Our local guide Sherif met us at the hotel and took us on a tour around the Medina of Fez. It is much larger and older than any other medina in the country, it is labyrinth and maze like and we believe without a guide we would have quickly become lost. Sherif was an interesting guide, he had been a tour guide in Fez for over 20 years, but he also works as a high school German teacher. He had a bachelor’s degree in history, and master’s degree in German, which he obtained while living in Vienna. His wife is a biology professor at a local university. He was liberal minded and very well educated and clearly enjoyed teaching. He taught us a lot about Moroccan history, Fez, the political system, carpentry, traditional art of morocco and his Islamic faith. He was willing to answer, all our questions. At the end of our tour, he shared he was the local KimKim representative for Fez (the website I used to connect me with our local tour operator, Original travel). During our discussion he learned I am a psychiatrist and then took us to the first psychiatric hospital in Africa, located l in the middle of the Medina (it is now an artisan workshop), but building has kept commemorative plaques regarding its original purpose. Sherifs social values around tourism, value supporting the local economy and we were paying high tourist prices for things (our lunch cost significantly more than it would have at home). The history of the Medina and timing of the different areas was interesting, this dates to the eighth century, the 14th century and then 19th century divided into different parts of the Medina. We appreciated the opportunity to see the Medina and the City from a high vantage point at a Fort, located above the Medina. Sherif showed us an excellent example of the architecture that has withstood the test of time. He explained how the city walls were built, helping us understand the impressive engineering feat. We visited a government sponsored artisan co-operative, catering to tourist, focused on keeping traditional pottery and tiling alive. Sophie took advantage of the opportunity to try the foot driven potter’s wheel and with the help of the professional potter made a beautiful pot. During our tour through the Medina, we also visited carpet shop, we were taken upstairs to see the artisan, tying the knots on the loom to make the beautiful rugs. We also visited the meat and vegetable sections of the market; in the meat section we were surprised to see a stall selling camel meat with a real camel head marking the stall. We also visited the famous Fez Tannery. It had been renovated by an NGO a few years ago and thus is now “a lot cleaner”. There is a terrible smell from the Tannery, we were told we were “in luck” and it was not too bad today. Bunches of mint leaves are used as “The Moroccan gas mask” to help with the smell, it did not provide much relief. It was amazing to see the timing process to curing and tanning leather. Again, there was some high-pressure sales to buy leather products. People were graceful when we politely declined but we had to repetitively say we were not interested. We finished our tour by visiting the Blue Medina gate, a very beautiful Moroccan gate, often shown in pictures of Fez.
Later that day we met our local family representative to join a family for a traditional Moroccan dinner in their home. This family has lived for five generations in the Medina, in a beautiful apartment. We were initially greeted in the first salon, a very ornate room, used only for guest. We began our visit with the usual traditional mint tea and cookies. The daughter, Amina, who was about 30, spoke great English and was able to connect with us and translate for her parents. She had some Moroccan clothing for us to try on and take pictures. She introduced us to many members of her family and told us a little bit about the family structure and life in Morocco. We then went to the other Salon where the women of the house were visiting with each other, they sat at one end of the long room and had us sit at the other end. There were moments of awkwardness as we ate, while the rest of the family looked on. We were served Moroccan soup, traditional bread, eggplant and roasted pepper salad, and olives. The main course was traditional chicken, pastella, a type of chicken pie, wrapped puff pastry with ice and sugar and nutmeg, this was followed by sliced oranges with sliced bananas and nutmeg. After dinner, the family’s youngest son, in his early 20s, came home and visited with us. He also had excellent English and shared that he plays for the Moroccan soccer team, second division. He had just had surgery and was out of play for this season, he high aspirations and is clearly a talented athlete. He engaged Aiden in a bit of a discussion about soccer. The young grandson of the family, Jed, age 10, was there with his beautiful baby brother (seven months old). Jed and Aiden had a small chat in French, both boys were a bit shy.
