Morocco: Marhaba

It has been a while since our last post and we’ve been to and left Morocco.  We spent just over three weeks there and saw a good cross section of the country including a few cities, some beaches, the mountains and the Sahara from a distance.   Although we are now a little removed from our first feelings and reactions to Morocco, we’ll do our best to lay them out for you here and in upcoming posts.  First, we’ll begin with a few things that really stood out for us.    

So, Morocco wasn’t what we expected but it was definitely a great experience.   The first thing we noticed on our arrival in Casablanca after taking a stroll in the evening was the number of men everywhere  - men were doing all the work with the public, walking on the streets, hanging out in cafes and on the streets and women were few and far between.  That’s right, 95% of the visible population on the streets in Morocco is male – young and old as we sure did see a lot of young boys just loitering.  Later in our travels we spent a night with a local family and found out where all the women are hiding: at home preparing the food and watching soap operas at night (no joke - but more on this in another post).  The only exception to all of this that we saw was Marrakech where more women were visible.  One has to say it is a pretty intimidating and eerie feeling.  However, as this is the same everywhere, one can’t help but get used to it ... though we still find it weird.    

Moving from men let’s talk about the ridiculous amounts of garbage found everywhere.   And we mean everywhere.  It’s absolutely impossible to describe the amount of garbage that accumulates on the streets, rooftops, beaches, fields, oceans and rivers.  It’s absolutely dumbfounding.  Now this isn’t the only country we’ve been to with a garbage problem but the amount of garbage was shocking.  We can understand how this happens coming from clean Canada with garbage cans on all the streets, garbage collection at least once a week and fines for tossing garbage.  In Morocco, garbage cans are far and few between (or non-existent) and the mentality toward tossing garbage is just different.  We saw someone walk out of their house, walk 10 steps and just toss a garbage bag on a field and people walk down the street and toss garbage as they walked along.  So you can begin to understand how all the garbage accumulates.   Now we did see the streets of the old medinas get swept and washed down with water each night, but garbage continues to accumulate elsewhere.     

Some of you may be wondering, and S sure was worried, about the conservativeness of dress in Morocco.  While most women still wear the head covering (the hijab), very few are completely covered (burqa - everything but the eyes) and quite a few are modernly dressed while still wearing a hijab.  The difference mostly lay in where you were: in Fez and in small towns and villages, women donned the cloth robes and the hijab and some the full covering, where as in Marrakech, the most modern city we were in, quite a few women wore no Muslim attire at all.   Notwithstanding the wardrobe, modesty is still the best policy and this is practiced and shown by the lack of affection between men and women in public.  While grown men and young boys alike hold hands and greet each other with four kisses each, men and women barely touch. Some younger couples were seen walking together and holding hands but most when walking together either walked side by side or the women would hold the man’s arm at the elbow.  Needless to say, we made sure to do the same and we must admit, coming from Spain and France, the PDA capitals of the world, it took some getting used to and we felt quite starved for affection.  And seriously people, we’re on our honeymoon and we’re supposed to keep our hands of each other!! Unacceptable J. 

Now we don’t want you thinking that all we have to say about Morocco is about men, garbage and modesty as Morocco is a geographically beautiful country with warm and hospitable people and we had a wonderful time here.  Our next few posts will get into our experiences in the cities, beaches and mountains in Morocco.   So tune in for our stories and pictures of Morocco.