From its towering mountains to its desert oasis, from its imperial cities to its wild coast Morocco is exotic, captivating country and an assault on the senses.
Both Gaby and I have been interested in seeing Morocco for many years. Thus, we built our trip around going to Morocco and flew there from Dubai as it was a place we really wanted to visit.
Due to Morocco’s location it is a crossroads between African, Berber, European and Middle Eastern culture. Its years under French rule and the large number of European tourists that it receives has given the country a distinctly European feel. The people dressed nicely, the cafes felt European and the local diet had many European foods. We found Moroccans to be very linguistically talented and most locals that we met spoke at least Berber, French and Arabic and many also spoke Spanish or English.
Divided by the 1000 meter long range of the high Atlas, Morocco is a haven for outdoor sports lovers with lots of hiking, biking and exploring the Berber villages. Unfortunately, because of the snow and my condition (I was still feeling the effects of my food poisoning) we avoided the mountains and stuck with the coast and imperial cities
Morocco is a relatively poor country, with 20% of the population living below the poverty line and a very high unemployment rate. And the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow every year. Those that we met who had jobs got paid so little that it barely covered their basic costs. We found the Moroccans we met to be street smart and driven and one told us “they use their mind to work hard so they don’t have to use their back.”
As a result Moroccans risk everything to cross the sea and work in Europe. From the Moroccans that we met we realized that for them going to Europe to work is the “promised land” and they talked with pride about family members that were there working there as ones that had “made it.” Later, when we got to Europe we saw the other side of things and saw how the large numbers of Moroccans living in Europe had changed things in Europe.
Moroccan families are large. We were told that a “small” family has six children while a larger family would have twelve children. As a result, 1/3 of the population is under 15 years old, which will cause many problems for the government down the road.
From locals we talked with, the current kings’ father, King Hassan II is well loved by the Moroccan people as being very good for the country. His son, Mohammed VI is relatively young and is known for giving women greater equality to women in Moroccan society. We were also told that he is the first Moroccan king to present his wife to the people and show her in front of the public eye.
Morocco is 95% Muslim and most of the population is Sunni. Religion is extremely important in Moroccan society and when we were staying in Marrakesh for a couple of days during the Eid the streets were empty and all businesses closed.
Many Moroccans wore the traditional jellaba, which is an ankle-length kaftan (robe) with a pointy hood and silk buttons or zipper down the front. Some women wear the hejab, or headscarf, but many don’t and in Morocco it is totally up to the individual. A lot of Moroccans that we met wore very westernized clothes and had a very good sense of fashion.
Morocco was a beautiful country and a fantastic experience. I would suggest to people that visit though to go in the summer time as most hotels we stayed in didn’t have central heating and we froze while there. But it is an interesting country with lots to see.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment