Nahar asafar fee Fez

Internet is pretty slow today so today's short post won't do the day justice. Today I traveled with some friends by train from Meknes to Fez, one of Morocco's oldest and most historic cities. When we exited the train station we ran firsthand into a bad taxi experience.

Three of us hopped into a petite taxi (taxi sagheer) and asked how much to get to the old section of the city. The cabbie said "4 dirham each" and we said "No, that's too expensive." He said "Fine, I'll use the meter" and we got in. Petite taxis in Meknes all have meters (more on petite vs. grande taxis later). The meter already had 10 dirhams on it, so we told him to reset it and he said "No, it's fine." So I yelled, "Le! Le! It's not fine. Let us out now." So we stopped to get out and he said "Wait, wait! How much do you want to pay?" I said "2 dirhams each." He agreed and we kept going and arrived at the gate to the old city. So we put six dirhams in his hand and suddenly he got angry and pointed at the meter, which he had never reset and read "20 dirham." At that point I was so angry, I just yelled "No! We agreed two each! Everyone out!" So we left and the cabbie got out too, following us and yelling. He even poked a girl we were with before we told him (not politely) to get the hell away from us.

Unfortunately, many of our other purchases today involved people trying to trick foreigners into paying too much. A friend of mine had spoken with our professor about this and she related that it was simply part of the culture. Trust in business decisions and contracts has not yet developed in this part of the world, and life remains very Darwinian. Taking money from foreigners, especially, is not considered a breach of ethics. It is simply the responsibility of the seller to get as much money as possible and the responsibility of the buyer to pay as little as possible. Foreigners are just worse at this than locals.

Nonetheless, Fez was an exciting place. The old city (almedina alqadeema) is a giant maze of passages lined with shops, homes, and entrances to grand mosques. Artisans perform their work on ceramic, marble and gold in the streets. We walked by one of King Mohammad VI's royal palaces where he vacations outside the capital, Rabat. Right by the palace are public gardens, which are very beautiful and filled with people sitting and talking, and boys climbing trees and throwing pebbles into the ponds.

Tomorrow classes start again (sigh) but I hope to continue exploring the famous cities of Morocco next weekend.