Our Arab Father

Khalid: Our Arab Father

"The women. They cannot go into the market by themselves. As men, it is our duty to protect them. Never let them do it. They will die. We are their protectors" and so on and so forth. This was what Khalid explained to Terry, the only boy so far on our trip, each time he pulled him aside from the group.

Khalid has taken it upon himself to escort us around not only Hay Mohammadi, but Casablanca as well. "I walk 18km for the day. It is my time for reflexion," he told me on several occasions. And so, he leads us on tours, mostly silent due to his swift pace and our futile attempts to catch up with him. I just wanted to buy vegetables. I had just three items on my list that I absolutely needed. Bananas, carrots, and bread. But Khalid, he's very picky about his food. He thinks all the food is poisoned and analyses all of his food - even food that his wife makes. So, when Sam stopped at a hanout because she was so hungry that she couldn't wait, we had to call to Khalid, who was 100 feet away already and oblivious to our stop, to wait for her. When he retraced his steps to see the person and purpose for which we were waiting, he scowled when he saw that Sam was ordering from a hanout. When we re-commenced, Khalid led us past perfectly good fruit and vegetable carts, and over a dozen places that sold bread. "It's not fresh," he told me as I peered wishfully over to the bread stalls. They looked delicious, whatever he said, but I couldn't disobey Khalid - I want to please my Arab father. I ended up with 1 kilo of vegetables and 1 kilo of bananas. Everyone's patience ran out before I was able to buy any bread.

My loot.

So what is a hanout? It is a little shop that sells pretty much the same goods, and is located on every street. They've got bread, chips, cheese etc. So what you do is order a sandwich. You pay for the bread, the tuna, the cheese separately and they cut it all up and give it to you. It never costs more than 15dh and can be as low as 7dh, if you don't by the fancy cheese (so from a little less than a dollar to less than two dollars for the sandwich). I go to one everyday for lunch, so I will take pictures tomorrow.

So far, I really love Morocco. It's got culture, another language (most people I've encountered don't speak English, or don't speak it that well), it's got good food and right now I am loving it because it's cheap (for me). I'm frugal, I know.