The View From Here . . .
By Bob Morgan, Jr.

As this is written, young Robert and I are in an internet cafe in Marrakesh, Morocco. The cafe itself is a fairly colorful scene, located upstairs in a market building near the main Djemma el Fna square with Arabic music blaring. The keyboard, which also has Arabic letters, is in the French mode and not every letter is placed the same as it is in our standard design. For example, I keep typing the letter q when I mean a.

As it long has been, Morocco is a crossroads country. Its soul is certainly Arab and Islamic. Even in Marrakesh, a relatively westernized part of the country, most local women wear the traditional djellaba garb including headscarves, and the sound of the call to prayer fills the medina, or central area, five times a day. Somewhat disappointingly, mosques are basically off limits to non-Muslims, although medersas, seminaries for religious instruction, can be seen.

But there is also a tolerance for foreign ways in Morocco which is easy to take for an outsider. For example, although the consumption of alcohol is forbidden by Islam, it is available to foreigners at restaurants, bars and stores and Morocco even has its own vineyards. Partly as a result of its status as a French colony from 1912 to 1956, French, and to a lesser extent, English, is widely spoken in Morocco, although attempts to use even rudimentary Arabic are welcomed. Most fundamentally, the parts of the country that I have seen so far basically feel safe for visitors.

The economy of Morocco is in transition as well. Although Morocco can fairly be called a Third World country, the extremes of poverty that appear in other parts of Africa do not appear as prevalent here. While bicycles, horse-drawn, and even donkey-drawn, carts and trucks are still very common, the motor vehicle age, at least after a fashion, has come here. There are huge numbers of motorcycles, motor scooters and even motorized bicycles on the road, and even in the alleys, along with larger vehicles, all driven in a very, er, spirited style.

One traditional aspect of the economy that has not been abandoned, however, is the love of bargaining. While taxis in theory have meters, in practice the rates must be negotiated down from the initial high first offer. Even orange juice on offer from the stands in the Djemmq el Fna required haggling. And the getting the right price for a rug sold in the souks can take hours of bargaining, some of it over the traditional mint tea.

In any event, the lad and I still have much to see and learn about Morocco on this trip: In what very much figures to be the highlight of the journey for the lad, tomorrow we will be taking an overnight minibus excursion to the desert and mountain areas surrounding Marrakesh, including a two-hour camel ride and sleeping outdoors in a tent. Robert explained that he will get great enjoyment from this side trip itself, but he is especially eager to watch his father attempt to cope with this adventure; I think I last camped out in 1965. But I imagine that I will be able to get through this excursion and that it will prove to be one more great memory from an eye-opening trip.