Weekend in Fes

I met up with a couple volunteers from my training group in Fes for the weekend! It was great to get out and travel on our own without the rules and restrictions of training. We barely saw any of the city, but had a good time!! I met Jonathan, Phil and Erin.

Fes has a new city, built by the French and an old city built over the past 1,000 years by the locals. The old city, Medina, is still surrounded by defense walls, but has large “doors” or entrances. We stayed at a hotel near Bab Boujeloud which offered views of the nearby mosques and the beautiful “door” to the city.

We spent Saturday morning walking through the Medina, which is a maze of roads and alleys. There were narrow alleyways where it looked like the buildings on either side were reinforcing each other with wood beams. Others where you'd see a sign directing you down a side alley towards a shop promising wonders. We found our way to a leather shop and after much discussion, back and forth bargaining and pleas of “we have very little money, we are volunteers,” all 4 of us left with new leather bags! The shopkeeper had to go check with the “owner” to make sure he wasn't accepting to low a price. He made sure to tell us what a deal we were getting.

OK we didn't exactly leave with the bags. The straps on mine and Erin's bags were too long, so the man offered to shorten them for us. We paid half the agreed price and told him we would return before he closed at 7pm. When we returned later in the afternoon, he tried to charge us an extra 20Dh for the sewing job! We refused on the basis that he didn't tell us that previously and he kept telling us no problem to shorten the straps when we were bargaining. As were were leaving he told us “Well, I paid the man 20Dh but if you don't want to pay me then OK, but I paid him 20Dh.”
We barely touched the old Medina in our 2 or 3 hour stroll...I think we were still in tourist land and not into the heart of the Medina. One of our teachers from training, Said, lives in Fes and we met him for lunch. He took us back to his family's house and his mom and sister made us a wonderful feast! It was fun to see how city Moroccans live and to compare and contrast that with how people in rural areas live. We all practiced our language and also spoke English with Said and his brothers.

By the time we got back to our hotel it was 7pm and everyone wanted a shower and some time to relax. By coincidence, there were 4 PC volunteers from Gambia staying at the same hotel. They were at the end of a month-long vacation around Morocco! It was a great surprise and we spent the evening chatting and comparing our work and the PC rules. We Moroccan PC's had planned to go to a sushi restaurant for dinner and we convinced our new friends to join us.

The restaurant was just outside a fancy hotel/resort place and was a bit upscale for PC volunteers, but we were all craving “American” food and decided to go for it. We Moroccan PC's are still living with host families so we can't yet cook for ourselves and the Gambian volunteers stay with their host families the entire 2 years so they were really craving a taste of home. Over dinner we talked about food...we are sick of bread and tea here in Morocco but the Gambian volunteers were thrilled to see bread. I would love some beans, and they are sick of beans. So we decided its a give and take and no matter where you are, the local food will become routine and unexciting.

My sushi cost half as much as my new leather bag and I decided I would be staying home for the next month and saving my Dirhams. It was worth every penny, though – yes Fes is nowhere near an ocean and I am in Morocco, but I've been eating home-cooked Moroccan food for 4 months. When else will I get a chance to eat sushi?!

Sunday morning was too short! We slept late because they began tearing down the building next door at 1am and continued for most of the night, so none of us slept much. Since the streets are so narrow and crowded during the day, I guess the construction has to happen at night. There was yelling and then something would crash and then people would cheer. This happened over and over again...

We ate a leisurely breakfast and then said goodbye to Jonathan and Phil, who had an 11am train to catch. Erin and I walked around a bit until it was time to catch our buses. We passed the man from the leather shop and he greeted us like old friends, so I think the extra 20Dh request was just a way to get a few extra Dirhams out of us.

The bus ride home was long and hot. The bus was oversold and I waited until it was leaving to board. This was a mistake because people save seats on the buses and I hadn't saved one so I was stuck with the back row. I was relieved when I found that there was an open seat, but that feeling was short-lived. The bus was oversold, so they crammed an extra person in with me. So I spent the next 4 hours between a young man listening to his music and trying to make room for me and a man who alternately rested his arm on the seat in front of him or on my leg. Neither was pleasant because when he lifted his arm, I was overwhelmed with body odor and when he rested it on my leg, I was just plain uncomfortable.

There's no air conditioning on the buses and only 2 windows that actually open, so its like being in a greenhouse in the sun. By the time I got to Khenifra, I was drenched in sweat and thrilled to breathe fresh air.