Culture Shock (8/1)

I am sitting on my 4^th floor balcony overlooking a beautiful garden full of palm trees and a gorgeous swimming pool. It is about 5 am.

So, where to being? Firstly, let me just say I AM IN AFRICA! Marrakech, Morocco to be specific. Apart from the whole 115 degree heat thing it is perfect. In general, Africa is like nothing I have ever experience. On the four hour drive from Casablanca (where the MV Explorer is docked and a huge shipping magnet) we passed by so many Berber villages. These villages housed some of the poorest people I have ever seen. Many had goats or donkeys and it became not uncommon to see someone trotting down the highway on a donkey or with a donkey pulling a small cart. That in itself was a huge culture shock. Maybe that should be the theme for this post- culture shock.

Let me point out a couple things about Moroccan culture before I proceed much more. Firstly, it is currently Ramadan in the Muslim world which entails no eating or drinking from sunup to sundown. In fact, because Morocco is an Islamist state (culture shock there too) it is in fact illegal for anyone to drink or eat during that period in public. For instance, last night dinner was held at 8:45 pm because that is when the sun went down.  One more culture shock and very interesting thing is that you are not allowed to bring in or leave Moroccan money (dirham.) I have yet to figure out the logic behind this rule- counterfeiting maybe?

One more thing before I continue with the excitements of the day: yesterday was kind of bitter sweet because many of the crew members are leaving for their homes. I mentioned the two waiters that I became fond of both were giddy in the morning for breakfast because they had less had hardly an time left on the ship. One of them even said that he woke up at 4 am and couldn’t get back to sleep because he was so excited to go home (to the Philippines.) It was pretty heartwarming to see J I can’t even imagine what it would like to be on a ship serving people for 9 months long.

Alright, enough reminiscing about those long gone friends (tear) and move onto recounting the travels of August 1^st. Marrakech is about a 4 hour bus ride from Casablanca and is the biggest tourist city in Morocco.  It is the third largest city behind Rabat (2.5 million) and Casablanca (6 million.) One of the things that struck me as interesting and different when I got into Marrakech was the immense amount of brown that I saw. All of the buildings and most of the ground is covered in brown colors. The hotel that I am staying at for the next three days is pretty cool. All of the electricity in the room is activated by inserting the room key into this little slot in the wall and then all of the lights and the AC turns on. Also- we have a fridge (cold water J ) and a very nice balcony.  It is quite the fun place to stay!

Tonight encompassed dinner (a bunch of unique food that I have never tasted before, and gave me a tummy ache.) and then it was onto bed (and of course watching Olympic swimming for a little bit.) I can’t wait to see where tomorrow takes me.