| Tell me about the camels. The |
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| The Kingdom of Morocco |
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| Country of the Month Restaurant Jan 2003 - Armenia La Mediterranee, Berkeley Feb 2003 - Poland Old Krakow, San Francisco Mar 2003 - Ireland Kells, San Francisco Apr 2003 - Jamaica Jamaica Station, Oakland May 2003 - El Salvador Balompie, San Francisco Jun 2003 - Nepal Kathmandu, Albany Aug 2003 - Turkey Bosphorus, Berkeley Oct 2003 - Cambodia Angkor Wat, San Francisco Dec 2003 - Philippines Aroma Cafe, Concord Jan 2004 - Saudi Arabia Rihab's Bakery, Belmont Feb 2004 - Mexico El Huarache Azteca, Oakland Mar 2004 - Mongolia Col. Lee's Mongolian BBQ, Mtn View May 2004 - Switzerland Fondue Fred's, Berkeley Jul 2004 - Afghanistan Da Afghanan Kabob House, Fremont Sep 2004 - Morocco Menara Moroccan Restaurant, San Jose Nov 2004 - Portugal Souza's Restaurant, San Jose |
| Tell me about the food. At the restaurant where we ate there was a woman belly dancer, and a man who danced with a sword on his head. The food was good. I liked the bread and the dip they gave us. They had a good dessert called balaklava. We also ordered a pastille which is a pastry with meat in it that said 'enjoy' on the top and had sugar powder on it. Pastilles usually have pigeon meat but we think we got chicken. The waiters poured mint tea standing Our glasses were on our very short golden-metal table. We sat on the floor. The waiters also washed our hands twice in a little silver bowl. In Morocco eating takes a very long time because of all the other things they do at dinner. |
| Tell me about Marrakech. There is a market called the Djemma el Fna and there are snake charmers there. One and a half million people live there. The Badii Palace ruins are old walls that used to be a fortress and big storks live on top of it. There are very fancy hotels, called riads, because there are lots of tourists. Tell me about Fez. It used to be the capital of Morocco. It has the biggest medina in the country. The people in Fez eat pigeon pies. The hat called a fez is named after the city of Fez. The tannery dyehouse in Fez is where they have dyed animal skins for a 1,000 years. Tell me about Tangier. It has been conquered many times because it is right on the Straits of Gibralter. It has been conquered by Arabs, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even given as a wedding present to the English in 1661. Tange-rines are from Morocco. Tell me about Rabat. It is the capital. It was the home of pirates starting in 1627. It's population is one and a half million. In Arabic, 'ribat' means a fortified monastery. Tell me about Casablanca. It is the largest city in Morocco. Three million people live there. It is called Casablanca because it is a city that has mostly white houses. It is a coastal city with a port. There is a new, big, mosque there named after King Hassan II of Morocco. Tell me about Chefchaouin. It is a small city with food that is not that good. Chefchaouin means horns of the goat and the mountains around look just like goat's horns. Goatgoatgoatgoat. Tell me about the Saharan people. They are called the Tuaregs which means in Arabic 'abandoned of God'. They call themselves the Isashaggen which means 'nobel and free'. They are also known as the blue men of the Sahara because their blue clothes stain their skin blue. They live in tents and they ride camels. One camel can cost $1,000. They're used for caravans from Marrakech to Tombuctou in Mali. They used to carry salt to Morocco. |
| I am the boy, Karim, the orange seller in the Djemma el Fna in the Marrakech souk. Every day I sell oranges at my orange stand. I have to pay a "guide" that brings tourists to my stand. The tourist will pay $3 American for one single orange! Last week I got a new box of oranges. When all my old oranges were sold out, I started with the new box. I saw something black in the box. It struck at me. It was a cobra! I ran home to grab a jar to catch it in. I pulled part of the box off and stuck the jar over the cobra's head. I pushed its tail into the jar with an orange. I brought the cobra home and put in an old rabbit cage. Two days later I went looking for a snake charmer missing his snake. I went all over the djemma but I could not find anyone missing a snake. I found lots shops selling baskets, fezes, coats, shirts, olives, corn, apples, dead fish on sticks, and dead snakes sold to people who do witchcraft. I also found a few snake charmers but all of them had their snakes. The next day I went all the way out to the medina to the last snake charmer's house. I knocked and asked Mr. Arazi if it was his. He said, "Yes! I accidently let one escape when I was bargaining with a tourist. Then I hardly made any money because this was my biggest cobra. The others are tiny, worth barely anything. When I feed my little snakes rats I feel I only spend money. When the tourists saw my 'missing cobra' poster, they were scared. One tourist ran straight to her hotel. I wasn't making any money. So I went looking for my cobra instead." I told him that I found his cobra in my box of oranges. Mr. Arazi gave me some money to thank me for returning his cobra. I bought a new fez with a drawing of a cobra on it. And business is even better now. For the best oranges in Marrakech you can find 'My Best Oranges' on the southeast corner of the djemma near Mr. Arazi, the snake charmer. |
| How do Jews, Muslims, and Christians get along nowadays in Morocco. Morocco is open to other religions but people cannot try to convert others to their religion. You can believe whatever you want to and if someone asks you what you're doing because you're different than them, you can talk about your religion. |
| Tell me about medinas. A medina is a maze of streets with lots of shops, apartments and mosques. They are in the middle of Moroc-can cities. The streets of medinas are very very thin, thin enough that you can hold both hands out and feel the buildings on each side. A medina is in the old walled downtown. You enter medinas by walking through hugh arched gates. The largest medina is in Fez. It is 4 square miles in size. Medinas are like giant flea markets. I would like to go to a medina because it would be interesting to see all the stuff they sell and how they sell it. Tell me about kasbahs. They are old forts in every city made out of dried mud. |
| What are Moroccans world famous for? They are famous for belly dancing and piracy. They are also famous for Moorish wares and medinas. They are also world famous for the movie called "Casablanca" and fezes. What do you admire about the Moroccan people? I admire the beautiful things they make especially their architecture. I also admire that they are not forceful with Islam. I would like to visit Morocco alot, especially to see the cities. What do you pray to Jesus about Morocco? I pray that they will let people to be free to convert which means to be able to believe whatever they think is true and that they can hear about Jesus. I also pray that their wildlife would come and that they will replant the forests. And I pray that their economy will get stronger so that people can have more jobs. |
| The Orange Seller of Djemma el Fna A short story by Noah Arthur |
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| Tell me about the religions. They are 99% Muslim, 1% Christian, 0.2% Jewish. There are two Muslim groups. They are almost all Sunnis, who followed kings and scholars after Mohammed. There are very few Shia who followed Muham-med's bloodline. What happened to the Jews? There were enough Jews that there was a Jewish quarter in Marrakech but now there are hardly any. When Morocco became indepen-dent, the Jews were afraid that the Arabs would treat them badly because Israel had defeated the Arab countries in the Six-Day War. The Moroccan Jews went to Israel. There are only 7,000 Jews left in Morocco. |
| "Hotel Marrakech is the most beautiful place in the world." Winston Churchill |
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| Tell me about some unique birds, butterflies and animals. There is barely any wildlife left because almost all of the forests have been cut down. There used to be lions, leopard, and many others. There is one forest still around and the argan trees there only grow in Morocco. Goats climb in the argan trees. |
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| Tell me about Morocco. There are beaches, mountains, and deserts. Morocco has four mountain ranges. In the north are the Rifs. In the central part of the country there are the Atlas and the High Atlas. In the south there are the Anti Atlas. In the north, the weather is cool but in the south, where the Saharan Desert is, the weather is very hot. The hot wind from the Sahara is called the 'chergui'. The cool wind from the ocean is called the 'garbi'. Morocco is alot like an island because the Sahara is on one side and the Atlantic Ocean is on the other. Morocco is one of the only countries that has a king. It has had a king from the same family, the Alowites, for 400 years! The countries on the east are Algeria and Mauritania. The Atlantic is on the west. The Mediterranean is to the north. There used to be a country called the Western Sahara but now it is part of Morocco. In 1975, the Moroccans just walked in with their flags to take it. There was no one there to fight. Tell me about the Moroccan people. The people are almost all Muslims but they do not force Islam on others like in Saudi Arabia and the Taliban in Afghanistan. There are two main groups of people, the Arabs and the Berbers. The Berbers came from Kazakhstan around four thousand years ago! The Kazakhs train golden eagles to hunt for them. The Arabs came from Arabia in 700AD bringing Islam. The Berbers fought the Arabs but the Arabs got in. The other people in Morocco are Spanish and French. A city that is Spanish owned is Ceuta on the Straits of Gibralter. The people of the Western Sahara are the Tuaregs who are African. Tell me about their languages. There are three main languages in the country - Arabic, Berber, and French. You can't write in Berber. The name Berber came from the Roman name, Barbarian, which means uncivilized. |
| by Noah Arthur |
| Country of the Month |
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| 18th-19th Century Nautical Terms Xebecs are Barbary pirate ships Lateen Rig is a triangular sail Starboard is the ship's right side Larboard is the ship's left side Astern is the back of the ship Bulwarks are fences around the deck of a ship Square Rig is a square sail Sweeps are long oars Frigates are big square rigged ships Man-o-War is a battleship Soundings are the measurements of water depth Tack is a ship's course |
| Who were the Barbary Corsairs. They were pirates from Africa's north coast from the 1500s to 1830. Two famous pirates were the Barbarrosa (Red Beard) brothers. The pirates used ships called xebecs. When they came to a Christian ship, Muslim fighters, the Janissaries, swarmed onto the ship and overpowered the crew. Then they stripped them of their clothing and made them slaves to man the oars. Tell me about the Berber Wars. They were two naval wars with the Barbary pirates vs. the U.S. The first ended in 1805 and the second in 1815. After that they did not raid U.S. ships. In the first war, the U.S.S. Philadelphia was taken because it ran aground on a reef outside of Tripoli. The Navy came at night on the U.S.S. Intrepid and they overran the Philadelphia and burned it. The hero was Capt. Stephen Decatur. Who was Thomas Pellow. He was an English 10-year-old that was taken by pirates in 1715. He was a slave for 23 years to the emperor's family. He learned Arabic. He did not convert to Islam but he acted like he did after they beat him. It took him 8 years to get home after escaping. |
| Tell me about their history. The Carthaginians built Rabat, then the Romans ruled, then Arabs brought Islam. In 1062, the Almoravids built Marrakech and conquered southern Spain. In 1492, the Spanish inquisition threw the Jews and Muslims out and they started Berber piracy. In 1520, the Portuguese ruled, and then the Saadis. In 1600, Mulay Ismael became Sultan and began the Alowite dynasty, which is still here today. Tell me about the French. In 1830, the French began to rule Morocco as a French colony. In 1912 to 1925, the colonial administrator was Marshal Lyautey. In 1924, the French and Spanish defeated the Berbers in the Rif rebellion. In 1942, the U.S. liberated Morocco from the French, but in 1945, the French regained control and they exiled Sultan Mohammed ben Yousef to Madagascar. In 1956, he returned and Morocco won independence from the French. |
| king hassan II mosque |
| essaouira's medina |
| moorish architecture |
| villa majorelle in marrakech |
| tangier rug merchant |
| fez's medina |
| potter |
| tailor |
| pink house |
| women wearing the hajib |
| snake charmer in marrakech |
| djemma el fna |
| tannery dyehouse in fez |
| woman at a market |
| beach market near casablanca |
| atlas mountains |
| tuareg man |
| olives for sale! |
| goats in an argan tree |
| A pirate xebec (left) attacking a merchant ship (right). |
| cardinal |
| orange tip |
| vaucher's heath |
| marbled white |
| glass and metal ware |
| brass and silver wares |
| pottery |
| kasbah |