if you don't wake up in shackles... game on!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 (11:13pm) - Atlantic Ocean

okay, now that i've had a day to sit and think about my life for a second, here's my reflection on morocco. since entering college, i've spent a lot of time studying the muslim world in many of my classes, for whatever reason. being there... whole different story. we were told as women to not go anywhere without a man, but this was to the point that i had to wear a ring on my wedding finger so that i wouldn't get harassed AS MUCH. still got harassed the whole time, especially in the market places. the men would cat-call at us and had no shame in basically groping us as we walked by. not okay. it was really weird because for the most part, we only saw men during the day. like the cafes were ONLY men, which was really strange. morocco is supposedly becoming this more progressive, modern country... but it was hard to tell at times. coming from America (the land of Title IX), being so inferior and having to literally rely on merely a guy's presence for my safety was out of control. as such, one of the more interesting things we saw were the women walking around. girls my age  who were like besties would walk around and one would be in the full-on muslim garb and the other would be in like spaghetti straps and heels. so that was pretty interesting. and like, on the train from marrakesh back to casablanca, the family sitting next to us had a mom that was all dressed up and the daughter was wearing a paris hilton t-shirt. okayyyy, like what? so i think the next generation of moroccans is going to be WAY different from the current one.

one of the things i noticed right away was how dirty the city was... there was trash everywhere and a lot of buildings were pretty run down. and by trash i mean plastic bags... EVERYWHERE. everyone go buy those reusable bags at the grocery store, because i think i found where all the plastic ones end up. a lot of morocco reminded me of tijuana, but when we were driving through the atlas mountains... the level of poverty was on a whole different level. the villages the berber people lived in were mud buildings on the side of the mountain. the ironic part was that the shops and restaurants in some of the "nicer" villages would have coca-cola signs or some american/modern link to the world.

another interesting part of morocco was the traffic laws. or lack thereof. i now understand why semester at sea doesn't allow students to rent cars/motorcycles/etc... the "traffic laws" were merely a suggestion. stoplights, who needs em? driving lanes... what's the point? like, when we were in the taxis we were holding on for dear life. we would make a right hand turn from 5 lanes over through all the other cars. not great. and crossing the street was a lot like that video game 'frogger.' in the USofA, pedestrians have the right away. even if you're jaywalking, the cars are going to stop so that don't hit and kill you and go to jail for vehicular manslaughter. other way around in morocco. you better RUN across that street before you get taken down. i think moroccans have a secret game they're playing called "who can hit the most american tourists?" gladly, i was not a part of that game... but crossing the street was a struggle.

i don't think i ever really felt safe while i was in morocco. after surviving our algerian sex slave/camel trek debacle, our motto of morocco was "if you don't wake up in shackles... game on!" and i think that was kind of how i felt the whole time. "i'm still not dead, so let's go do the next thing." i was talking to a lifetime learner named rosalyn today about how even if i'm in a big city in america, i still have a semblance of safety... but while i was in morocco, i was convinced i was going to get mugged every second. she told me that it's because in america i have a game-plan and know what i need to do if something happens. i think she's right. i had no idea what to expect going into morocco, but now that i survived that i kind of have an idea of what i need to do when i get to other ports. so hopefully ghana is going to be a different experience.

oh and by the way, that whole camel trek thing was a big scam. they weren't even real camels. camels have two humps. these things had one. so i risked my life to ride a fake camel. and in case you were wondering, i have legit battle wounds on my butt from that frickin' ride. too much information? i don't care. now, imagine battle wound ass on a 9 hour bus ride to marrakesh and a 4 hour train ride to casablanca. beginning to catch my drift here? and that whole gazillion hour bus ride was equivalent to driving from san diego to the middle of oregon... spending the night... then driving back. for the win.

but, "if you don't wake up in shackles... game on."