Travel: Morocco

Back in February I was given with the opportunity to head to Marrakech and a village called Aguerisol with my college (through a programme run by World Expeditions) to help in a local village and experience a lifestyle so different to my own, as well as country that i'd never been to.

 

Our trip was split in to three sections - our first days were spent travelling from Bristol to Marrakech, followed by a night stopover in the city; next we got to spend a week in the village of Aguerisol (living in an interesting accommodation set up that I'll talk more about later!) and finally we spent a couple of days back in Marrakech before travelling back home.

The first night we spent at Hotel Ali opposite the main square in Marrakech - I will never forget it as it was the most unique start to a trip I could have imagined. The building was beautiful with it's tiled décor and iron gates - but what I remember most is firstly having a dinner of bananas, sandwiches and yoghurt on the floor in the main hallway all sat in a circle leaning against our backpacks, then taking a late night group walk around the souks of Marrakech with the locals trying to attract us with calls of "good evening governor" "Barbie" or "fish and chips" (and one man even tried shouting the names of Harry Potter characters at us) to try and attract us as soon as they noticed our western origin, as well as all the hustle and bustle and entertainment despite it being 11pm!

The next day we travelled the 4 hours to the village and set up home for the net week in the interesting gite pictured above. It was very rustic and basic as you can see but this was all part of the experience! The room in the middle was shared by 3 of us and consisted of blankets, 3 mattresses a plug socket and a hole in the roof! However, after the initial shock of how cold it was in the gite evening and early morning as we had only one heater in the dining/living room - the simplicity of it was a bonding experience for us all.

 

 

Over the next week we had so many experiences with the village. We got to do two hikes - one to a place called the Kasbar (a traditional Moroccan hotel on the side of the mountain that donates all it's profits to charities in order to help the local children have a better future); and the other to the top o a flat top mountain on which we got to play ball games and have a mule ride around it! We spent most of our time however, working with the villagers. We helped to repair the path up to the village (as every year the floods they get wash it away) by shovelling gravel and carrying it in buckets up the hill so it could be used to relay the road and helping fix the wall by one of the paths in the village by passing stones down the path (which was made even more fun by everyone singing a mixture of Disney songs and playing Chinese whispers with Arabic and Burba numbers). But the job I most enjoyed was getting to teach the children of the village French, English and Arabic numbers in one o their lessons. It was humbling to work with such an incredible group of children who were desperate to learn despite the facilities being so basic and the fact that we didn't speak the same language - they tried so hard all the same.

 

However, it wasn't all hard work! We had fun too walking the children to school, playing basketball with the ladies in the village, getting henna tattoos, making bracelets, paying tag with the children, tasting a wide variety of traditional Moroccan cuisine, performing british songs for the locals with the guitar and having late night games of cards in our rooms in the evening. But my favourite part of the whole trip was the party the locals had for us on the last night in the village. They cooked us a 5 course meal of traditional foods which was delicious, the whole village came and ate with us, we got to learn some Moroccan dances and music as well as showing them some british dances and music and best of all we got to give them the check for the money we had raised for the village before we left. Then it was a sad farewell as they waved us goodbye while we left the village for the last time.

The last couple of days of the trip entailed spending time back in Marrakesh and getting to properly experience the city. We went shopping in the souks (traditional markets), visited an argan oil co-operative, had lunch overlooking the square in the centre of Marrakech, visited the Yves Saint Laurent gardens and had a horse and carriage ride around the city. However, despite all these incredible experiences - I most remember the fact that the hotel was complete luxury compared to what we had been living in for the last week in Aguerisol - even though it was the Moroccan equivalent of a premier inn!!!

 

 

I kept a journal whilst I was in Marrakech and now 6 months after returning home I reread this to  write this post and it makes me so happy to reminisce. Yet, the one thing that most stands out from  the whole experience is how appreciative the villagers were of us just being there and how hard they worked for the little they had. Yet, they were all so happy. This was so humbling to experience and the key thing I took from the trip was the idea of being happy always and whenever I am unhappy with something, I remember this and realise that you'll be better to be happy with what you have always.

If you would like to go on an experience like this, then the website where you can book trips yourself is linked here (THIS IS NOT SPONSERED): world expeditions

 

"Be thankful with what you have, and

you'll end up having more. If you concentrate

on what you don't have, you will never,

ever have enough"

-Oprah Winfrey