Nov 17, 2010
Enroute to Casablanca from Rabat, Morocco
Marrakesh is the city that was the most challenging on this Moroccan trip. It tested my nerves and the shooting barely happened at all. However, on the day when I finally gave up and just decided to not participate, wonder about and just be, the Djemaa el-Fna (the square) became extremely entertaining.
There were all manners of hustle going down in the square. There were men sitting w a small table filled w human teeth and dentures. So you go there to get a new tooth for your dentures? Musicians sit in the square and play. Snake charmers tease their snakes, make them angry, put on a good show for the tourists and blow their cheeks out charming the venomous creatures. Women sit on little stools heckling you down for henna tattoo. There are men with monkeys on leashes for a photo op. There are story tellers and magicians. There were dancers and weird carnival like games.
I was stopped by an old lady fortune teller. By this point I was so tired of the hustle that I was willing to be hustled just as long as it was entertaining to me. I asked her if she spoke English. She waved over another fortunate telling friend of hers. The second fortune teller wanted 40 MAD ($5 USD) and I was willing to pay that just to see how much English the woman had. I gave her 35 MAD that I had in hard coins, kinda trying to bargain away the other 5. The first lady wanted more. I told her I didn’t have any more change. Then I showed her the 100 MAD bill I had. She took that and tried to make change. Then all of sudden the two old ladies started to argue. The second woman tried to pried the bill out of the first one’s hand. Something about this was so ridiculous and baffling that I was thoroughly entertained.
Finally the second woman gave me back my money and started the reading. It was the quickest and sloppiest card reading I’ve ever had. It took about 2 minutes and she simply repeated her prediction twice. I wondered if what she told me is all the English she spoke and if she just changed the numbers of children you will have around for different readings or if she just say the same thing for everyone. It didn’t matter. Watching the two old ladies argue was enough.
Clusters of people gather around the story teller, the magician and whatever else happens to take place at the moment. The clusters form, disband and reforms around another bit of entertainment. Djemaa el-Fna does not exist for the tourist trade. Sure they hustle the tourists for money and most likely charge us a lot more than they would other wise. But the square exists for the Moroccans. The tradition of story telling, of carnivals and magic, of entertaining through the imagination is alive in the square.
An old saying goes, its not what happened but how you remembered it. As I leave Morocco today for Egypt I am uncertain what my final impression of it will be. But I must say, Marrakesh, you stressed me out but it is possible that you did charm me a little in those final hours.
I wonder what it would be like to be the snake charmer’s snake…
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