Day 5 – Team Casablanca

Today was our “project day”.  We’ve been preparing for our interview with a local business since the class began, and today all our research and preparation came to fruition.  Because of the festival of Eid, we had many challenges finding a business that was open and willing to meet with us on their day of celebration after Ramadan.  However, our tour guide seemed more than willing and happy to tell us all about his business.

Each of us prepared questions well ahead of time.  I wanted to know about the person; I believe that people are more willing to share with you if you intentionally build relationship first.  If you show you care about the individual, it makes everything else easier.

We interviewed Abdel Hafid and he was so kind and open to sharing his passion for his work.  I started the interview by asking how long he’d been part of this business, what he did before, what he enjoyed most and his educational background.  Like many of his American counterparts, Abdel had a wide variety of life experiences. He joined the travel/tourism industry about a year and a half ago because his former work in e-marketing was unsatisfying.  He loves people, and rarely had an opportunity to work with them while drop-shipping products. He went to university for linguistics and loves languages; he taught grammar at the middle and high school levels after he finished his degree.  He speaks five languages fluently and is learning Chinese currently! Tourism and his love for people, languages and his country seemed to be a perfect fit.

His mission as a tour guide is to teach the visitors to his country that the old stereotypes are just that: old.  Morocco is the land of tolerance, freedom and peace. Islam is a relationship between an individual and his god, not people to people.  A true believer in Islam is not into telling other people what THEY should do. He also wants to impress upon his clients that Morocco is a rich and diverse country full of optimism, generosity and kindness.  

Abhed was born in the “Hollywood of Morocco” in the city of Ouarzazate.  He currently lives in Casablanca and has absolutely no desire to ever relocate; he loves this city.  He would most like to travel to the United States and Canada as well as China and Australia, but at this time has never been outside of Morocco.  He shared that the majority of his clients are from North America, and he is very fond of them. He told us multiple times that Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States independence in 1777 to reinforce his belief that Moroccans as a whole love the American people.  

He closed my portion of the interview by saying, “If you think of bad people, those are the people you will attract.”  He chooses to think about the good people–and his life is absolutely filled with them.

-Rae Punzel

Our tour guide Abdel was a very charming man who had a pure passion for Casablanca. I asked him how has tourism changed in the past 5 years and he said that, its changed a lot because the country had changed a lot. After the passing of Hassan II, the country began to take a gradual turn in a big way. He said that it was important that Morocco not only embraces the European history, but also how it has become a land of freedom. The country is working on becoming accepting of all people, and a place where different religions can live in harmony. This same discussion lead into the next question of where will the future of tourism be going? In fairness, it’s a puzzling question. With the changes that have been made already and the changes that will come, there will only be greater things.

 

Something that Abdel said that really stuck with me was a quote from Hassan II, saying “Morocco is a tree that has deep roots in Africa, but its large branches extend all over Europe.” I think it personified the situation very well in how the country is making an effort to improve. I had also asked what was a goal that he had when it comes to informing tourist. He said that he wanted not only help people learn about Morocco, but break them from the harsh stereotypes that have given it a bad name. It was important to him that we see how diverse and how history this country really is.

~Natasha Dunn

 

As we made our way to the capital city Rabat, we had plenty of  time to speak directly to Abdel. The information I was looking to gain from him was his personal viewpoint of both Casablanca and Morocco. Being that he was raised in Casablanca, he was a wealth of first hand information. When I asked him how the old Morocco and the new were blending together, he did not seem very happy or hopeful. They way he explained it to me was that culture of the old Medina’s was one of a social connection, a place where you would go to see friends and a place where you could go to ask for help. In direct conflict with that is how the new Medina’s are developing. He described them as independent of each other, and very money motivated. He referred to Casablanca as a “dead city” – a city void of social connections and whose first priority is money. I could tell that this bothered him very deeply.

Another example of this feeling in Casablanca was when we were discussing the Hassan ii Mosque. I was quite surprised when he stated that the reason that the mosque was built was not to give all of the people in the area a beautiful place to worship, but as a way to boost the local economy through tourism. Granted this may have only been his opinion as I was unable to uncover any information to support his theory, however, it made me realize just how much the locals fear losing the precious culture that makes them who they are.

If found this to be very eye opening as I realized just how different Morocco is from region to region.

~Sheri Talaga