Traditions

Man oh man has time flown by! I feel like it was just yesterday that we got to Meknes, and it has already been over a month! I can't believe it. I've met some amazing Moroccan people who have become my friends and I am so excited that we still have another two months together. Normally when we hang out with other Moroccans we meet up in cafes and relax for at least an hour. The cafes here are fantastic and abundant. The only thing I have against the cafes is that there are always at least ten Moroccan men sitting outside them watching us walk by, but other than that, cafes in the Ville Nouville are the place to be on a sunny afternoon, besides the roof sunbathing of course. The cafe culture here is completely different from the cafe culture in the United States. When going to a cafe here, it is expected that you buy something to drink, but then you are also expected to just sit and relax for over an hour. There is no rush, no need to hurry. It is a given that when in a cafe you are not doing work, but just taking time to socialize or just to take time for yourself. In the United States, if you go into a cafe, it feels like you are rushed out of the cafe just as fast as you rush into one. This country in general is more open to just being laid-back and not always needing to rush around to get things done. I think I can live life like this.

I realized that I haven't really mentioned some of the more traditional Moroccan things I have done while here so far. A specifically traditional thing I got done the other day was henna. I was invited over to the Alaoui house (Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's house) for a henna party. Henna is a traditional art form that is done on women's skin as a sign of beauty. Women also get it done just to have because what woman doesn't want to feel beautiful? It is so fun to have something that gets put on your skin and stays there for a couple of weeks. It is a constant reminder of the fun time ahd and everybody comments on it.

Another Moroccan tradition is going to the hammam. The hammam is a public bath where women go to wash and gossip. So far I've actually been to the hammam three times. The first time I went I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Since the hammam is basically a huge steam room with all the hot water you want, I decided that nothing could get better than that. You bring a floor mat, bucket, traditional black olive soap, henna for your hair and skin, and your entire bath supplies. It's basically a really, really, long bath. We typically stay there for around two hours! It's sort of crazy actually. There are also a few women who work in the hammam who are scrubbers. The whole point of going to the hammam is to exfoliate your skin so much that your skin literally feels like new. Let's jut say that these women help you out a little bit... I'll leave the rest fo ryou to figure out what they do! It was so neat to go to this traditional hammam where we are literally the only foreigners in there. I thought we stuck out while walking around town as the only foreigners, but even though we stick out at the hammam, it is almost as if nobody sees the color or culture difference because it is just a place where women can go to just unwind and relax.

Last week we went on an ISA excursion to Fes. Fes is about a 45 minute bus ride from Meknes and is one of the four Imperial Cities in Morocco. An Imperial City just means that at one point it was deemed the capital of Morocco. The four Imperial Cities are Meknes, Fes, Marrakech and Rabat. Fes also has the oldest medina in Morocco and one of the windiest as well. There are over 4,000 streets inside the medina and they are all about six feet wide at a maximum. Good luck bringing a donkey carrying goods through here! We started our tour of Fes by driving through the Ville Nouville then heading toward the meidna. We basically wandered around the narrow, craggy streets of the medina, with a guide of course, and first ended up at a mosaic tile workshop where they showed us the different types of mosaics made by hand. They were all beautiful and of course I wanted everything! Next we walked past one of the bigger madrasas, Koranic schools, in Fes which was connected to an enormous mosque. The mosques in Morocco tend to be whitewashed and with colored tiles that are the color of the city. Meknes has the color green, Rabat has the color yellow, Marrakech is red and Fes is blue. After visitng the mosque, we, once again, wandered around hoping we were going in the right direction. All of a sudden we were told to go up these steep stairs, we were given mint leaves, and we popped out on a balcony overlooking the tannery. There are no words to describe the amazing-ness of the tannery. The smell was god-awful, but the view was spectacular. Let's just say we found out as to why they provide us with mint leaves! I promise they'll be pictures of it soon!! The tannery is where people bring their animal skins to be dyed and dried so they can be made into leather goods. There were large, cement pools of dye, and each color is made from natural things. The yellow color is a mix of cow urine and pigeon feces, the blue is from indigo, and the red is from poppies. I never knew something like this even existed and still cannot believe some of the traditional techniques Moroccans incorporate in their work. After visitng the tannery we went to a traditional Moroccan weaving factory. The men working used looms and weaved scarves, bedspreads and table clothes all manually. Everything was beautiful. The workers each tied a scarf like a turban on our heads and showed us how to tie them for future usages! Of course the scarf tied around my head was amazing so now I am the proud owner of it!

After our spectacular tour of Fes and its medina, we went to the biggest winery in Morocco which is only about twenty-five minutes from our apartment. The tour guide told us that since wine/alcohol is haram, forbidden, in Islam that they have to do all of their own research because the government does not fun any sort of research. We got a tour of the cellars and where they make the wine and of course got a little wine tasting in as well. We then hopped back on the bus and had a Moroccan dance party the whole way back to the apartment.

After the past couple weeks, I have falled even more in love with this country. The people, the food, the culture and the traditions help make this place what it is. My parents are currently in Morocco and it was great spending time with them!! More updates soon!!