November 6, 2018

November 6, 2018

This morning we rise before dawn and take the shuttle to the Casablanca airport for the long journey home. It feels more tedious and tiring than normal. Maybe we are getting old. Scheduling a layover day seems like a good idea right now. We almost catch a break in Atlanta when our over-booked flight causes a request for volunteers to be 'bumped'. At this point we would love to spend the night here. Unfortunately we are too slow and don’t make the cut. We get home well after midnight. We have been awake some 29 hours. Tucson is a nice place to live but makes for grueling international travel. My only consolation is some interesting scenes out my window. I got clear skies over Atlanta’s Stone Mountain monolith, the White Cliffs of Dover, and Greenland, with its rugged snow-covered mountains, fjords, and tidewater glaciers.

Our brief tour of Morocco was interesting. It has way more history than I anticipated. It is a story of invasion for its strategic coastline, interior mines, and control of the lucrative Trans-Saharan gold trade. Even the Vikings invaded once. That long history lingers with simmering tension between the indigenous Berbers and the millennia-old Arabian invaders. The new king has taken steps to soothe it with overdue recognition of Berber language and culture.

Morocco is an exotic locale. The old Medinas are like a step into the past, resisting the push to modernize. The fascinating Fez tannery is the epitome of this time-warp. This future-ancient tension is also reflected in its struggle with Islam. Conservative Arab women are in Burqas while moderate Berbers embrace Western fashions.

My biggest surprise was the extremes of Moroccan geography. It has everything from ocean beach to tall snow-capped mountains to sand dunes to canyons to lush date palm oases. Morocco is a beautiful country to explore without the history.

But Morocco is not all fun and games. The food while healthy and filling reminds me of the bland boiled meals of Ireland. And like most third world countries, hygiene is not up to Western standards. To stay healthy, we avoid salads and ice cubes and drink beer instead of water. Sadly that beverage option wasn’t usually available since Morocco is dominated by Islam. Westerners are also not allowed inside the elaborately decorated Mosques, so we missed an important element of this culture.

We were happy to experience Morocco but like most of our group, we are ready to go home.