First few days in Fez

Aselamu Aleikum everyone,

We are now ending our third day here in Fez and it feels much longer (in a good way)

When we arrived in Fez three days ago we stayed in a Moroccan Riad, which is a type of hotel with a large courtyard/garden in the middle. The have the most ornate decoration that you can imagine, from the intricate wall patterns to the ceilings.

Our Riad from the first night

The next morning after our first class in Dajria (Moroccan Dialect) we met with the families that would be hosting us during our stay in Fez. My roomate and I are under the care of of a woman named Nouza, in her early thirties. She lives with her mother, her sister, and her nephew. Sometimes there are men in the house but are not here all the time. Nouza and her mother speak no English, no French, and little Modern Standard Arabic. We get by piecing together standard and Moroccan Arabic, and we are very lucky that smiles and laughter are international, because I often find us resorting to that.

In Fez we live in the walled Medina or the Old City, first constructed in 808AD most of it has not been renovated since the 1700s. It is narrow stone streets, tall buildings, and hole in the wall shops. It is an amazing sight, something you would only see here in Fez.

A view from the roof of our house

We take a taxi every morning to the school, it is about a 15 minute ride and costs about 8MAD, or the equivalent of 90 cents American. Cats run the streets here and are taken care of communally and are well liked being that the Prophet Mohammed owned a Cat, dogs also run wild but they are left to fend for themselves.

The generosity of the Moroccan people is astounding, all food is eaten from a communal plate in the center of the table with hands (this has been tough to get used to), you only eat from the part of the plate in front of you. The meal starts with the head of the family, in this case Nouza's mother, distributing bread (served at every meal) to everyone, and declaring "bismallah", or in the name of God. The rest of the meal is almost a battle, as our host family pushes the best food towards us, and us trying to convince them we are full.
Breakfast and Dinner are the smaller meals here, with lunch being the biggest, and Mint tea being served as many times as possible.

The Community Plate

The Market

Today we also walked around the market, which is an incredible mixture of sights, sounds, and smells, as you dodge carts pulled by donkeys (cars are not allowed in the medina), and are hassled by Moroccans peddling there goods, this is combined with the smell of foods, animals, and tannery here.

The Tanning Basins

And in this hustle and bustle you realize how beautiful a country Morocco really is, different , but unique in its own way.

Messa al Kher

Kevin

Arabic word of the Day

خبز- HObs (Bread)