Clementines for a smile
Trip Start
Nov 23, 2011
1
17
25
Trip End
Dec 23, 2011
Where I stayed
Hostel Dar El Pacha
Essaouira, Morocco
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Not rushing the peacefulness of my morning at the hostel, I enjoyed my breakfast and finished my blog entry (reliving the horrors of the surfing experience). By 11AM I was out the door, on my way to the harbor.
The harbor is the center of life in Essaouira. Day in and day out fishermen tend to their nets and to their boats preparing for their day's fishing. Constantly boats are bringing fish into the harbor to immediately be sold on the streets to supply Essaouira's demands. No refrigeration or ice is necessary here as the bounty of fish is quickly disseminated among all outlets throughout the city before the fish begin to spoil. There is no denying the freshness of the fish, as my experience can surely attest.
Back from the harbor, I headed into the medina where up until now I had really only explored the two main streets. As I headed back down some of the quiet alleys with no tourists, the locals greeted me with Bonjours and smiles. It was a much different vibe here as opposed to Marrakech. The white painted buildings with bright blue shutters created a vivid backdrop behind the men sitting in the doorways watching life flow by and the little boys in the street playing soccer. It was a quiet life and a content life far separated from the chaos of Marrakech and it seemed even a completely different world away from the main street of Essaouira's medina.
Having thoroughly explored the backstreets and alleyways of the Medina, I grabbed a kilo of clementines and headed to a little cafe to enjoy a coffee. As I sat enjoying my coffee a little boy came up to me asking for a clementine. Up to this point in my trip, I had become quite accustomed to being asked for money by the little children in the street, but never chose to encourage a child to become a beggar so I had always resisted the sad faces off the children. But this time all the kid wanted was a clementine. Considering I had paid about $0.50 for 15 clementines, I had not problem providing the kid a nice afternoon treat. He said shokran and walked away with a smile starting to peel open the delicious treat. I've got to say I felt pretty good about that experience, even though I had given him essentially nothing he was completely appreciative of it and made his day and my day a little brighter. As I made my way back to the hostel, I passed by another little boy with a backpack on who was just cheerfully walking down the alley. As I walked by him, I handed him a clementine and he looked up at me with a smile, took it out of my hand and said shokran.
Back at the hostel, Ahmagi and Tonyi were still lounging around having just had some lunch. I dropped off my clementines, and we decided to head to the beach to sit at a little cafe. The walk from the hostel to the beach is typically about a thirty minute walk - going at the pace of people without a care in the world. Today the sun was shining bright without a cloud in the sky - much different from the day before. There were a few people surfing the small waves and even a couple kitesurfers trying to manage the fairly calm winds.
Sitting at the cafe, under the warmth of the sun and the comfortable ocean breeze, in what had become a reliable occurence, in a couple of minutes, we were joined by three other people from our hostel who had just randomly seen us from the beach. With Ahmagi's gift of bringing people together, we enjoyed the afternoon with pleasurable conversation and delicious avocado juice. A few hours passed and the once warm sun, gave way to a more chilling breeze that once again brought back memories of the miserable day before.
We all paid our bills and slowly made our way back to the hostel, making a quick stop by the off license liquor store to gather the supplies for another unforgettable night of enjoyable conversation provided by the gathering of people from all of the world.
