Hello everybody!

I have been walking around here in my new internethome and found this topic: How often do you feel the urge to visit Leblad? started by @almotanabi. It was interesting to read your feelings and opinions about visiting your home country.

For me Morocco is not “Leblad”, but a country which I visited for the first time in 1999.
I knew next to nothing about Morocco, when I first came there.

I had starting learning Arabic in my leisuretime, because I wanted to learn another language from a different cultural setting. I chose Arabic because it is an official language in over 20 countries and because I wanted to learn more about Arabic history and culture and the Islam.

After some first tries with a Learning-Arabic-CDrom, I thought it would be a good idea to make a trip to an Arabic country. The aim of that trip became Agadir, mostly of practical reasons. My children were only seven and nine years old at that time, so it was nice with holidays at a beach.

My few words in standard Arabic were appreciated, when I tried to use them in Agadir and they led to some interesting conversations in English. I soon found out that I should learn Darija for communicating with people. I also learned that there was a very large percentage of Berber or Amazigh people in Morocco, not only Arabs as I thought before.

But “Agadir is not Morocco” as many people say, so we went back to Morocco in the beginning of 2003 and also 2004 and travelled around.

Last year we visited the desert and stayed in a small camp for four days, where two nomads were looking after us, preparing food and of course tea. This time not mint tea, but tea with “chiba” and also “louisa”, the latter was always prepared in the evening. We were sleeping under the stars, studying the traces of different kinds of animals in the sand every morning, made short trips on the back of the dromedars and really enjoyed ourselves. My daughter said the other day “I will remember our trip to the desert all my life.”

Now in the beginning of 2005 my children have both become teenagers. In February/March we went to Morocco for the fourth time for a five-weeks-trip visiting Marrakech, Rabat, Meknès, Volubilis, Fès, Ifrane, Bin el Ouidane and for the last week again Marrakech.

We have made friends and have got to know people living in different parts of Morocco. Our friends give us the opportunity to have a look on Morocco from “the inside”, when we stay together with their families. We appreciate their friendliness and hospitality very much and also the interesting exchange of views and facts about our respective countries.

In Rabat we went to the archeological museum, where we had a look at the exhibitons, especially from Roman times, since we later wanted to visit Volubilis.

We also went to the zoo in Rabat, twice. The first time we had to leave the zoo after about half an hour because of never ending pouring rain… The second time showed us, how popular the zoo is on a Sunday. Moroccan families and young people had picnic on the lawns and adults and children in all ages were walking around looking at the animals and sometimes also at us, the only European family in the whole zoo…

In the Chellah, for the first time in my life, I saw colonies of storks, many of them breeding in trees with the different nests in several “floors” on top of the other. The storks in Volubilis on the other hand prefered to live more separate with single nests high up on a Roman column.

Volubilis impressed us by it’s size and the variety of remains from Roman buildings. It was amazing to see that the mosaics have endured so many centuries in such a good condition. Our guide had studied history and told us a lot of interesting facts and also the mythological background of the mosaics.
………

Well, this has become quite long, and since we still have sunny weather I think I close now and go out into my garden, giving our hens an opportunity for a walk, before they go to bed, i.e. on the perch.

Have a nice evening

Calendula

Now dear Calendula,
You created a problem for all of us when you spoke about Tea With Chiba, and you made me personally want to go and visit Morocco. You named many of the places that are very special to me and which occupy the best place in my heart. And it was all OK until you talked about tea with a chiba, aie aie aie, you have no idea how much that hurts, not to have that for years…Louisa on the other hand is not problem, my family send that one to me whenever I run out, I can taste chiba right now and god knows how much I love that plant,
When I wrote the post; How often do you feel the urge to visit Leblad? about my shrinking desire to go, I wrote it because for many of us visiting morocco is no longer a vacation time, but a time when you go and all you try to do is help poor family members out, which is great, except when things do not change and you have to do it over and over again. You should by now know, as you’d said in your post that Agadir is not Morocco, and that many people are poor, but the unique thing about morocco are in fact these poor people. They are the ones that make this country the most hospitable place on earth, they will sell the last item in their possession to show their hospitality to a stranger, it’s as if that is the climax of their life, and it’s as if you are the only thing between them and the Stairway to heaven, and that’s what makes Morocco so unbelievably special..
I’m so happy you had a good time out there and I hope you and your children never cut the ties with the friends you made there.

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us.

Hello, dear Almot!

Perhaps this link may help you concerning the "chiba" (Artemisia absinthium):


[plants.usda.gov]

I hope you will be able to buy it from somewhere near to where you live.


Calendula

thanks Calendula
My wife did ask many time about the name of chiba in other languages.
Now I know that it is called Artemisia absinthium which is the scientific name.
Do you have chiba in Norway?
sorry
Do you have Artemisia absinthium in Norway?
Krim

Hi Almot and all;

I share the same "love" for Chiba...and the last time I was in Morocco, I brought it with me... it can last in the Freeser for as long as you keep it there!OF course in the summer it's no good!!!
AS to the name in English, I thought about customs and what I should say should they have asked... turned out they know almost everything and it wasn't a problem.

Yani

Hi everybody,


Yes it's true you can't find 'chiba' in summer in Morocco...or if you find it it's not good....I usually go to Morocco in summer time so I can never buy it ...it's so pity ....just the smell of this plant makes me nostalgic....a lot of beautiful memories of my childhood are related to 'chiba' ...I think I’m homesick now

Dear Almotanabi!

Yesterday I was short of time, therefore you just got the answer about the chiba. It was an attempt of first aid as soon as possible to reduce your suffering about not being able to have the atay bilchiba. Hope you will succeed in finding or buying some of these herbs near to your home.

Visiting Morocco – I know that it is quite different to go to Morocco for someone who has family, friends and neighbours there. There are expectations about what the “rich” people living in Europe or USA can do for them, about financial help and presents.

I get a slight view of those expectations, when I meet people, who expect our family to have a lot of money, because we are able to have holidays in Morocco.

Our friends, they know that we have to save the money for the trip, that there are other things we can’t do or buy, because we otherwise will not be able to pay for our trip to Morocco. But I can understand that we appear to be wealthy, when I hear that agricultural workers get a salary of 40 or 50 Dirhams a day and we can afford staying at a hotel for 500 Dirhams a night. When I tell people in Morocco about the prices in Norway, they are really shocked. It is the difference in the cost of living, that makes it possible for us to visit Morocco.

When we took the local bus from Temara plage to the city of Rabat, we passed slumareas just outside the town. And met beggars and handicapped people in the city… I feel bad just ignoring them and it makes me feel helpless to see so many people living under those conditions. But what should I do? I really don’t have much money seen from the Norwegian context. Should I stop travelling with my children and rather give the money to a charity organisation? Sometimes I feel I should... But then again I think that our travelling supports jobs for people and that it may be a tiny contribution to intercultural exchange and understanding. My children have to write projects about Morocco for the school and their writings show me, that there has been much learning for them in our trips.

I can imagine that it must be difficult for you, when you come to Morocco and meet all those expectations for help from people you know well and see with your own eyes that they really need help. But I think that it must be sad both for you and your family, that this makes you not visiting Morocco for a long time.


Calendula

Hi, all Chiba-Lovers!

@Krim
Here are for your wife some other names for Artemisia Absinthia:

English: wormwood - German: Wermutkraut or Absinth - Norwegian and Danish: malurt


I almost do not dare to tell all you lovers of chiba…

We have the chiba-plant in Norway, but I prefer nana…

Calendula

Dear calendula,

thank you very much for the name of 'chiba' in English....I'll tray to find it...

Dear Almot
We have here in Berlin a small shop called Casafood aaaaaaaand he has Moroccan products. Naanaa, Chiba, (Citron confis )Hamed mraggad etc.
take care

Dear Almot
We have here in Berlin a small shop called Casafood aaaaaaaand he has Moroccan products. Naanaa, Chiba, (Citron confis )Hamed mraggad etc.

Thanks dear Calendula for your time in providing Wermutkraut or Absinth

Brother Krim, you don't have to tell me these things, you know I’m going to be drooling when you talk about El hamed Mreqqed, Ewa Besseha Werraha Ya Akhi!!! you are lucky to have these items, even though they are small, they can make a difference in a day when one wants to connect with one’s origins. So stop telling me what you all have that I don’t have here, enough!!!LooooL..
Salaam all,