Vol 62 Day 14 Fes/Bhalil

Ewan and I said our goodbyes first thing in the morning and I headed to the train station to wait for the next train to Fes, which didn't leave for 2 hours. I spent much of the wait in the large lobby, people watching. Especially one woman who was employed to keep the marble floor clean. She was about my age and she had a dust mop which she ever so slowly kept moving over the floor by wandering aimlessly through the lobby. Her wandering followed no discernible pattern. She just slowly walked all over; moving the dust mop side to side a bit as she walked. For 2 hours. I believe she does it all day. Imagine that life.

Why is there no photo of this woman? Because it's not OK to photograph Muslim women. Any time you see a photo of a Muslim woman on my blog I have either gotten the woman's permission or I have taken it from a great distance and then cropped the photo later. The zoom on my camera is really good so I use this technique outdoors quite a bit.

As the train traveled through the outskirts of Casablanca I started catching glimpses of the bidonvilles (shanty towns) which line both sides of the rails. Bidonville is tin-can town in French.


These homes are a patchwork of anything and everything.

I was snapping pictures like crazy through the dirty train window. The landscape was so varied. Cactus.

Then trees.

A sweet little farm.

Donkeys everywhere.

Great empty fields. (Stupid dirty train window)

A logging camp.

The logs.

There is a boy bathing nude in the river. I didn't see him at the time but I take all of my photos at the maximum resolution setting on my camera so that I can zoom in on them. He's bent over with his little tushie facing the camera.

Holy crap is Morocco ever beautiful! Not at all what I was expecting from a North African country.

Skinny cows.

More farmland.

I was so happy I bought that Canon. Such great pictures and shot through the dirty window of a speeding train!

4 1/2 hours later I was met at the station by my next CouchSurfing host. Meet Hassan:

He's a 21 year old linguistics student who speaks Tamazight, Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish and he's learning Polish. He's a super-friendly, super-smart, happy dude. We got along great right away.

We took a taxi to a taxi station where we caught another taxi to the neighboring city of Sefrou where we caught another taxi to Bhalil, the village where Hassan lives with his family. Taxis don't leave until they are full. Really full. 3 in the front and 4 in the back.

The streets of Bhalil are too narrow and winding for cars so we walked to his house, chatting all the way. I have been busting a gut, waiting to tell all of you about this day. We walked into Hassan's house and I about had a happiness aneurysm. I thought my head was going to explode I was so happy. You see, Hassan and his family, along with many other families in Bhalil, live in a troglodyte dwelling. A cave. His house is a cave. It was the coolest thing ever. I can't even begin to describe how happy and grateful I was to be welcomed into his home. I stood there saying "Wow" as he showed me his home and introduced me to his family. They are awesome!

From the left: Hassan, his brother Zouhair, his older sister Rabha, his younger sister Souad and his mother Itto.

This is the living room. It is the largest of the caves that make up their home. There are four sofas/beds that line the circular wall. A single bare bulb hangs from the ceiling. The rocks of the cave throughout have been covered with plaster and painted but it feels like a cave.

We left to take a walk through the neighborhood but soon turned back as the wind picked up and it started to rain.

When we returned we found Itto and Rabha making final preparations for Iftar. Iftar (breakfast) is the first meal of the day during Ramadan. It occurs at dusk and is announced by the call to prayer from the minarets of the mosques which are everywhere in Muslim countries.

Just as we got everything to the table the power went out so we shared our meal by candlelight. There was hot, sweet milk, hot, milky coffee, 3 kinds of bread, cheese, a yummy stewed eggplant tajine with roasted chilies, and a delicious soup called Harira that Moroccans eat at every Iftar during Ramadan. Harira is made with tomatoes, onion, chick peas and broken spaghettini. It's seasoned with saffron and fresh cilantro. The eggplant dish was served in a communal bowl and we scooped it up with our bread.

There were also bowls of assorted cookies. The cookies in the front of the photo were made by Rabha and though I had previously thought the best cookies in Morocco were from that bakery in Casablanca, I quickly changed my mind. Rabhas cookies are a simple coconut cookie but they are sooooooo good.

I had not eaten since first thing in the morning with Erwan so I was one happy camper as we broke bread together.

After breakfast (which sounds so funny to say about a meal eaten at 7pm) Hassan and I walked to a coffee shop to have a cup of tea. We were joined by Mohammed, Hassan's best friend. Mohammed doesn't speak any English or French and my Arabic is mostly dental and the Omani Arabic dialect is different from the Moroccan dialect so he and I had to communicate through Hassan. As we walked though the village I was struck by how beautiful it all was. Almost surreal. No hotels. No tourist shops. No shops with neon signs. I kept wondering where I would be without CouchSurfing. I would probably be alone in an overpriced hotel somewhere. Or in another version of the Urine Hotel.

I was the only woman in the coffee shop so we went upstairs, where I would be stared at less, and shared a pot of Moroccan tea. More about Moroccan tea in a later blog.

When we returned to the house we found Rabha cooking dinner. It was midnight. She was cooking fresh French fries which she served with the leftover eggplant tajine, and bread. We watched an Egyptian love story on their tiny black and white tv and then went to bed. The 2 younger kids slept with Itto in her cave room/bedroom. Hassan, Rabha and I slept in the living room on the sofa/beds.

My heart was filled with happiness and gratitude as I fell asleep. Oh, how I love that family!