Moroccan Observations

  The trip to Morocco was itself pretty interesting. We first flew from Tel Aviv to Istanbul and then took a flight to Casablanca.  While the flight to Istanbul was diverse and filled with people from all over the world, the flight to Casa was  filled with Moroccans, one Turkish family, and us.

As soon as we boarded the plane, we immediately felt the Moroccan energy.  Unfortunately, three overweight, loud Moroccan men were the source of the energy.  The three men harassed the Turkish flight attendant demanding ear plugs before take off.  They then reclined their seats back and moved to empty rows behind the plane (all before the plane even left the runway).  After spending a few weeks in Israel, you would think that we were already used to loud, not so polite people.  However, these men made Israelis look like polite Europeans.  

While the airport in Casablanca, we saw a man holding an Israeli duty free bag.  After staring at him for 15 minutes, he introduced himself.  It turns out that he is a Moroccan Jew living in Casa, and he gave me his info and invited us to Shabbat in Casa.  It is pretty cool to be able to connect with local Jews in an Arab country like Morocco. 

It didnt take us long to learn a few basic things about Morocco after we landed.  First, Moroccans are very friendly people.  People are incredibly willing to help anytime we ask them for help or directions.  Second, Moroccans are naturally very pushy people.  For example, we wanted to buy train tickets to Fez after we arrived in Casa.  We asked the man selling tickets if there was a train to Fez, and he immediately printed out a first class train ticket.  This pushiness is a part of daily life in Morocco, whether in restaurants, taxis, etc.  For example, we wanted to get some food after we arrived in Fez on Wednesday evening.  A Moroccan man waiting around the hotel offered to take us to a good restaurant.  We arrived at the restaurant and started explaining to the waiter that we were vegetarians.  He immediately brought out a three course meal for us. 

Traveling to Morocco has made us realize how dependent the country is on tourism.  People are always around tourist areas waiting to help potential tourists.  Everyone is a walking tour guide.  It literally feels like half the country is in the tourist industry and the other half is unemployed wanting to work in the tourist industry.  For example, we have had someone walk us around or to nearly each tourist site and occasionally to restaurants.  These guides always insist that it is their pleasure to accompany you and not worry about money.  However, they almost always insist for payment or cigarettes after they walk you somewhere.  Despie the occasional annoyancesn, it is nice to spend time in a country as slow pace as Morocco.  The cafes are packed at all hours of the day and no one seems to be in any sort of rush. 

One strange thing we have noticed is that women never go to Cafes or restaurants.  It seems that cafes are not an appopriate place for women.  We will try to understand why this is so.

Finally, spending two days in Morocco makes you realize how important family is to the Moroccan people.  For example, nearly every Moroccan that we have talked to extensively has a brother or cousin that is a tour guide or owns a hotel.  Moroccans have talked with us about their families and backgrounds at almost every encounter.

We are off to eat and will give another update in the next few days.

Shabbat Shalom.