Irregular Verbs in Context 1

Bab Mansour Gate in Meknès, Morocco

Hi all.  

Well, it happens:  the end of the semester, entrance exams, finals and their subsequent corrections, calculating grades, translations of academic research articles (I'm working on one parallel to this blog post...), and all after having gone through some pretty heavy personal changes this winter -- most for the best, thankfully -- all means that I needed to take some time off.  Hence, Morocco and for nearly 3 weeks*.  Vacation (US) or holidays (GB) are a crucial necessity and allow one to take a break from one's everyday and occasionally humdrum routine and think about other things:  sights, sounds, smells, all of the senses are called into play in beautiful Morocco.

Medersa Bou Inania, Fez, Morocco

The country remains challenging for the Westernly minded, and in fact if you go there one day, it's best just to drop all of your preconceived notions of how life "should be," and accept the fact that in Morocco as in other places in the world, the people's notions of how life "is" tend to be radically different from your own.  Take mealtimes for one isolated instance:  men and women lunch or dine in separate rooms.  Why, you may ask?  Difficult to say apart from "that's just how it's done," meaning that why? is most likely not the proper question to be asking if no logical answer is given.  Another example is money -- our Western and credit-card obsessed societies have almost lost the notion of exchanging paper and metal currencies in business transactions, even at the simplest level.  In Morocco, I found that the societies there still rely quite heavily on actual physical money, even in very large sums, something for which I was unprepared in full (a learning experience:  I'll know better next time!).

When dealing with Morocco or indeed any society whose culture(s) is/are vastly different from one's own, it's always best to go there with a clean slate.  What I mean by this is that, when getting off the plane, stop making "expectations" that the society/-ies resemble your own sociological context and look at theirs as if you were the outsider -- you are in their eyes -- trying to fit in with them.  Learn from what they are very willing, able and indeed aching to teach you about their lives, and treat them as full and complete equals, learning from them as they learn from you.  This is difficult and I'm not saying I'm a saint and was able to do this at every waking moment (especially driving in very urban Casablanca...), but if you maintain this attitude most of the time, the richness of your experience will be exponentially increased.

A couple of other things:

• Morocco is truly a multicultural society and has been for centuries.  The Romans colonized it as part of one of their possessions (I regret that I do not know which one), and in fact there are several ancient Roman cities, of which the magnificent Volubilis near Meknès which I was lucky enough to visit, that have been excavated and are now on display to the public.
• Moroccans are not only Arabs, though Arabic remains the easiest form of communication (written and verbal), with a strong presence of French.  Moroccans are also Jews -- the kingdom has the largest Jewish population in all of Africa -- as well as Berbers or more precisely Tamazight (Berber actually comes from the Roman epithet for "barbarian" and is therefore insulting to them), who make up over 50% of the country, other pre-Arab populations such as the Touareg or Sahrouaris from the "Sahara" as the Moroccans say when they refer to what's known in the west as the "Western Sahara" region formerly known as "Spanish Sahara," the extreme south of the country that was annexed by the kingdom once the Spanish realized that they could not and indeed should not maintain a colony in these days and times.  (The annexation of this area is politically contested apparently by neighboring Algeria and Mauritania, but it is de facto part and parcel of Morocco today.)
• Driving is a challenge since there are rules but most drivers tend to ignore them for efficiency's or expediency's sake.  Be very careful when driving there and don't always assume that your home country's rules will be the rules of the road in Morocco also.
• Meal times tend to resemble Spain more than France:  breakfast is copious (see below) meaning that lunch is typically served between 2 and 3pm, and there is an evening collation or snack served at the end of the afternoon around the delicious atay naânaâ or green tea with mint, before a light dinner near 9pm consisting of home-baked breads and msammen served with a bowl of piping hot and truly  mouth-watering harira soup.

Moroccan breakfast, with msammen (top left corner, folded)

• Be prepared to negotiate just about everything.  Obviously cab fares and meal prices are fixed and cannot be brought down, but bargaining for deals in souks (popular markets) and kissariats (indoor markets) as well as in traditional brick-and-mortar shops is not only expected but considered a game -- if you don't barter, you're considered a bad sport and looked down on a bit.  It is an acquired taste (I hate negotiating everything) but once you get the hang of it you'll find it comes in very useful in many situations.  
• If you are a good customer or go to a carpetseller's, the shopowner might even offer you a glass of mint green tea.  Accept this offer!  I didn't want to accept it at one shop and was advised by a Moroccan that it is considered almost offensive not to accept someone's hospitality, even if you have no intention whatsoever of buying any overpriced item that he may display ceremoniously and very ostentatiously in front of you.  Likewise, if you are visiting someone and it is close to dinner time, you will not only be invited to eat but also expected to stay to dinner -- turning down a dinner invitation because it might not be seemly is also considered the epitome of rudeness, since all of the Moroccans I met there prided themselves on their very, very gracious hospitality.
  Oh, and by the way, Moroccans eat meals with their hands and fingers -- the right hand only.  If no one gives you a fork and knife or spoon, ask for one.  They forget sometimes that you are not one of them and when you ask, they usually say to themselves the equivalent of "oh of course" or "how silly of me to forget."  It is not considered rude to ask for and use silverware at a meal.  But not to worry -- soup will always be served with a spoon.
• Bathrooms...  Umm, what can I say?  They're not what you'd expect in your home country and should be used only in very, very clean places that cater to Westerners -- and even still you might face very unpleasant surprises -- or in utter** emergencies.  Also, keep a supply of paper or tissues on you when you go, just in case you need them...
• Moroccans love children and there are kids everywhere.  I thought that there were far more of them than I see regularly here in France, but the streets are generally safe and in the medinas or old cities, there are no cars, so the kids use the streets, paths and walkways as extensions of their playgrounds.  You can react to children without their parents thinking that you wish the youngsters harm, a huge suprise for me, since I have become used to thinking "cute kid, but don't touch."  If a toddler or young child comes up to you -- a total stranger -- and wants a hug or a kiss, then feel free to do what you want:  you will not be considered a child molester.  In fact the people who I met had a more suspicious attitude toward someone who did not like children rather than someone who did. 

Some younger and very funny residents of Fez who wanted to take a picture and have their picture taken.

So go to Morocco and enjoy yourself:  ask questions, take lots of pictures, come back with wonderful memories and share them with others.  You will enjoy yourself, learn a lot, and wish for one thing and one thing only -- to go back as quickly as you can!






*I realize this is an incomplete sentence; however, I have added it for a dramatic literary  effect and even (dare I say?) artistic licence.
**Second definition -- the adjectival version.