Rabat - It is very common that people always complain about their countries and every little negative thing about it. However, you don’t realize the real value of your country until you leave it for a long time to live in another country.
It is at that moment that you start noticing how beautiful this amazing land where you were born is, and you start missing the very small things that makes it your beloved Home.
The weather. Yes, because having sunshine everyday is a medicine in and of itself. I never knew the value of the weather and how much it can affect the mood until I lived in The Netherlands. The weather over there is depressing, and when I see how locals react when the very shy sun comes out for less than 15 minutes, I realize that I’m lucky. Yes, we are really lucky to have such great weather during the whole year: we can even count the number of days when the weather was rainy and cloudy! (We only realize the value of things only when we don’t have them anymore.)
The old Medinas. Every city in the Kingdom has an old Medina that still sticks to a traditional and simple lifestyle. It is a place where you can find anything you need! Literally anything! From clothes to furniture to food to libraries to shoemakers to all those shops where you can fix every broken thing you have (lcocotte, for example)! You can fix your phone, TV, microwave, or any electronic device you have.
The tea. I don’t know if this is common for everyone, but personally, I just can’t go one day without drinking Moroccan tea. You can call it an addiction… a beautiful one.
The food. Concerning food, I really don’t know where to start. There is a huge variety of dishes that both locals and internationals love so, so much! Tagine, couscous, bastilla, and the unlimited number of amazing things we have—not to mention the fact that eating with your hands makes the food even more delicious! (A minute of silence for the people who eat Tagine with a knife and fork. It’s wrong on so many levels!) Let’s not forget:
- Raibi Jamila & Henry’s. The official partners of every Moroccan citizen in emergency situations of “little hungers” (or big ones...).
- Raib & lharcha. It’s like putting cement on your stomach, just eat it and forget about hunger for few hours. For no more than 5 Dirhams (less than 50 euro cents) you can have a really tasty natural snack! (Please tell me what you can do with that amount of money in your countries.)
The cats. Every street has a number of homeless cats. But the amazing thing is that these cats stay in the same streets and don’t move to other places. They are so faithful to their neighborhoods! This reminds me of a cat that used to give birth in our garden in Fez. Once, I decided to keep its babies: five kittens. Yes, they were very sweet, but believe me, having five cats at once was not an easy thing! This is especially true when I keep a dog: they just can’t live in the same place!
The Coffee. The fabulous “ness ness.” Ness means “half” in Arabic, so this drink is made up of half coffee, half milk. But I always believe they put more coffee in it!
Ramadan. Last but not least, I love how Moroccan streets get totally deserted during the first 15 minutes of Iftar in Ramadan.
Edited by Katrina Bushko
Photos by Selma Beghdadi, Chaimae Chekkar and Anass Errihani
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