My 145 Day Journey: Waka Waka Africa, pt.1

Well, the last month has been a complete rollercoaster whirlwind. So let’s backtrack…

Three weeks ago, half of the program including myself (the other half had already gone) headed to the continent of Africa for a three-day excursion. The trip started on a Thursday, and we were all excused from our classes so we woke up not-so-bright and early and got on a coach bus at 7am. At the early time, the Shakira song “Waka Waka” had already become the anthem for the entire trip since it relates to Africa because of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. (Hence the title) We had to bus to a southern port city in Spain where we got some breakfast at the port and then boarded a ferry for our hour long ride across the Gibraltar Straight. Thanks to being exposed to motion sickness (compliments of the family plane) at an early age, I faired the trip pretty well. Others were not as lucky.

We arrived to Africa, but not in Morocco an hour later. We were in the Spanish territory Cueta, so although I could say I was in Africa, I couldn’t yet say I was in Morocco. We had to hop on a bus and go through customs where we all got our passports stamped and then met our tour guide for our first city. For some reason, he wanted to be called Michael Douglas instead of his real name: Abdul. Maybe he thought it was too difficult to say? Who knows.

We first drove into the city of Tetuán and went on a tour of the local workshop school. Here, selected students had the ability to enhance skills like woodworking, metalwork, ceramics, glasswork, and more. It was Spring Break for the students, so we didn’t see very many around, but still were able to see all the work rooms and their amazingly beautiful pieces of art.

Following this tour, we walked into the Medina (city center) of Tetuán where we passed plenty of people selling fruits, clothes, pans, dead chickens, almost anything you could think while we winded around the city streets to get to our lunch spot. The layout of the city was very confusing, mostly because the city is so old, there wasn’t very much city planning used when things were being built.

Lunch was a traditional Moroccan meal, which consisted of 4 courses: meat, couscous, cookies, and mint tea. Everything was very delicious and it was a fun atmosphere to hang out with cushions on the furniture, and some guy spinning candles on his head, and the ability to get henna tattoos if we wanted. I passed on it though.

After lunch we took our bus back to the hotel where we had just enough time to throw our bags in our room and wash up and then we were headed back out to Tetuán to take a tour of the city. When we got back into the Medina, they gave us a few minutes to change our money if we wanted, and while standing around, my friends and I noticed that there were a handful of men just standing around watching us every once in while. It was somewhat unnerving until I realized that they were our personal “undercover” bodyguards. There was one that was pretending to listen to some music with a video camera case, another was reading a newspaper, and a couple others just talking. Whenever someone would get to close to us trying to sell something, or just generally walking too close to the group, one of the guys would jump up and chase him off.

Our tour of the city took us around the market streets where we saw just about everything, like I mentioned before, and then some. We also took a tour of the local tannery, where we were all given spearmint leaves for the smell—and they were used plenty! We also took a tour of the living quarters of the city and had an explanation of family roles, husband, wife, and children. Also on our tour, we were able to see one of the oldest synagogues in Tetuán, which was only a few hundred meters from multiple mosques, and a church. So the town had some diversity in its walls for sure. Also, a couple times a day we were able to hear the call to prayer given over the city’s loud speakers and people would start to head to their local mosque to go pray. During our tour, we ran into a funeral procession a few times. The procession only had men in it, 4 were carrying the coffin, and they would circle the medina 3 times, twice singing, and once in silence. It was interesting to watch and see the differences in our cultural traditions.

In general, I would say in Tetuán most people welcomed us being there. Obviously we didn’t look like the locals, so people could tell that we were different and either would say “Welcome to Morocco” or “Enjoy your stay” in English or Spanish. There were a couple men who walked by and in Arabic they would say something that would merit the bodyguards to chase them off. I never felt unsafe in the city, especially with the bodyguards around. The city itself was pretty dirty. It is so old that it’s difficult to clean, especially when the alleys and roads are sometimes just dirt.

Dinner was had back at the hotel, and was pretty traditional once again. For every meal over the weekend, we were given bottles of water to split between two people since the water in the city was untreated.

After dinner, we headed to our rooms, were I shared one with Erin and Maria, and took showers, and went to bed after a long day filled with many different experiences.