Two Souks in Two Days

Last Sunday’s big adventure was for me to drive to the “Sunday souk” in a town called Ait Rouadi, about eight miles away.  Initially Jim and S had planned to wander through and maybe see some familiar faces from the last time we were here with our team, because that’s the best place for men to greet their friends.  The plan was modified late the night before when two of S’s male relatives said they’d love to come along with me driving, so for the second day in a row this lady got to drive the truck to a souk.

Five people could not fit inside the cab, naturally, so three of the men rode in the back while I drove us the eight miles straight up the highway and parked, thankfully, on the side of the road in a great spot. Here, cars and trucks parked on the right, mules and donkeys on the left.  Perfect.

Unlike Saturday’s souk, this one was much larger and set off in a special area where cars didn’t go.  As we entered beneath the concrete arch, my first inclination was to whip out my camera — but then my second inclination was to maintain course and speed and call as little attention to myself as possible.  Also unlike yesterday’s souk, there were women here!  Not many, but enough to make me feel a bit less conspicuous.  (According to my lady friends, however, only women “from the other side of the highway” go to souks.  Not them.) 

Would you like to know what you can purchase at a souk?  Sure, you would.

First, though, if you’ve not been here before, your idea of a souk may come from Hollywood – rich purple and red fabrics draping awnings, gold tassels waving in the breeze, a background of exotic flute music, calls of shopkeepers across narrow streets.  Modify that picture with a few layers of dust. Subtract the rich fabrics.  Subtract the music. Add three times the number of shoppers.  Make them men.  This, plus several mules and the smell of fish, will be more realistic.

Besides the obvious “farmers market” wares, which were beautiful and fresh – tomatoes, eggplant, watermelons, potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic – you can buy fish.  In fact, you can buy lots and lots of fish that look like sardines and taste delicious right off the BBQ or out of the frying pan.  You could also buy squid, or bigger fish.  These also are all fresh.

If you need a new stainless-steel teapot, you can get one of those.  Also, a platter to serve your couscous on, plastic cups, batteries, a new mattress, gym shorts for your son, Bic lighters, bags of peanuts or charcoal, or a new donkey basket.  If you buy more than you can carry back to your car, taxi or mule, you can pay a young man a couple of dirhams to cart your stuff in his squeaky wheelbarrow.

Oh, and let’s say you’re celebrating your daughter’s engagement or the birth of your new baby, and you need a sheep to feed 200 guests. You can buy one at the souk!  If you’ve come in a taxi, no worries:  the driver will heft your live purchase into the trunk, shut him in and then drive you both home in time for the BBQ. 

Besides buying stuff, souks are the place to see your friends, particularly if you’re a man. Remember – ladies from our side of the highway don’t go to souks.  Unlike the men who meet in Gig Harbor Starbucks, men here greet each other with exuberant hugs, back slaps, and cheek kisses.  “Abdul!  I haven’t laid eyes on you for a week!  How are the watermelon sales?  What’s your take on the troubles in Hoceima?”  After shopping, you and your man friends can gather at a coffee shop and drink mint tea and chat some more.

We, the four men and I, found a coffee shop after our trek through the souk. (Jim and I hadn’t purchased anything, but our friends bought mint and checked on the price of tomatoes.) Another joined us, and because the coffee shop wasn’t serving coffee this day, we drank mint tea. 

And then, I drove us back to our house and our dog.