Morocco Trip Letter Part I
Morocco Trip Letter Part I
April 13 - 19 2006
Places: Casablanca – Marrakesh – N’kob – Essaouira – Casablanca
Cast of Characters:
Michele – fellow teacher
Jenay – my dentist from Sunnyvale, CA
Susan – our guide
Hamid – our driver
“What three words would you use to describe our trip?” asked Michele during our last meal of our 6 days in Morocco. I didn’t answer her then but I will now. Color. Susan. Hamid. Kasbah. Tiffany. N’kob. Tagine. Hand of Fatima. Djemaa el-fna. Tannery. Essaouira blue. Argan. Hammam. King Hussan II Mosque. Travelmates. Cancellation. Photos. Yes, I went over my three word limit but I had to because it was a great adventure.
Color because coming from the semi-arid and barren landscape of Saudi, the fields of green, red, and yellow made me take notice. The wheat, red poppies, and brilliant yellow flowers seemed alive and alert with the recent rains. The color of Casablanca is a dingy colonial white from the days when the French ruled the area. The color of Marrakesh is a rosy hue from the local clay. N’kob is the color of carpets – indigo, saffron, kohl, henna, flower, tan, and mint. Essaouira is a divide of unmistakable white and sky blue.
Susan for being our remarkable guide. Her affection towards Morocco started in the late 1960’s when she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Working as an anthropologist she has been involved with numerous development projects for groups such as the World Bank and the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Susan also started an e-commerce site for Moroccan women weavers called www.marrakeshexpress.org. Please visit this site to read about the women weavers and to view their wonderful and unique carpets and shawls. There are new pieces are well as antique ones. I am now the proud owner of a small rug made by a talented young lady in her early 20’s. I can not give Susan enough praise for her work, efforts, and commitment to Morocco. I feel fortunate to have met her.
Hamid for being our prompt, careful, and considerate driver. Susan has found a gem of a driver and we were pleased to use his services after the village tour. He helped us locate banks to change money, he recommended pleasant roadside cafes for tea, he delivered us to our hotels even when we had to go searching for them, and he helped us with our tagine mission.
Like the song from the 1980’s goes, “rock the Kasbah”. Not knowing what a Kasbah is I looked it up on the net. It says, “a Kasbah is a palace centre and/or fortress of an Arab town; also used to mean a walled residential quarter around the Medina (eg Fes), or the citadel (eg Tangier and in Tunisia), or the whole medina (eg Algiers). In the south of Morocco, it is a feudal family castle - and it's the root of the Spanish alcazar.” As luck would have it, there was a famous one off the main road on our way to the village. We stopped at the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah and this one can be seen in Gladiator among other movies I can not remember now. The Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou is one of the most famous Kasbahs in the Atlas Region. Much of the Kasbah is rebuilt, because it served many times as a decor for movies. Now this Kasbah an UNESCO World Heritage Site as ''a striking example of the architecture of South Morocco". We had an added treat on our visit when we watched two storks circle over head to land on their nest.
.
Tiffany, Target and Gingersnaps are the code words we came up with when shopping for carpets. Gingersnap is low end, Target is middle, and Tiffany is excellent. Most of the carpets we looked at were either Target or Tiffany for laying flat and keeping with a true rectangular shape. As I mentioned earlier, I found a lovely piece combining three styles of weaving. Now why didn’t I take notes on the three types of weaving? I love my carpet and the history behind it and it goes perfect in my bedroom.
N’kob is the village we visited in the anti Atlas Mountains. From Marrakesh it is a lovely mountain drive of about 5 hours. We passed by terraced farm land, flocks of sheep and goats, cedar forests, and a gazillion roadside stands selling fossils, geodes, and rocks. An added surprise was to be on the highest road pass in Morocco, the Tizi n’Tichka at an elevation of 7230 ft. The village is home to about 700 people and has the basis necessities of running water and electricity. We stayed with a family and immediately felt at home. We had delicious meals and I would say the best tagine of the trip was made by Sophia, the wife. We visited another family and had a delightful time right from the start. The women in this family were also warm, friendly, making jokes, and accomplished weavers. Their smiles were non stop and infectious. We sat and talked, learned about making carpets and how some were made from scratch. They cleaned the wool, carded it, spun it, dyed it and weaved it. With limited time we headed back to the host family’s house for dinner. By the time we finished dinner it was getting late and we were all tired but still game for a henna party if the locals still wanted to do it. Come midnight there were 20 people in the small room and we were still getting our hands done by the experts and getting demonstrations on how to tie headscarves. By 1 am we were dead to the world and had a very sound sleep. Not much noise where there is no traffic.
The next morning we watched Sophia make bread in a clay oven. She feed the oven sticks and weeds and then would spread the dough on the vertical walls making something like a huge pizza about a foot in diameter. She could cook two at a time. It is hard work with her stooping over the oven in a smoke filled room. We had this for breakfast with honey and mint tea. After breakfast we visited a local school. The students were adorable, 3 to 5 year olds and well behaved. We sang Itsy Bitsy Spider to them and they sang us a song – very sweet. The last stop in the village was to a big stone structure. The purpose of the building is similar to a bank with safety deposit boxes. The “boxes” are cubby holes in the walls with a small wooden door for entry into the space. There are three levels with primitive ladders leading to the levels. These small rooms are used for safe keeping of silver, other valuables and grain. While most of the cubby holes are abandoned some are still in use. There is a huge key to open the huge wooden outer door. We were told not just anybody can get a tour of this and even Susan was pleased because this was her first time even though she has been to the village several times. I felt very much at home in the village as I reminisced about my Peace Corps days in a remote Nepali village.
Tagine is for the national dish and for our hunt to purchase used cooking vessels with the same name. Tagine is a stew of tender mutton cooked with onions, prunes, and nuts. It is served in a large earthen dish that everyone eats out of scooping with pieces of bread instead of silver ware. There are many variations to this dish and, if prepared correctly, the flavors are intense, the meat is tender, and the vegetables are savory. We shared chicken, beef, and lamb tagines. The best one was made by Sophia in the village. She piled French fries on top that soaked up the meat juices and were addictive. The rule of thumb for eating a tagine is to dig in the spot in front of you and not to hunt around looking for your favorites. If found doing so after imprisonment, there will be a fine. J I plead guilty.
My Moroccan friend told me if I was to buy a tagine I should buy a used one to know it has survived the test of time and will not crack or fall apart when cooking with it. He also gave me an idea of how much to pay for one – less than $5, hence the search for a used on. The first roadside café we stopped at wanted $20 for one. No thank you. The next day we stopped at a mountain side café for tea. The staff was friendly and even invited us back to the kitchen to take pictures. I think they liked us so we decided to stop again on our return for tea and to try our luck. After tea each of us had a heavy tagine to tote around. The question of the day was how to carry it back? We all managed and now I am waiting for my Morccan friend to show me how to cook tagine. I am going to try this recipe out after my lesson. http://origin.www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/103829
Hand of Fatima for the ubiquitous symbol throughout our trip. Jenay bought a pendant to wear on the trip and put it to good use one day while we waited for a taxi. We were in a residential area waiting for a taxi to appear. It looked bleak. Jenay then took her pendant in hand and said, “let there be a taxi”. No sooner than she said that a taxi turned the corner and headed towards us. Here is some background information on the hand of Fatima.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Khamsa (Arabic: خمسة, Hamsa,' literally "five-fold", Hebrew: חמש, Hamesh, literally "five"). An alternative Islamic name for this charm is the Hand of Fatima or Eye of Fatima, in reference to Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammed. An alternative Jewish name for it is the Hand of Miriam, in reference to the sister of Moses and Aaron as well as the Hamesh Hand. It serves as an ancient talismanic way of averting and getting protection from the evil eye, or more generally of providing a "protecting hand" or "Hand of God". It appears, often in stylised form, as a hand with three fingers raised, and sometimes with two thumbs arranged symmetrically. The symbol is used in amulets, charms, jewelry, door entrances, cars, and other places to ward the evil eye.
Some sources link the significance of the five fingers to the five books of the Torah, the Jewish name for the first five books in the Old Testament scriptures, or to the Five Pillars of Islam, the core principles of Sunni Islamic faith, though this significance may have been attributed after the fact to a symbol that quite possibly pre-dated both religions.
In recent years some activists for Middle East peace have chosen to wear the hamsa as a symbol of the similarities of origins and tradition between the Islamic and Jewish faiths.
I purchased a used Hand of Fatima door knocker. Now I need a door to put it on.
The end of Part I. Part II is coming shortly.For photos go to www.clubphoto.com and use tumicki23@yahoo.com to access my albums.
April 13 - 19 2006
Places: Casablanca – Marrakesh – N’kob – Essaouira – Casablanca
Cast of Characters:
Michele – fellow teacher
Jenay – my dentist from Sunnyvale, CA
Susan – our guide
Hamid – our driver
“What three words would you use to describe our trip?” asked Michele during our last meal of our 6 days in Morocco. I didn’t answer her then but I will now. Color. Susan. Hamid. Kasbah. Tiffany. N’kob. Tagine. Hand of Fatima. Djemaa el-fna. Tannery. Essaouira blue. Argan. Hammam. King Hussan II Mosque. Travelmates. Cancellation. Photos. Yes, I went over my three word limit but I had to because it was a great adventure.
Color because coming from the semi-arid and barren landscape of Saudi, the fields of green, red, and yellow made me take notice. The wheat, red poppies, and brilliant yellow flowers seemed alive and alert with the recent rains. The color of Casablanca is a dingy colonial white from the days when the French ruled the area. The color of Marrakesh is a rosy hue from the local clay. N’kob is the color of carpets – indigo, saffron, kohl, henna, flower, tan, and mint. Essaouira is a divide of unmistakable white and sky blue.
Susan for being our remarkable guide. Her affection towards Morocco started in the late 1960’s when she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Working as an anthropologist she has been involved with numerous development projects for groups such as the World Bank and the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Susan also started an e-commerce site for Moroccan women weavers called www.marrakeshexpress.org. Please visit this site to read about the women weavers and to view their wonderful and unique carpets and shawls. There are new pieces are well as antique ones. I am now the proud owner of a small rug made by a talented young lady in her early 20’s. I can not give Susan enough praise for her work, efforts, and commitment to Morocco. I feel fortunate to have met her.
Hamid for being our prompt, careful, and considerate driver. Susan has found a gem of a driver and we were pleased to use his services after the village tour. He helped us locate banks to change money, he recommended pleasant roadside cafes for tea, he delivered us to our hotels even when we had to go searching for them, and he helped us with our tagine mission.
Like the song from the 1980’s goes, “rock the Kasbah”. Not knowing what a Kasbah is I looked it up on the net. It says, “a Kasbah is a palace centre and/or fortress of an Arab town; also used to mean a walled residential quarter around the Medina (eg Fes), or the citadel (eg Tangier and in Tunisia), or the whole medina (eg Algiers). In the south of Morocco, it is a feudal family castle - and it's the root of the Spanish alcazar.” As luck would have it, there was a famous one off the main road on our way to the village. We stopped at the Ait Ben Haddou Kasbah and this one can be seen in Gladiator among other movies I can not remember now. The Kasbah of Ait Ben Haddou is one of the most famous Kasbahs in the Atlas Region. Much of the Kasbah is rebuilt, because it served many times as a decor for movies. Now this Kasbah an UNESCO World Heritage Site as ''a striking example of the architecture of South Morocco". We had an added treat on our visit when we watched two storks circle over head to land on their nest.
.
Tiffany, Target and Gingersnaps are the code words we came up with when shopping for carpets. Gingersnap is low end, Target is middle, and Tiffany is excellent. Most of the carpets we looked at were either Target or Tiffany for laying flat and keeping with a true rectangular shape. As I mentioned earlier, I found a lovely piece combining three styles of weaving. Now why didn’t I take notes on the three types of weaving? I love my carpet and the history behind it and it goes perfect in my bedroom.
N’kob is the village we visited in the anti Atlas Mountains. From Marrakesh it is a lovely mountain drive of about 5 hours. We passed by terraced farm land, flocks of sheep and goats, cedar forests, and a gazillion roadside stands selling fossils, geodes, and rocks. An added surprise was to be on the highest road pass in Morocco, the Tizi n’Tichka at an elevation of 7230 ft. The village is home to about 700 people and has the basis necessities of running water and electricity. We stayed with a family and immediately felt at home. We had delicious meals and I would say the best tagine of the trip was made by Sophia, the wife. We visited another family and had a delightful time right from the start. The women in this family were also warm, friendly, making jokes, and accomplished weavers. Their smiles were non stop and infectious. We sat and talked, learned about making carpets and how some were made from scratch. They cleaned the wool, carded it, spun it, dyed it and weaved it. With limited time we headed back to the host family’s house for dinner. By the time we finished dinner it was getting late and we were all tired but still game for a henna party if the locals still wanted to do it. Come midnight there were 20 people in the small room and we were still getting our hands done by the experts and getting demonstrations on how to tie headscarves. By 1 am we were dead to the world and had a very sound sleep. Not much noise where there is no traffic.
The next morning we watched Sophia make bread in a clay oven. She feed the oven sticks and weeds and then would spread the dough on the vertical walls making something like a huge pizza about a foot in diameter. She could cook two at a time. It is hard work with her stooping over the oven in a smoke filled room. We had this for breakfast with honey and mint tea. After breakfast we visited a local school. The students were adorable, 3 to 5 year olds and well behaved. We sang Itsy Bitsy Spider to them and they sang us a song – very sweet. The last stop in the village was to a big stone structure. The purpose of the building is similar to a bank with safety deposit boxes. The “boxes” are cubby holes in the walls with a small wooden door for entry into the space. There are three levels with primitive ladders leading to the levels. These small rooms are used for safe keeping of silver, other valuables and grain. While most of the cubby holes are abandoned some are still in use. There is a huge key to open the huge wooden outer door. We were told not just anybody can get a tour of this and even Susan was pleased because this was her first time even though she has been to the village several times. I felt very much at home in the village as I reminisced about my Peace Corps days in a remote Nepali village.
Tagine is for the national dish and for our hunt to purchase used cooking vessels with the same name. Tagine is a stew of tender mutton cooked with onions, prunes, and nuts. It is served in a large earthen dish that everyone eats out of scooping with pieces of bread instead of silver ware. There are many variations to this dish and, if prepared correctly, the flavors are intense, the meat is tender, and the vegetables are savory. We shared chicken, beef, and lamb tagines. The best one was made by Sophia in the village. She piled French fries on top that soaked up the meat juices and were addictive. The rule of thumb for eating a tagine is to dig in the spot in front of you and not to hunt around looking for your favorites. If found doing so after imprisonment, there will be a fine. J I plead guilty.
My Moroccan friend told me if I was to buy a tagine I should buy a used one to know it has survived the test of time and will not crack or fall apart when cooking with it. He also gave me an idea of how much to pay for one – less than $5, hence the search for a used on. The first roadside café we stopped at wanted $20 for one. No thank you. The next day we stopped at a mountain side café for tea. The staff was friendly and even invited us back to the kitchen to take pictures. I think they liked us so we decided to stop again on our return for tea and to try our luck. After tea each of us had a heavy tagine to tote around. The question of the day was how to carry it back? We all managed and now I am waiting for my Morccan friend to show me how to cook tagine. I am going to try this recipe out after my lesson. http://origin.www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/103829
Hand of Fatima for the ubiquitous symbol throughout our trip. Jenay bought a pendant to wear on the trip and put it to good use one day while we waited for a taxi. We were in a residential area waiting for a taxi to appear. It looked bleak. Jenay then took her pendant in hand and said, “let there be a taxi”. No sooner than she said that a taxi turned the corner and headed towards us. Here is some background information on the hand of Fatima.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Khamsa (Arabic: خمسة, Hamsa,' literally "five-fold", Hebrew: חמש, Hamesh, literally "five"). An alternative Islamic name for this charm is the Hand of Fatima or Eye of Fatima, in reference to Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammed. An alternative Jewish name for it is the Hand of Miriam, in reference to the sister of Moses and Aaron as well as the Hamesh Hand. It serves as an ancient talismanic way of averting and getting protection from the evil eye, or more generally of providing a "protecting hand" or "Hand of God". It appears, often in stylised form, as a hand with three fingers raised, and sometimes with two thumbs arranged symmetrically. The symbol is used in amulets, charms, jewelry, door entrances, cars, and other places to ward the evil eye.
Some sources link the significance of the five fingers to the five books of the Torah, the Jewish name for the first five books in the Old Testament scriptures, or to the Five Pillars of Islam, the core principles of Sunni Islamic faith, though this significance may have been attributed after the fact to a symbol that quite possibly pre-dated both religions.
In recent years some activists for Middle East peace have chosen to wear the hamsa as a symbol of the similarities of origins and tradition between the Islamic and Jewish faiths.
I purchased a used Hand of Fatima door knocker. Now I need a door to put it on.
The end of Part I. Part II is coming shortly.For photos go to www.clubphoto.com and use tumicki23@yahoo.com to access my albums.
posted by Becky of Arabia at 8:02 PM
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