Morocco Chapter 6 -- The End!

The next day after driving a while as always we arrived at the market, where we were free like birds in the sky! It was fun to bargain with the guys—that’s how you buy things there. None of the prices are set you have to bargain with them (in English, Spanish, French…whatever language you choose). If you are tough you can get some pretty good prices. I bargained a few things down and got some souvenirs for people. It was fun because a couple times I was like “no I can’t pay that much” and wouldn’t go any higher and was about to walk away when they would give in or make a better compromise.

We went to a pretty nice place at lunch (I think they were trying to sort of make up for our little 6 hour delay earlier) where we had another performance. There was this lady and some guys that danced and then this other guy who balanced a tray of candles on the top of his head and danced around without letting it fall. It made me nervous but was really cool. The food was strange but amazingly good! The main course was this round kind of crispy thing that was made up of some tortilla like bread and with very flavorful chicken inside. But on top was powdered sugar and cinnamon I think…sweet stuff. It was bizarre but surprisingly very good!! Then we started the long trip back…by bus, ferry, and bus again. Overall it was a long and exhausting trip, but very exciting and eye-opening, one I hope I’ll never forget!

Morocco Chapter 5

The next morning I did indeed wake up at 4:45 I think it was…and we all huddled in the cold waiting until it was time to get on our camels. Although it was freezing, I was glad I was awake in the darkness when all the electricity was still off…I didn’t know so many stars existed in the sky! It was absolutely incredible, a fingerprint of God that I hadn’t seen quite in that way before! And while we’re on the subject, the sand dunes inspired the same awe in me—they were another wonder of creation that left me speechless as I saw them for the first time. They amazed me in the same way mountains do. But it was weird because it was like that same grandeur of mountains—the height and impressiveness—but with something completely different. Made of a deep orange sand and lacking any trees or vegetation, they loomed against the solid blue sky as if confident in their simple but matchless splendor.

But I digress. So we woke up early and hopped on some camels, and I got my own this time! It was fun and I must say, much much more comfortable when you have the camel to yourself! Although it did still made me nervous going up and down those little dunes, as well as the standing up and sitting down of course. We went to one really big dune and got off the camels and climbed up to the very top ourselves, and just sat and waited. The sun rising over the Sahara was quite a sight!

After breakfast we rode the camels back to the land rovers and headed out. Needless to say, we had some even worse problems getting through the sand this time. We and everyone else kept getting stuck and having to get out and help each other get unstuck. At one point, our car and this other car got really really stuck. So we got out and were trying over and over again to push the cars out of the sand. Finally our vehicle got loose and so he just drove off. We were like “Hmm…wonder where he went…ok…” The other one was still there though and we were all standing there watching all these Moroccan guys try really hard to get the other 4x4 out. Eventually another driver came back for us, and all of us from both of the two stuck vehicles (there were about 8 of us I think, 6 students and Esther and Michael) piled into this one 4x4. It was probably the craziest ride of my life! The guy had to drive really fast, I guess it was so we wouldn’t get stuck in the sinking sand again…so we were all squished in there like on a ride at Six Flags, everyone being jerked and flung around as he sped over all the little dunes. I was really honestly scared because half the time it felt like the car was going to flip over! Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure petite little Esther was sitting on the window sill hanging out like the always did! Hehe it was funny. Luckily we didn’t die—we made it out of the dunes to where everyone else (yes, fortunately our driver, too!) was waiting for us. They were just chillin, some of them were dancing to some music they had turned up real loud in one of the cars.

We went back to the nice hotel for lunch…and somewhere in there we went to another place where they tried to sell us rugs again…then we rode the bus through the mountains and stopped at several look-outs, like one over an oasis which was really cool. We kept driving through the mountains and a lot of the countryside. A lot of the time our guide, Muhammad, would talk to us and explain things; he would do it in Spanish and English. He would say funny things in his broken English. He would always say “might” for things that we were obviously going to do, “we might go to Fez, then we might eat at the hotel, then we might have a tour…” When he told us we would get free time to shop at a market the next day he said, “Each is free to buy what he wants, free like birds in the sky.” Hehe. At one point we were driving by farmland and little homes and communities way out in the country and he told us about how hard life is there. They are very very poor and do not have almost any doctors or medicines available to them due to the location. It made me sad and want to do something to help! Muhammad explained to us the role of women in the country as opposed to that of the changing urbane environment. In the country it is still very traditional, where the husband has total control over her and she has no rights at all. I don’t think he remembered he was talking to a bus almost full of American girls when he explained that a man wants a wife from the country because she will be submissive and she is uneducated so she doesn’t know any better, she can just basically live to meet all his needs. It was about the last straw when he told us why he would want to marry a fat woman: “If I get married to a fat woman in wintertime she gives me warmth and in summer time she gives me a good shadow.” Hehe it was funny…but at the same time sad to see how women really are very oppressed there under traditions of Islam and the culture. They need missionaries there to show them what freedom and worth they have in Christ! Although that would be one tough mission field…

That last night we slept at a different hotel that wasn’t nearly as nice as the one before. We had a little musical performance at dinner though, so that was fun.

Morocco Chapter 4

Hello everyone! I have been home safe and sound in the States for about a week and a half now, and have come to find out that apparently there are still a faithful few that are reading this and want to hear the end of the story! (If you haven’t been keeping up with it that’s totally ok, I would’ve had time either!) I will continue on then and try to type up everything through the end of my travels (and the end is quite a story I must say!) Starting where I left off in Morocco…

As you may remember we had a long drive throughout the night before. Well that was to get to the nice hotel from which we would go ride camels and spend the night in the desert the next night. (Get excited!) So we woke up the next morning and had an excellent buffet breakfast at the hotel and then all jumped in Land Rovers to head for the desert! But first, I had to drop my sunglasses on the ground in the hotel parking lot and not realize it until we were driving away, because when would be a better time to lose sunglasses then right before the only time in my life I am going to the SAHARA DESERT?? Hehe. So that was sad. But it actually ended up not being too bad, I managed okay without them! So we are all in these 4x4’s driven by Moroccan men. I was in a car with two of my friends in the back seat with me, Catherine and Elena, and another student named Mark was up front. He spoke some French so he would switch between that and Spanish and English when talking to our driver. Did I mention they speak 5 million languages there?? Our driver was somewhat quiet but friendly. We went through town, and it was weird for me actually seeing a few women dressed in the full-out burqas (a traditional Islamic dress) – only showing their eyes. First stop was this fossil place where of course they tried to sell us stuff again. It was actually pretty cool though, there was tons of stuff (even whole bathroom sinks!) made of what seemed like a polished stone with real fossils in it! I spent a couple euros on a few little pendants myself. Then we hopped back in the cars and headed for the desert!

At this point we were just driving on the rocky, flat part at first and it was really fun. There were like 12 vehicles all racing across the terrain in whatever path they chose, being that the road had kind of ended. We had the windows down and the music up…our driver actually had some CD’s with some American oldies, which was bizarre to listen to driving across the Moroccan desert, but super fun! We stopped at a few places with views across a lake and the dunes in the background which were really pretty. We randomly stopped at a little village as well, where we crowed into this room and were given Moroccan tea as we watched these men dance and sing and play different instruments. One of them was a little boy who was really cute! The performance was good, very loud, and by the end they had everyone get up and start dancing around with them! It was really fun. This is when I finally started feeling like I was really in Africa; these guys looked more African, everyone else looked more Arabian or Middle Eastern.

We passed several tiny little communities like that…just groups of little nondescript buildings and houses that blend in with the tan expanse of nothingness in the background. These people are very poor, it was very sobering. Some of us were talking about it at dinner that night, how we just come in and stare at these people and gawk at how they live their lives, like they are on display, as we enjoy our tour that never really deprived us of any of the luxuries we were used to, which they live every day without. But on the other hand, I don’t think we should feel guilty for coming, because tourism is an incredible economic help to these people. We decided that it’s only good if you do it with the right perspective though…if you let yourself be changed by the experience and share it with others and help them if you can and don’t just go back to your normal life and forget that there are others living that way. I hope I don’t.

We stopped at another hotel for a buffet lunch and then relaxed for a little while and listened to our drivers play instruments and sing. Then it was back in the Land Rovers and into the dunes. That stuff is harder to drive on than you think! We actually had to get out of the car at one point and help push another vehicle that had gotten stuck in the dunes, and then had to do the same for ours! Well first we had to dig some of the sand away from in front of the tires, then everyone got behind to push, girls and guys alike! It was funny.

Our car ended up being the last to get to the camels so we jumped out and ran over there and were rushed to our individual camels. (They were actually a type of camel called a dromedary, dromedario in Spanish, which only has one hump so that’s what they called them but I will probable just say camel because it’s easier.) Before I knew it I was put on the same camel with my friend Catherine, and the camel was standing up, which was a very scary process that we were not warned about! I guess they just get up on their hind legs first so you are like hanging on for dear life facing the ground for a few seconds…at first I thought it had already stood up all the way and the saddle-thing was falling off or something so I was like yelling for help! Lol. But then it stood up all the way and we were horizontal so that was good hehe. At that point I was kinda glad to be with a friend so I wasn’t all by myself my first time on a camel like that!

We rode the camels up some pretty steep sand dunes and then got off and ran up to the very top of a sand dune…like a ridge of dunes I guess. You had to run though because if not you would sink in the sand! It was a workout hehe. The sunset was beautiful though; I couldn’t believe I was watching it on top of a Saharan sand dune! When it was over Catherine and I hopped back on the camel and she graciously let me have front seat this time. I regretted it the moment my lovely little dromedary started walking down that dune. It was a steep hill and so I was falling forward with this mettle part of the saddle digging into my thighs, which was being made worse because of course Catherine had to reach around me to hold on to the handle bar too, which pushed me more forward, making me really feel like I was gonna fall off, not to mention even more painful! On top of that everyone was making fun of us squished on top of the same camel, it was only us and two other girls that had to share, everyone else had their own! Definitely an experience. hehe

We then rode our camels to the camp where we would spend the night in the desert, which was basically a little hotel made out of tents! Hehe so we weren’t exactly roughing it. We all slept in little tents with mattresses in them and ate at basically a little restaurant they had set up. There were candles for the feel, but some electric lights as well as toilets! All the tents and carpets and candles made for a very pretty little place, like something out of Aladdin or something! (Actually the whole time in Morocco felt very Aladdinish lol). That night was quite relaxing – we had some tea again, some lamb for dinner, and some more African entertainment from those guys. I was pretty tired so I went to bed early…bundled up as much as I could and I actually slept pretty well, just woke up a little when I got cold.

I had a hard time getting up though when my roommate, Christa, woke me up at 4:45am. I didn’t want to sleep in though because we were going for another camel ride to see the sunrise! Stay tuned!! :)