Yesterday turned out to be an interesting day. This past weekend our group took a trip to Asilah (in Morocco) as a kind of vacation to get a free mind before the start of reviews, cramming and finals for this summer session. Asilah is a beautiful place, on the coast not far at all from Spain, in fact many of the Moroccans speak Spanish fluently here and it's not unusual to see a Spanish flag here or there. Across from the hotel we roomed in was a beach and if we took a 15 minute walk on the boardwalk we'd reach an area which had an abundance of restaurants, most of which served fresh seafood.
On Sunday (yesterday) we left Asilah and headed to Tangier to get another look at yet another Moroccan city. This place as well was nice to behold although more urban and tighter packed than Asilah. When the group arrived in the city and got off the bus our director gave a talk and some instructions about some things to do, places to go, and where to meet up at the end of our day at around 3:30pm. Unfortunately, I didn't here the ending location...
After the talk the group took a 10 minute walk to a square near the Tangier medina in front of the Cinema Rif and from there we were free to do whatever we pleased. I along with a group of about 6 broke off and went our own way in search of food for lunch before going to maybe Ibn Battuta's Mausoleum or the Museum of Tangier. The majority of the group seemed to be looking for a certain type of food while a few of us wanted to just find a place that might have good food and simply try something new without any preset ideas of food types. So I and two others went off on our own and found some western style food. I ended up getting a burger with some fries; simple but filling and cheap. We finished our food, talked for a bit and from there we departed in search of the Museum we were eagerly looking forward to.
Something that really annoys me in tourist areas is that some people find a way to insert themselves into your daily activities even though you didn't invite them. What's even more disappointing is that there will be individuals who are Muslims who attempt to take advantage of you. In fact, it really gets me angry to be quite honest. This happened yesterday. While we were walking up a steep hill, maybe only 3 or 4 blocks from the museum, a guy says "Welcome to Morocco, you are welcome". We respond by saying thank you and try to head on our way. However, this guy continues near us and says "Tangier museum here, over here". From our group of three one had been in the country for a longer period than us since he's been here since the last summer session. He, out of his experience knew what I was thinking already, that being that this guy would continue to follow us and tell us where the museum was and then at the end would want money. So, our more experienced group member suggested we slow down and let this faux tour guide go on his way so we wouldn't have to deal with him.
When the "guide" was somewhat gone we continued on our way but, of course, he popped up again and was showing us the way once more. We continued on our way trying to lose him and we thought we did a little bit, however now a boy showed up and started giving us his tour. As we walked he'd make mention of the walls, the doors, what one building and another was, and interspersed this with "take picture, go ahead my friend take picture of door, beautiful shot". And of course, the older guy shows up and now they're acting as two faux tour guides. We decided that we'd just take "the tour" and pay them some dirhams and be on our way. The tour continued and culminated with us being led to a kind of cliff that overlooked the sea. It was completely blue and there weren't too many ships in the area. Honestly, the sight was magnificent though I don't think any words can do it justice. Soaking in the sight was hard to do though for me because I just wanted to shake these two (maybe they were older brother and younger?) off and explore without anyone leading the way. Ah well, such is life, you deal with what's dealt to you.
From the group of three, myself included, there was a Muslimah who has become a friend of mine. While we were all viewing the sight below (two others from the larger group happened to be there at the same time so now we were 5) the adhaan began to be called and I wanted to go and make salat ul dhuhr. We asked the "guides" where the masjid was and also asked them if they could find a spare hijab for the sister so she could make her salah as well. Alhamdulilah they had one and the sister was able to make her dhuhr, albeit in a little box in the masjid that's reserved for the Muslimat...similar to many masajid throughout the world...
When we met outside I could see on her face she wasn't too happy, the cubicle masalla wasn't to her liking. It seems like time and time again, I am given reminders of how blessed I am to have Imams who don't follow cultural traditions but practice an Islam that's based on their reading and best comprehension of the Qur'an and ahadith without any of the cultural baggage that so many, unfortunately carry. So, after chatting and walking for a bit, we "were led" to the museum, though we already knew where it was. This game was really comical in a seriously annoying kind of way. The cost of admission was 10 dirhams a piece, not too bad for a museum. The museum had some interesting artifacts, but in all honesty, it could've been better, and more should've been done with the available space. It looked like it was once a Masjid but I'm not sure. We spent around 20 minutes in the museum and then we were out, we weren't too sure if we saw the entire thing but there didn't seem to be another entrance or door for us to go through so we headed out. And of course who was waiting for us but our "tour guides"...
These guys were hard to shake off. I forgot to mention that there was only two of the group now; myself and the sister since we went to make salah and the others went off to explore on their own. I was ready to just ditch the two guys and be on my way, I was really hot thinking about random people coming up to offer their services unasked then expecting money. However, I had to hold my decorum as much as possible since I was with another person. I was ready to head back out of the medina to go to the plaza and get on with the rest of the trip but the guides wouldn't have it and I think my friend is just nice and didn't want to be rude to them. They continued to take us through more and more alleyways into the areas of the shops and stores and even stopped at a rug store telling us to stop in for a look. I was becoming more and more heated with every turn they took. My patience wore severely thin and I was thinking about our getting back to meet with the group in the right time so we wouldn't hold anyone up. Finally, we told them we had to go and it was now, not later. They led us to the plaza area and gave their greetings then began asking for their money: 100 dirhams. I wanted to say a few things to them for their even asking for money for services no one asked for. Normally I wouldn't mind paying for something and even giving tips since; we're all working and there's nothing wrong with supporting a person who's trying to make a way in their life. However, this was different, they saw two people they could label as tourists and tried to run their game. My friend didn't have money, I had more than enough so I decided to pay them...not 100 though. We asked them to lower it, they said 80. I laughed and said "no! 40".
"40"?
"yes 40, 20 each, and that's it, that's all you're gonna get".
I wasn't going to budge, I probably wouldn't have paid them at all if I was by myself to be honest. After paying them I shook hands with the younger while glaring at both he and his "co-worker".
"as salaamu alaikum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatu AKHI!"
I sometimes like to remind people that they've been trying to take advantage of their own brothers and sisters. It might not do something now, but in the future, when all is said and done and the reckoning begins, they'll have a lot to answer for.
After this, we looked at the time and realized we had a lot to spare so we decided to go for a walk hoping to see the strait of Gibraltar. Of course that was a distance away and we ended up in a park where we saw some Arabic writing on a huge tablet. Maybe about a meter and a half high and 2 and a half meters in length, divided into three columns. On and around it, someone had sharpied "fake", or "fak" and drawn middle fingers. Guess they didn't like what was written on the tablet...
While we continued reading a guy walked by us saying "bonjour, welcome, hello" then when he was a little off, out of nowhere he says "negro". Decorum, decorum, sometimes some people need to be kicked. They need to be reminded that though they have authority over some people and can abuse them, not all who are like them are under their authority and further, they have no right to abuse people in the first place. I would've loved to have been his reminder. Decorum! Anyways, being a little tired, we decided to sit for a bit under a tree and just relax. We had to meet at 3:30 and when it was 3 til, we decided to head out to Cinema Rif to meet the rest of the group. At 3:40 there was no one to be seen, 3:45 the same. Really weird. I went inside the Cinema Rif for a couple of minutes while my friend decided to wait outside and read at one of the tables. I came out, still none from our group. By 4:00 we decided that maybe the group was in the area where the bus dropped us off. We walked there and by maybe 20 minutes arrived to see no one. "Hmm, that sucks, this is really weird". We decided to walk back to the Rif thinking perhaps something was off about the timing. When we got there and saw no one we realized that there was some trouble. She became a little anxious and i was thinking of where they might be. My phone was completely dead and so I could make no calls nor receive any. Incommunicado!
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