Travel Diary - A semester in Morocco: Staying with a host family
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Shit
The first
impression of the host family was good. I was welcomed by a little girl who
asked me what my name was. Later it seemed that this was the only English
sentence the family knew, and my name quickly changed to things as ‘’Foetna’’
and ‘’Toefna’’. But the house was beautiful, tiled with gorgeous Moroccan
mosaics. A house in the 1001 night style. The family exists out of a women with
her son (about my age) and her three daughters (around 10, 8 and 3 years old).
The women’s sister also lived in the house and did most of the household tasks.
Besides hosting me, they also had a small bed & breakfast which
accommodated tourists every now and then. The family was extremely hospitable.
On my very first night they took me to a fair, and on my third day I joined a
family trip to the beach. The only downside was the shower. The shower existed
out of a bucket with (luckily warm) water with a little cup to rinse the soap
of your body. It was also hard to get used to Moroccan life, the family was
very sweet, but the question ‘’Why am I doing this again?’’ popped up in my head
quite often. Especially when I ended up on the toilet after three days already.
I won’t go into details but never trust a guy who sells water bottles while it
actually is tap water, and always check whether the bottle has been opened
before or not. Even when you’re really thirsty. I learned a lesson. This
incident also made that I missed my first week of school. My first impression
of Morocco: shit. Literally.
The real
Moroccan life
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Luckily I felt completely healthy again after a week, and I could finally start
to enjoy the life in Rabat and Morocco. While during my first week I
rather wanted to avoid the medina because of the ‘terrible smell and crowdedness’ – which was pretty much impossible because my host family lived in the medina – my opinion changed drastically in the second week. Also the idea that the life in a host family wasn’t really my thing slowly changed and I started to appreciate the daily breakfast on bed as soon as I turned the light on. You can even say that besides being sick, I also had a real culture shock. But slowly I started living the real Moroccan life. By now I learned that doing grocery shopping in a supermarket is extremely expensive (read: €3,- for some cheap chocolate chip cookies), so that you rather should go food shopping at the souk. That the orange juice sold on the streets is absolutely delicious. That having dinner around 11 is pretty early (at least, according to my host family). That cars do not stop for a zebra crossing and that you should just throw yourselves in front of the cars, otherwise you will never reach the other side. I even went into the city in my pyjamas. Completely normal. Oh and, cockroaches in the kitchen are also really a thing.
After 2
weeks of class (just one week for me), we had an amazing school trip to the
countryside and the palm oasis of Skoura. Beforehand we were all warned for
becoming carsick, because the bus trip to get there took more than 12 hours and
a big part of the ride would be through the Atlas mountains. Luckily the busses
were minivans and very luxurious, and the drivers drove safely. After precisely
12 hours of driving we arrived at the village we were going to stay at. It
seemed that Skoura was a small city close to where we were staying, and around
this small city were many really small villages with as main building a ‘Kasbah’
which was mainly in use as a hotel. We arrived in the dark and the last 10
minutes of the drive went through sand and rocks. The teachers were going to
stay at the Kasbah, and we were all divided among host families from the
village. Together with two other girls from the Nimar I stayed at the house of
Fatima. We had to sleep on the floor, but we were very lucky to have light and
running water (and even a tv!). During the 3 full days in Skoura we had to do
several observation exercises (in order for us to learn how to do qualitative
research). For this we for example went to a market, visited another very old
Kasbah and wandered around the village where we stayed at. But most of the time
we relaxed on the couches of the beautiful Kasbah with some Moroccan tea and
cookies. Very good for bonding. Also the lunch we got in the Kasbah was
absolutely delicious! On our last evening in Skoura the teachers planned a
Moroccan party for us and our host families at the Kasbah. When we got home
from the observation exercises Fatima was waiting for us with dinner already.
Out of nowhere someone knocked on the door. It happened to be two women who
were going to decorate our hands with beautiful henna. Also, Fatima gave us
gorgeous Moroccan dresses we got to wear. First time I wasn’t stressing out
about what to wear to a party. The party was amazing. They invited a Moroccan
band with many different types of drums. They were singing and dancing and of
course we joined. This was a perfect end to an absolute amazing 4 days in
Skoura.
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In general
I have to say that I found my experience of living with a host family extremely
interesting. I learned a lot from my host family about the Moroccan life and
culture and I would definitely do it again, and recommend people to stay in a
host family for a particular amount of time. Anywhere in the world. Even though
sometimes it is more difficult than living by yourself, it is a real challenge
and a one in a lifetime opportunity! But, even though I did enjoy the Moroccan
Tajines at 11 o’clock, the Friday afternoon couscous with the family, and the
sweet breakfast on bed with Moroccan tea, I secretly do look forward to a big
plate of pasta pesto around 7 o’clock.
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