders of the music and dancing sat on pillows in the middle of the room, facing us, and just played some light music. Our first course was a beef based soup. At least I think it was beef based, that’s what it seemed to be and it was very tasty.
In the middle of our soup course Cody came up to Molly and I and forced us to get up and take some pictures. We got Chris to take some pictures of us, it turned into a photo shoot. I then asked Cody to take a picture of me in front of the stage. When I walked over there one o the guys sitting on the pillows invited me to sit next to him. When I sat he put his hat on my head and handed me the instrument that he was playing. It was some type of drum, I was not very good at playing it. Molly sat between two of the guys on the other end and was given a tambourine to play. Cody took a bunch of pictures before also joining us in the line. The guys tried to get us to play different beats and then create a song based on what we played. The guy sitting next to me got up at one point so I was then next to the guy playing some stringed instrument like a guitar.
Eventually others got up for their tables to join us and we created a huge circle on the ground. The brought out more instruments and people were passing them around, one group started clapping to the beat and they would high five each other in a circle.
It was incredible. The guys would have everyone stop playing except for one and then they would build off his beat. They would start really quiet and then just go all out. We had different things going and yet it would all work.
It went on until they brought out our next course and they made us all stop and go eat. When I stood up I turned to Cody and said, "We just started that. What."
Our second course was a bit more interesting. It was a large pizza shaped pastry that was probably made out of philo dough. The top was dusted in powdered sugar but it was filled with chicken and almonds. It had a sweetness that was unexpected with chicken but it was good, and very filling. We all had huge hunks of it served to us .
The third course was veal, potatoes, and carrots. Which was again brought to us in a tangeen. We were so full that when they came out with it we all groaned but as soon as it was put in front of us we found the ability to fit more food.
Nobody seemed to be able to sit still, the singing and music and dancing just seemed to call to everyone. In between courses and even while the courses were going on people were getting up and going to play the instruments more.
Now, let me remind you that we didn't even get to this fort until almost 9 o'clock. We had a four course meal so late at night. I don't know if it was because we had been a bus all day or if it was the food but we all had so much energy.
The last course was just a huge plate of fruit that was put in the middle of the table. There were grapes, bananas, apples and some green thing that we thought was a lime but when we peeled it it turned out to be a very unripe orange.
Barely anyone paid attention to the fruit. We were done with eating by this point. The dancing had truly begun. The guys mostly played the instruments and directed us to do things that didn't make much sense. At one point we were up on the stage in a line, holding hands, and we just all ran straight at the edge of the stage and back again. We did this multiple times. And right below me was one of the fire pits so it was a little creepy to run straight at the edge. We did a lot of conga lines. There was a lot of jumping and dancing in a circle: hands to the sky, hands to the ground, hands to the sky, hands to the ground. That sort of thing.
They gathered us all in a circle, again holding hands. The musicians were sitting in the middle. They then had the opposite sides of the circle run at each other and when they went back the other two sides would go. I don't know why it was so much fun, but it was.
Towards the end they had us all sit in a circle. One of the main guys was walking around the circle telling us that they were going to have people sing. "Oh no, not singing." I said.
Yeah, that was a bad thing to say because he dragged me into the middle to be first. He just told me to do something, anything. "Can I dance?" I asked. When I got a yes I just broke it out and danced around the middle of the circle to whatever they were playing.
It didn't last very long and then they pulled others into the circle to have their own solos. We chanted and cheered people on, the music changed with each person.
The night ended with us in a huge group chanting Thank You over and over again. It started after the guy thanked us for coming and for being so awesome.
We left the fort around midnight. On the way back to the hotel the weirdest conversations were had that caused me to write this in my journal:
Dear future Lauren,
Remember that one time you were on a bus and everyone was yelling about butt chugging? Yeah, that happened and was kinda funny. So now that they teenagers around are chanting something really weird, just embrace it, because it is probably for a reason and is probably fun.
Love, current Lauren.
It was a weird bus ride. College students are weird.
There was a pool at the hotel and Molly and I were really excited about going swimming when we got back. But first, we dragged Cody to our room to get him to get rid of the lizard. He told us to stay in the hallway because he didn't need us in the room screaming. Yeah, we didn't listen to him.
The lizard was still in the bathroom area but he failed at getting rid of it and instead made it scurry under the bed. And then he couldn’t find it. So he really made it worse. We did scream, that probably didn't help. It was going to crawl on my face in the night, I could feel it.
We didn't bring bathing suits so we were just going to swim in our underwear and bras, which are basically the same thing. But when we got out to the pool area we discovered that it was closed. So we went to the bar that they were keeping open until 2am especially for us and Molly got a drink. We then sat in the bar area on a very comfortable couch and used the wifi.
Then a shirtless guy walked by me and when I asked him why he was shirtless he said that he was just in the pool. Apparently they didn't listen to the rules and 'opened' it.
But it was cold out, and the water was cold, and the adrenaline of the dancing and chanting was wearing off. So we decided to bag it and go to bed.
Now, it was 9 gazillion degrees in our room. The air conditioning didn't work and opening the window would certainly mean that we would be attacked by lizards. We compromised by opening the inside window and leaving the shutters closed. Because that will protect up from lizards, right?
I slept completely on top of the bed, the blankets were really heavy, there was even a wool one and there was no way that was happening. The heat broke sometime in the middle of the night and I ended up under just the duvet and then I was really comfortable and I slept really heavily.
It sucked when the alarm went off at 7:30.
