Morocco

I went to Morocco the weekend of October 25-28th of 2019. This weekend trip was absolutely amazing and gave me a new perspective on my life. I am grateful I was able to go and experience a beautiful, loving culture in Morocco, Africa.

The first night I arrived to Morocco, I was very excited and I was looking forward to learning something new. I knew this would be a life changing trip and I was expected to see a new perspective on life in Morocco. The group of about 40 students was split into two groups at the airport. One was with Omar and one was with Sarah. I was with Sarah’s group. Sarah went over the things we would notice quickly that are different from the United States in Morocco. She informed us on how things would be like staying in our host family for the first few nights.

Next, we got in the bus and we head to the place in Rabat where we met our host family. We split up in groups of threes and we greeted them by saying hi “saalam” in Arabic and Thank you “chookerron” in Arabic. Some remembered how to say nice to meet you in Arabic, but I didn’t remember it at the time. Nice to meet you in Arabic is “MishArrifeen.”A mom with 1 daughter was there to meet us. The daughter spoke really good English and my Moroccan host mom new some basics. They walked us back to their house and they had dinner for us at about 10:30pm. It was a late night.

When the three of us girls arrived at my host families house, I noticed right away their beautiful furniture and fabric. I had to make sure I took my shoes off at the door because it was very important to not wear shoes on their carpet. That would be breaking culture rules in their house. On the tile floor they normally wear a slip on pair of shoes. Then, we sat our stuff down in our room. Next, we met the other two daughters, a 1st grader, and freshman and their dad. Next, we sat in their living room on their couch and they moved the round table closer to us. Then they started setting the table. We were informed from Sarah that each person eats in their own triangle. There’s a big tagine in the middle of table and everyone eats from it. We ate with our hands part of the time to eat dinner. This was definitely a new way of eating food and It felt more like family eating that way. We didn’t have own individual plates like in the US. We had little plates in between each person and many side dishes and one huge bowl in the middle that we all shared from to eat. I absolutely enjoyed eating that way.

I continually was looking around and enjoying listening to the family speak in Arabic to each other. I looked at the designs around the trim on the ceilings and furniture. I observed how there layout of their house was. I was processing the differences.

One of the differences was that the couches we sat on, was the places their kids slept. They had another section by their couches that had more pads and pillows. The parents slept there. I noticed everything was really close to each other and no individual space or rooms.

On the second day, we woke up and had a typical Moroccan breakfast. I had some coffee and then tried their homemade tea. Their tea was so good. It’s called Atay which is Moroccan mint tea, typically black or green tea with fresh mint and lots of sugar. We had bread, jam, butter, eggs, pita bread, and crepes.

They walked us to our meeting spot in the Medina (City) in Rabat. We left to head to Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. 

History of Morocco and the Mosque

This is supposed to be the largest mosque in the world. But they ran out of money and they couldn’t finish it. Some of the Roman pillars were stolen from Volubilious which is 2 and half hours east of the Rabat. Dynasties like to steal stuff from the Romans. There’s a lot of that through out Morocco. This is one of 3 sister mosques. Porta be mosque Spain’s. There’s a mosque that was turned into a church and now it is a church and you can go visit it in Cordoba. The 3rd is in Marrakech.

In 1492 Muslims were expelled from Spain. This era was called al andalous. This was the only time when all three religions Christianity, Jews and Muslims was living together and being productive. A time of great knowledge and expansion, and time of cohesion.

Isabella and Ferdinand got married in 1492 – “Catholic monarchs of Spain” They united what is modern day Spain.

Some Jews came back to Morocco during this time. Now there some people in Morocco that are Jewish but most have left.

Government they have elections, and there is a parliament. The king is Mohammad the VI. Morocco’s Independence was in 1956 from France and Spain.

Spain colonized the north and deep south, France colonized the middle part of the country.

Rabat is more connected to France linguistically.

From the north Tangier- 9 miles from bottom part Spain, some people even speak Arabic with Spanish accent in the North.

Mohammed 5th (V)- 1956 – 1961

Hassan II – 1961 – 1999

Mohammed 6th (VI) – 1999 – current 

After we went to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V, we went to the Hope for Sale School to talk with a couple students. We sat in a circle and asked the students questions about their culture ranging from topics about religion rules, education, politics, economics, etc.


Hope for Sale started from a couple from Morocco that noticed their classmates did not have the right books, and clothing that was tattered. The more they got to know them, they lived in the shantytown. They took it upon themselves to support them by starting with tutoring families. This started with extended friends and then to family members and then grew into a larger community.
They believe to break the cycle of poverty is through education. They believe in an education that doesn’t only teach academics but teaches vocational training too. They added training in the kitchen to practice service skills so they are prepared to get jobs.

Education System in Morocco

Students get their education for free at a public school but that doesn’t mean its a better quality kind of school in Morocco. Public education teachers are careless. Public school is known for not caring if their students even show up to learn or not. There’s no personal relationship with the teachers in the public schools. 

At Public school emotional needs students and students that have disabilities or have dyslexia won’t even be tested to find out. Teachers will not put the effort into testing them. In a Public school the teachers use a white board/ chalkboard to teach their material to them. 

Students can go to private school but this one cost money to attend it. A private school is to known to have a better quality than public school. The teachers are known to care a bit more about their students and keep track if their students are showing up or not. A private school has more technology or tools than the public school. Private school may have access to a computer but a public school won’t have that access. A private school uses a white board/ chalkboard to teach their students.

Even though private school is known to be better than the public school, some private schools can be about as bad as a public school.

Students in the U.S. has teachers that strive to have an personal relationship with them but in Morocco teachers don’t strive to do that. Maybe teachers try to have a personal relationship in a private school but it doesn’t look like the type of effort a teacher would put in, in the U.S.

The similarities is that teachers get burned out of teaching because they aren’t paid enough. Since they are paid so little they loose their care for the job. They deal with some students that mess around and aren’t as driven to learn, so they get burned out of trying to teach them. The schools get very little money to pay for all the supplies they need to teach too. They don’t have the money to get the materials to test students if they even noticed a problem. 

Family Culture in Morocco

Most of the students move out when they are either married and have a decent job to pay for their expenses. Most students are not able to move out of living with their family until they are 30 years old or more. Families want their kids to live with them. 

In Morocco most kids do not have their own room, like people in the United States. They sleep in the living room on their couch where they eat dinner. They are very close to each other. Kids or other family members wouldn’t grab their food from the table and eat alone. They all would eat together and to share their food as a family.

How is dating like in Morocco?

There’s freedom with conditions. There’s certain things they have to be careful about not getting caught doing. If a they were dating that can’t kiss in public because they could go to jail for that. It’s even questionable to even hold hands in public too. They have to hide and go some place out of the city where no body would see them. Some families is open and their kids can share if they are dating some one or not but most of the time it wouldn’t be ideal to tell them. Their Parents may force marriage upon them. 

Typically, students get together in groups. They are mixed with boys and girls to hangout.

Marriage in Morocco

Couples have to be married to live together. If they got caught living together before marriage they could go to jail up to 5 years.

Men have the right by law to be able to marry up to 4 woman at the same time. This doesn’t happen often, but they have the right to be able too. The husband has to get each previous wife’s approval to marry each woman he would like to marry. All of the wife’s have to agree and say yes before he married another woman. If the man marries all 4 woman, he is required by law to give fair money to each wife. So it’s very expensive.

Men don’t care if the woman is Muslim, Christian, or whatever. Muslim religion is passed down through the Father.

Even though it is shameful for a woman to divorce their husband, it is easy to leave their husband. Law passed in 2004 giving all rights in divorce to women. Includes property, finances, and children.

Weddings in Morocco

Weddings in Morocco last two days. First day is Henna Day. Close friends get there while the group, the wife is wearing green dress and the there’s Henna and dancing. The best part is the food. They will dance all night long. The bride can wear as many dresses as she wants too. Weddings typically are at least 100-200 people but it all depends on how many people are in their neighborhood. They have to invite everyone in your neighborhood.

LGBQ Community

Even though it is forbidden there’s nothing separate between what is religious and what is culture. If they know you will accept them and if they trust you, they will share if they are in the LGBQ community. They live with the fear of being abandon from their family. It’s a hidden thing- you can’t just say you are guy out loud anywhere. LQBQ people can be stoned or beaten up if the wrong people find out.

An interesting thing is that if the same sex wanted to buy a apartment, they would say yes.

Economy in Morocco

Agriculture is the biggest. Morocco grows majority the fruits and vegetables that’s sent to Europe.

Sex Tourism is the second. It’s ranked number 2 after south east Asia. Men come from the gulf, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and these men have sex with men. LGBQ community is illegal but some of the biggest income comes from people doing non-heterosexual things. 

After we talked with the two students from Hope for Selah, we went back to eat lunch with our host families. My food was absolutely amazing and so good. We were definitely tired, and wanted to take a 45 minute nap. Instead our host sister for the weekend, played some Arabic music on the TV. I watched the Mom and the other 7 year old sister dance and sing along to the music. I enjoyed listening to Arabic music. Then we walked back to the meeting spot to go meet with other students in a university from Morocco.

We met up with University students from Morocco that knew good amount of English. I enjoyed getting to know the students from Morocco. I enjoyed learning about their culture.

Then we all went to the Hammam, which was a public bath place. And around 10pm that night we had dinner with the host family. The food was amazing. Morocco people definitely knows how to cook with spices.

Saturday morning we had our last breakfast with our host family and then we drove to the Rif mountains. 

Hamid and Farida served our group lunch and then we had a conversation with them to learn about their culture. 

The Husband wakes up, prays, has breakfast, takes people to and from the market, and takes care of farming. He works mainly in the morning.

Medical service on the mountain is not best to rely on. The doctor only works in the morning. If something happened at night, you can call for the ambulance but the doctor won’t show up. The closest place to get help at night is going to Chefchaouen which is 45 minutes away.

It’s normal for people to get together in the neighborhood to play traditional music with drums, and guitar, and eat dinner together.

Since they are far away from a grocery store, going to get food is not convenient, they have to make sure they get enough food for about a week by going to the weekly markets.

Anyone can sell there food at these markets and they use there money to buy things. 

This family have gone many years with out access to phones service, computers, and TV. Now they only use phones, and no computers and TV. Running water and electricity come in 2006. In 2004 they had access to water but the organization was controlling it. They were reselling it from the city and the price was high. Before they had running water they went to the well to get their water. They have used solar energy from 1999.

They were asked if they ever have the feeling of wanting more money? Hamid said “He just needs money for his kids to have a decent living style and he doesn’t need more.”

Families in the Rif mountains has a card that they fill with money. They have a box that they use to show them if they have used all of the money they had on their card for water and electricity. If the box light is red when they hold their card by the box, that means they need to refill their card. This means they need to drive down the mountain to go to the closest city which is 30 to 50 minutes away.

Their son in 6th grade joined our conversation. We asked him questions about his school and his daily schedule. He told us he wants to be a math teacher. There’s 28 students in his class. The school provides some of their books but they have to buy the rest of them.

After we had our conversation with Hamid and Fridas family, we drove to Chefchaouen. After we arrived to Chefchaouen we explored the city a bit. Then we all went out to eat and had an amazing Moroccan dinner. I had Moroccan soup and a dish called the Pastilla. The pastilla was so good and different. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning I hiked up a hill with some of the group to see a beautiful view over looking the city of chefchaouen.

On my way back to Barcelona from Morocco, I sat by a mom from France that had a daughter that was 2 years old. Her family is from Morocco and is Muslim. I was thankful I downloaded French google translator because that’s how I was able to get to know her. Her daughter was so cute and so sweet! I enjoyed entertaining her and acting like I was eating fake food she gave me. Her daughter and I would look at each other and smile and laugh. I learned some French words while talking with the mom. When we were walking inside from getting off the plane, her daughter ran up to me and we held hands until we had to separate. That was a very sweet moment for me. I hope to visit them in the future.

Overall, this trip to Morocco was absolutely amazing. I learned that there’s more that brings us together than our differences. I witnessed other ways they foster family and it was something I haven’t seen before. It is a culture that I highly recommend to experience and learning more about.

My tour guide ended on this quote that said “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman

This quote hit me and I believe it is true. The world needs people that have came alive in doing what they love and what they care about most. When someone is passionate about something, they are willing to fight and do anything they can to accomplish their goal. We need people that are willing to fight and battle daily through the busyness of life and struggles. What we are passionate for matters. It’s what God has created us to do. Everyone don’t give up for what you are passionate for and keep fighting. This world needs people who have came alive in what God had gifted them to do.