World Traveler

(Photo by Wade Shepard http://www.TravelerPhotographs.com)

I had a Moroccan boyfriend and we had been seeing each other for a few years, he never really saw his family back in Morocco, so he took me to go and see them. They lived in a small town an hour or so from Tangiers but trying to get a flight to where you want to go in Morocco is a nightmare. We ended up flying into Casablanca and then getting a taxi for about five hours to Larache, his home town (taxi’s are very cheap).

made me much less nervous as I hate meeting parents, I get really clumsy and smash all their expensive china or spill red wine over their new white carpet, its never good!) I was grabbed and hugged, then they would all talk about me and then grab me and hug me again. It was really sweet.

They made us food, talk about a feast but it was totally delicious, I always clear my plate and eat until I nearly throw up and this seemed to please them but they kept filling up my plate. They ended up making a
huge feast every hour or two and me and my boyfriend were feeling really sick from eating too much so he kept trying to make himself sick to make room for more food, it was totally crazy. In the end we would
wake up early in the morning, have breakfast only, then stay out all day so we just had to do one dinner (instead of three, plus lunch, plus three other meals!) I realised later that if you clear your plate its a silent request for more, whoops!

The only thing I hated about being out all day is that everyone stared at me, in a very obvious “I’m staring at you” kind of way, even three year old children. I hated it. I was always the only woman in any cafe and there is never even a woman’s toilet and I generally got loads of hassle everywhere I went but I guess its a small town and you know what they re like. In that respect I preferred Casablanca much better, plus is mainly French so I could get by on the language!

Read more about Africa……