The beauty of a country’s drawbacks

by Sanne Romp (Netherlands)

Making a local connection Morocco

All stories and pictures from vacation show you the bright side. And ofcourse if you are hiking for eight hours, there is a nice view on the top of mountain. At least, if there are no clouds and it isn’t raining. But no one tells you about the eight hours walk. And why not? That’s also a part of your travelling, isn’t it? So I am going to tell you my real travel story. I went to Morocco when i was 14. For your imagination, i am blonde girl from The Netherlands and it is kind of arrogant to say that i am pretty. But i am. My father could have sold me a thousand times for 20 camels if he wanted. But he didn’t, lucky me. This all sounds funny, but i was kind of sick of all the man yelling at me all day. And I know that is the diference in culture. The people there are poor and are trying to make money in every way. So if you are a tourist (obviously if you are a blonde girl) the people will try to scam you every second of the day. If you dont have trust issues allready, you definitely will have them after visiting Morocco. One day we where lost in the medina. We asked a boy and he helped us out. So nice of him. But after 5 minutes he wanted some money and started cursing. The situation 15 minutes later: we are running from the boy. He is yelling behind us. And the father of the boy is yelling at him because he wanted him to stop. I think this actually would have looked pretty funny. But most important, we did find the way back ‘home’ after the running incident. A few days later we went to the Sahara. Really really hot, but beautiful. And by hot i mean 45 degrees hot. I can handle heat, but this was the ‘change clothing 4 times a day because you are sweating so much’ wheater. There was a tiny ‘house’ and a man standing outside in a long dress. He was asking my parents some questions, told them he had family in Amsterdam. He invited us in and gave us some tea. The typical Morrocan tea (which is really sweet). And if you are a sugar addict it might be the best tea ever. The kind men told us some stories while drinking the tea. He liked my mom and offered her a necklace. She smiled at him and thanked him. After an awkward silence the men held up his hand and said ‘550 dirham (50 euros) for the necklace’. The necklace looked like a necklace I used to make in school as a child. It was a rope with round pieces of coloured clay. The man told a story about the necklace. He found the clay himself and it was a really wonderful and special necklace. So the 550 dirham was a really really good price. My mom thanked him and said no. We said goodbye. There was nothing left to say en the man got a little angry. We where walking back to the centre of Marrakech. And back there in a little shop I saw a necklace, exactly the same with the coloured round pieces of clay. But this one was 20 dirham. Even this cute little man was a scammer. And actually I get it after all. People are trying to make money there in every kind of way. Jumping in front of your car and say they have stopped the traffic for you. Asking money if they lead you the way. And even giving a cheap necklace as a present and ask a lot of money for it. But after all we are all te same and need money to eat and make memories. The real travel story tells you something about the country and the people there and that makes it beautiful. And maybe that’s even better than showing a picture of the nice view on top off a mountain.