This was my first independent trip and I went in a group of six friends (3 guys, 3 girls) to Fes, the oldest Moroccan city. We had to take 2 taxis to the train station and the one I was in ripped us off when we were paying him so that wasn’t pleasant. We waited for the train, which came late, to get on and find now seats available. For the first hour of 4.5, we stood near the bathroom because that was the only place free. Fortunately, we eventually got seats all kind of near each other. I sat with one of the girls and we were near a family with a cute little boy. He wouldn’t look at me directly and was uncomfortable near me, I guess because I’m a girl. In Moroccan culture, men don’t speak directly to women, especially if there is a male escort with the woman (there is usually but I didn’t observe any). I guess this little boy was already exhibiting those behaviors. Although, the men will stare at you (thinking they are sly) but this little boy wouldn’t look at me. Anyways, this guy motioned that he liked my sunglasses, asked me if I was American, to which I said yes, and introduced me to his friend, Mohammed. Mohammed knew one of our friends on the ship and talked to us for a while. Then he helped us get a student guide and a taxi so that we could navigate Fes (it is literally a maze) and see the cool shops. The first stop was the leather tannery. They gave us mint as we entered because it smelt pretty bad (they use ammonia from bird poop in the process of making the leather soft, but that step would be in the next few days) and we got to see from above how they make all the items. Then we went to a place where they make many things like scarves from scratch. We got to see the loom and all the beautiful things they make. After, we went to a Moroccan restaurant, which I feel was more accurate because we sat around large round tables rather than the impersonal sectioned tables you find in our restaurants (and in the one in Rabat). The food was very good and I really enjoyed it. Then we went to a rug place, met one of the old ladies who makes the rugs, and tried some amazing green mint tea. Our final stop was Mohammed’s father’s shop, a spice shop. It had very cool things, including a Moroccan spice blend and all these perfume extracts. It was a very fun experience.
The only problems arose when we were trying to get home. The train schedule had said there was a train at 850, but there wasn’t one. In fact, the next train wasn’t until 2am if it was on time (don’t forget about the 4.5 hr ride). One of the other girls and I didn’t want to stay in some sketch train station for several hours to ride the train back in the middle of the night, so we all agreed to take the taxi back (it was a van taxi so we all fit and it was a fixed price). The driver had his son drive, who promptly went to gas up and then make a quick stop at his house. I thought he needed to tell his wife or something about his being gone for basically 8 hrs. Nope, he and his riding companion brought out a huge bag of weed. Naturally, we started flipping out: “Is that Marajuana?” driver: “Of course!” (there’s a huge drug trade in morocco and there’s a huge mountain near Fes where they grow it). Since we’d already paid, we made it absolutely clear there was to be no smoking while we were in the car to which they complied, so it turned out fine but it was sketch. They dropped us at the gate to the port and we walked back to end our very interesting journey to Fes.
The last day I spent doing hw and today we are in route to Ghana. I won’t post until at least a week from now, but I hope you all are doing well! Please keep praying that God will go ahead an make a path (he certainly did here) and keep us out of harm’s way! I appreciate all your thoughts!
p.s. pics just don’t work with my limited internet, so sorry it’s not as enthralling as my Montreal posts
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