First Impressions of Rabat
It’s been just over a week since I arrived in Morocco! Now that I have some bearings (some being the key word) I wanted to share some of the major differences between Canada and Morocco. I wanna give a shoutout to everyone who’s been in touch and who has asked “what’s Morocco like”. It seems like such a harmless and easy question to answer but it’s so incredibly difficult to try and summarize a whole country in just one word. This will be a long post, but I hope it helps answer this question.
The one word which best describes the difference is uniformity. In Canada, if you buy a pack of gum at any convenience shop, the price will be more or less the same. Walking down the street, we expect that the sidewalks to be more or less even. Even if you go across the country (except maybe Newfoundland or the North) you can expect people and cultures to be slightly different, but nothing drastic.
Morocco this is not the case. If you take a cab from point A to point B, you can expect to pay a different price every single time. Sidewalks can and will slope or turn to stairs at random times. Often the sidewalks just simply don’t exist so you have to walk along the road. Furthermore, the culture between cities is totally different. The people in Fes (which I will talk about in a later post) are so different culturally than in Rabat than in Tangiers, and all three are major cities.
Moroccan people are no exception to this lack of uniformity. Because of a mixed Berber/Arab background, almost all Moroccans are a mix of both groups. As a result they have a variety of different features, and for some (very good) reason, are super attractive! Here, how people dress is incredibly important. Older people will always wear a collared shirt at least, even the poor, while young people will almost always be wearing a knockoff brand name. My favourite one so far was a little kid with a giant Polo logo and just the letters PLO haha.
Moroccans are also crazy football (soccer) fans so it’s not uncommon to see someone wearing a knockoff Barcelona or Real Madrid jersey. Most people seem to support those two teams however there are a number of other teams, mostly from Spain, Italy and Germany.Moroccan football is also huge. My first time seeing a real protest was because the team from Casablanca was playing the team from Rabat and people were going nuts.
Finally, Moroccans love to talk, especially if you take start a conversation with them and look local. It’s not uncommon to have ‘real talks’ about politics and life with the cab drivers. Many Moroccans speak at least 3 languages- Darija (Moroccan Arabic), French, and one of english or a berber language- and it is considered a shame if one does not. I find people love to talk about politics. Everyone has an opinion on ISIS, Wahabi islam and the burqa in Morocco, the conflict in Syria, American foreign policy, and the local government to name a few. Additionally, people love talking about football, but you have to actually know things about who’s playing. Bonus points if you know Moroccan soccer players who play abroad!
Sorry about how long this took. I’ll be trying to update this every week- Stay tuned for more