"The Sounds of Morocco" by Tal Slon
Air France welcoming us to Rabat as our flight touched down this summer. Flights into and out of Morocco typically have announcements in French and Arabic (fosha).
What I hear at 10:45 pm on a hot summer evening. Cars zip past and young men gather to chat in Agdal while neighbors are gathering for dinner or heading for bed.
The voice of an incredible live musician at a bar in Tangier on my roommate and I’s first solo trip to Tangier.
Verses from the Quran being recited at a host family member’s funeral. The entire street was blocked off by a tent serving dinner to celebrate the deceased as Quran was read over a microphone.
The dinosaur-like tones of a camel in the Sahara outside Merzouga. Our whole cohort took a student-led trip to the desert for our one month anniversary of living in Morocco.
We live two blocks from a large mosque. “Allahuakbar” punctuates time in the Maghreb reminding us when we’re close to dinner or when we should arise.
Every October the king (King Mohamed VI) comes to downtown Rabat to open the new session of parliament. Moroccans gather to catch a glimpse of the monarch and a sense of celebration and national pride permeates the streets.
The central square of Marakkech, Jemaa el-Fnaa, bustles with snake charmers, henna painters, monkey tamers, storytellers, and Gnawa troupes.
The dulcet tones of a mouazen calling out from a 14th century mosque in Fez as our cohort gathered for lunch on our last program excursion.
Tal Slon is a student from the University of Southern California studying abroad on the Amideast Morocco Area and Arabic Language Studies program during the Fall 2023 semester.
