Travel Blog: The Medina, and the First Night with the Host Family

The Medina

We were lead on a guided tour by an official state sponsored guide. He was a graduate student in Fez and seemed to be in his late thirties to early forties. At multiple points he talked up the government, and I definitely doubted plenty he had to say. Nevertheless, he was knowledgable about the history, friendly and tireless in his pace and his explanation. The old city is breathtaking. After seeing and staying in Jerusalem, I repeatedly mentioned that the old city was like how Jerusalem should look. It is better maintained for sure – definitely cleaner, better explanation and upkeep on the historical sites, and it was overall more of a living city. It simply seemed like it would be easier to live in Fez. Obviously it isn’t a fair comparison, there are 1000000000 things different in the political situations, populations, culture, everything else of these two cities. However, on the similarity of their age, and status as medieval, walled cities; Fez stands out in how much more livable it appears to be. After reading about the hawking salesmen, I didn’t encounter any that wouldn’t politely accept no, thank you and I don’t even think the girls in the group were catcalled (that much), and both of these things are huge differences to other places.

The sites were stunningly beautiful. My pictures don’t do it justice and I’ll have to wait for real photographers to visit me to get real pictures. The first old Koranic college we went into was very well maintained, still functioned as a mosque, but was open air, which meant that by visiting the site we got to get a look at the “inside” of an old mosque, something rare for a non-Muslim foreigner. Check out the pictures of the script, and the mosaics. The streets also were just amazing to walk through. The arches, the … gratings (?) covering the alleys from the top, the high walls and old doors, windows, everything - it was just real, still used, still cleaned, living relics far better integrated into modern life than I’ve seen before. We saw some tanneries (the smell wasn’t as bad as I expected) and some looms. I wasn’t nearly satisfied that those two sites were as real as it got, but they were good, and made for great picture opportunity. I definitely look forward to souk shopping when I have more energy, I was still pretty spent today.

We went by the old Jewish quarter, which is called the same word for salt in Arabic. The reason we were given was that Jews would traditionally serve guests bread with salt and that they controlled the spice and salt trade in the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. I know I’ve read other reasons for this, I’m just blanking on them now. Basically the tour guide made it sound way better to be a Jew in Morocco than common sense tells me it ever was. The Jewish quarter is right next to the palace, literally built at the walls of the compound of the palace in Fez. The reason given was than many Jews were advisers to the king, the more practical reason was that the king traditionally offered them protection. We were told that today one of the top advisers to the King is Jewish and that today less than 200 Jews live in Fez, and a few thousand in Morocco in total. Previous to the founding of Israel, over a quarter million lived in Morocco (we were told).

When we got back to the school, we were put in line and paired up with the waiting host families. They basically just snatched us, introduced themselves, and threw us in their respective modes of transportation and we were off. A woman in her mid-thirties picked me up, she was uncovered, with the traditional henna tattoos on her hands and wearing a long colorful hooded dress. We got out of the car (friend of the family?) and winded through the alleys of the old city, where I’m living now, and got to her apartment. The buildings are everywhere, the door blends right in and we just went right up the stairs, and in the apartment. I don’t think I could find the way out with a compass at this point. The apartment has two pretty large, carpeted living spaces, a new looking TV and speakers, small kitchen and bathroom, and my room, which is pretty big itself with two beds and a pretty big closet thing build into the wall. The apartment is medium sized but its not clear to me that I’m not in the only clear bedroom. There are mattresses and blankets set up on the sides of the two large living rooms and I get the sense that the family sleeps together there and effectively rent this room to me. The family consists of Father (~50), who is quiet and very polite (I’m not sure yet what his profession is), Mother (~33) who owns one or two jewelry/tourist shops with here brother, who is also in the house (with his son?), daughter (13), daughter (12), daughter (5), son (1), and the paternal grandmother. The grandmother is the only one in a hejab and I’m kind of surprised its cool for me to live here given the amount of women and kids, but everyone is super friendly, they tease me to get the names down quickly, and seem to go right around their business like I’m not there for the most part. After the initial introductions, the mom went back to her shop and I rested and unpacked, then it was dinner. Dinner was a lentil soup with bread and what looked liked chopped bologna on the side. Everyone ate from the center, the kids crowded right around me, I was offered everything on the table and everyone was very polite. The kids helped me with some pronunciation afterward and I helped entertain the baby. Now I’m beat and I wrote a hell of a lot. I’ll post this tomorrow when I get some internet at the school. I’ll have internet for a few hours a day tops, so don’t expect me to be cruising skype or anything.

Salaam,