Local traditions and culture in Morocco

As everywhere, it's outside town that you can watch the most authentic way of life in Morocco.

Some scenes are very appealing, some other... almost repulsive.

One thing that hits our European look is the way that everything is sold in the roads. Meat hanging in the heat of the afternoon, exposed to dust, and flies, and... Don't look - you need to keep on eating until the end of the trip!

Straight ahead there are more interesting things to look at.

A traditional sweet-savoury usuallly following the main dishes is pastilla - a tradition that could solve our problem with our over abundance of pigeons in London ha ha?! (and why theres not so many pigeons pooing all over Djma Elfna!?)

Traditionally made with pigeon in many places this is now made with chicken instead - and its rather delicious. Layers of pastry with moist pigeon or chicken baked and then icing sugar and cinnamon served over the top.

I went to a wedding in Casablanca last year and we had a pastilla with shrimps and fine noodles and other small bits of seafood - it was a very delicious version as well!

Anyway pigeon or chicken pastilla is well worth taking the opportunity to try if you come across it on the menu. This photo is taken of a return to Cafe Toubkal at Djma Elfna recently and had pastilla and coffee again.

I was not expecting to see sugar cane in what I supposed that it would be only desert, but in the coast, near Rabat there were large sugar cane plantations artificially irrigated.

A surprise, for me, in Moroccan way of life.

The literacy rate is said to have been increasing especially the female literacy rate since the present King has been on the throne - by having more schools and that is including the remote areas of which there are many many people and villages in Morocco many miles from cities and with only small or minor road access or even only piste or 4x4 access - apparently more is being done to enable children to get to school but it is not to say that arent cases of children having to walk an hour and an hour home again to receive an education.
Add to this that there are many people with very low incomes - enough to survive by herding goats all day or that is the job of the women and girls in the family while the husband stays away in town if hes found a job there - so there are many situations for a family to let their children go to school requires quite amotivation and to be able to continue on through the higher levels past the mandatory age may take even more sacrifice or effort.
Then there is the cost of providing materials required for the children to be at school....beyond the basics and it may become costly or too costly for many families on subsistence income out in rural or remote areas.

This is where taking packets of pens, pencils, exercise books....any types of stationery and even arts and crafts items can be great gifts to take to a school along your travels. bear in mind if its given quietly to a school teacher that your items maybe kept for his own children or his relatives or those in his click rather than distributed to the most needy in the class..so it can be a good idea to do when there are many eyes to see your donation.

here in England we have excellent £1 shops with an excellent range of stationery items and even Sainsburys - I found 'Basics' brand packets of erasers 4 for 5p!! and packets of 20 biros for only 50p - all worth taking the opportunity to purchase and take with you.

The Marjane supermarket chain to be found in all major cities around Morocco also has items that you can purchase for low prices such as exercise books, paints and watercolours, glue sticks, picture books in French and Arabic....

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Found out this year the locals trick to getting Sahara Pizza - go to the souk and get all the bits you need such as the meat you want from the butcher you want (all the fat cut off if you want!), go to the vege stalls and get your red onions and coriander, go the nut stall and get some almonds!!, go to the spice stalls and get your 45 or 55 spices! then take it to who you know - maybe the butcher - and get them to chop or crush it all up in teeny bits and mix it - then take it to the bread man who has the dough and he will in about 2 minutes have your sahara pizza mix turned into a pizza cooking in the oven!

Just a great delicious concoction for a start - and you know whats going into it - and its cheaper - a pretty big one that we made that gave 3 people 2 and 3 big pieces for only 70 dirham

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Islam has a special place for cats and so, by proxy, Morocco.

There is a story that a cat was sleeping on the sleeve of the Prophet when the call to prayer was heard. Rather than wake the cat to pray, he cut the sleeve off his jellaba so as not to disturb him.

Old women will collect left over scraps and dump them somewhere the cats can get to them.

SO! Be a cat defender: if any cafe owner has to impress you with what he thinks are your "western" sensibilities (or even expresses his own personal aggressiveness towards them) and is mean to Sidi Qatta bin Meow, fight back - and let him the cat's with you, boo.

Winning a bargaining battle means you don't get mad.
So, to lessen frustration and increase happy bargaining

1)Know the price before you get there
2)Pay only what you want to pay
3)Don't allow emotions to sway you
4)Learn arabic or french

You are here to have a beautiful journey - don't get lost raging in the sooq. Rage in any language translates to some sort of incompetence. Prepare for your trip.

For those who feel that preparing in advance should be done by the seller - well, as we helpfully say on the Riverwalk of New Orleans after you lose your first guessing bet, "Never play another man's game. You can never win at another man's game."

Things you will say in this situation:

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Salaam alikoom

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: SHUKRAN!

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Smeheliya - excuse me

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: la bas?

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bishal Haddak? - How much?

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bzaaf!

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

In an effort to make the donor activities more responsive to Morocco’s education issues, USAID and the MNE chaired a very well attended session on the serious subject of school drop-out. While Morocco has made great strides in increasing first grade enrollment (92% average), much remains to be done to ensure that those students enrolled complete primary school, let alone middle, or high school. Some 400,000 children dropped out of school during the 2004-2005 school year, which is embarrassingly high (some 5 million total are in the system through high school).

The final conclusion of the meeting was the need to create a national observatory, involving relevant parties, including those with field experience, as well as donors. Another outcome was to encourage regional MNE staff to organize “caravans” that would share experiences with the prevention of drop-out or their reintegration in the program. As a final comment, the MNE co-chair reminded the group that education until age 15 is compulsory by law, but that parents get away with not keeping their children in school