Memories of Morocco - Evening in N'Kob

For the past few nights in Dadés Gorges we had the pleasure of being hosted and entertained by wonderful gentlemen who it made it obvious they appreciated our business. And this night was no exception. This time our hosts were Berber not Arabic. Besides these two languages, French was the most common language spoken, especially in the cities. As such my friend Anne's bilingualism came in handy. While communication often broke down, it was a great advantage having Anne there to translate for us.

The Berber men wore traditional dress: long flowing blue robes with red neck and headscarves and slippers. So far hotel staff have all been young and male. We had three servers on this evening but one in particular stood out. His name was Adid and he was very cute. After dinner, he performed several quite impressive magic tricks for us.

Adid performing magic trick

For his final trick, he poured water on a plate and asked us each for a strand of hair. We all obliged and he was careful to ensure we all got a strand of hair onto the plate. Then he told us to lean in close to the plate. And bang! He slapped the plate of water soaking our faces. Those who were closest obviously took the most dousing. We all laughed at our gullibility.

Before turning in for the night, Adid and I shared a secret handshake/fist bump. Maybe it was this that prompted my friend Anne to challenge Adid to an arm wrestling contest. Not herself but me! So we sat down and I rolled up my sleeve and with help from Evelyn (not sure why she knew this but she did – she told us to hold hands under the working arm) we got ourselves into position. I beat him and so his friend wanted to have a go. To be fair, this time I used my left hand. I beat him also. Both men were laughing and enjoying the moment.

Arm wrestling

Again thanks to Anne, next came the pushups contest.  Off came the headscarves. We positioned our selves head to head. First Adid, then his friend, then his other friend (he had a stalkier build than the first two) jumped in. I counted 1, 2, 3,... 20 (one man down), 21 (another goes down) by 24 the last man collapsed. We had a good laugh, including the spectators. I have to admit, that was fun! I said to Anne in our room afterwards, these guys are amazingly good sports. We are in a Muslim, male-dominated culture so to say this was unexpected is an understatement. I will always have special memories of this evening in N’Kob.

Pushups contest

Before sending us off to bed, Adid took us up to the terrace of the hotel to gaze at the stars. The wind was still blowing and so we didn’t stay for long but the stars were absolutely brilliant. What an end to an amazing day!