Fascination of the Oudayas

The Oudayas is such an interesting site. I don't know where you can experience more types of activity, numbers of people (maybe during the hajj in Mecca), and such intensity of encounters. It's a Kasbah on a rocky protusion overlooking the River Bou Regreg which has a café and where people still live. 1) History. It's old–founded as a fortified town in the 12th century and revived by arrival of Muslims who had been expelled from Spain in the 17th. Throughout the 17th century, the Kasbah des Oudayas grew notorious for its pirates. Piracy continued until the 19th century. 2) Eats. The Oudayas Café is on a shady terrace looking out over the river and serves scrumptious Moroccan pastries. A crescent-shaped sweet cake (kaab al-ghzal) actually represents a gazelle horn, thus its name. Filled with almond paste, they are a sheer delight. Another version of this is round like a thin donut. Honey pastries (baklava), rolled and triangular, are popular. The soft coconut-almond macaroons, with or without a powdered sugar coating are mouth-watering. The cookies I like the best are almond-shaped, filled with almond paste, and covered with a thick, packed coating of powdered sugar. These with mint tea without sugar (bidoon sukra) is my favorite complement to any day. Moroccans prefer tea with lots of sugar, a permissible high in a country where alcohol is socially unacceptable. You can tell I love these pastries, since I spent so much time describing them. 3) People. These you begin to meet on the way up toward the huge, imposing ornamental gate. Couples, families, and individuals are sitting on the surrounding lawn–especially in the evening when it's cool. Vendors display their wares or sell pink cotton candy; and numerous women offer to decorate your hands or feet with henna. a) Guides. At the first entry point, several young men approach you to offer their guiding services. Most of them begin by saying they only want to make conversation. However, if they spend a considerable amount of time explaining the area to you and showing you around, they hope you will feel indebted; they then usually proceed to ask you for some token of appreciation. Since I've visited the area several times, one middle-aged man recognizes me and seems to want to practice his English. Many Moroccans don't have the opportunity for formal education, so pick up their skills where they can. One way to get a native speaker as a teacher is to talk to a tourist. His name is Abdullah. He lives in the Oudayas in a house overlooking the estuary, which is located between that of two ministers. He invited me to visit him–no doubt to practice his English, perhaps gain some charity, or to drum some more business. b) Personal events related to the families who live there. I saw the beginnings of a wedding as a cow was brought to a home and circled in front of it. Musicians then played in front of the home, while quantities of food in large metal tangines and plastic-covered baskets were loaded in the back of a pickup truck, along with a floral decoration. Finally, the pickup truck headed a procession through the medina (old city) followed by the musicians and family members. c) Job training. I continued to walk and was met by a young man who invited me to see his family home, which he said was old, and eat some couscous. The entry had Allah twice carved in the top of the dark, wooden door frame. The sitting rooms, kitchen, and hamman on the ground floor and the bedroom upstairs were modestly furnished and didn't appear that old, although the infrastructure may have been. He turned on the television in the upstairs room (after a bit of work with the remote, he got a local channel), offered me some of his mother's couscous (good, I ate a little), and then proceeded to tell me that his sister did massages in a hammam and wondered if I was interested. As I left, he continued to try and speak a few words of English, presumably to increase his vocabulary. While he said he was interested in making my acquaintance only out of friendship, he did ask if I had an American dollar as a souvenir. Now I realized this was a new selling techniquem (or gimmick, if you take a less flattering view). A boy in Fes had given me a couple of small, gold-trimmed mirrors to welcome me to Morocco, showed me around a bit, and then he, too, even after a 10 dirham tip had asked for a dollar as a souvenir. In a society with a large degree of illiteracy and few marketable skills, you can't blame people for devising what techniques they can to make a little money. d) Masses of humanity. The number of people who descend on the Oudayas in the evening is amazing. French tourists and a few others are beginning to arrive during the day. After 4:00 PM, however, Moroccans of all ages want to stroll or sit outside. Many go to relax on the lawns or in the gardens of the Oudayas and to have a drink and snack at the café. Many also come to swim at the beaches, both on the river and Atlantic side. They get packed. If you make your way through the small alleys, past the white-washed houses with colored doors in various styles, you reach a platform at the top. Here you see the Bou Regreg entering the Atlantic; and the view is superb. You can look across the river to the old quarter of Salé; watch people sitting under their tents, playing their games, and running into the water on the beaches; and also walk down to the water's edge. 4) Museum. If you wish. It's in a house built by Moulay Ismail in traditional style. Yet, it's the Oudayas as a whole which is so captivating. You can experience a full range of scenes and emotions while there–serenity at mid-day in the café, making sure to find a seat in the side section where the breeze blows off the water; amazement at the number and diversity of people as they come to relax, make money, or see some new sites; wonder at the varieties of dress on display–the jellabahs of young Moroccan women, the face veils or scarves covering all the hair of older women, the traditional yellow leather slippers of some Moroccan men, the western dress worn by Moroccans and westerners, the shorts, floppy hats, and brief tops of tourists; frustration as the object of money-making schemes and at the clashes of culture. You want to take an interesting picture; others consider it an invasion of their privacy. Moroccans have their warm, generous, and hospitable style; you don't feel you can give all of your money away or spend in excess. Moroccans consider the person most important, not what happens later. You want to do something "now" and achieve "your" goals.