We're on a souk bus...

I'm going to try something here. In addition to updating what is going on on a weekly basis (which I dont really do anyway), I'm going to write a few blogs about general life here. For instance, the first one is on travel. I know what your probably thinking if you care at all about this blog. I should try to write something period before adding anything. Yeah... I'm going to do it this way. It is my blog after all.

Traveling in Morocco is a challenge. I discovered this almost as soon as I had set foot here. The challenges come in all kinds of forms. Sometimes it’s the vehicle, sometimes the driver, other times it’s the dudes sitting next to you (and by that I mean more like on top of you). Always, though, it is neccesary for one to muster up as much patience as they have, and go expecting nothing less than an adventure.
Being on the far east side of Morocco, I’ve perhaps had to endure more traveling than most of the other volunteers. Almost nothing Peace Corps related happens anywhere near me. The closest place that I would go to for PC is Fes, which is about 7 hours away, and I would only do that in emergencies because its my “consolidation point.” Otherwise, if its PC its usually at least 9 hours away. It takes me 3 days to get some places.
It seems that rarely is any means of transportation ready for what its about to do (i.e. go somewhere) but somehow, sometimes by seemingly miraculous means, they always get me where I want to go, and, at least to this point, I have gotten there alive. Inshah Allah it stays that way!
I think it was the second month that I was in this country; I was coming back to my CBT site with my fellow trainees from some little outing. I think we were trying to catch some lizards to eat for dinner or something. Anyway, we ended up getting a ride with a cousin of somebody in his fire extinguisher truck/car/van thing. It was full of fire extinguishers. The car itself was pretty shady, not really right on its wheels, but it wasn’t until one of the fire extinguishers exploded in the back that we panicked. I think we were all pretty sure someone had just gotten shot like the lady in the movie “Babel”. I don’t think our Arabic could have gotten us very far.
Here’s how traveling with a group of PC volunteers usually goes. We all walk to the station (petit taxis could get us there but they are expensive, and its way more hardcore to lug 60 pounds of stuff on your back) where there are generally grand taxis, souk buses, and sometimes CTM buses. Grand taxis are usually the quickest, as they go from one point to another without stopping. They are, however, a bit expensive and also whoever chooses this option generally gets the honor of sharing the car with 6 other dudes. To say the least it’s cozy. In the summer, you usually get out of the taxi covered in the sweat of the two guys sitting on your lap. If this is not appealing, then there is the souk bus, but beware, although the souk bus may be the cheapest, what you save in money you lose in time, patience, and body water. The last option is for the xans flus (the dirty rich). It’s called CTM and it’s definitely the nicest option other than train travel. Almost always you get your own seat, there is air conditioning, and there is no having to endure the 200 random stops along the way to pick up and drop off people. But, as mentioned before its for the xans flus, which is not usually us. Ok, so we get to the station and these are the options we are looking at. We stop, dripping with sweat, in the middle of the taxi lot. What now? Do we pay the money for comfort and reliability? Or do we bite the bullet and risk the souk bus? Oh CTM… if only. The discussion is almost always the same (the merits of one, the problems with the other), and when we get on the souk bus, we wonder what the point of having it was.
Just a couple of days ago we had this exact chat. Milling around the taxi lot in Azrou, we surveyed our options to get home from Post PST Training. There was a taxi with 3 open spots. There were 4 of us. Buying out a whole taxi would be expensive, and also we are above being ripped off in any way. CTM would be nice… of course. In the end, as always, we ended up lugging our stuff into the adjacent bus station to look at the souk bus times. One in 10 minutes!? Perfect. We went outside to wait. 10 minutes, 20, 30. The bus wasn’t even in the lot. Finally, it showed up and we got on. From the outside, as we loaded our bags, we could already see that it was full. Oh well. We got on and grabbed the few remaining open seats. We were off… sort of. We hadn’t even gotten out of town when the bus stopped. It couldn’t get up the hill. Every time the driver tried to shift, the bus stalled and started drifting backward. Luckily, the quick thinking assistant guy threw some rocks behind the wheels and tried coxing the bus up the hill. No luck. For every 5 feet we gained, we drifted 30 back down the hill. And each time the bus went backward, a group of women on board sent out a dramatic scream that stirred the bus into a pandemonium of panic and crazed discussion.
Now the assistant guy had a better idea. Lets get a running start up this thing. Not a bad idea and to give him credit, we made it about 10 feet passed our previous record before the bus couldn’t go any further. Right. Lets get everyone off the bus and then try it again. We walked up the hill, while the bus slowly struggled along beside us. It was working, but the hill was at least a couple of km long and I don’t think any one of the paying customers was keen on walking the whole way to Fes. Soon the driver thought it would be a good idea to get everyone back on. He honked his horn impatiently as if we were wasting his time sitting outside the bus. As soon as we got back on, we started back down the hill. We got off again, and started it all over. Nope. Not this time either. Finally, the driver called somebody at the station and said a new bus was coming. The bus arrived, but when we saw it, we all laughed. It was about half the size of the previous bus. We unloaded and then reloaded our bags onto the new bus and climbed on. Of course, being half the size as the previously full bus, there were not enough seats. Not a huge problem, considering we had just spent over an hour trying to get up a hill 6 blocks from the bus station. We finally got on our way, but as souk buses usually do, we were forced to keep stopping to let new people on. Before long, the aisles were full, people were sitting on the stairs, and someone was on my lap. Also, there was a good chance we were not going to make it in time for our train. Then, having caught glimpse of the whities the assistant guy of the new bus climbed over dozens of people to get to the back of the bus where we sat. He wanted more money for our luggage. We had already paid extra on the last bus. We laughed. We knew if we didn’t pay, he would probably pester us for the rest of the trip or until we did. Pestering is pretty easy to ignore, though, if you don’t understand most of what’s being said.
If that story wasn’t fun enough, here’s another. This happened a little over a month ago. Two friends from the states came to visit. Hi Katie and Ashley if your reading this. It’s about you. I had just picked them up and we were on our way back to Tafoghalt on the souk bus. About an hour into the uneventful, even pleasant, drive, I heard a scream and then loud commotion from the back of the bus where Katie and Ashley were sitting. I couldn’t see what was going on, only that people were getting up and crowding around the girls’ seat. I craned my neck to get a glimpse. I saw the girls. They seemed fine. Whatever had happened happened in the seat ahead of them. I could see a woman in that seat. She was crying frantically. The woman besides her seemed to be asleep on her shoulder. Some people were kind of nudging the sleeping woman, but no one was really doing anything other then crowding. The bus pulled over and I finally caught what had happened. There are shelves above the seats in souk buses like in airplanes, except without doors. And like in airplanes stuff can fall from them. This time, what fell happened to be a bulk pack of canned corn and it fell smack onto the woman’s unsuspecting head. We sat on the side of the road waiting for the police, the woman left to her unconsciousness and her friend left to her frantic crying. The police finally arrived, but instead of helping the woman, they went straight to questioning the owner of the cans, trying to determine what he was doing with them, why he had put them up there, etc. This went on for over an hour while the woman drifted in and out of consciousness. Finally she was moved off the bus, but had to continue to wait for the police, who were now going through the bus reenacting what had happened and searching for other dangerous canned corn. We ended up leaving two hours later. The woman and her friend were still there on the side of the road.
I’m not sure why so little attention was paid to her. It might have been strictly due to beaurocracy or maybe it was because she was a woman. I’m not sure. Katie and Ashley were surprised and outraged. I guess it was here that I realized how accustomed to the ways of Morocco I had become. I was outraged, but not surprised. Things like this happen, and where there would almost certainly be a lawsuit in the States, here people just carry on, only now with something exciting to talk to their buddies about at the café.
So, that’s just a little glimpse into some of the more exciting moments of travel that I’ve had so far here in Morocco. Most of the time, while crowded and hot, it is at least usually reliable and comprehensive. I’ve met some of the most interesting people and had some of my best conversations in taxis, buses, and trains. Even though it’s always exhausting and almost never predictable, in the end, what kind of adventure would this be without it.