Everytime you go to buy and argue for the price, they love to unravel the fabric and show you how sturdy it is, show you the length blah blah. Basically every trick in the book to make you pay more. Nah nah, not gonna work on me buddy! But I'm finally starting to get the hang of it here. First, talk in French, and go really low so that you can always go higher. You can never go lower than your original bid, rule number one. Laugh and keep things light; keep talking talking talking and repeating your price, and then say "What's the best price you can give me? Best price, come on. Aller. Best price. Voilà!" I go to haggle for some shoes that I've had my eye on this whole time, and I get it alllll the way down from 200 Dh to 100Dh. I try and go lower and lower (starting 50D and working my way up) until we get to my final, last last price of 75 Dh. I won't go any higher and he won't go any lower; instead of me walking away, he tries to walk about from me! Talk about role reversal- we meet in the middle at 75 Dh. Go me!
We recuperate back at the hostel and enjoy the view from our little rooftop balcony, of course with a refreshing cup of mint tea. Down below, you can see into the other courtyards of others, orange trees from inside would peek through. Laundry hangs out to dry and the rooftops looks like little tetris blocks. We go back out there and once again get lost among the endless souks- I've never seen so many shops! But once we get past Aladdin's treasures, we wander the tannery district, where animal hides are stacked up like cards, where dyed wool and hides hang out to dry like laundry. We just go left, right, straigh? Sure. On and on and on, dodging the vendors sticking their jewels out to you, and who yell out "Come into my shop! Maybe later?" Key phrases like that; they know em all. One guy nearly corners me in the road just to get me to come one! Whew, stay calm. This place is tourist-driven so they have to act like that. We get so turned around in this labyrinth and wander and wander until we see other tourists who look as lost as us. We dodge motorbikes, bicycles, donkeys and horse cariages charging though the crowds. I walking walking through the districts where you see them actually making the stuff, such as babouches, lanterns, dresses and silver. We finally find our way back to the Jamaa El-Fna for henna. God, what a nightmare experience this was. As soon as we sit down, this pushy woman preys on me like a vulture. She has her pen to my hand with henna until I pull back to negotiate a price- but everytime I try to, she talks about the colors (red, brown or black) "No! Wait! How much?" I try to tell her I want 2 hands painted for 20Dh and she's says Ok, "C'est parti! Let's go!"..doesn't even paint the design I've picked out... at the end she looks at me and says 40 Dh- "What?" We said 20! And alas, I've awoken the dragon- I've never seen anyone so mad. She looks at me with this terrifying face and yells at me "FORTY DIRRRRHAM MAM!" Of course, I have no more money on me and look to Claire, but she's broke too. The lady next to her, who doesn't speak a word of English or French, starts hitting my leg and showing me to pay up- I realize it's not only anger on their faces but desperation; these women really have no way of making money for themselves in La Place other than henna, and they depend on tourists. I leave totally flustered and feel as if my time in Morocco is stained by this experience. Mandy got totally screwed over though because they charged her 150 Dh at the time cuz she didnt negotiate before. oops.
Back at the hostel, Jordon and Mandy show us their photos from South Africa, which are unnnreal. They did a roadtrip from Pretoria to Cape Town, allll the way across S.A. But the inequality problems continue to plague the country, along with the AIDS epidemic. The inequality problems there may even be more stark that in India- apartheid only ended 14 years, which is racism by law. It's hard to believe and even harder to comprehend. Jordon tells us that the government receives massive donations for the AIDS problem, but of course none of the people actually suffering ever see a dime. Will the world always have problems this colossal? Will there always be suffering? Esp over problems we can easily fix, like clean water, cholera, malaria and contraception.
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