So much has happened in the last 5 days…I’ll have to go back and fill in the blanks for Chefchaouen and whatever else I missed.  We came home from Chefchaouen on Thursday night – it was a long, hot ride for those in the mini-bus because the driver was very stingey with the AC.  But we all survived and Chefchaouen was well worth the time spent in the BFB (easy for me to say since I was riding in the luxurious SUV).

Friday we took Dani’s mini-bus to Rabat to see the tomb of Mohammed V and the Hassan II Tower, and do some power-shopping at the pottery cooperative.  I didn’t take any photos at the pottery cooperative this time, but I posted some the last time we were there.  There are some photos from our last trip to the tomb here, and a few new ones below…

After we came home and ate a late lunch, we conned Dani into taking us to Fantasia, which is an Arab horseback riding / shooting extravaganza.  We arrived just as the horses were heading out to the field, so they were all excited and literally chomping at the bit.  Our friend’s nephews have Fantasia horses so we found them and were able to take photos of the horses and get all of our questions answered.

The object of Fantasia is for a team of horses and riders to gallop down the field and simultaneously shoot their guns at the end.  There are also carnival rides (Rule #753 – No carnival rides in Morocco), food vendors, and great people-watching opportunities.  One of the problems we’ve faced on this trip is that we are the people being watched.  There aren’t a whole lot of tourists in Mohammedia, and especially not at Fantasia, AND there are a ton of young boys.  It was a little creepy.  Even more creepy was when Aliya said, “Mom, there’s a dirty man singing and dancing next to me.”  Literally, this guy had not taken a bath for YEARS…I would never say something bad about someone in disadvantaged circumstances, but he was really, really, really dirty.  His gig was to sing, dance, and play the drum next to you until you gave him money to go away.  I’m considering that as my retirement plan.

I’ve been to Fantasia several times and I do not remember it being quite so dirty.  I’ve never been afraid of a little dirt, but this may be the most disgusting gaggle of feet I’ve ever seen.

Saturday morning the Jobinoffems left for the airport around 7:30 a.m. and the rest of us slept until Ben came back from the airport at 10:30.  It was an exhausting week.  I don’t think we did anything Saturday except that I worked and Ben and Elizabeth took the kids to the beach.

Sunday was the day of the weekly souk, and we found out that a family we know from the Boston area was visiting their Moroccan family near the souk, so we made our way to their house and had some mint tea.  After that we went to the souk, which was what Marc guest-blogged about last week.  It was extremely chaotic but we did get a photo of Elizabeth with a cow’s head so it was all worthwhile.

I should have thought of this guest blogger idea a long time ago.  Today’s perspective is offered by Lana…

We are currently pulled over at a gas station because the bus had a projectile bodily fluid episode and needed to be evacuated. The Mamahonkie van became the refuge for the bus passengers, including Adlani, who was barefoot since his shoes needed a “silkwood shower”.   I did not dare leave my seat in the third row of the Mamahonkie van for fear that I would lose my seat and be forced to ride the remaining hour to Chefchaouen in the BFB. Bodily Fluid Bus.

Foreign correspondent Nicholas Jobin provided a very animated play by play of how the vomit episode went down. It sounds like that in order to get children to move quickly, one only has to vomit. I may have to search for a vomit app and play it when I need my kids to leave my airspace.

There are 14 passengers on the BFB.  One is a puker.  One has a nosebleed and three are menstruating.   We are currently experiencing a North African Pad-Pon Emergency. Nobody has enough lady products with them. I think my daughter shoplifted a roll of paper towels from the Moroccan-mini-mart and is clenching it with her thighs under the maxi skirt.

I’m afraid to get near the BFB because I am peri-menopausal and have not evacuated for 6 months.  Those menstrual hormones are contagious and I’m afraid a crime scene may happen in my pants.

I plan on becoming a Moroccan millionaire by building roadside Pad-Pon lady product carts. Lori can put her seedless watermelon and chocolate chip cookie cart next to mine. 

Our van ride has been very educational.  We have passed many almond, olive and eucalyptus plants.  Andi is enjoying the fragrant marijuana burning in the fields. Lines on the road are used as a suggestion and do not necessarily mean you should stay on your side of the road.  I doubt they use blinkers here. 

I’m typing this in the back of the Mamahonkie van.  I’ll stop now so we do not become BFB#2. Lana out.

Ok – this seems to be a theme…it is impossible to express everything we did today.  But here are lots of photos, and a guest blog post from Marc:

We’ve had a very interesting day in Fes.  Lori organized another walking tour for us with 2 tour guides since we are a group of 19 now.  Fes is very different from Marrakech.  Within the medina, the old city that’s surrounded by walls, there are no cars – it’s all pedestrian traffic – and of course donkeys and mules.  The streets are very narrow throughout – no more than 6 feet wide in most parts – sometimes even more narrow.  It’s like a maze and I have no idea how we would have made it through without a guide.  There are a total of 460 quarters in the medina, making it the largest in the world ahead of Istanbul and Cairo.  The guide said it would take 2-3 weeks to explore the entire Medina.  He led us through this maze of cobblestone streets, all in disrepair.  It was fairly hilly in some spots.  All of the streets are lined with shops, much like Marrakech, selling all sorts of things – from chickens to spices, pottery to rugs, produce to leather goods.  There are certain streets that felt clearly geared towards tourists, but many that we went down were where the local people shop for their everyday needs.  The streets are dirty and trash is a problem here as well.  And there are lots of cats – all strays that people leave food for but do not belong to anyone.  The streets were busy with people, but it felt safe.

A lot of our tour was just walking through the streets but we also stopped at some of the sights.  One of our first stops was a Koranic school where kids go to study the Koran.  The architecture was incredible – marble slab floor, fountain in the center, carved wood and tile walls.  The door to the school was huge – each side was easily 6 feet wide by at least 15 feet high.  It was made of beautifully carved wood and brass.  We also stopped at a place that sold handmade rugs.  There were thousands of rugs.  The owner explained the different styles of Moroccan rugs from the different regions.  Had we been in the market for a rug this would have been the perfect place to buy one.  Lori bought a small one and Elizabeth also bought one.  They were beautiful.  We also went to the tannery.  That was an experience.  The guide warned us that the smell would be strong.  On the way in there’s an attendant at the door handing out fresh mint to everyone that enters.  They tell you to hold it up to your nose to help mask the smell.  Then we climbed 5 flights of stairs to get to an open deck above the tannery so that we could see everything.  I wondered “how bad could it smell” and took the mint away from my nose.  Big mistake. It was putrid.

Below us was the entire process.  Huge piles of fresh hides from goats, sheep, cows and camels.  The hides are bought from local butchers.  There’s a process for cleaning them and removing any residual flesh from them – it includes soaking them in a solution that contains pigeon poop which apparently acts as an acid to remove any flesh.  Once cleaned there was another section with huge vats of different colors.  The hides are soaked in these vats to give the leather color.  This week they were doing shades of browns and reds.  It seems like the rotate the colors every couple of weeks because he mentioned that in other weeks they do blues and purples, etc.  Once the hides are died they are laid in the sun to dry.  The entire process is manual.  We saw men hoisting cleaned hides into the vats to start dying them, and others carrying the dyed hides to another area.  The work was beyond smelly and incredibly label intensive.  Our guide said that over time they get used to the smell, but it was so strong I have no idea how they ever could.  Some of the kids said it made them sad to know that these skins came from animals.  On the other hand, we’ve learned that in Morocco, nothing goes to waste, so given that these skins coming from animals that are killed for food, it’s a good thing that they are making use of the rest of the animal and finding a way to earn money.  None of these products are exported – they are only sold locally.

Our next and last stop was at a weaver where we saw men weaving fabric on old fashion looms.  All of the fabrics were traditional Moroccan patterns and colors, and they sold the textiles they wove on sight.  We bought a gold and red and orange scarf that Gia plans to use as a table runner in our dining room made of wool, silk and cotton.

This is the gate that is commonly called the Blue Gate:

The kids, at the Bou Inania Madrasa:

In the market, the kids found a hedgehog to give them a diversion from the thousands of cats:

This riad was refurbished and is now a beautiful restaurant.  The kids were dying to jump in the pool.

These rectangles painted on the walls are for the political parties to advertise:

These traditional windows are to protect the modesty of the women:

Sophia with sphinge:

We went to a rug co-op, where we learned all about Moroccan rug-making.

Elizabeth bought the blue rug in the foreground of the photo below.

I bought the rug in the white rectangle.  I LOVE it.

At the tanneries, the mint helped to temper the smell.

Hands-free!

Tomorrow we are heading to Chefchaouen at 9…more to come.

I knew this would happen…I’ve fallen behind.  We’re doing so much and my limited down-time is split between answering emails, updating both blogs (here’s my work blog), sleeping, and drinking wine.  The day of the souk, we also picked up the Pearce/Lehnertz crew at the airport, scrounged up 3 cars to drive to fantasia only to find that it doesn’t start until today, had a henna artist come over and give us protection from the Evil Eye (photos to follow), and had a trip to the hammam (public bath).  I have video reviews from each person who went to the hammam, but the videos are too large to upload so I’ll save that for later.

Yesterday we took the train to Fez.  We had to get everyone ready by 9 a.m., which is not easy when you have 19 people who just ate dinner at 10 or 11 the night before.  It was quite a victory to get everyone up and out the door.  Uncle Abdullah drove Lana, Larry, and the bags to the train station.  The rest of us went on a 25-minute stroll through Mohammedia and arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare. 

The train was about an hour late – not uncommon here, and when it showed up it was not announced over the PA like the rest of the trains had been.  We jumped on and looked for our seats.  We had purchased first-class tickets so that we could gather everyone in compartments rather than spreading out through the 2nd-class seating, but all of the compartments were full.  The train agent kicked everyone out of 3 compartments and gave us our seats. 

The train was really comfortable – great AC, a sliding door on each compartment to keep out the noise/cigarette smoke/heat, and cushy seats.  I think the Moroccan train system is having some technology growing pains, because many other people got on the train after us and had tickets with the same seats as ours.  Apparently, the fact that we were there first gave us some sort of seniority. 

We made it to Fez by about 3 p.m., and made what was supposed to be a quick pit-stop at the bathroom.  There were about 30 ladies in the bathroom trying to wash so they could pray, and because waiting patiently in line is not a virtue that is shared by most Moroccans, a fight broke out when an old lady cut the line, pushed Aliya out of the way and ducked into the stall.  The drivers for the mini-bus and MamaHonkieMobile waited patiently for us and then drove us to a parking lot, where a couple of guys with hand-carts grabbed our bags and walked us to the two guest-houses we have taken over for 2 nights.

Here are a few photos from the train.  What is most amazing and awesome to me is that the kids have adapted SO WELL to being here.  They’re waiting patiently, chillaxing, playing games, finding something to eat even when the menu is a little limited, and my most favorite adaptation example…one of the kids was on the toilet and couldn’t vacate (a common issue right now), and another kid had to pee urgently, so Kid #2 took a bucket into the shower and took care of business.  I’m not mentioning any names, but it was AWESOME!

I was at the airport when the Jobins and Norah went to the souk, so this post features guest blogger, Marc Jobin…

This morning Ben and his brother-in-law Mustafa took the Jobins and Norah to the souk – the local market in Mohammedia that is open every Sunday.  It was about a 5 minute drive to the outskirts of town.  The roads were dusty and littered with garbage.  The main road was lined with vendors selling anything and everything you can image – old shoes, microwave ovens, drills, rubber buckets, watermelons.  It was almost like a giant flea market, but most everything for sale looked beyond used.  

Further down the road we turned into the main market which is in a large open space on the side of the road.  Each merchant has a tarp above their area and each is selling something different – spices in bins at one, vegetables at another, mint at another, dates and nuts, etc.  Stall after stall of things for sale.  Ben explained to us that most people in Mohammedia where his family lives go to the local butcher, produce market, etc. during the week.  However people from the countryside do not have a butcher, fruit stand, etc., so each week they come to the souk to buy everything they will need for the week.

As we walked further in we got to the livestock area where people were buying live animals (chicken, sheep, cows, etc.)  We did not go very far into this area before we realized that people were picking out their animals and they were being slaughtered and butchered on the spot.  We actually saw a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of “fresh” cow hides from animals that had just been killed.  Thankfully the kids did not notice this, but Norah did announce, “hey, I think I see a chicken with no head.”  We stopped by the cow butcher that Ben knows.  He was selling everything – all of the organs, the brain, the head – all on display.  Keep in mind that the temp was probably 80 degrees and this is all in the open air.  Incredibly eye opening and stomach turning all at once. 

All photos by Gia Jobin.