We had been on the platform for about half an hour and our train had not pulled into the station yet. There were several 20 something year olds climbing down the steep plateaued ledges that rose on the opposite sides of the track. It seemed odd and we weren't the only ones who noticed. A German Shepherd was gated into a stair well nearby to keep people from entering the side of the track we were on. The watchdog was barking at the men climbing down the far wall but no train station personnel paid any attention.
The trains which were arriving, from both directions, were filled with young men. As they poured out onto the platform, they formed up into groups, yelled some things about Maroc in unison, waved Moroccan flags and them proceeded in fluid motion up the stairways and into the station. We speculated on what the commotion was and even though we ascertained it had nothing to do with us, we walked to the far end of the platform to wait without intruding on the festivities.
We discussed going back to the hotel and canceling the journey to Marrakech but after about 15 more minutes waiting, our train finally arrived, full of men, shouting waving flags and climbing the steps. Maybe it was a soccer game? Some kind of independence day? We had no idea and spent the only few moments of the trip we weren't entirely comfortable keeping a low profile and refraining from taking photographs. We ran down the platform, trying to find the car we belonged in and boarded the train in time to enjoy about a 4 hour train ride on the Marrakech Express.
I get home and my Dad sends me this link of a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young video at Farm Aid:
The Marrakech Express
We arrived in Marrakech and went to meet some other TGC fellows who were traveling that day. We waited in a hotel lobby and exchanged some currency while we waited for them to return from shopping on the Square. When they arrived, it was lunch time so we all walked over to a high end hotel restaurant which serves many good Moroccan dishes. The train delay left us a little shorter on time than we had hoped but after lunch we walked to Jemaa El Fnaa Square.
Jemaa El Fnaa has food vendors, hotels, businesses, snake charmers, monkey keepers and curious visitors. For 20 Dirhams, one can have a photo made holding a non-poisonous snake or charming a venomous snake. If primates are your thing, a photo with a monkey can be purchased. We had to go before the food cart vendors began to fill the square that evening. There were six of us riding to the train station. We were about to make another cultural discovery.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had made a speech about Morocco. In his remarks, he had stated Western Sahara was not a part of Morocco. Loyal Moroccans had taken to the trains and rode to Rabat to meet in protest of the inflammatory statements. Four million Moroccans had traveled to Rabat just to protest the Secretary-General's idea that Morocco wasn't a sovereign state, entitled to all it's lands to the south. Yeah, that's what the trainloads of men that morning had been about.
Problem at that point was the trains had been running behind all day. When would be passengers in the Marrakech Train Station found out they weren't traveling that evening due to the schedule being now hours behind, they didn't take the news without waving fists and shouting at railroad employees to express their displeasure. Houria Kherdi, host teacher for another TGC teaching team thought quickly and arranged a bus back to Rabat. We would arrive late in the evening but we would be back at our hotel and ready for school the next day.
Great thing about the group we were traveling with was we all understood flexibility is a key to happiness during international travel. The bus rumbled through lots of traffic until we were outside the city and safely back to Rabat. We had been witness to an impressive moment in Moroccan life. Of 34 million citizens, 4 million had traveled, protest and were now trying to get home, just like us.
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