Excursion to the medina

Today I really wanted to get out of the apartment in Marrakech and go to the medina, to the old town.
With the taxi. And drive back like that. A dear young friend here offered to accompany me.
I have known him from a common road trip through Morocco since May.
He doesn't speak an English. Not a word French. We talk to gestures.

🙃 Today something went wrong in the communication. 

After visiting the medina after the café, I wanted to go back to "home". It was totally hot and construction sites everywhere because in Marrakech there is currently working on the streets day and night.
Because the big annual meeting of the World Bank Group and the IMF takes place here in the city of Marrakech from October 7th. That means construction sites everywhere! Marrakech wants to show himself from its best side.
I understandably don't feel like going out!

With gestures I explained to him that after visiting the café, I would like to briefly to the Henkerplatz (Djemelfna) to drink a juice and then drive back with a taxi.

Hahahaa, wonderful!
From this it became: drink juice, yes! That's exactly what I wanted.

Then we ran through the souk. Mhh, I thought after we ran in a circle that he might want to do me a favor. My courtesy did not allow him to make him understand that I don't want to be in the souk under any circumstances !! The sweat ran to me 😥 he kept looking at his cell phone. I assumed that he was looking where our taxi was waiting.

We ran and ran. Through construction sites, stumbling over open streets and I already felt bubbles on my bales. At some point it dawned to me that there was probably a misunderstanding here…. So I stayed brave. He too. 

I turned the situation. Ok, Ok, Nora, after having not expanded your radius of the front door and the café, where I was sitting with laptop, this is a training session. And you get to know the new town. In the meantime, he bought water for us. At the latest then I knew that this way will take home ... shortly before the desired front door, I saw some nice cafés. In the green. With fountain. I'll visit them tomorrow.

So you can feel if you are not clearly communicated and too polite. I laugh. We laugh at this evening experience. I ask him (someone else translated) whether he will accompany me the next time? He laughs. I have not received an answer. But I know: he will. He is simply a caring person, and incredibly helpful.

A fine -pure for people's needs

The young man I tell about here only understands Arabic and yet he intuitively understands what I need.
If I eat, for example, he immediately finds out what tastes the most from the plate. And he sorts out to put these delicacies on my plate. He seems to watch my eyes. Because before I even explain something, he already realized it.

In general, I observe this that the guest is really king or queen.
I was invited to friends for 2 days in Ramadan. We were 7 people.
They still had the rhythm of the night in their daily routine. Because in Ramadan you eat at night until sunrise. So he started and got something to eat after midnight. He brought meat with bread and pushed it into the oven. He had forgotten the meat in the oven from all the time. When he came up with it, it was 3:00 a.m. and the good pieces had accepted a fairly dark color. We all laughed. This is also a wonderful quality of the Moroccans:
to accept everything as it is and to laugh at it.

The food is served on a large tray in the middle. In this case, the baking sheet came into the middle with the half -coaled meat. As always, there is no cutlery. The bread is the cutlery. The best, unresolved pieces were put on my side. That was a little embarrassing to me.
Then I understood that this is normal for them.
Share is normal.
Giving the other the best piece is normal.

In a culture that is dependent on each other in the community and cohesion, this is vital to help.

There is a lot that we can learn here in our individualized social structure here in Morocco.
Because in our society the focus is on self -fulfillment, personal freedom and autonomy. I stand behind these values. But my trips here also read this form, since it can often also increase isolation.

This country moves me because it shows me exactly this and so much other.
Not everything is fantastic here! Certainly not! It is important to me to tell about all sides. The good and the less good, the glorious and the cruel. As always, there is everything everywhere. And I tell my stories of encounters, experiences and my perspective.

Every trip is an experience. But every trip shapes one and every trip is left in us.
We learn that not everything is as it seems. Due to the unity, prejudices quickly form.
My pleasure is to reduce them
and that's why I write about my experiences in this, so deeply moving country.