Back in November Don and I ventured across the river to the town of Salé to explore the medina there. Unfortunately, we went at a time when very few stalls and shops were open. Since yesterday was such a beautiful day, we decided to try our luck again.
Having saved the location of our good parking spot in the GPS, you would think that we could have driven right to it! But all it takes is missing one little turn and in a matter of seconds, all the one-way streets and winding dead ends makes it difficult to get back on track! Fortunately it didn't take too long to find the area again!
We were right to wait until after 12:00 to go as there were lots of people selling all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meats, olives, nuts.... As we wandered past all this good looking, low priced food I repeatedly said "We should get some of .....", to which Don would reply "Let's pick it up on our way back to the car." That made sense, to not have to carry a bunch of little bags all over the medina. BUT I should have remembered our tendency to get lost and never actually make it back the same way we come!
Don had read about the Sale Grand Mosque in the travel guide, how at the time of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, there is a festival in Sale in honor of an Imam who is enshrined near the Grand Mosque. This festival includes candlelight parades through the old town of Sale, basically through the medina. After wandering the food and clothing ally-ways for awhile, we decided to find this mosque and shrine. As we drifted away from the commercial area, a young man approached us and said he would show us the mosque. So we followed him and he led us through the areas around the mosque, pointing out the best views, since non-Muslims are not allowed into the Mosque proper.
He told me something I had never hear before, that the 3 globes on top of the mosque represent (from top to bottom) water, which is necessary for all life, then flour, then salt, for the bread (or food) necessary to sustain life. I don't know if this it true, but it seems like all mosques in Morocco have these three globes. He said if it has 4 globes, they represent the Prophets of Islam - Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed.
It was nice to have someone show us around because he took us right to the Shrine of the Imam that Don has read about, explaining what happens during the festival. Apparently there are large rectangular candle holders on poles that lead the way through the streets, as well as individuals carrying regular ones. Each pattern on the holder is a small candle! They store them in alcoves around the Shrine.
One final place our guide took us was up onto the old city wall to look out over the cemetery towards Rabat on the other side of the river. I used to think that Muslims were buried with their feet facing Mecca, but according to this gentleman, they are buried on their right side with their hearts (chests) facing Mecca. I think that is one "fact" that may need to be verified though.
When we finally decided it was time to head back to the car, I thought that I should give this gentleman a tip for showing us around, so I pulled out a 50 dirham note (about $6.00) and told him I really appreciated him showing us around. He looked down at the money and said "This is not the amount for a guide". I thought he meant that he didn't want any money so I profusely thanked him and started to leave. He stopped us and said again that this wasn't the amount for a guide. Then it dawned on me that he wanted more money. He had looked on the situation as us having "hired" him, even though he just joined us and lead us along! Realizing this, Don and I decided we could give him more money, because we enjoyed the "tour" much more with his guidance than if we had explored it on our own, so I offered him 100 dirhams (about $12.50). Again he shunned our offer. Finally Patty asked how much he thought was appropriate and he said 100 dirhams each!! At that point, I just put my money away and started walking off. We got about 20 feet away and suddenly he decided that 100 was enough! Although it was annoying at first that he turned out to be a professional guide rather than just a person who was being nice to us, it provided a few chuckles as we tried to find our way back to the car!
As it turned out, we had traveled to the opposite side of the medina from where the car was parked. Thank goodness for Don's fantastic sense of direction because he pointed us in the right direction - not past all those good veggies and things I wanted to buy, but past a nice little juice shop where we got some fresh squeezed orange juice. In a corner of the shop there was a cement device that looked a lot like an olive press. I asked what it was for and in his limited English he explained that it is for grinding almonds into almond butter! They roast the almonds and then grind it with some argon oil. Low and behold, just then, out came a woman to make some butter!! We got to watch her at work and I can tell you that it is a LOT of work and a slow process to make the almond butter. No wonder it cost about $25 for less than a liter of almond butter!
Having saved the location of our good parking spot in the GPS, you would think that we could have driven right to it! But all it takes is missing one little turn and in a matter of seconds, all the one-way streets and winding dead ends makes it difficult to get back on track! Fortunately it didn't take too long to find the area again!
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| Entrance to the medina |
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| A friend, Patty, and our "guide" |
He told me something I had never hear before, that the 3 globes on top of the mosque represent (from top to bottom) water, which is necessary for all life, then flour, then salt, for the bread (or food) necessary to sustain life. I don't know if this it true, but it seems like all mosques in Morocco have these three globes. He said if it has 4 globes, they represent the Prophets of Islam - Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed.
It was nice to have someone show us around because he took us right to the Shrine of the Imam that Don has read about, explaining what happens during the festival. Apparently there are large rectangular candle holders on poles that lead the way through the streets, as well as individuals carrying regular ones. Each pattern on the holder is a small candle! They store them in alcoves around the Shrine.
One final place our guide took us was up onto the old city wall to look out over the cemetery towards Rabat on the other side of the river. I used to think that Muslims were buried with their feet facing Mecca, but according to this gentleman, they are buried on their right side with their hearts (chests) facing Mecca. I think that is one "fact" that may need to be verified though.
When we finally decided it was time to head back to the car, I thought that I should give this gentleman a tip for showing us around, so I pulled out a 50 dirham note (about $6.00) and told him I really appreciated him showing us around. He looked down at the money and said "This is not the amount for a guide". I thought he meant that he didn't want any money so I profusely thanked him and started to leave. He stopped us and said again that this wasn't the amount for a guide. Then it dawned on me that he wanted more money. He had looked on the situation as us having "hired" him, even though he just joined us and lead us along! Realizing this, Don and I decided we could give him more money, because we enjoyed the "tour" much more with his guidance than if we had explored it on our own, so I offered him 100 dirhams (about $12.50). Again he shunned our offer. Finally Patty asked how much he thought was appropriate and he said 100 dirhams each!! At that point, I just put my money away and started walking off. We got about 20 feet away and suddenly he decided that 100 was enough! Although it was annoying at first that he turned out to be a professional guide rather than just a person who was being nice to us, it provided a few chuckles as we tried to find our way back to the car!
As it turned out, we had traveled to the opposite side of the medina from where the car was parked. Thank goodness for Don's fantastic sense of direction because he pointed us in the right direction - not past all those good veggies and things I wanted to buy, but past a nice little juice shop where we got some fresh squeezed orange juice. In a corner of the shop there was a cement device that looked a lot like an olive press. I asked what it was for and in his limited English he explained that it is for grinding almonds into almond butter! They roast the almonds and then grind it with some argon oil. Low and behold, just then, out came a woman to make some butter!! We got to watch her at work and I can tell you that it is a LOT of work and a slow process to make the almond butter. No wonder it cost about $25 for less than a liter of almond butter!
