Balak!

"Watch out!" is one of the two phrases I learned in Arabic, the other one being "La", which means "No." These were very fitting phrases to learn, since both were used frequently in the markets we visited. We heard "Balak" when a taxi (which in this part of Morocco is a donkey) was coming through, and we needed to use "La" when street venders were pestering us to buy things. 

My Moroccan adventure this past weekend was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life. I am not going to post pictures just yet, even though I do have some great ones, because they don't do justice to the Moroccan culture, landscape, or people I encountered. Actually, words can't really describe it very well either but I think they might do a better job. I know that sometimes it's easy to skim over words when there are pictures to look at, so in doing this I'm making sure that you actually read what I have to say. :)

We spent most of our time in the city of Fez, which is one of the largest and most important cities in Morocco. Actually, back up... we spent most of our time in a bus or a boat trying to get to Fez... We spent the second biggest amount of time in Fez itself. The city has two distinct sections: the old part, called Medina, and then the new part. Medina is a walled off area where there are 400,000 inhabitants, 9400 streets (if you can call them that when they are only about 4 feet wide), 375 mosques, 80,000 shops, NO cars or motorized vehicles, and lots of donkeys. 

When we were walking through Medina, there were all sorts of smells drifting around... fresh fruit, dust, raw meat and fish, perfume, donkeys, cigarette smoke, spices, and people... Lots and lots of people. There was also a flurry of sounds all around. People speaking in Arabic and French, babies crying, donkeys' hooves on the ground, meat sizzling on the stove, people bartering to lower prices... The streets were dirty, and in general the people were poor. There were men, women, and children begging on nearly every street corner.

Being in and among the people of Medina was my favorite part of the trip. It wasn't necessarily my favorite because it was fun, but more because I was able to see firsthand a culture that I previously knew little or nothing about. Parts of it reminded me of Spain. Parts of it reminded me of the Philippines. However overall, Morocco was completely distinct from any other place I've been. 

It was hard to be in such a poor place and see people who are barely getting by. It made me evaluate the priorities in my life and realize how blessed I am. However, there was something even harder for me than witnessing the poverty. 

I was SO close to the people... smelling them, touching them, being squished in between them... and yet I felt a huge disconnect with them. When I would make eye contact with people, it was like there was an understanding between us that we don't understand each other. Their lives are so different from mine! I want to know how to connect with them and learn how the world looks through their eyes. It was extremely difficult for me to accept that this was not going to happen during my short trip and probably won't ever happen to the extent that I want it to. The barriers of language, religion, and location are HUGE. In order to know them in the way that I desire to, I would have to learn Arabic and live among them for an extended period of time. 

Because of all of these thoughts, my trip ended up forming many more questions in my head than it answered. I did learn a lot, but one of the things I learned is how much I still don't know.