Day 1
Of Ramadan, that is. I woke up starving because I could not eat last night. The group tour returned to Marrakech and everyone was going out for lunch before heading on to Casablanca. I opted out because I had a killer headache going. I’m pretty sure I am affected badly from the horrible diesel and two-stroke fumes in this town. When here last week, I was constantly battling something like allegies and I returned to that by last night. I hid indoors for hours in a dark room until the headache went away. When I did awake, I had a feeling Ramadan had started and I was not going to get breakfast or lunch. Well, there are many contradictions with the Islam practiced in Morocco, especially in Marrakech, and I was able to get both quite easily.
The main differences between today (Friday so it is the local Sunday anyway) and any other day is that I saw many more people filing into the big mosque around 12:30, I heard more prayers being broadcast from the minarets and the big square seems quite empty of Moroccans this evening. As I understand it, they are gorging right now. I was eating lunch at an outside cafe on what I assume is a big religious holiday. An old, black man (Toureg?) was trying to get people to pay for his little song being played on an old, strange three or four-string “guitar”. The song was really bad and it seemed to be the only one he knew. He was crazy with quite a mad look in his eyes and a deep scar running from his left ear to his mouth. I didn’t pay much attention because there are so many homeless, mentally-ill, physically-handicapped and/or begging people in Morocco – enough to completely dull my sense of them.
The “musician” came into the seating area and I knew this was going to cause a stir since I had watched a beggar get chased this morning from another cafe. Sure enough, he was asked to leave. He did not. He was strongly yet not overly so shown to the public area. The bouncer then talked to him and I watched him pat the guy on the back while probably suggesting that he go somewhere else. Over, so it seemed. All of a sudden the guy starts fighting with the bouncer who is way younger and way stronger. The bouncer stays in control, but then the odl man grabs a glass tumbler and tries to smash it on the younger one’s head. The glass flies and shatters and then the old man was taken out very quickly. He got up from the ground bleeding from the face and hand. The bouncer was pissed off and I thought he would take the guy’s head off. Other men jumped into it and controled the situation. Eventually, it breaks up… over, so it seemed. All of a sudden AGAIN the guy grabs an empty coke bottle from a table and threatens throwing it at the bouncer who is now standing in front of me! I went down under the table immediately picturing the bottle being thrown and I can’t see it until the bouncer jumps out of the way! The old man taken out by the crowd of men that saved his butt moments before. The bouncer was going nuts. They took the nut away before he got himself killed. Happy Holidays!!!
There are a lot of things I do not understand here. I’m trying not to let it be anything than the mysteries of a culture and religion that is foreign to me. There is so much consistent and good things that the contradictions are just that more interesting to me. I was at the big mosque when thousands were arriving for mid-day prayer and I watched them clean themselves outside before entering. They get a little bucket of water and then sit quietly and clean their hands, feet and head. Those that are wearing socks put them back on the wet feet since no towel is used. I was told that Islam teaches cleanliness, but I have really not seen a lot of what I would normally call “clean” people. I have smelled more people in Morocco than any other country so far. I have also never seen such disgusting amounts of waste lying around. Garbage everywhere. Really smelly garbage. The stuff that gets burned in Sub-Sahara Africa and in Latin America for the most part. And people piss everywhere here. Randy – If you think the smell of urine was strong in Salvador, you have smelled nothing! It doesn’t rain here! There are bathrooms all over the place, but…
Then there is the issue of food cleanliness. Just about everyone in the group had problems with it. People were having these problems in such numbers over so many days, I thought it was really a flu going around. I didn’t have a problem with the food and loved eating everything including raw veggies, salads, fruits and fruit drinks. I was tempted to sit down in the square with the locals and eat the goat head, but no thanks… We ran into another group and they had all gotten ill and one was in the hospital. When going to Morocco, be prepared for bacteria you have not seen before.
I will leave tomorrow not really understanding Morocco, but certainly intrigued. I’ll come back in the future to learn and see more. Tomorrow I meet up with Peggy in Tunis, Tunisia and thus starts my next introduction into Islamic countries. Tunisia is very liberal, but let’s not confuse it with San Francisco. I have a lot of photos to upload now that I am with my laptop, but the riad’s wi-fi is down and I doubt it will get fixed when people are celebrating tonight…
Tags: Africa, Morocco, Travel
vagabondrick
What an experience in the cafe you had Rick. When I went on my Global Odyssey back in 1976 I found that countries that had never been under foreign dominion (especially by England) were very much “other” culturally than those what were. I encountered this most strikingly in Cairo, Egypt. I sure do love to read these blogs. Oh yes the pictures were fantastic: Is the turquoise color of some special significance or just the pigment that is most abundant, hence most used?
>>I found that countries that had never been >>under foreign dominion (especially by >>England) were very much “other” culturally >>than those what were.
>>I encountered this most strikingly in Cairo, Egypt.
Sorry to be a pedant, I might be wrong but I think Egypt has been under Greek, French and British rule, only becoming independent after World War One
Ben