“Bread and Bliss” Week 1 Blogpost by Ahmed Salat

Bread and Bliss

When I decided to go to Morocco this summer, I didn’t do any research on the places I’d be visiting because I just wanted to travel there and get the full experience without having any expectations. I heard from friends that Morocco has a very rich and ancient culture and that, I came to confirm was true. But there were many things that I was surprised to discover both during my short stay at Casablanca before taking the train to Fez and during my tour of this beautiful city. Having lived in Kenya almost all my life and an image of the stereotypical city of a developing country in my mind, touring Morocco was a big of a shock for me.  The streets of Fez are so much cleaner than I expected and very well maintained. At first, I thought it was just the city center that was kept clean to give a good image of the city in general but now I have been to different parts of the city and every street I have been to is so clean and properly maintained, with beautiful trees planted along every street and flowers at every roundabout. Even the Medina, which was founded in the 9^th century and with such narrow streets and alleyways and donkeys carrying goods around, you’ll hardly see any garbage around.

Figure 1: A Street in Fez

Fig 2: Kids swim in a roundabout fountain next to Dar al-Makhzen, the Royal palace at Fez

Figure 3: Dar al-Makhzen

What was even more surprising was the fact that these streets are usually full with people even past  midnight. That was in fact the first thing I noticed when I arrived at Fez almost half past midnight and found so many people seated on benches around the Batha roundabout while I waited for my host family to come pick me up. I was also amazed at the fact that there aren’t many traffic lights and no traffic police at all to man the streets, yet there isn’t any traffic jam nor are there road accidents or any sort of disorderliness!

Khobz: this is the Arabic word for bread. Moroccans love mint tea, that I knew, but their love for bread? That was entirely new and was another thing that has been worth noting. Fassis- people of Fez- usually serve bread at every meal. They eat bread at breakfast and at lunch and even at dinner. You’ll go to a hotel, ask for a hot chocolate and it comes with khobz!

Fig 4: Khobz

I have been here barely a week now and I feel like I have seen and learnt so much. I can’t wait to explore Morocco more in the next five weeks.. I’ll be spending the next two weeks at Fez before moving to Rabat for the second part of this program but I’ll also be traveling to Chefchaoeun, Meknes and most importantly will go on a three-day trip to the  Sahara Desert soon so stay tuned for more about my adventure in Morocco every Wednesday!