A very Moroccan community
And just like that, we are nearly headed to Spain. The two weeks in Morocco has flown by; I can already tell I’ll miss the mint tea with honey and the bread, but I think I’ll miss the sense of community the most.
I experienced my first hammam today, a sort of scrubbing massage and bath that leaves you feeling extremely clean. All the women were in one room, washing themselves and talking, while people took turns getting scrubbed down by two women working there. There was no shyness or awkwardness about being naked in front of others; there were even whole families washing with their mothers, all taking turns helping each other. Not only did I feel the cleanest I had ever felt, but I actually felt confident in my own skin. The sharing of food from the same plate, the washing together in the hammam, the mint tea before meetings…I love it all! I will definitely be taking back these things to the United States; I’ll try my hand at making couscous and tagine, and of course mint tea.
that I miss my family more than I thought I would. My experience here has been so rich and involved, and yet not a day goes by that I don’t think of them or want to message them. But I think being away from them in another country, not just in another state, is a very sobering experience and has broadened my mind so much. Now as we move onto Spain, which is more like the United States than Morocco is, it will be interesting to see if this feeling persists, or if it is just a byproduct of being injected into a completely unfamiliar culture in Morocco.
My research has largely produced the same results as mentioned previously; the internet research I did before the trip seems to be pretty reflective of the true situation in Morocco. Not too much thought about the potential for genetically modified crops, and more emphasis on local, small-scale agriculture, are prominent here. There are some products I’ve found that have a “GMO-free” label (often written in French of course), but there doesn’t seem to be a consistent labeling standard for GM crops (especially not for produce). As we approach Spain, which has the largest production of GM maize in the European Union, it will be interesting to see whether more items have labels, and whether the people I talk to think more about the presence of GM crops in Spain.
