Last Friday night our group of 41 (38 girls and 3 guys, but that’s a post for another time) headed out to Algeciras to stay in a hostel in preparation for our morning ferry to Tangiers (here’s a map of our entire trip). We then split into three groups (phew!) and set off with our leaders from Morocco Exchange, a fantastic organization dedicated to changing stereotypes between western society and Arabic, Islamic, societies by means of short visits to Morocco. I thought it best to share the trip with pictures, click a thumbnail to see it in full size.
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- Entrance to the Mausoleum in Rabat.
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- Inside the Mausoleum lie the bodies of Mohamed V and his two sons, King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. A Quaran is placed in the upper right corner, often someone sits there and reads aloud.
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- Ruins of an old Mosque, just outside the Mausoleum.
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- Traditional windows in Morocco. The “shutters” would allow a woman to be dressed casually, i.e. without the veil, and maintain modesty while being able to see the street.
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- Tom, Amy, and me at an old city coast we stopped to see on the way from Tangiers to Rabat
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- Roman ruins outside of Rabat. Note the minaret built on top of the ruins.
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- Me, Mohamed 1, Natalie, Mohamed 2 (they told us to use numbers 🙂 ), and Stephanie. Morocco Exchange set us up with small groups of students to show us around Rabat. We ended up talking politics and religion too, super interesting.
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- View from our hostel in Chef Chaoen. Most beautiful city we saw in Morocco.
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- Market in Chef Chaoen. Bartering is akin to a sport in Morocco, both the buyer and seller enjoy it greatly.
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- Dinner in Chef Chaoen. Great olives and the best goat cheese salad I have ever had.
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- Streets of Chef Chaoen.
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- Early morning hike. Definitely worth the loss of sleep.
Bottom line: Morrocan/Islamic/Arabic culture is not what we think it is in The States, even if you have tried to guard yourself from media stereotypes. Every Moroccan I met wants peace, dialogue, and understanding between our cultures despite our differences in religion.