"Bonjour, Mes Amis!"

"My friend! Over here! Bonjour! Hola!" is certainly one of the more consistent parts of the Moroccan soundtrack. In many of the more touristed Moroccan cities it's pretty rare to cover more than a block without a few such salutations coming your way. Broadly speaking, these hails usually lead to one of a few things

1. A storekeeper whose shop you're passing by wants you to come in.
2. Local kids shreiking and running about
3. A tout wants to take you down to the shop, restaurant, or hotel that will pay him the best comission for bringing you in.
4. A hustler wants to invite you "to his house, for tea," which usually involves wandering down isolated alleyways until he can try and intimidate some cash out of you.
5. Somebody just wants to stop and have a chat.

Obviously, each of these possibilities entails a bit of a different reaction! As I'm not a shopper, souvenir sellers usually get a grin and a "La, shukran" (No, thanks) as I walk along, and rarely does it cause any problems. Similarly, local kids are usually a lot of fun to chat and play around with, although it does make you want to find and kick the first tourist who thought handing out candies was a good idea. After persistant refusal of some especially persistant children the other day, one of them did manage to bean me (at a good 25 feet!) with a pretty substantial rock. But no matter. Rock-throwing kids are a constant in many places, and a good chance to practice your locally flavoured scowling.

The touts and the hustlers, though, present a bit of a different challenge. The problem here is certainly not particularly severe - I've been in many places where it was worse - and in many cities and towns here it's pretty absent. There's also been a severe crackdown in recent years by the tourist police. I've had friends who've left Morocco, in the past, with a decidedly unpleasant impression of the place because of the hustle, which I certainly don't see anymore. Places like Tangiers and Fes were once legendary for persistent harassment, and in both I was barely bothered.

That being said, the problem does exist, and it can be damned frustrating. This is especially true in smaller places, where the fellow that sticks to you like glue will likely see you 10 more times after you finally shake him. As a lone traveller, it is always a challenge to get your sense of a place and learn to dintinguish hustlers, muggers, and con artists from the honestly friendly. With my feet still relatively fresh on the ground, there's not much else to do but err on the side of caution. When approached by people on the street, I pretty much never go with them. Although it leaves me safe, it also leaves me feeling like a bit of an asshole. Even when I'm well aware that the running friendly commentary from someone beside me is just a pitch to get me down an alley (and these ones are often pretty obvious), I still feel rather rude in ignoring or dismissing the poor fellow. It would be easier if the tone were lighter-hearted, but it actually gets a wee bit tense at times. A fairly common exchange runs along these lines:

Josh (for the 10th time) : "Sorry man, not really interested"

Hustler #1: "Okay, fuck you"

That one, I don't mind - indeed, it's actually a bit funny. The ones that get my gourd run more along these lines:

Josh: "Sorry man, I'm gonna head this way"

Hustler #2 "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Stop being so paranoid! I'm inviting you
to my home! To meet my family! And you're scared! You'll never enjoy Morocco
this way..."

The more agitated the second response is, the more sure you are that you've met a hustler. The thing that bugs me about it is that, criminal or not, the fellow has a point. I am well aware that by seeking to avoid unpleasant interactions with people like this, I unwittingly avoid and sometimes offend honestly hospitable Moroccans. This especially grates me because I usually enjoy travelling in Muslim countries more than any other. If this were Syria, say, or the Sudan, I would go with these people almost unhesitatingly. This gets easier as you travel for longer, but it never stops being an issue. As a lone traveller, you're generally regarded as pretty batty by local people, who would never opt for being alone, and thus are often approached in all friendliness. Indeed, this is one of the big selling points for me of travel alone - the opportunity it affords to be taken into people's homes and lives with incredible generosity. If I feel like I'm missing out on those interactions because of being over-cautious, I get down on myself for it. The skin does thicken, of course, and it has to, but I don't want to ever be one of those travellers who heeds embassy warning sheets and only talks to other foreigners for fear of being robbed. Without trust, independant travel is impossible. That sort of street sense, though, does not always come as fast or as discerning as I'd like.

Morocco, in any case, is an odd kettle of fish. It recieves gaggle upon gaggle of wealthy European tourists dropping in for a week and trampling over all sorts of local customs and cultural traditions. When a bunch of loud, brash tourists in short-shorts and tank tops rampage through the Medina buying every trinket in sight, I can completely sympathize with a perception of them as walking dollar signs. I just wish that perception didn't overflow so much onto independant travellers who really do want to cross cultural barriers.

And of course, it often doesn't. The vast majority of my daily interactions with Moroccans are exactly what I would like them to be - interested, generous, and honest. The difference? These are people who don't chase me down to the street. I come to them, either chatting in the market, or whiling away an afternoon drinking tea with the local fellows. These people have pretty widely varied attitudes towards their pushier brethren on the streets - many feel a bit ashamed by it, but others (and me, most of the time) simply remember that these are people who still live in what is relatively terrible poverty and are simply trying to survive. That is what really matters, of course, and I don't really begrudge anyone for it.

I am, however, aware that hustle is more related to tourism levels than it is to GDP. Where foreigners are a novelty, they're still much more of a guest. It shall be interesting to track that change over the next week as I head across from Morocco (one of Africa's most visited countries) to Mauritania (one of it's least). I expect the change will be pretty abrupt.

Talking about plans reminds me that this post was originally intended as a long-overdue update on what I've actually been doing! Whoops... Look to this page tomorrow for that one, as I'm in Rabat fetching visas and running errands and have precious little else to do. Until then, as always,
Peace
Josh