Last month I spent nearly three weeks traveling through Morocco, and I'm still tryingto process the experience.
Let me give you a few quick examples to illustrate how this tripchallenged my conception of what “personalgrowth” means.
Personal growth
Morocco was beyond anything I've experienced before, and I'vebeen an international traveler since my early twenties.We visited three cities and then went far out into the rural areas,spending extended periods of time with local families whose livesare so very different from my own. Our group included eight peoplein addition to a guide.
Just hours after we arrived in Morocco, two people in our groupinvited us to go to the medina. It's a narrow, walled section oftown without cars, packed with people and filled with merchantshawking essentially everything that can be made with one's hands.In ancient times, some medinas were deliberately built to be narrowand winding, so as to slow down invaders.
New experience a mystery
In the medina, with mere hours of firsthand experience inMorocco, I knew nothing. There's a whole system regarding how youindicate to a merchant that you are interested in an item, and howyou negotiate; this system was a mystery to me. I had previouslybeen given warnings to beware of pickpockets, keep my possessionssecure, and be very cautious. But how can you be cautioussurrounded by a sea of people about whose customs and practices youknow so little?
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