MOROCCO 2007: Americans in Morocco — December 29/30, 2007

Vendors and street people in Marakech are much more aggressive than in Fes.. and we’re having to constantly say that we are from Finland.. and start talking Finnish (with our rather meager Finnish vocabulary)… Then they leave us alone.. as noone knows that language.. guess it’s a bit intimidating…  The result.. 13 days and still no carpet!

It’s still difficult to photograph local people.. so I’ve resorted to very different kind of shooting than what I’m used to.. but oh well. It’s actually impossible to capture this place.. from the constant rush of people to the unending tiny shops to the cacaphony of colors and smells…

Being an American here is interesting. There’s a definite anti-American sense, but like in other countries there is an assumption that those who travel are anti-Bush and therefore OK as Americans. Indeed the woman in Skoura (where we literally said that. She said people in the market say they are surprised that she rents to Americans… And she answers that people who stay at her place are anti-Bush.. Then she asked us if we were… Similarly in a small shop, once we had to admit we were not from Finland… the shopkeeper said we would get better prices by not being Americans.. His English was fairly good so we began a conversation about the fact that the dollar is so weak and the Euro so strong… so why would shopkeepers think this.. And he just said.. “Yes it is true the dollar is very bad, but America is America and it is the ruler of the world, so Americans need to pay more.” We all laughed.. We bargained some more, and made a purchase.

Tomorrow we will spend the last day of 2007 walking throughout other parts of Marrakech and to our (hopefully) spectacular dinner.. and then maybe to the square to see what will be happening there… Although I think we will be a bit over-dressed for the square.

With very best wishes for a happy, healthy year of peace… and a Democrat in the White House.

Fern

PS… The world is truly small.. Walking here in Marrakech on a small street we ran into two architects from LA that Mike knows (Stefanos Polyzoides and his wife Liz).. and then we bumped into the American couple that we met at our riad in Fes. We exchanged war stories of our drives in the mountains. They never made it to the desert because they didn’t have 4-wheel drive.