Morocco

Well, its been a little while since I’ve blogged but its only because I have not had time to! Not because I didn’t want to! So I’m going to start with Morocco. Morocco was absolutely amazing!!! We got on busses after taking our test to get into our classes. From the bus we drove late into the night into the very bottom of Spain to a city named Algeciras. When we got there, we split up into 3 groups and each had an American leader that lived in morocco take us to different hostels to spend the night. We had the same leader and group the rest of the trip. We got up early the next morning and went to the ferries so that we could cross the straight of Gibraltar. This straight separates Spain and morocco but connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea. I really didn’t know that much about it until we crossed it and discussed what it really was haha. When we got there, it was a lot different than I had expected. I was thinking it was going to be huts, jungle and stuff like that. Turns out Morocco is an Arab nation and it doesn’t look or act like the rest of Africa. They don’t really associate themselves with the rest of the country. The majority of people there are Muslim. We got into Tangeer in Morocco and went to the Darna women’s center. This center is “go figure” for women- and they come there to learn about their rights or some women just come to work there to make money because they are either a single mother or they separated themselves from their family and need to make a living. We toured the building and watched many of the women make beautiful blankets, quilts and other knitted materials. We went into a classroom and have a discussion with two Arab women and we had the opportunity to ask them any questions we had about their lifestyles or their Islamic culture. One of the most interesting things I learned was why they wore the scarves around their heads. I thought they were forced to wear them which is why I had a negative connotation in my head about them, but it turns out that it’s a personal choice and the significance depends on each woman and her reasoning for wearing it. Some just saw their mothers and others wear it so they wanted to, some wear it for fashion, while the majority of women wear it because it represents their faith. In the Koran I guess it says something about women needing to hide their beauty and cover themselves- so that is left up to interpretation. The next day we got to meet up with some Moroccan college students and went shopping and had coffee with them so that we could get a better idea of the culture. One of the men was a young teacher, and he ended up being a little too interested in me so we ditched our group a little early and shopped by ourselves. He did buy me a key chain though haha. (at least I got something out of it). Totally kidding. But really. Anyway, that night we got to experience a hamman. I really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into but we were told we were bathing. So we gathered our bathing materials and headed to the sight. We changed into our swimsuits and went in. It was dark and there were naked old women and screaming children pouring water over each other and scrubbing each other down with sponge things that went around your hand. It was warm in there and we were in DESPERATE need of showers at this point, so everything looked pretty wonderful!!!! So the best part of the whole trip was learning about why they only eat with their right hand. Well they wipe with their left, okay that’s fine….but sitting in the bus station going to Switzerland I learned a little bit too much… they wipe with their bare hand!!!!! They don’t use toilet paper!!!!!! I’ll leave you those words and you can create your own images. “Just some food for thought”. So the last day we were there we got the amazing opportunity to go up into the mountains and meet with a family in the country. We took an interpreter with us so that we could fully understand everything. I mean I did learn 6 Arabic words but it wasn’t quite enough to translate for everyone. They asked us questions about America and we got to ask them questions about the Islamic culture. I found out some crazy things that I had no idea of! Well for one, they have so much pride for their religion, although I do not believe or agree with what they are standing for, the way they live and take pride in their religion is admirable. One thing that wasn’t so cool though is the fact that they can have more than one wife. The rule though is that they need to support and spend time with both sets of families equally. Many men don’t have enough money to do this so it isn’t that common but very possible. They asked how many wives men in America could have and they were shocked to learn that it was illegal and frowned upon to have more than one wife. When leaving two of our girls got sick and we had to pull over a couple times when going back down the bumpy mountain. So that was a little bit of a downer but the view on the way down was beautiful!!! And looked a little more like the Africa I was picturing. Overall, it was just a great learning experience for being culturally aware and also religiously aware. In the US we get bombarded with controversy against our faith because of doubt but rarely have I been challenged on account of different faiths and ones so different yet so similar from my own. It was really fun to learn about and share my own and I would go back in a heartbeat.