The first time I went to North Africa was magical. We were on a family vacation, touring southern France, Spain and then Tangiers in Morocco. My first taste of Arab culture was at the Alhambra in Granada, that Morrish palace in Spain, with it gypsy caves below where I was entranced by the women dancing. Then Gibraltar, and taking the ferry across to the fabled city of Tangiers. The the first time in my young life, and even if young I was well traveled, I felt a sense of strangeness. Of true foreigness. The women were all veiled, and their eyes were made up so that you had to look at them. We stayed at a hotel that had floor show of belly dancing. I remember that night and the gyrations of the dancers. Afterward they danced with the customers. I was too young and shy to try, but my brother did. Sometime during our trip he picked up Hepatitis C, and suffered for years.
My second time in Arabia was as a student, going on an Easter holiday to Tunisia. By then I had many Arab friends, and was well acquainted with their culture. One of my best friends was a painter from Tunis, and eventually I made friend with a Tunisian woman who would change the course of my life. The vacation package involved staying at sea side resort ( of sorts ) at Cap Bonne. I wasn’t the sand and sun kind of guy but I met a French couple and we soon became friends. He taught English at the Sorbonne university and she taught art in high school. He taught me how to sail, and I went riding with her ( I had learned how to ride at Brive la Gaillard a year before ). Soon I was galloping on the beach with some Tunisians, and climbing to the top of the hill to see the fortress. I remember the beach because I was tired of following the tow men and getting sand in my face so I race in front of them, to their ire.
We also had entertainment, a floor show of belly dancing. I was drunk and did my ‘fire’ dance using 2 candles. I think I pissed the dancer off for stealing the show. We also went out to visit a camel market. My French friends got tired of the mushy food they served us and we went to a local place where they served it Hot! I remember our groups of French people, especially a woman who I had the hankering for until she found out how ‘young’ I was. Too bad.
I decided go into town, the capital city of Tunis, by bus to see my Tunisian artist friend. We spent the day together, visitant Sidi Bousaid ( old Carthage ) and hanging out. He invited me to dinner in his house, a real honour. Then we looked for a hotel, I ended up at a flea bag place bitten by fleas. Ugh. The whole experience.
Later I would find out how lucky I was to have experienced this time; I made friends with Arab women, who are strange creatures. One of them worked at the Curie institute in Paris; she turned me on to medicine. Because of her my life changed. I waned to learn out more about the body and illustrating it. She had a fiancee and confessed to me her great fear of the wedding ceremony where they had to display the blood covered sheet to prove she was a virgin. Later the president of Tunisian declared all women virgins because too many men were marrying men then divorcing them for non virginity but keeping the dowery of their brides.
Over the years I have met many people from the Maghreb and Moyen Orient and Turkey. I even had girl friends but it had to kept secret because of their brothers and society. Arab women were not free back then. I remember once a women visiting in my studio and she was like a caged animal; probably thinking I would jump on her. They smell so exotic…
The next time I visited Morocco was on the turn of the century, 1999. We had booked an all inclusive stay at a resort in Agadir for a week. It was a good time to travel because everyone was afraid to fly because the compute bug that was to end the world, or crash the computers. No tourists. We checked into our hotel room and I turned on the TV and it showed some women speaking German; it soon became apparent they were going to make love to 2000 thousand men. I quickly turned it off. The Germans were scarred of the computer bug, I found some naked in the pool sauna. They were old women. A few young things on the beach but mostly no tourists to be seen. We were solicited by tour guides and whores. Very strange.
We visited a ship building business where they made boats out of wood by hand; amazing work. We got bored by the modern city that had been built to replace the one destroyed in an earth quake so we decided to go to Marrakesh by bus. See more of Morocco or Go to Marrakesh
