المغرب/maroc iii

(cont'd)

When the guide finally arrived, we headed out to explore the Medina. After walking down to the main road where Michelle and I had been waiting earlier, Mohammad called out to various vans driving by, seemingly asking them for a ride! He turned to us and explained that he thought it best not to walk to the Blue Gate for the sake of time. He kept repeating, "I just want your happiness. My only job is to make you happy." Well, that's nice. Somehow I ended up in the front seat, while everyone else slid into the back, and Mohammad tucked himself into the trunk! After a short trip, we arrived at the blue gate. People, bikes, carts, donkeys, petit taxis were everywhere! And we just stood there, the five of us, taking photographs in the middle of all this chaos, which just continued swarming around us, as though we weren't even there! It was unbelievable. Finally, we entered the Medina, and it's hard to imagine, but the chaos of outside was multiplied by a thousand. Maybe not, but it was all squeezed into narrow streets lined with shops and stands. People came through on donkeys and horses carrying loads of coca-cola bottles or nuts or bread. There were live chickens, roosters, even peacocks sitting on crates and baskets filled with dried figs, dates, raisins - every kind of dried fruit and nut you can imagine. And all around incredible architecture. All the ceilings were painted and ornamented beautifully. The ground was a different story. Filled with unpredictable steps and trash (it being not only a Friday - the Muslim world's Sunday - but also the first of May - international Labor Day).While we're completely overwhelmed by everything going on around us, taking photographs, etc., Mohammad is navigating through the streets so quickly, that I was afraid we were going to lose him! I honestly believed I would turn around for one second and he would be gone. Thankfully, this did not happen. We wandered around looking at all the stands for a while, little by little working our way to the tanneries...