Mercredi

The day before we moved in with our host families, they prepped us with worst-case scenarios. Our directors told us that we should expect to take fewer showers than we’re used to and eat at later times during the day. Many families have their dinner at midnight, especially during Ramadan. “They’ll keep putting food on your plate until they understand that you are done.” We were taught to say the word for “I’m full” in Darija and advised to repeat it when we mean it.

Hand gestures are a crucial form of communication in Morocco, just as in many other cultures. We developed our non-verbal communications “vocabulary” with Doha so that if all else fails, we can communicate in a gestural lingua franca. We learned the words for shame, “watch out,” a little bit, and nothing. I think the most interesting gesture is the one for woman: drawing a line from the mouth to the chin with your finger.  It comes from the Berber tradition of female facial tattooing, which enhances beauty and fertility.

After we had gotten our family assignments and profiles, a few friends and I decided to find our residences in Hassan, a nearby neighbourhood. We didn’t get a chance to find my host family’s apartment, but we walked around Tour Hassan, a minaret in an unfinished musjid intended to be the largest one in the world.  There are two hundred half-constructed columns holding up the sky and intricately tiled water fountains every hundred steps you walk. A haunting white Mausoleum sits on the edge of the mosque looking in.

We wanted to try to meet somewhere further away from our hotel that night, so we picked a Moroccan pizzeria in la centre ville close to Tour Hassan. We weren’t quite sure where we were going, but when we asked for directions a woman abandoned her route home to walk us there.

After dinner we rushed around la centre ville, dodging the lacksidasical strollers on the street. The nightlife explodes in Morocco and the revealing clothing comes out of the closet. The parks that were vacant during the day are suddenly spilling over with all kinds of people in djellebas, tank tops, jeans, and hijaabs.