TRAVEL | MOROCCO | GLOBETROTTERS MONTHLY CHALLENGE

We Snuck Through the Garden to Visit an Old Mosque During Lockdown

It felt good to get outside and stretch our legs

It was April of 2020. We had been locked down in our hostel in Morocco for almost a month and had only left the building a couple of times.

“Let me take you somewhere.” Our host said one day.

We still weren’t sure about our status and whether or not we were allowed to go outside. One other time we went out, we were ridiculed by some local carpenters in an alley asking us if we had our papers.

At the beginning of the lockdown, one person from each house was to go to the municipal offices to state that they were the head of the household. They would then get a piece of paper that they would have to present to shopkeepers and vendors when they purchased something. We were also told that the police, on occasion, would ask for this paper even if a person was simply walking on the streets.

This limited the number of people leaving their homes, hopefully containing the virus. Of course, our host was the one to do this, and he used the paper in the beginning, but things soon loosened up and he said that he didn’t need it anymore.

Although, by now, he also insisted that it was fine for us to go out, we still didn’t want to risk getting in trouble with the authorities. My imagination was in a bit of a tailspin at the beginning of the pandemic, and I had visions of the police rounding up all the foreigners and carting us off to some kind of holding facility. Chris wasn’t as worried as I was about these strange things, but he agreed that it was best we stayed hidden.

Out of sight, out of mind.

We had originally gone to this hostel to paint a mural for the owner. When the lockdown happened, we just kept on painting. We covered almost all of the walls in murals over the two and a half months that we were locked down there. Our art was our therapy and gave us something to focus on during this crazy time.

To view an entire tour of the different projects we did, check out this video on our YouTube channel:

The hostel was in the old Medina of Tinghrir. The buildings were built of clay and straw in the traditional fashion and looked out over a sprawling community garden that stretched behind us for kilometers. Often we would spend time up on the rooftop terrace looking down into the garden — watching the farmers go about their gardening business. Though we knew the police weren’t patrolling down there, we were still wary about going out. But on this day, our host insisted.

“Come on, I will show you something cool. We will go through the garden.” He prodded.

We finally relented and agreed to go out with him. Feeling nervous but happy to be out, we made our way across the valley floor from one side to the other.

Along the way, we passed a few locals who were tending to their garden beds. Our host told us that most of these plots had been passed down through generations of families. The ground looked rich and fertile and we relished in seeing all of the plant life and delicious food growing.

If nothing else, in these uncertain days, it gave us comfort to know that an abundance of food was growing just outside our doorstep.

Plus, we are both plant lovers and gardeners and if we were to have to declare a place where we feel the most spiritual, it would be in a place like this.

It was a stunning day. Warm but not hot, breezy but not windy. It felt great to get out and stretch our legs. We tried not to worry about whether we should be out or not and made efforts to simply enjoy the moment.

After about an hour of walking, slowed down significantly by my need to take an excessive amount of photographs, we started to see some buildings pop up. I could see that these structures were not to the same finished standard as the ones where we had come from.

And then we came to a building that seemed grander than the rest. Although it was attached to the surrounding mud and straw construction, one could tell that it had a bit more luster. But not too much. It was still quite camouflaged and fit snuggly into its surroundings.

Our host explained to us that this is a very old Mosque, (though we never did find out exactly how old,) that was trying to raise money to rebuild itself. I suddenly felt quite foolish for not thinking to bring money with us. Of course, we weren’t told what the ‘cool thing’ was that we were going to see, either.

A man greeted us cordially when we entered. I think our host must have called in advance to let them know that we were coming. I can’t imagine many foreigners had been through the doors in the past month at that point.

The man commenced showing us around and led us up some adorable dirt stairs that opened up into a grand hall. Beautiful tall pillars stretched to the high ceilings, perfect arches were capped with what looked to be very old wooden rafters. Areas where work was being done were roped off.

Our tour guide was very limited in his English so we sadly didn’t learn a lot about this mosque. Our host wasn’t the greatest communicator either, and he also offered us little insight. Mostly we were just given some papers to read through and then were asked to sign the guest book.

We did learn, though, that the ceiling had cracked and they were very worried about it falling in. We didn’t stay long under that section.

Despite not learning many details about the place, we couldn’t deny the feeling of peace and safety that we both felt while inside this mosque's walls.

After we toured around the inside, we headed up more dirt steps that carried us to the roof (to get an idea of what the steps looked like, I took this short video while heading down). From there we could see across the valley and back to where we had come from.

Before leaving, I asked our host if he had any money so that we could leave them something to help in the restoration process. He obliged and we promised to pay him back later.

The comfort of the call to prayer during this time

Overall, we spent nine months staying in various parts of Morocco during this crazy world event that transpired. Being mostly Muslim, the call to prayer rings out 5 times per day across the land in every corner of the country. Our very first morning in Chefchaouen was both of our first time hearing this hauntingly beautiful call (click here for another short video of this experience). We were transfixed with it from the get-go.

While staying in Tinghrir, we were almost right next door to a mosque and would hear the melodious call morning, day and night blaring through the hostel windows.

Though neither of us are religious in any sense of the word, we both sought comfort in the call to prayer. During such an intense time in our collective history, I couldn’t help but feel at ease in knowing that a large portion of our surrounding population was praying to Allah for peace and good things to come. Surely, at least, nothing bad could come of it.

I look back on this day now with fondness. It was a day that started out with a lot of worry and trepidation but ended on a peaceful note when we returned to the hostel well inside the curfew and with no drama. Of course, it was wonderful to stretch our legs and get some exercise as well.

All in all, we fell in love with Morocco and the Moroccan people during our time spent in the country. Initially, I worried about what it meant to be stuck there, and of course, we didn’t know how long it would be for. But we sought comfort in the strong ties of the Muslim religion and over time realized that we were in very good hands.

Though nine months was a good stint, and we saw and experienced a lot, there are still places that we didn’t see, and we do hope to return someday to get another taste of this spectacular country.

This is a prompt response to Globetrotter's December prompt Spiritual Sites. To learn more about it, please visit Anne Bonfert’s introduction article:

Other great stories from Globetrotters about Morocco:

Amir Jabarivasal tells us more about life in Morocco.

Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle shares some stunning images from his trip.

If you like my writing and want to read more, follow me and sign up here to get my articles by email. We would also be happy if you considered leaving me a tip by using the link to Patreon or Ko-Fi below:)

We have been nomadic since 2017! Join our journey by hitting these links:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn| Patreon| YouTube | Medium | Twitter | Ko-Fi | Unsplash