The Baltimore of Morocco

Trip Start Sep 18, 2007
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Trip End Dec 18, 2007


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Flag of Morocco  ,
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

When I was a PCV Safi was the nearest city to me so I went about once a week to get mail, use the phone, etc.  We stopped through to visit a good friend but for the most part it's a rough little industrial port town with far too many corrupt cops and angry young men--we decided it's the "Baltimore of Morocco". 

We had a lovely evening though.  I introduced Katie to the neighborhood public bath, one of my favorite things in Morocco.  Their sort of a cross between a sauna and a beauty parlor.  Women go once or twice a week to bathe and gossip.  For Moroccan women a visit to the bath can be an all-afternoon event and they usually have mountains of stuff they take with them including at least four layers of fresh new clothes to put on afterward (wouldn't want to catch cold!).  Even bathing at a liesurely pace I tend to be in and out in under an hour, take only essentials (and often wear the same clothes after shhh!).  Needless to say, there was quite a spectacle when we tried to leave my friend's house for the bath.  She was shocked and amazed that neither of us had a towel, or a head scarf, and certainly not enough clothes to bundle up in!  We felt like children being sent off to our first comunion or something as all the women in the house commanded us to "Leave that!  Take this!  You can't wear those!"

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