Gibraltar and Morocco

Hello Everyone!!!

So the past week has been an absolute whirlwind. My program took me to Gibraltar and Morocco in a wild, fast five days. We started out in Gibraltar, which happens to be a fascinating little place mostly built on a massive rock that protrudes from the Mediterranean. Although it is a British colony, the locals speak a hilarious mix of Spanish and English as it is connected to Spain. The main attraction of the city is its collection of African monkeys that run around the rock and are famous for stealing food from children and climbing all over people. I happened to be pretty obsessed with the monkeys and made loads of friends (what other kind of friend will groom you for fun??). I pretty seriously considered stealing one to live with me and be friends forever, but then I probably would've been banned from the Gib, which would suck.

After our wonderful monkey times we were told that we were going to go on a short walk up the rock. The word 'short' was a total joke. We walked straight up, literally 45 degree angles almost totally consistently, for a whopping two hours. I don't know what my problem was, but I was totally straggling-- I even walked backwards and pretended to take photos sometimes so that it would be easier (really embarrassing!). But once we got to the top, everything was worth it! We could see the coast of Africa and the blending of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, it was so incredible! After hanging out and watching the sunset over the water, we made our trek downward. Mariah and I decided that the best way to do this was to play fairy princess and gather flowers and take loads of pictures of our happy, sweaty selves against the beautiful scenery (typical, I know). While doing this, we realized that we were getting so hungry that we were delirious-- I'm pretty sure my stomach began to eat itself. Our prayers were answered in the form of an Irish pub called The Clipper. I got this massive spaghetti bolognese and devoured it like a ravenous animal. Our program director then treated a few of us to apple crumble and banoffee (sp?) pie that was to die for. The four of us destroyed those things like vultures on their favorite carcass, so we had to order more. I think most people at the restaurant thought we were clinically insane, but that didn't stop us, we needed more! Even after we were satisfied, we were still filled with an insane energy that lead us to sing a cappella dubstep through the streets and across the Spanish border to our hotel, we were probably a vision of dysfunctional youth.

The next morning we woke up to board a bus to Tarifa, Spain where we were to catch the ferry that took us to Morocco. The ferry ride was a quick 45 minutes, filled with bananagrams and staring at the water. We arrived in Tangier, Morocco-- I was so excited to be in a new country and new continent, it was quite overwhelming. Tangier is a typical border town, it's pretty but not the most gorgeous. We took a walk around the old medina and visited an NGO that worked to teach women artisan skills so they could make their own money. We had a wonderful time talking to some volunteers about women's rights and the progression of laws in Morocco that are working to create more equality between the sexes. We were also fed an incredible lunch of couscous, which introduced us to the greatness that is Moroccan food.

Soon after, we took our bus to Asilah, a stunning coastal town. I fell in love with Asilah. All of the buildings in the old medina were painted white with a blue stripe and door (if it was a house). The blues were all so vibrant and the doors so intricate. The city is also known for having famous artists paint murals throughout the medina, so every corner had a different beautiful piece of art. Mariah and I went a little photo crazy, I'm pretty sure we took a picture on every block-- we just had to remember everything about this gem!

After that short excursion, we were surprised with a camel ride! It was obviously just to have the photo op, but it was fun nevertheless. My camel was named Leila and she was a total angel. The camels proved to be a hilarious experience because they spit on a few people and made these incredibly hilarious groaning noises (one practically assaulted Maria by groaning in her ear, it was hilarious). We all probably looked super dumb because I kept trying to pet and hug all of the camels, Riana was scared of them at first, and Maria screamed a few times-- always winning??

The bus then took us to Rabat, where we met our host families and got to walk around the old medina. My host family was an incredibly generous family of four-- mom, dad, son, and daughter. None of them spoke any English or Spanish, so our conversations consisted of us saying "thank you," "delicious," and "beautiful." But despite the language barrier, I felt like I bonded with the family well. They changed so many of my preconceived notions, proving to be some of the most generous, hospitable, and happy people I have ever met. One of the main objectives of this trip was to educate us judgmental Americans on the fact that our negative stereotyping of Muslims and the Arab World is pretty misconstrued and false. My family fed my a mountain of delicious food, all the while my grandmother was telling me to eat more and more and throwing bread my way consistently. It was truly wonderful. The next day we were fed an incredible breakfast that included these to die for pancake/crepe like things covered in butter and jam, I was in heaven. We then crossed the river to Salé, the neighboring city, to visit an NGO, Hope for Salé. On our way we drove past the three mile long shantytown that housed over 70 thousand people. This was a transformative experience for me in that a lot of people on our tour bus decided to take pictures of the shantytown and its inhabitants. My sociologist self was reeling in shock from the fact that we privileged Americans were taking pictures of impoverished people from our nice, air conditioned tour bus. All of the other Oxy girls on the bus were filled with disgust and shock that our peers thought it was okay. When we debriefed about the trip on the last night, one of the Oxy students brought up their disgust about the matter, and someone had the nerve to say that they took pictures of the shantytown because they thought the contrast between the traditional Moroccan garb and the shantytown was beautiful. BEAUTIFUL??? Yeah, people's poverty is stunningly gorgeous... what??? No one said that they did it to bring awareness to the fact that there was great poverty in the World, nope, it was just aesthetically pleasing. It is pretty terrible to think that there are college educated people who don't see a problem in taking pictures of people's poverty to post on facebook to show all of their privileged friends that they are so worldly and conscientious-- it is shocking. But that experience made me more grateful than ever for my Oxy education, I'm so glad that I can be socially aware enough to take issue with the fact that my fellow peers could take pictures of impoverished people like animals in the zoo. Sorry for the rant, but come on!

After that, we visited Chellah, the Roman ruins, and the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. Both were very beautiful. One interesting thing about the ruins was that there is a tradition that women who had problems getting pregnant could go to a pila in the ruins that has eels and if the eels came out and showed themselves in front of the woman, she would be granted fertility (the truth is that there were also priests of some sort that would sleep with the women to impregnate them). But it was really cool to walk around ruins that represented such a mixture of cultures. Alongside the Mausoleum was the beginning of what was to be the World's largest mosque, but was never finished. It was really cool to see such a massive floor plan. And, of course, the Mausoleum was incredibly ornate, the arches and ceramic design were absolutely stunning.

That evening, we had one of the best experiences of the entire trip, we bathed at the Hammam. I payed a total of five euro to get a full body scrub my a large Moroccan woman. It was a totally liberating experience, eight of us girls went in to the hammam, which was filled with a ton of locals, and we went topless and had a totally typical hammam experience. My scrubber woman took me away from the group and brought me into the hot room were she put me on the ground and proceeded to scrub every inch of my entire body. She scrubbed layers and layers of dead skin off of my body and poured buckets upon buckets of water over me. I pretty sure my mouth was wide open in shock/happiness the whole time (some Moroccan women straight up laughed at me). So there I was, laying on the floor of the bath, being thrown around by a 200 pound, naked Moroccan woman, and I loved every second of it! I think I got over some of my fears of the female body (I was casually encompassed in her breasts sometimes, and it didn't totally freak me out!). But man, I have never felt so clean in my entire life! My skin was baby smooth and glowing, I wish I looked like that all of the time. But after an hour or so we left to go get henna. My henna was absolutely beautiful and the artist did it with such speed and precision, it was awesome.

The next morning concluded our time in Rabat, we took a seven hour bus ride to the Rif mountains where we went to the home of a local olive farmer and ate lunch with his family. We had a wonderful conversation about the life of a Moroccan farmer, one thing that stuck out to me the most was that he said that the reason he loves living in the country is because he can see endless land, knows that everything is fresh, and is connected to the earth. It was all so beautiful. The mountains seemed to go on forever and were sprinkled with yellow wildflowers and olive trees. I understand why it was heaven to him.

After lunch we drove to Chefchaouen, and I have to say, I loved it almost as much, if not more, than I loved Asilah. Chefchaouen is a tourist town that's main focus is selling artisan Moroccan crafts. It is a stunning city, resting among hills, that is painted white and blue from head to toe. I spent a total of 40 euro and got a mountain of gifts. The beauty of shopping in Morocco is that the industry is built of bartering, it's almost like a show that each shopkeeper has to convince you to buy something. I had a lot of fun playing the bartering game. For example, I bought a massive, gorgeous camel hair/silk/leather duffle bag that started at 700 dirham (about 70 euro) and got it down to 250 dirham! I got to play the poor student card a lot and did a lot of reverse guilt tripping. I also purchased some small paintings from an artist who painted each item right in front of me. I wish I could have purchased everything in his shop! All of the blue and white has become a bit of an obsession of mine. So look out, Morocco, I'll be back when I have a house to furnish (and a disposable income). We then were treated to an amazing dinner and I ate my favorite Moroccan dish (in Spanish it's called a pastilla, but I'm not sure what it's called in English...). Basically, it is a genius concoction of chicken and veggies inside of a soft pastry shell that is covered in powdered sugar-- hello heaven! I was so happy! The dinner consisted of jokes upon jokes and all of us thinking we were going to die from happiness. It was the perfect end to the trip.

Following that, we had a debriefing/reflection session about things we learned on the trip. It proved to be sadly lackluster in that the only people who talked were Oxy kids and everyone else seemed to not understand the privilege that all Americans have. It served mostly as a means for the four of us Oxy students to reflect on how grateful we are for our education and our social awareness and how scary it is that there are so many people who do not understand the gravity of poverty and prefer to stereotype all people of the Arab World as terrorists.

So yeah, that was my whirlwind of a trip. I am so grateful that I got to go and experience more than just the touristic side of such a beautiful, fascinating country. I hope that I will get to go to Morocco again soon and experience even more of the country. The Moroccan people that I was lucky enough to meet filled me with interesting things to think about and very seriously changed a lot of my misguided preconceptions of the Arab World. As cliché as it may sound, those five days were extremely transformative and I look forward to traveling to other parts of the Middle East and the vast continent of Africa.

Love you all!