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Subject:
[adventure!] xmas on a 'camel'
Date:
12/27/2003 11:08:47 AM
Merrrrrry .... 27th!
Well folks, I can now say that I have ridden a camel in the
desert. Well,
not a camel, but what the Moroccans call a 'camel', which is
actually a
dromedary (one hump vs. a camel's two). Humps aside, it was
an interesting
experience which may someday be consolation for the fact
that due to the
complete destruction of my testicles I can no longer have
children.
We stayed in a hotel in the desert xmas eve, serenaded by
three guys playing
traditional drums and singing some songs that sounded
relatively jolly.
That is relative to the two main other sounds of Morocco,
which are 1)
Arabic men speaking (the women don't really speak much
here); and 2) the
Muslim call to prayer (which happens 5 times a day and which
I am listening
to as I type this).
When arabic men speak to eachother it sounds, to this
ignorant foreigner,
like they are attempting to break eachothers' spirits by
insulting eachother
until one of them cries or runs home to his
wife/wives/mother/mothers-in-law. This is an angry sounding
language full
of acks and klaghs. Sort of like a Welsh man who's had a few
beers followed
by a piping hot bowl of potato-leek soup poured directly
into his lap. It
always seems like people are angry with eachother here.
The other ubiquitous sound throughout Morocco is the Muslim
call to prayer,
which sounds like a combination of an air raid siren,
animals being
slaughtered, and an arabic person pretending to be a
spooooooky ghost.
Usually there are at least two mosques in any town creating
these sounds and
blasting them through bullhorn speakers over the town in a
call-response
kind of way. The voices are always rising in tone and
spookiness. The
first of these calls begins (depending on the town) anywhere
between 4 and
5:30 AM and lasts for 20 minutes.
To even the most optimistic visitor, being woken up by the
sound of two
strange loud voices, overlaid with the distinct sound of
terrified animals,
it is very easy to assume this is a mistakenly broadcast
discussion between
two butchers all about how they are going to get into your
room and get you
and which spices you'll be cooked in. You expect it to end
with one of them
saying 'Idiot! You're leaning on the intercom button!'.
Anyway, if you get an inward facing room, take sleeping
pills and were
earplugs you can sleep right through it. The good news is
that I've
recorded it for you on a little mirocassette thingie that I
bought in Spain.
The other good news is that there are more pictures up
thanks again to
Scott:
ftp://platypus.mcmaster.ca/
They're pictures of Granada and the Alhambra that I uploaded
back in Spain.
I hoped to get some Moroccan pictures up, but the internet
connections here
aren't very fast.
I'm in Marakesh now and trying to figure out whether or not
to continue
south through Mauritania to Mali or Senegal or somewhere. If
anyone has any
advice, I'd love to hear it. Oh, Marakesh has snake
charmers. And I saw my
first wild monkeys in the mountains south of Fez.
I'll probably write again before leaving Marakesh, since
it's quite easy to
use the internet here. The last internet place took a full
30 minutes to
open the front page of hotmail.com and two hours to send a
couple of emails.
Not that I'm complaining! Adventure!
Hope you're all doing well and enjoying your xmas presents,
your pagan
spirituality, or your non-ramadan ability to eat.
jay