This article might be a little bit less impressive than I’d wish it to be… as I write it thinking back to Marokko and not just in the time and place - being there, feeling and smelling this crazy different world around me…

There is thousand stories to tell about (our) life there, even though we only spent 5 days in this country and only saw 2 towns and some nature in between those towns, which are Tanger and Chechaouen…

The pictures (that I will hopefully be able to put online soon) might say a lot more than words anyhow

We (Sam, Barry and me) travelled 100 years -and 2 hours - back in time, crossing the ocean in only 35 minutes by ship. And we arrived in a world that smells different, tastes different and feels different - even the sun is much brighter than here (we could immidiately recodnize this even though it was a quite cloudy, rainy day…)

Afrika… !

For Sam and me it must have been even much more impressive than for Barry, as for us it was the first time ever that we left the European continent and had a real culture shock.

First thing I thought about this continent: “Oh man, Afrika is so fuckin cold!”

Before crossing the ocean I had wondered how I should survive with wearing long clothes all the time in the heat, but I felt it wouldn’t be any problem at all, it was much colder than in Spain here.

We left the ship, were asked for the first time if we want to buy Haschisch

and exactly in that moment people started to chant prayers down from all the roof… (which they do 5 times a day…)

… I felt Allah kissing my feet…

Sam and me definetely had had culture shocks before in our life and especially in this tour… everytime we come to a new project we are shocked by hippiecultures, punkcultures, or whatever kind of strange freaky cultures people have developed…

but well, it is quite different to be in a whole country that works in a different way from what you are used to, than just being in one house or small village with a culture that basically is a western influenced visionary idea or something…

We spent some hours in Tanger trying to get anything of what was happening around us but failed completely, nothing seemed to make any sence here…

We changed some money and got some cheap bread and dates and very spicy olives from a market, were tricked the first time about the price of the bread.

Barry was good at haggling and got some little bags for wearing money and passports under the pullover for a bit more than half the price the funny guy wanted from us…

Guess this is what selling insurances teaches you - Sam and me will never be good sellers (nor buyers!) I think…

I was quite afraid of everything still when we were sitting in a cafe at the bus station, waiting for the bus to Chechaouen, where we were supposed to meet Laura and Jaqueline this evening.

I didnt even know if I was supposed to sit here as a woman, we had some discussions about these kind of things, the boys and me. I felt quite helpless and naked without this scarfthing around my head… but when I saw how tranquilo the atmosphere in the bus station was (like at home in your living room!), how few the people gave about their style and look (something you’d never find in Europe!) - and that there was also women (alone!)- sitting there and drinking their coffee I slowly felt better and safer…

My first Maroccon toilet was quite a shock though …

The bus ride that was supposed to be 2 and a half hours was over 4 hours in the end,

because of people taking lots of food and stuff inside the bus and taking hours to load it…

The countryside around looked very green and more like Scotland than the clischee that I have of Marokko: no deserts, no camels, only goats and cows and herders in strange clothes…

and these green mountains, VERY GREEN and very beautiful ones.

When we got out of the bus we wanted to look for the hotel that Laura and Jaqueline stayed in - it was supposed to be the cheapest (for 30 Dirham, less than 3 Euro a night) - some “friendly” people brought us there to see if they are there. A guy came down the stairs and told us that they are not here and moreover that the hotel was full and we couldnt stay there.

We ended up being pulled into the first store of our stay in Chechaouen, coming to buy nothing, and leaving with a carpet. The whole procedure of selling took several hours and included tea, joints and long long monologues…

“I love your smell, natural people!” and “You make me so happy. I just want to make you happy. Are you happy?” will be the sentences we will always remeber about this night and Ibrahim, our first new Marokkan friend…

We went back to the hotel (sceptical if the guy who told us it was full before reallly worked there, or was just another friend of this weird mafia clan) to to see if it was really full, he came down the stairs and looked very scared: “where is your friends?” and then, after having recognized they were not with us any more “come in, come in”

We were happy to just crash and so we stayed in this ugly place which was dirty and smelly (and had no showers) for 2 nights, which was fine as Laura and Jaqueline were there and we had a lot of fun. But if we would have known - as we found out later - that you can find much nicer hotels for the same price we for sure would have left there immideately…

We spent a nice first day with Laura and Jaqueline and brainstormed a lot for the Girasound Festival… I told them a lot about fundraising and my experiences with party organisation with partyguerrilla in Munich…

That was basically all skillsharing that happened in this time in Marokko within our group, except some small English and photography workshops with Barry,

and of course an exchange with this “real Berber” (how he was called several times because of his haggling style) about trading, selling, haggling and the psychology behind selling ,

or: how to brainwash people

Yes, well… brainwashing….

What followed then in the next days is hard to explain…

We arrived in Marokko having this weird idea in our mind of coming to a very cheap country where we wouldnt need a lot of money…

It ended up being the most expensive time in all our tour so far and even though we arrived without backpacks and sleeping bags even we had a lot to carry when we came back.

After all this time of recycling and using few money, of mostly cooking on the fire and buying organic stuff in big bags of 50 kilos… eating rice and lentles and chapati for weeks… we ended up in a consumerist shopping trip.

We just totally got addicted to haggling prices, we got like sucked into those little shops in between the blue blue walls with the colourful carpets and clothes, the millions of different smells

and the crazy Marokkan salesmen who were just so very amusing and always brought you tea

Oh yeah, and the tea: we just loved to sit in bars and drink a tea, “only 5 Dirham each! (less than 50 cents), why not?” and then change the bar and drink another tea in another bar, comparing quality…

So well, we did all the things we’d never ever do in Europe and really felt like the most stupid rich European tourists ever…

It didnt matter anyhow, as nobody over there would believe us - well, could imagine even!- that we are eating “trash” in Europe and have no money . For Marokko, we were damn rich, and we realised that if we’d be really poor, we just wouldnt spend the money that we spent…

When we tried to talk to Maroccons about dumpster diving, most of the people acted as if they wouldnt hear what we say - just another stupid tourist pretending to be poor for getting a better price..! .

One guy once listened to it and nodded his head as if he understood, maybe he understood even, at least he seemed to be sceptical about the consumerist society in Europe and I was happy that he seriously listened to what we said. So, he agreed Europeans are crazy, I was not sure if he understood my explanation why…

How should they be able to imagine…? The bananas you can buy there are more brown than the ones that we get from the trash in Europe - and I guess that basically this is why everything is cheaper over there: They just don’t destroy food just to keep the market prices high. They dont make the people believe that bananas have to be green.

I like the shops there, I love them. I’d shop a lot more in these kind of shops if we had them in Europe, I am sure. It is much nicer to buy from small shops, to get to know the people a bit, to spend a lot of time in a shop, to take a day time for buying something and discussing about the price again and again.

It is fun seeing that they help each other out with selling all the time, like bringing you to their friends shops when they dont have what you are searching for - or even bringing you stuff from other shops, letting you alone in their place with all their stuff ( no worries about stealing, no cameras, nothing!)

It is a bit scary though that everybody in all the city knows exactly what you bought and where and when and for which price.

But with this system of familyclan economy and smallscale sellers supporting each other it seems that they manage to stay moreless independent of the big companies. I did not see any big companies supermarkets in Marokko, there wasnt even one in all Cheachaouen.

In the words of Ibrahim “I am my boss here, it’s much better” and in the words of Ali of our second hotel “I dont want to make big money, I want to have relaxed life”.

I realised that this is one (in the “West” not very well discussed) reason why women are suppressed, why all this crazy religion thing is so strong there, etc etc:

because men want to keep their independence, want to stay their own bosses.

Because there is the fear that if the family structures develop into a more free and equal direction, it will be the same development like in Europe and other western societies:

Women will have the right to vote and to work hard like men in the same crazy big companies, factories, etc. Children will be sent to kindergardens and old people to seperated homes etc…

In Europe the womens rights movement maybe led to a better situation for the women (though this might be worth an own discussion, as “female values” are still worth nothing in the society in general and I think it’s more that women are made to be “male”, strong and powerful),

but womens rights also led to the destruction of traditional old family structures - and economy structures, which was the same back then.

Still in Western societies it seems there is nothing that could replace these old traditional community structures. Since the 60s people try to build up more free communities and cooperatives, but up to now it seems that most of them fail to give the kind of security and trust to the people that they would need to create something that could be stronger than the big commercial cooperations - and at the same time fulfill the needs for individualism and freedom that our society creates.

Womens rights led to the destructions of small business economy, and so just from what I saw with my eyes I guess there is more reasons behind the oppression of women in the Islamic countries, than we can judge - economic reasons for example.

I just read that Islam laws prohibit the interest system - the basic thing capitalim is build on!

I will do more research on this topic, but if it is true that in Islamic countries interests on debts don’t exist, but debts expire 5 years after somebody took a credit, then this stresses another different (not very well-known) reason why the Western industries and governments (especially the US) are so busy creating an image of Muslims of all being terrorists that have to be fought. In this case their religion - one of which most important values is economic equality - would make it impossible to get them work in the capitalist system!

One Maroccon man (when we asked him what he thinks about Europe): “Many people here think Europe is like paradise, many people want to go there. Many people are also in fear of it. I have never been there but I think it is better life here. Here we live in community. In Europe everybody is alone and by himself”

I realised that for some projects we are doing it would be great to get inspired by this culture: brueckenschlaeger for example, with the idea to build up supporting and skillsharing networks of freelancers, etc, could really learn a lot from this traditional old way of trading.

I realised again we are not inventing anything new with our “alternative” lifestyle - we are inventing the wheel new, over and over again. But if it saves this planet, why not… ?

I am quite sure, that the colours they use here for their carpets are not 100% natural, the plastic looking material of their blankets and carpets is not “made from cactus” and I can imagine that they even have some central factories for carpet production somewhere with probably quite bad working conditions…

but at least they have small shops and support each other in living their independent lifes rather than fighting each other for jobs…

We heard that if you want to open a small shop there (even though you’ll probably sell the same stuff as everybody else and in capitalist values would be regarded as competition!) the neighbours and friends help you, give you muebles etc for having a good start.

There is exceptions also, sure, as we saw with this guy in the hotel, and “our friends” that he was so afraid of. Seemed like a longlasting fight these guys had, maybe family fight, whatever…

(Carpet-)producers are - as people explained to us- organised in 4 cooperatives (in Chechaouen), who buy and give the material to them and help them to sell. Most of the shop owners buy from the cooperatives or from the producers directly, and the cooperatives also have own big shops/exhibitions. They are a bit bigger than normal shops and the sellers don’t push you so much it seem’s, but these are (what I saw) the only differences to normal shops.

Impressed and brainwashed by the trade system we returned to spain with “cactus”-carpets and a “Kaschmir”-shallabah (traditional herders clothing) for Barry, some strange nuts and a Tajin (kind of pan where in you cook vegetables very slowly and they dont lose so much of their taste), henna, soap, colours and masses of nice strong spices…

I was quite happy though to have made this consumerism experience again after a long time of being “clean” of it - I had already forgot how it was to have a shopping trip as I was so bored of shops in Europe (and also couldnt really afford the ones that wouldnt bore me, like organic/fairtrade shops, markets, etc).

I can probably understand capitalism and consumerism and how these mechanisms behind them work much better again now.

I sweared by Allah that I would never buy any clothes (or any similar luxury stuff that I could recycle also) in Europe again - ever! It is just no fun there!

Some more impressions I have from this society…

well, it is - very different from what i had expected…

* I love the old people there, they seem to be very happy and not as lonely as I know old people.

Old men are walking HOLDING HANDS in the streets, happily smiling… I’ll never forget this picture!

* I cant really say I love the situation with the womens rights, but it feels different than what I expected. Women obviously have a very different role in society, but it seems they are more happy than I expected them to be, most of them are very proud and confident and in general seem to see more sence in life than women I know in Europe. But I didnt meet so many women, so I cant really tell, just an impression.

Many more than I thought go without covering their heads and give more about their look than a good Muslima should… the fashion is a strange mixture in between Traditional, Western and Bollywood.

The men cannot and do not want to understand Western women, I guess they think Western women always want to fuck with everybody, and that is also how many of them treat you as a Western woman.

But when i came back to Spain and saw all these “barbies” there - not being able to make a big difference in between a normal teenager girl and a hure - I kind of got the difference and was more culture shocked than in Marokko. People here define themselves so much more by their style, that of course for them it means losing a lot of freedom to have to dress in a certain way.

In Marocco women and men both always keep their arms and legs covered and you see many people in Shallabahs, the traditional herders working clothes, which are very big and long and cover everything that could attract the other sex (except the face).

* I love that people love communicating and speak so many languages without a problem switching it or thinking like “I cannot speakt this language/cannot communicate with this person”.

They always find a way to talk with you - it is normal to them, as (what I did not know) many people talk Berber as their first language (in the region between Chechaouen and Marakech), Arabic as their second language and French their third. Most of them speak English, Spanish or German as third language, or even all 3.

Children greet tourists with “Hola” in the streets (at least in Chechaouen) and every once in a while they ask “Alles klar?” or invite you to their shop with “Guck mal!”

I was surprised that these people count as “badly educated”, compared to French or Spanish people who normally don’t speak any other language than French or Spanish (except Catala etc maybe)

* I love happy poor people.

One man who told us he is coming from up in the mountains and cannot find work in Chaouen, so hes selling postcards, begged us for money several times. The last time Barry gave him one Dirham and then followed him to see if he would -as he had said- spend it for bread.

The old guy went proudly into the next shop and came out with a bread, very happy.

So Barry gave him all his last money… he couldnt say so many thank yous as would be enouph compared to how many times he said thank you for the first Dirham…

It was the first REALLY poor person I saw in my life I think - and the first HAPPY poor person. It felt very good to have met him. I wondered if he really feels “poor” at all …

* I love the way they pray from the roofs. I love this impressive strong moment, the silence and energy that goes along with everyone being concentrated on the singing, everybody being united in a spiritual moment. All radios turned off…

I found a solution for organising without clocks I think…

* I don’t love the toilets and hygiene in general. Not that I couldnt get along without toilet paper, but the toilets smell ugly, at least most of them, dont know if they have no canalisation there or what…

* But I love the food. Well, not so much the shit they sell to you in the restaurants, but what they cook at home is quite nice. And I love that everybody is eating from the same plate.

The last evening Ibrahim invited us for food in his place, his wife that we didnt get to meet cooked for us. Yes, Ibrahim, the guy who sold us a carpet in the first night. We came back to his store and bought some herbs and spices from his “natural pharmacy” (you can still get opium as a healing drug in some pharmacies in Marokko, by the way…) - and he invited us.

It was a nice evening and I am glad that we left the country with this good impression. We managed to get the early bus back to Tanger (Barry changed the clock so we’d believe it’s later than it was), some young men were having a great jam session with drums and arabic rythms and chants in the bus…

The time we spent there felt so much longer than it actually was… and I learned a lotin those few days!

I am not afraid of Muslim culture any more and learned to love a country that I didnt have any idea about before. I got really inspired to travel more far and out of Europe / Western countries also and might hitchhike to India one day, as I was often dreaming about

Last 5 posts by anja

• Que pasa? - December 15th, 2009
• project update - July 22nd, 2009
• erste Infoveranstaltung in München / first info event in Munich - June 21st, 2009
• back in the land of rain - June 6th, 2009
• game over ... the last day - May 31st, 2009