Bits & Pieces of Morocco

Here are just some of the things that I have seen and learned so far while living here.

Traffic: I mentioned before the insanity and here are some pictures to give you an idea:



This is the traffic that I see from my balcony Monday through Friday.  There isn't an accident; this is simply how they get ready to turn.  At first glance (and second and third), it looks like complete chaos, but they actually all know the order in which they will be making the turn.

I see this every time I ride to work.  This is a major road and the egg sellers drive their donkey carts right with the other traffic.  I am constantly imagining the disaster that will happen, but I haven't seen it yet.













The first purchase that I made was this child's caftan.  The seller kept trying to get me to choose a woman's size, but as you can see this fits perfectly.  The women's caftans remind me of mumus.  I love all of the bright colors, for men and women.  As I mentioned, in Casablanca women wear almost anything that you would see in the US.  I have now even seen some shorts, but only on tourists or women with tennis rackets in hand.








I went to a hip hop demonstration at DARAmerica, another project of the US State Department.  A Moroccan had gone to the US on a cultural exchange and then came back to teach this to other young adults.  Notice the two girls, one in hijab, participating.

A Fellow in Rabat sent me this picture of the fast-food joint near her and a sample on the menu.





Drinking alcohol in a cafe is legal here; it just has to be out of the public eye.  So, restaurants and cafes that serve alcohol are on the second floor or inside a building.  My tiny local grocery store has every alcohol that you could possibly want to throw a raging party.





Yesterday a friend and I went to El Jadida, a former Portugese outpost about an hour away by train.  We checked out the walled city and then, on our way to the beach for lunch and sun, we found this tiny cafe with a group of musicians playing traditional music.  We had to stop and have a glass of mint tea and listen for a while.  Everywhere in the world the musicians play different music, but the appreciation of the onlookers and that bond that forms between them, especially in intimate settings like pubs and cafes, is the same.