Chefchaouen, The blue beauty, courtesy of Pejman Parvandi and Creative Commons.
Twelve years ago, my Easter was spent with some wonderful friends in Sevilla, Spain and Chefchaouen, Morocco. It was a wonderful way to spend Semana Santa. I was a very passionate adventure, but by far the most passionate was the time spent in Chefchaouen.
What I remember from that time is buried somewhere in 35mm negative film and the following bit of text that I wrote soon after that trip. But without these words or those photos I still remember what I learned from that trip: Looking into another’s eyes.
Morocco, or Marruecos or Le Maroc, is a dry, mountainous region with spots of green trees and grass. After it rains it is perhaps greener than anywhere on earth. It is largely an agrarian society whereby it depends on the earth for its economic welfare. It is a third world country, an “undeveloped” country, by standards of “The West”. However, the people of Morocco are in no hurry to develop. They keep their old ways of building houses and buildings. They may put a few antennas and satellite dishes on top; but for example, in the town where I was for most of my time, Chefchaouen or Xaouen, they still paint the buildings white and the porticos, doors, and windows a light pale blue. The blue color keeps flies and insects away. It’s sort of a natural repellent.
Anyway, I spent a week in this town and as for getting to know the folks, they are quite pleasant. In Chefchaouen, they are not as pushy as the bigger cities. If you don’t give money freely they will still talk with you and get to know you. If they help you it is a nice thing though to give them some money. It all depends on how they help you.
But in all the people are beautiful, with beautiful eyes–the women exceptionally so. The women don’t freely talk to foreign men. It may have something to do with the religion and culture. But what one can do is make eye contact, and this I learned was better than words.
Eye contact in Morroco is very important, more so than in Spain, where facial expressions are the fashion. In Morocco, it’s the way of life. One can truly feel how they live by looking in their eyes. I suppose you can do that anywhere in the world, but, for example in the United States, there is too much dependence on words and then we lose touch with ourselves and others. This may be a bit deep but it is what I think.
In the end I highly recommend a visit and I highly recommend working on the eye contact thing.