Casablanca and Africa!

Yesterday Europe, today Africa. Within 16 hours of leaving Spain, we arrived in Casablanca, Morocco. Also, resurrection achieved. I slept like a brick last night, and felt so much better when I woke up. At 9am, we had a 2 hour long cultural and logistical pre-port presentation of Morocco. This was the first time in SAS history that they had a second port within a day of leaving the last port. Although it may seem to be early in the morning, we gained two hours last night, so two extra hours of sleep that gave me a reason to stay up late :). As soon as the meeting was over, I rushed to the outside deck to watch us dock to the port. It felt really weird to be in a different continent within a couple of hours. Just looking at the port, I could see a significant difference between Casablanca and Cadiz. For starters, Casablanca was much bigger and busier than Cadiz, the people were different, the city has more modern and “plain” architecture while Cadiz was a little more authentic and old, and Casablanca was more lively which much more activity and vehicles than Cadiz. However, the weather seemed about the same, or at least today the Moroccan weather was quite pleasant (maybe slightly on the hot side). I ran into a friend who was in need of a money belt, as was I, and the student store was not open. So we went to Kathy, one of the faculty in charge of many things, and asked her if she could maybe help us get two money belts. She went off to ask, but returned unable to help us. Later in the day however, she found us and told us that she was able to get those two belts for us. This helped relieve some of the stress, because Morocco apparently has a reputation for petty theft like pick-pocketing. After getting some lunch, I got ready to for wandering the streets, met up with Ben, Nick, and others, and departed the ship. Once again (like in Spain), when I touched the ground I thought to myself, “I’m in Africa. This is awesome.” The port is so big, that we have to catch a shuttle to get to the gate of the port, otherwise it’s about a 20 minute walk. As soon as I stepped into the streets of Morocco, especially the markets, I felt a huge similarity to India, and so felt right at home. The city was bustling with people and vehicles, there was a same din of people activity as in India, and cars honked their horns quite often. There were shops, stalls, and street vendors everywhere and the products were more authentic soveigner gifts, food, or fake name-brand material like clothes, belts, movies, and footwear. There was a certain liveliness in the markets that made me feel a sense of enjoyment, energy, and excitement. Sellers were calling us to buy their products, street vendors were following us doing the same, children were running around the streets either working with their parents or on their own, and businessmen and other laborers were rushing past on their way to work. The one thing I liked most is how friendly the store people were. After bargaining for some jeans for Nick (which I was able to cut to almost half the price), the store owner gave us a great big smile, shook our hands happily, gave us a big pat on the back, and wave us goodbye. People here just seem so happy no matter what is going on. Store owners were constantly chatting with one another and laughing, children were playing in the streets, and people were quite often saying hi to us and welcoming us to Casablanca and Morocco. We spent the next 3 hours wandering the streets and walking down random market streets, making sure were knew where we were relative to the main street and the port. Walking down these streets really makes you get lost in the environment around you. Everywhere I looked, I saw so many similarities to India. People buying their groceries from street vendors, bargaining for products, talking and laughing with their friends, cars and motorcycles driving down streets with barely enough room, and satellite dishes everywhere (even on small/tiny houses/apartments). It was also quite interesting to listen to hear my friend’s thoughts and feelings to what they were experiencing. Most of them have never been to a place like this, and they were surprised by the sights, smells, and activity of the city. Nothing, however, really seemed to surprise me because I have been to India 7 times in my life (equivalent to 1+ year of my life) and have seen many of things (some of them worse in India) I saw in Casablanca. Nevertheless, the city was different from India. First of all and obviously there were different types of people here (a different mixture of Islamic/Arabic and Africans), the place was probably not as dirty as a whole as many parts of India (but I haven’t seen the rest of Morocco), and of course it was just really different seeing every female almost completely covered except for their faces. I tried to resist buying too much stuff since I would be going to Marrakech (where I could find much more authentic and traditional things in greater choice and variety) and Vietnam (where I could find many cheap things, including bootlegged movies and TV shows), but it was difficult to resist. We headed back to the ship for dinner because it was Ramadan and so no restaurants were opened yet (and we couldn’t really find any) due to the fast until sunset. After dinner, which was quite good today, I went back to my room for a little while and then headed out again with Noah, to wander the markets again. Unfortunately the shuttle drivers were off to dinner so we had to walk to the gate, which was not bad since the weather was very pleasant. However, as soon as we got out of the gates we realized our mistake of going out at this time. It was Ramadan, and it was dark, and so almost everything was closed. It was quite interesting to see how dead the city was at night during this religious time of year; not a single vehicle was operating (except for the city bus, but even that was quite rare to see), there were almost no one left on the main streets or the markets. This however did not perturb us from wandering the markets for a little while since there were still a few stalls still open. After only about 30 minutes, however, we called it quits and headed back to the ship (we were able to catch the shuttle this time). Back in my room, we watched one of my movies (Iron Man, which we had never seen) and then I began packing for my Marrakech and Essaouria trip for the next 4 days. It’s going to be a long and intense trip, but I’m looking forward to all the different experiences. As a whole, I really liked Casablanca so far, and I may go on a limb here to say that I may enjoy Morocco more than Spain (or at least in a cultural sense). But we will see what happens. Now I must call it a night, since I am still tired from Spain, and I have a long trip ahead of me.
-Nimish
September 9, 2010