Memories of Morocco

Three weeks ago I traveled to Morocco for five days with my program ISA and checked Africa off my list of continents to visit!

Morocco was unlike any other place I have ever been.

I had many amazingly unforgettable experiences along with uncomfortable and eye-opening ones.

Fez

Our first day was spent exploring the Medina of Fez. A medina is the historic walled part of a city. We saw and learned about the many different local crafts: leather, jewelry, ceramics and mosaics, rugs, spices, and cosmetics.

Watch out, the Moroccan salesmen are aggressive. If you show any interest in an item, they won’t leave you alone until you buy it. Some people in our group had to learn this the hard way.

Some of their sales tactics were rather humorous, however. My favorite one-liner was, “close your eyes and open your wallets.”

I caved and bought some Moroccan oil with miraculous anti-aging properties. We’ll have to wait and see if it is truly as powerful as the pharmacy owner promised.

I don’t think I’ve ever smelled as many smells in my whole life as I did in Fez: leather, pigeon poop, mint, trash, cooking meat, fire, spices, argan oil, and things I can’t even name.

Besides the smells, the city was full of cats. Cats, cats, cats everywhere!

That night we enjoyed a show with music, costumes, belly dancing, and magic tricks while drinking Moroccan mint tea.

The Desert

From Fez, we traveled to the Sahara Desert. The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world!

While in the desert we stayed in a temporary camp and slept in tents called haimas.

There were got to meet several Berbers and experience their culture.

Berbers are the natives of North Africa, habiting Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. One theory states that the Berbers are descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah. Yes, the Noah with the Ark.

Berbers have inhabited the Sahara Desert for as long as 10,000 years, living as nomads. Little did I know that people still live as nomads today. It was eye-opening to drive through a Berber nomad camp and to see people going about their daily lives, living in tents and braving the sand, extreme temperatures, and lack of water.

Back at our camp, we spent our evenings dancing around the fire to Berber music.

The stars were absolutely breathtaking, as well as the sunrise and sunset over the dunes. How can you see a sky full of stars and not believe in God, or at least some higher creative power?

“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hose one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:26

Can you believe that people used to actually navigate using the stars as their guides?

The closest town to our camp was Erfoud. The surrounding area is known for its fossils. In one fossil field, we found rocks with preserved ammonites from as many as 350 million years ago!

My favorite activity was driving over the sand dunes in SUV 4x4s. Our driver made sure to give us a thrilling ride.

A close second was riding a camel. I named him King Ali. He was rather strapping.

On our drive back to civilization we stooped to oogle at some monkeys. The monkeys were almost as aggressive as the salesmen. One large monkey grabbed a bag of peanuts out of my hand when I wasn’t looking.

I should have listened when they told us to hold on to our belongings.

Meknes

We spent our last day in Meknes.

As we walked through the Medina I saw many bakeries with glass cases of sweets swarmed by bees. I could hardly believe that people would eat these pastries. In fact, in Morocco, bees are a good sign because they indicate that the honey is real.

I was very impressed by the architecture in Morocco with its colorful tiles, intricate designs, and cusped arches. Here we are in front of one of the royal palaces of the king of Morocco.

Feeling Grateful

Morocco was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Overall, I left Morocco feeling grateful for many things: safe water that I can drink from the tap, a house with four walls and a roof, sanitary living conditions, and the amazingly diverse world I live in.