More on Busses

When you want to get on a bus in Marrakech, you can use a couple of techniques that are socially acceptable and may get you on a crowded bus and possibly a seat. I have seen or used them  myself numerous times.

People often crowd the doors instead of lining up and boarding single file. For this situation, you need a defensive move.  As soon as you are close enough, feel free to use what I call the "door block techique"  where you reach past  as many people as you can who are boarding the bus ahead of you. With an arm now extended to either or both doors, you can block people from getting ahead of you from the sides (this is my favorite).

Sometimes the bus is so crowded that people are standing on the front steps.  Don't despair of getting to your destination.  You can reach on and pay the driver at the front of the bus and then climb aboard through the back door.  Of course, the back is probably equally crowded, so feel free to Twister your way on board.

Once your on board, if you're a woman of a certain age, a man of advanced age, enormously pregnant, holding a small child, or have an obvious physical disability, then you are entitled to go on the offense.  You can ask a someone to relinquish their seat to you.  Most people will.

On the Street Where You Live

Behind any given street in Marrakech, where you might expect to find back doors and alleyways, you may find instead a warren of homes and walkways.  I'm not sure how these off-street streets are designated for, say, the post office. 

Their existence does explain why taxi drivers navigate by landmarks rather than by addresses.  Of course, the foreigner who, proudly showing off her faux-Arabic with a freshly memorized destination, may be suddenly at a total loss when it comes to knowing what is considered a landmark in the area. Not that that has ever happened to me.

Nat King Cole, probably best known now for his song "Unforgettable",  might never have recorded this other classic tune had  Lerner and Loewe  lived in Marrakech.  "On the street where...behind the other street...where you make that left...."  It just doesn't sound the same.

Home Improvement

The owner of my apartment decided she wanted to add decorative trim to the outside of the interior building windows overlooking her courtyard.  Sounds nice. she's chosen brown and white ceramic tiles in an alternating diamond and triangle pattern.  Looks nice. 


The way it gets applied is that the tile guy has to first climb a ladder outside the building in order to hammer and chisle off the existing stucco. Then he taps and cements the tile to the cinderblock underneath. So what he does is this: hammer, hammer, hammer. Bang, bang, bang. Tap, tap, bang, hammer. For hours and forever every single day. Starting way too early in the morning. 

Pity the poor non-morning persons. And the mom of the 2-month old downstairs. And the rest of us, as all of this hammering, banging and tapping is a 100% guaranteed headache-maker.

Since his ladder won't reach the third floor, he's had to come inside my apartment to do my windows. Most of my windows are open, but some in the living room and kitchen have actually been removed for better access to the outside and to avoid damage. My washing machine is sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor. I can hear him now moving my stove off further to the side.

When the tile guy was working on the second floor, the baby downstairs took his naps in my aparment.  Now I'm hanging out and eating with the family downstairs.

There are a couple of differences as to the way work is done in Morocco. The tile guy takes breaks to go to the mosque for prayer. The homeowner provides him with a big home-cooked meal everyday. I am leaving fruit, juice and water on the table for him to eat as he pleases. Since he is now working inside my apartment, I have to treat him as a guest.

The Importance of Blankets

Moroccan homes are stocked with huge numbers of blankets. Until my first winter here, I didn't fully appreciate why that is. I never really thought much about blankets.  I take them out during cold weather, and I put them away when it's warm.  Blankets last for years on end.  I rarely have occasion to buy a new one.  I always kept just enough for family and maybe a couple of guests. Then I came to Marrakech.

Marrakech homes, public buildings, even hospitals may be unheated.  It never snows here. The temperature never goes below freezing, although it gets uncomfortably close.  Understandably, blankets are everywhere.  Got visitors?  Give them blankets and hot tea when they enter your home.  Going to be a patient in the hospital?  Take your own blankets, just to be on the safe side.

Once I was one of a group of female guests in a home, and we were settled for the night side by side on pallet several blankets thick.  We were covered with a couple of individual blankets each, and then the our entire group was covered by the single largest blanket I have ever seen. It measured a good 15 feet across.  We were less likely to be cold than we were to be crushed under the weight of it.

I have seen coarse, heavy blankets substitute for rugs on a cold floor.  I've seen soft, plush blankets folded and stacked as high as the homeowner.  I've seen them stored in closets and beneath sofa cushions. Don't know what to give a bride and groom?  Blankets are probably the most common wedding gift in Morocco. The lowly, utilitarian blanket in America has here an importance borne of necessity.

Alternatives to Speaking Arabic in Morocco

If you are thinking about visiting Morocco, there are alternatives if you don't already speak Arabic, and don't have the time to devote to learning it.  French is your best bet. Many children start learning to read and write both Arabic and French from the time they  are enrolled in (paid) pre-schools at the age of 3 or 4.

Because most of Morocco was a French protectorate for about 40 years in the first half of the 20th century, French remains the language of the university and of business. If you get sick while in Morocco, you will discover that French is also the language of all things medical.

English was only introduced into the schools in 2002.  So English is still a distant second to French.

If you are going to the Mediterrean coast of Morocco, that area of the country was under Spanish rule for a time.  Knowing some Spanish could help you there. 

You can try learning some Berber as well.  Moroccan people are mostly of Berber or Berber/Arab descent.  There are several major dialects, so be sure to pick the right dialect for the region in which you will be travelling.

A Small Adobe House

A while back, I had the opportunity to visit an adobe home here in Marrakech.  The house was tiny, 4 rooms in about 400 square feet.  The was a bed room, a kitchen, and 2 salons. The rooms were spotlessly clean.The interior walls were all pale yellow.  In the bedroom there was a double bed shared by the parents  and a nine month old baby girl.  There was  an enormous, 3  door wardrobe.  The family's clothes were folded neatly inside of it, with suitcases and boxes stacked on top.

The other 3  children, a pre-school girl and elementary school-age son and daughter shared the 2 salons at night. The salons each had sectional sofas and tables for entertaining and dining. The sofas were covered in a  beautiful beige fabric with tiny lavender and yellow flowers. Carved scrollwork embellished the archway separating the two salons. 

The larger salon had a tv and opened into the kitchen. The kitchen had cabinets, a stove, refrigerator  and sink. A flower arrangement filled the display space above the kitchen doorway.

The  front  yard, another 100 square feet or so, was enclosed by a fence roughly 9 feet high. The dirt in the yard is constantly swept clean. This was a multipurpose area also. It was a play area for the children.  Clotheslines hung from side to side.   A walled off area immediately outside of and to the right of the front door  was the outhouse. Another  section of the yard  near an outer wall was partially closed off as an additonal storage and clothes washing area.

Outside of the  house and across the dirt road was a municipal tap that supplied clean  water for that house and its neighbors.

This family does not have a lot of money, but the parents and children are literate and well fed.  Their home is not an indicator of dire poverty; it reflects the housing standard of most Moroccans little more than a generation ago. As well as owning a modern cinderblock townhouse, working class families in the city live in either modern apartments or these older adobe homes.

 My companions  and I were there for a brief time, just long enough for coffee and doughnuts.  It was a little disappointing; the mom is an excellent cook, and her dinners are always memorable.

The WC or Life's Little Necessities

1. The "necessary room" in Morocco is most often just that.  A place for life's little necessites and nothing else.You will be hard-pressed to find a spa-bath among the common folk. My bathroom is so tiny you can easily see wall to wall here.
2. A word of advice:  if you are travelling and want or need a Western (sitting) toilet, ask in advance about the accommodations.  Squat toilets  are the norm in Morocco. Here is a little advice on what they are and how to use them--I'm not kidding, although I wish I were.
3. Finally, showers are pretty much universal. Bathtubs are rare. 

Darth, Is That You?

One of the great joys and blessings of living in a Muslim country is hearing the call to prayer, the adhan, 5 times a day. There are some mornings when, tired and sleepy, I admit that the pre-dawn call to fajr is not so enthusiastically received. But one morning was different.

One morning I awoke.  I listened,  and I smiled.

There was a substitute for the regular muezzin who always makes the call to prayer. On one single morning,  it sounded as if Darth Vader was calling me to worship Allah.  How could I refuse? 

No Crystal Stairway to Heaven

The beautiful tile staircase where I live

Stairs like these are common. They are quite lovely.  They are also steep and long.  Moroccan architecture isn't always big on conveniently spaced landings.  

I have to go up 2 of these to get to my apartment.

This is not a crystal stair, nor is it the stairway to heaven.  But if you're coming to Morocco, you can leave your StairMaster behind.

The Ultimate Multi-Purpose Room

The living room in Morocco is an entertaining, dining and sleeping space.

The salon in a Moroccan home is the ultimate multi-purpose room.  It is a living room/dining room/guest room/kids bedroom. As a living room, family and friends gather hereto talk or relax.  When it is time to eat, the low, sofa-height table turns this into the dining room.  When guests arrive for weddings and other such family events, the couches (and floor space) can  accomodate them.

The nesting tables provide places for extra dinner guests

The salon is also a kids' room.  Some homes have only one bedroom, the parent's room.  The babies sleep in the parent's room.  Older kids sleep on the couches at night and put the covers away in the morning. 

Often homes, even 1 bedroom homes,  will have 2 living rooms so that children or guests can be separated by gender.