Seeing Morocco

Is it weird to say that a single port has changed the way I look at life? If not, then I will most definitely say this about Morocco. Never have I experienced a world so different from my own, so far from any reality that I grew up in.

The houses were a construction project that rarely got finished, children begged at every corner you passed by, women covered themselves head to toe, air conditioning was unheard of, jobs were back-breaking and the hours long.

I found it interesting talking with the locals because while I thought of these circumstances as some sort of issue, they saw it as life. They knew no different and were, for the most part, content in how they lived their lives.

After a while it began to make sense to me. I realised that it was all based on perspective and I am fortunate now to have another point of view.

One boy who is my age that I met at a pottery co-op had been working from the time he was five. That astonished me for some reason. I couldn’t imagine how different our lives were. At the age of five I was running around playing hide-and-go-seek with my friends. Again though, it was ordinary for him and he didn’t mind because he made money. Very little but he stay made money.

It’s interesting to consider how ill-advised I was prior to Morocco. I had an understanding of what I was walking into but I never thought about how I would be walking out after experiencing and not just reading or viewing.

I loved North Africa. It changed the way my eyes are functioned to seeing my surroundings. I saw things that will change my life. Even on a single bus ride disease and poverty were present. The worst for me was seeing one man who's leg had only flesh left there was no skin and sowly it had begun to decay. The flys swarmed it. I couldn't do anything except imagine the agony that he must have been in. Worst of all was the fact that he was not the only one. 

Everyone tells me that Morocco is nothing compared to Senegal and so I cannot wait until adventures in West Africa. I can only wonder how my perspective might change once more. It will be interesting.