A Homestay Experience in the Old Medina of Fes
Guest post by Thomas L.
I came to Morocco in the summer of 2018, eager to learn Moroccan Arabic (Darija) and Moroccan culture. I had other Americans roommates, so I didn’t need to find housing right away, but I was eager to get a chance to stay with a family in a homestay. I had done months-long homestays in both Guinea and Niger in West Africa, in two French cities, as well as brief weekend homestays in Taiwan. So I felt I could take on Moroccan culture without a problem! After almost a half year in Morocco learning Darija, I felt ready to take the plunge. Wanting to stay at a place for multiple months, I was advised to try out a couple of different homes. So I decided to dip my toes in for just a week at first.
Instead, I felt like I was jumping into the cold deep end of a pool from a hot tub. There were the typical challenges: speed of communication, unstated family rules, and diet adjustments. However, I had forgotten the intensity and volume of interpersonal engagement, expectations from previous homestays, and the toll of being ‘on’ all the time can take. I was eating well and adjusting to less personal space (the compact dwellings of the old city contrasted to where I’d been living in the new city of Fes), but I needed some space. Thankfully there’s a beautiful old garden nearby and I headed off to enjoy strolling around its lush tropical flowers. Since my host dad and son were often out at their place of work nearby, I ended up spending more time at their places of work, which made more sense given that men often spend most of their time with other men in Fes.
A couple days later, I had the opportunity to visit the local traditional baths (hammam) with my host dad. It was like entering a whole other world. We stopped underneath the hammam to see where cedar chips were fed into a fire, making a fragrant furnace for the water bubbling up above. Entering the hammam felt like taking a walk back in time. The indoor tiling felt out of the Art Deco era and the feeling of warmth exuded out of the inner chambers, bidding one in from the January cold. Each room got progressively hotter until reaching the innermost chamber where the hot water flowed in, getting dumped into buckets and distributed among a group of men from child to old man. It was so hot my feet burned. I had to sit and watch as other guys handed scalding hot buckets of water to another and set off to rinse and scrub, rinse and scrub, all around. Eventually, I acclimated enough to set to the task myself. And it felt so good! Sure my body was scrubbed by a large dude with hands covered in scrubbing mitts (I heard the women scrubbers are even more intense!). A bit uncomfortable at first, yes, but the cleanliness I felt was literally beyond skin deep! Time stood still as my host dad and I bonded with guys from around the community, without body shaming, without age discrimination, getting clean and warm in a ritual passed down through the centuries. My host dad and I walked back home literally radiating warmth.
I ended up having two more homestays after that one. In the next one, I did not have the same sense of community with my family, but I got to know another neighborhood outside of the old city and its bustling little shops. In my third and final homestay, however, my language and cultural knowledge grew immensely as I hung out with my four brothers and parents, spent meals together with them, met their friends, and discussed even complex topics late into the evening. I was truly sad to leave them and head back to my old apartment. I finally felt like I had immersed myself in the heart of Fes and its rich history and culture. And I was so much better for the investment. Even with the challenging relationships, I wouldn’t have traded those three homestays for anything.
Are you interested in experiencing a Moroccan homestay? A homestay is a glimpse into real Moroccan life. The homestay includes full room and board, with home-cooked meals everyday, as well as living daily life with the local family, being immersed in culture and language.
We can help you arrange a homestay with a Moroccan family in Fes during your trip.
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After almost a half year in Morocco learning Darija, I felt ready to take the plunge. Wanting to stay at a place for multiple months, I was advised to try out a couple of different homes. So I decided to dip my toes in for just a week at first.