Rabat
Hi everyone--
Whew! We just left Rabat after a whirlwind couple of days in the city. Personally, I LOVED it, and not just because it's considered the "Washington, D.C." of Morocco! (I'm from D.C., so it did feel sort of comfortable to me....) Since Rabat is the political capital of Morocco, it's the locale for all things governmental--embassies, NGOs, and (as anyone who's been to D.C. will know), political demonstrations galore.
The multitude of foreign residents lends the city a very cosmopolitan feel, and also allowed us to meet with several individuals who work for the U.S. government in Morocco. On Friday, we sat down with two members of the Foreign Service. (By the way, the forum for our meetings was the "American Club," which offered such homey delicacies as grilled cheese, burgers, and fajitas.) The first of these people was the Public Affairs Officer, whose (HUGE) job encompassed everything from organizing a functional library system to forming youth-based initiatives to help young Moroccans understand the U.S. The hope for these programs, she told us, was that they would provide the next generation of Moroccan leaders with a better understanding of the United States--that they would, in a sense, "de-mythisize" the country--and, in doing so, prevent future acts of terrorism.
We also met with the Cultural Affairs Offier, whose role was, in his words, all about "culture with a capital C." He's in charge of bringing musicians and artists into Morocco and organizing exchange programs between Morocco and the United States. Each year, the U.S. government provides funding for a certain number of Moroccans to study in America--something none of us knew before! After the meetings at the American Club, we had the chance to meet with the head of Global Rights, an organization geared toward the promotion of female emancipation. We had actually heard this woman give a lecture to a group of Moroccan students when we were in Ifrane, but this time, we were able to sit down alone with her and ask all the questions that had been builidng in our minds since we'd last heard her speak.
On Saturday, we explored the Chellah, the old ruins site that lies just outside of Rabat. I'm not usually one to say this, but these ruins were interesting (and fun to play around in). We explored the old Roman and Abassid sections on our own for a while, and walked around the gardens that lie adjacent to the site. Then, we headed back into Rabat for a little site-seeing: we saw the Hassan II tower and mausolem. The mausoleum was particularly beautiful--we've seen a lot of wood and plaster carving at this point, and so we could tell that the quality of the craftsmanship within the building was pretty impressive. We then headed down to the recently built boardwalk and waterfront area, which provided a nice backdrop for an afternoon stroll.
Before I forget to mention this, another reason we all loved Rabat was the food. Katie S. had lived in Rabat for a while the previous year, and she knew all the ropes when it came to finding great food in the city. We ate at a fresh fruit/juice place every day, a REALLY cute little garden restaurant with delicious crepes and salads, and the Goethe Institut, which had pizzas (with real cheese!), salads, and mountains of chocolate cake.
All in all, I have to say that our weekend in Rabat left me feeling that it was one of my favorite cities in Morocco. Every person we met with was interesting, and shed new light on some aspect of Morocco that we hadn't known about--or even considered--before.