No matter where I went or how I got to my destination there
was always one thing in common in my travels.
I call it, the Moving Moroccan Man Mania.
This is a new disorder I have classified after my 4 months in Morocco
and how without fail there was always a fight wherever there are men
traveling. Since the Moving Moroccan Man
Mania is oh so catchy I’m going to trademark it now and shorten it to M4.
Train:
On my first train ride in Morocco a fight broke out in the
compartment next to mine. It was hard
for me to see what was going on but as the shouts escalated the skirmish moved
into the hall. The man sitting next to
the window in our compartment got up to take a look and blocked the fight from
coming into our compartment. I thought, “how
gallant, he is there to protect us!” At
least that’s was until he too started to voice his opinion about the fight… that
he couldn’t see and had nothing to do with. I chalked this first incident up to the
stresses of traveling and how people can get a bit testy. Too bad it happened on almost all train rides after that.
Taxi:
There are two kinds of taxies in Morocco; grand ones and
small ones. The grand taxi is kind of
like a bus shuttle. There are taxi
stands throughout the city where you get a ride from one main stand to another. This is a cheaper mode of transportation then
hailing a cab and telling him where to go (and in my case hoping he speaks a
bit of French). However, you have to
wait until the taxi is full with 6 passenger before leaving. Now the grand taxi might have a name that
leads you to believe that it is big and roomy, but that’s sadly not true. Four people squeeze into the back and two in
the front passenger seat. Then there is
also the driver. I want you all to think
back to the last time you fit 7 people into 1 car. Now do this daily while snuggling against
complete strangers. Super fun.
"We can’t even
all fit in the photo!”
With this sardines configuration and rides lasting as long at 25
minutes, I can almost see why the M4 would come about in these situations. However, it was rarely the confined passengers
causing the problems, but the man driving the car (who had a whole seat to
himself so he shouldn't complain!).
Road signs, speed limits, lines on the road are all suggestions in
Morocco which causes a lot of people to get angry when others don’t play by
their own made up rules.
"Typical taxi stand with too many taxies and too much yelling"
One day I was taking a new intern on her first grand taxi experience and we ran into an M4 situation. First off she was not a fan of the small space we had to share but she let that slide when she saw our driver get out of the car to go yell
at the man who cut him off (even though we cut him off first). I explained
that this is normal and they would finish up soon enough. She didn’t believe
me until she saw five other men had joined the fun, but soon(ish) after they waved goodbye to each other and we got on our way.
“The grand taxies were not only grand in their
space but also their style!”
Airplane:
I thought for sure that I would be safe from the M4 on an airplane. Yes flying is even more stressful then most
methods of transportation, but there is so much more security and protocol that
I thought for sure the M4’s would take a pill and chill out. Wrong again.
On my flight back from Madrid to Rabat there was a back up on the jet
way. Two men started at it and several
more joined in. After several minutes
someone got the airport staff to come and break it up. They sucked royally at deescalating the
situation and instead the two M4’s screamed “terrorist” at each other. I sighed and told the frightened looking woman next to me, “welcome to Morocco.” No worries, flight landed safe and sound.
Bike, Bus, and Trams:
For the rest of the common forms of transportation in
Morocco, I was lucky to not spend too much time on any of them. But don’t fear, because when I would take the
occasional tram or bus ride there would be a M4 fight. I never got to ride on one of of the motor bikes and that was probably for the best.
“I think my uncle Jim should trade in his Harley
for one of these bad boys.”
Medina Walking:
In the medina is where the M4 are the most relaxed (probably
because they act like the own the streets and everyone in them) so they aren’t
so much a problem. However, this is
where the “move get out of my way!” Caity comes into play. There is mall walking, window shopping
walking, and grandma walking. The women in
the medina trump all of that. When
walking to and from work I like to walk fast.
Well, most of the time I like to walk fast (not Cassie fast). I also don’t particularly care
for crowds so my desire to walk fast through it is increased. Unfortunately, the woman of Morocco have band
together to prevent me from moving much at all.
Their methods of destroying my patients is by linking arms
(like when playing the game of Red Rover) making chains of 2-5 people long and sway
slowly back and forth in something that resembles walking. It reminds me of sorority girls drunk walking
home from a party, except Morocco is dry and you never see a woman drunk! Alright, this is a bit of a harsh comparison,
but I want to give a good picture of what kind of obstacles I faced when
walking everyday and how it cause me to look like this -
"You gotta help me get out of here!"
I would love to say that over the four months I learned to relax
and walk with the flow of the crowd, but I don’t want to lie to you
internet. There is only so much growing
and changing one can do. I will always
be like a salmon swimming up stream (except instead of spawning I really just
wanted to get home to pee). New York
might have given me road rage, but the medina gave me walking rage.
Next up I will tell you all about the things I past on my
daily stress walks in the medina.
Bonus photo!
“Also on
my daily compute, cows!”
