Moroccan Blackout

Every once in awhile I’ll forget that I’m in Morocco but then something will happen and I’ll snap back to reality. Last evening was one of those times. Lea and I were sitting in an internet café checking our email when all of a sudden the power went out. Instead of everyone freaking out and frantically trying to figure out what happened, people just kind of sat there for a bit. The guy next to me muttered “al-maghrib…” (Morocco…) and the owner of the internet café started playing music on his cell phone. I looked outside to see whether we were the only ones without power or not, but as it turns out, all of Al Hoceima was without power. Besides the dark skyline, you wouldn’t have known there was anything amiss. In the US, you would most likely hear something similar to this:
“Do you have power? I’m out of power. Our electricity is GONE.”
“Yeah, I don’t have power either! What do you think we should do?”
“I say we call the power company. Yeah! Let’s call the power company, right now.”
“I’ll call them too. Do you know if the other side of town has power? I wonder if they have power. I think I’ll call Joe to see if he has power. I bet he has power.”
…And so on. There sure is something to be said about that American tendency to want to discover the root of the problem. My response was typical.
We walked back to our hotel and stared down from our balcony at the rest of Al Hoceima going about their business as usual. The taxis were running. The men were headed to the hammam. People were selling hash. Life was normal.
Finally after about an hour and a half of no electricity, the lights came back on. There was no unanimous cheer or clapping to be heard, like I had been expecting. I saw an old man look up in mild interest, say “humph”, and shrug his shoulders when he saw a few street lights turn on. At the barber shop across the street, the barber went back to shaving the man who was still sitting in the chair waiting patiently.
Newsflash: you’re in Morocco, Jeannie.