The Moroccan Illusion

Just before the first light of dawn, when the sky is changing from pitch black to blue hues, my eyes sprang open as a sound summons the Berber people of the Sahara Desert. The sound is the Adhan, the Islamic call to worship that occurs five times throughout the day. The Adhan sounds ghostly and ominous to those who are unaccustomed to it, but for the locals it is a signal for them to start their day here in the southern part of Morocco.

For me, it was a signal I had been waiting for since signing up for the International Study Abroad (ISA) excursion offer by my study abroad program in Paris, France; the day when we would discover the beauty of the Sahara desert.

For the previous three days, our group consisting of students from different colleges in Paris spent most of the time in the fascinating city of Fez. Life in Fez was fast-paced and frenzied compared to the calm of the Saharan town of Merzouga.

Fez was crammed, busy, and impoverished compared to the Arabian Night’s vision I had created in my head. Yet, the city still captivated my attention.

Inside the main maze like marketplace, called the Medina, in Fez, Morocco. The Medina contains hundreds of small stalls and shops that sell everything from fabric and carpets to spices and fresh meat. Photo taken by Josie Lucero.

According to World Heritage’s website, the Medina is the walled-in city that contains large markets as well as residential areas and mosques, was nothing like the plein air markets that I had become accustomed to in Paris. The city was cramped, dusty, and crowded with street cats that would patiently wait by for scraps to fall.

As we followed our guide through the maze of markets, he explained that some people lived their entire life in the Medina. I couldn’t imagine spending my entire life living in this city, where the walls were crumbling from age and so tall that it felt like the entire outside world didn’t exist. Yet, the locals' livelihoods depended on the dizzying markets in this area.

Each shop in the Medina was crammed full of the locals handiwork from multicolored ceramics to hand-woven carpets and garments. The food side of the markets was even more abuzz. Mules pushed through the tiny streets to deliver packs of dry fruit and putrid fish to their owner's stands. Customers and shop owners yelled at each in Arabic as they bartered prices for goods.

“[Going to the Medina] was kind of terrifying, to be honest,” said Lexie Ross, a 21 year-old senior journalism student from Colorado State University who visited Fez with her ISA program from Spain. “There were just so many things going on. The streets were narrow with donkey carts going down them. It smelled. It was pretty overwhelming, but what I remember the most was the blood flowing into the drain in the street from all the freshly killed livestock.”

While the image of blood was ingrained in Ross’s mind, her original idea of Morocco also changed after witnessing the Moroccan's lifestyle first hand.

A local woman pays a shop owner for her fresh fish that she buys inside of the busy Medina located in Fez, Morocco.

Photo taken by Josie Lucero.

“I had [pictured] Morocco as Arabic, with nice carpets and all these scents, like you know all the pretty stuff came from Morocco, but I didn’t realize the poverty,” Ross said. “Like, there were kids following us everywhere begging for money. Or even in the Medina people were so desperate to sell their stuff that they would grab you by the arm and say ‘You buy this now’, because they are so poor.”

While Ross saw the poverty as adversity for the locals, Marissa Kozma, a 22 year-old english alumni of Clemson University who studied abroad in Paris with me, saw their poverty in a different light.

“While I obviously saw the poverty when we were walking through the Medina, it wasn’t like the people were unhappy,” Kozma said. “If anything, I thought they were happier than people I was seeing in the United States everyday. So that just made me realize you don’t really need to have a lot to value and appreciate your life.”

A fabric shop owner in the Medina showed us how to properly wrap scarfs into head dresses. Photo taken by Marissa

Kozma.

The following days continued to open our eyes to the different lifestyles of Morocco. After a long fifteen-hour, car-sick-inducing bus ride through the Atlas mountains and southern Morocco, we arrived at the town of Erfoud.

Erfoud was small oasis town with many sand colored buildings that were nestled between the mountains and the edge of the Sahara. From Erfoud, we continued on in 4 x 4s for another hour to our campsite located on the outskirts of the small town of Merzouga.

With dusk falling, we arrived at our campsite, better knows as ‘haimas’, and we were welcomed by a group of men draped in long deep blue shirt-dresses with matching turbans.

“Marhabaan! Bonjour!" said the head guide. "Welcome to the Saharan Desert!”.

Our group soon disassembled and stumbled through the sand to claim our four-man tents before dinner. We reconvened in a large tent at the north end of the haimas, where short round tables with tiny backless seats were set up for dinner. Soon, each table was brought a steaming tagine, a ceramic bowl with chimney lid, full of a very brown-looking dish full of unidentifiable meat and vegetables. Too hungry to care what was in the dish, we dug into the henna colored dish, and were surprised by the immense flavor packed into each tender bite.

Our Berber hosts entertaining the group by playing local music and handmade instruments during our first dinner in the Sahara Desert. Photo taken by Josie Lucero.

After dinner, we began to explore the tall dunes that surrounded our camp. As darkness fell, we sat atop a nearby dune and talked as we waited for the stars to appear in the sky. Engulfed in our conversation, we all jumped out of our skin when a quiet voice spoke behind us.

“Ça va? [How's it going?]” asked the head guide.

Quickly regaining our wits, we responded with polite niceties. Joining us on the sand dune, the head guide asked us if we would like to find a better place, away from the light of the camp, to see the stars. We all eagerly agreed and set out into the pitch darkness that was falling over the Sahara.

Stumbling through the sand, we cross tall dune after tall dune to reach a lightless spot atop the highest dune about half-mile from the camp. From atop the dune, we looked up to see a most spectacular sky, covered in thousands of pin-point stars. We sat there, mesmerized in silence, for a very long time. But, before long, our guide reminded us that we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

We trudged back through the dunes toward our camp, sadden by the idea of leaving the vast sky behind, when our guide said we could sleep outside if we wanted to. Thrilled by the idea of sleeping under the stars, we all quickly dragged our thin sleeping mats and woolen blankets to the top of a dune nearby the haimas. As we prepared for bed, we stared at the immense collection of stars above us and listen to our guide tell French-Moroccan fairy tales.

One by one, we all were lulled to sleep. A blanket silence took over the night until the morning came, and the haunting sound of the Adhan spooked us all awake into the dream that we were living.

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If you wish to experience Morocco, there a number of excursions offered through International Study Abroad (ISA). According to their website, ISA offers excursions in Morocco to any students enrolled in study abroad programs in Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; Meknes, Morocco, and any city in Spain. This excursion's costs are not included in the programs tuition, and varies due to the program’s original location. Duration of the trip and locations visited may also vary from program to program. Visit internationalstudiesabroad.com for more information.

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