We arrived on Saturday evening and woke up to exploring the city. Because of the late hour of arrival we hadn't got any money changed yet. We were using Euros, it was accepted. I read on a blog about ATM machines swallowing ATM cards, so I was scared of using an ATM to get some dirhams. We wandered pretty aimlessly, Casablanca, a thoroughly modern city seemed boring, there were no charm or excitement about it. The other reason probably was because it was Sunday. Soon we happened upon this neighborhood which I think is the ancient medina, a rather small area. It looked more like a slum but it had more charm, character and color than the other areas. I am sure there are some who wonder why we even want to photograph this area. This is life, pure and raw, no airbrushing. Everywhere we go in the world, we see areas like this, it reminded us of Cairo. I work in a downtown Los Angeles area where some thousands of people live in tents, cardboard box canopies, homeless, and this is their permanent situation. I am no stranger to slums. I work among these people and minister to their needs everyday.
Here, in this part of Casablanca, we met some really friendly people and we didn't meet with the same hostility we did in Cairo. We have seen these kind of areas in Palermo, Sicily also. One should be careful and not throw caution to the wind. Here in Casablanca, we only venture into here because nearby there was a huge military presence. We didn't what was going on, we still don't. So we felt safe because the army was a shouting distance away.
More about Casablanca, what to do, money and transportation coming in later posts.
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