After spending four months abroad in Dakar, Senegal through my university, I packed up my belongings and mementos and headed north on a somewhat spontaneously planned Servas trip in Rabat, Morocco. It wasn’t your typical SYLE experience by any means – I was determined to continue to explore Africa and I wanted to continue perfecting my French language as well, but it was difficult to arrange a SYLE trip in a French speaking African country because Servas just isn’t as established and there aren’t too many Servas hosts. Thankfully, the international Servas community really came together to help me out, and Abdellah, the host list coordinator for Morocco, volunteered to host me for the entire duration of my SYLE stay.
One of the really cool things about my experience was having just come from a West African Muslim country, and being in a North African Muslim country, I saw a lot of similarities that I wasn’t expecting at all. The traditional tea that I was used to drinking between meals in Senegal, ataaya, was really similar to the mint green tea we drank with meals in Morocco, atay. It was fun to see the ways in which both cultures were differently affected by the Muslim religion and Arabic influences.
Abdellah’s family was staying with him while I was there, and they mostly spoke Berber, which was really fascinating and also difficult, because of course, I don’t speak Berber. Right away though, I learned “T’ch!” because I was constantly being reprimanded to eat more by Abdellah’s caring mother. The food in Morocco was wonderful though, so I never minded too much.
Another experience I was really appreciative of was the chance to be in a Muslim country during Ramadan. I got to Morocco about five days before it started, so I had a chance to experience a little bit of typical Moroccan daily life before everything turned upside down for Ramadan. I decided when I arrived in Rabat that I was going to take full advantage of this experience and participate fully in the fasting, which was something I had never done before. Every day we ate dinner (a legitimate feast) after 7:30pm, and then stayed up until 3am to eat breakfast. Then we all slept in until noon, except Abdellah, who had to work. Fasting was not as difficult as I thought it would be, if you had no work or school commitments to worry about. It was really amazing to be able to challenge myself in a new way and also be able to take part in a cultural tradition that was so important for my hosts and my host country.
At the very end of my stay in Rabat, another American Servas traveler came to spend a few days with some nearby Servas hosts, and it was really fun to meet another Servas member. We all got together for a big dinner with her hosts, which was great, and some friends of Abdellah gave us tours around Rabat and Casablanca. It was really entertaining: our driver, ----, didn’t speak French, so he would explain all the sights we were seeing to his daughter, Imane, who would relay everything in French to me, and I could explain it all in English, to Sarah. Like a great game of inter-lingual telephone.
All in all, I had an incredible experience with my new friends in Morocco, and I hope to go back someday soon. Thank you, Servas.