Taxi Ride

During our newbie orientation we were focusing on learning about the culture, how things work here, and how to get around.  Every day we had an Arabic lesson to help us understand the basics.  Moroccans speak Darija, an Arabic dialect, instead of classical Arabic.  I've found most of the taxi drivers and other people I've come in contact with speak French, but they really seem to like it when you speak Arabic.  We were also told that a lot of taxi drivers don't speak French, so I've been learning taxi lingo in Arabic.

During our new teacher orientation we had to go on a scavenger hunt. I was not excited about this at all; actually I was pretty freaked out by the whole thing. Being dropped off in a foreign place and not sure how to get home was very much outside of my comfort zone. Once we started walking around and I realized how much the downtown area looked like Turkey, I felt a lot better.  We had to take a picture with Sinbad, as seen here.  We had to go to certain stores and buy certain things, like a a cactus fruit or magazine in English.  The main purpose of this activity was to get us used to taxing taxis.


Taxis work in a very different way here. There are two types of taxis: grand taxis, which are white, and petit taxis, which are red.  To leave from school to go pretty much anywhere I have to take both types of taxis.  Today I went to the Old Medina, a shopping area, and got the full taxi experience.  I left school with a friend and walked down to the main road in front of the school.  We stuck out our hand with two fingers, saying we had two people wanting a ride. White grand taxis hold seven people, three in the front (including the driver) and four in the back.  Grand taxis are old beat up Mercedes, sad. The first taxi that passed waved his hand to say he was full, the second said he could take one and I shook my head, then he looked back and said no he could take two.  So we piled in the already full back seat which held a man, woman and a five-year old child on her lap.  Let me tell you, it was a tight squeeze!  We paid five dirhams each, which is about fifty cents, to ride to the petit taxi stand.


Then we got in a petit taxi.  Petit taxis only hold 3 people, plus the driver, by law, and they follow this strictly.  They have meters for the price, you just have to make sure they turn them on.  We drove about 8 miles and it was only a little over $2.  Taxis are incredibly cheap.  To flag down a petit taxi you stick out your hand in the direction you want to go and the number of people.

On the way home we took another petit taxi to the grand taxi stand.  The petit taxi driver was very impressive, he made his own lane in the middle of two lanes of traffic.  Hard to believe, but the driving here is crazier than Turkey!  At the grand taxi stand you tell them where you want to go, then they find a taxi going in that direction.  In the grand taxi you pay by seat, it's a flat rate. You can pay extra if you want to buy two spaces, but they don't leave the stand until they are full. Once our taxi was full, off we went!  We were dropped off on the main road and then walked up the hill back to campus.  My friend said, I think we're going to have to get over our definitions of personal space.
 
Here is the link to my pictures from the orientation week http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=250603&id=620259852&l=27d3b27dee