Here in Morocco things are a little bit different. The first thing I noticed that at first went unnoticed was how many kids were walking with their grandmas. Seems like a strange observation, but you never do know what to expect when travelling.

I guess maybe they have kids a little bit younger here and the grandmas are often tasked with a lot of the childcare duties. I found this interesting. I mean childcare in North America is obviously so dominated by immigrants of other countries, but here where there are no immigrants doing your laundry or taking care of your kids, you are pushed into relying on the the more private family structure to fulfill these duties. It makes them more tight knit at the end of the day. It’s part of the wisdom of Middle Eastern countries I believe. The fact that it is the birthplace of ancient civilizations is strongly apparent. There is a deep wisdom that lies here and it isn’t about bonds, stock markets or how to trick someone into buying something, it’s about sticking together, the importance of family. In many ways these are the most ancient of teachings. Because family, is eternal, from hunter gatherer societies living in cave dwellings to upper class New York families living in the highest of skyscrapers, it all remains the same. Their tight knitted nature is also bolstered by their geographical disadvantages. To sum it up, In the middle of the dessert their resources are scarce, and much like a cactus, not one ounce of energy, or movement can be wasted. They have to make the most out of what they got. They never put too much food on your plate and they never waste water or any of their natural resources. Everything is very well kept, cleaned and organized. And this applies to the family structure as well, no bodies will go wasted. If there is a kid, he’s got hands, he can hold the grocery bag and if grandmas there, why make her watch tv and cater to her like a child when she can spend time with her grandchildren. 

In North America we really think we are the shit. But the wastefulness in North American society is not only inefficient, but it’s distinctly transparent. People brag about how much food they have left on the table, they brag about how they have more than they need. It’s that kind of elitism that makes you have to breakdown those barriers when travelling as North American around the world. Treat them like a human and not an object, as is too often ingrained into our cultural outlook. We have so many resources in Canada especially, so why are we so bad at allocating it. In Morocco, you negotiate prices at the market but in Canada there is no negotiation, there is a fixed market. And then we have the audacity to call them scammers? How does that make any sense? We have so much. Water. Food. Oil. But somehow we become products too often of historical trends that are larger than us- per usual mostly the “ations” industrialization, globalization, modernization, capitalism which I know isn’t a ation but one we can all clearly understand. The distribution of resources is skewed because people make money off of tricking people into buying stuff. They teach it in business school. Here they are taught how to collect water, cook, look after their family. Everything is the opposite of wastefulness. And maybe some may say, well the tradeoff of this resource stability is corrupt governments, repressed gender roles and lack of sexual freedom, etc. Which is generally true.  

But In Morocco, interestingly so, they are pretty tolerant, or more so than you would think. Someone that was working in our villa said that there were many gay clubs in Morocco and that if you kept it low key, you shouldn’t have any issues. Then he pointed out that one of the bridesmaids at the wedding- Logan, would be truly fucked in Morocco which I found so funny. Morocco is so great because of its people. The geography effects their closeness as well