Living and Working in Morocco

Somebody emailed me asking about Morocco. Let me list down some reminders and  concerns for you if ever you will accept the job offer they are giving you:

• What kind of job are they offering you? Is it an institution who has contacted you or a private individual working for one of the very few rich families in Morocco?
• What are they offering you? Just remember if they really want your services and that they have no one but you in mind, you can ask for the sky and they will try to give you at least one of the stars. That's a good deal!
• Morocco is a friendly place for friendly guests. 
• Try to visit Ifrane, Marrakesh, Volubilis, Rabat, Casablanca and other ancient cities of Morocco.If possible, visit all the Mosques and other burial grounds of their Kings.
• If you are a Filipino, email me in private and I will give you email addresses of the Filipinos living there.
• If you are like me who wants to travel and see places where I am in, you have to learn basic Moroccan Arabic. If you learn this, taxi's and use if the train will be your second and third name.
• Befriend locals and they will be your guide. 
• A point and shoot camera is better than nothing. But if you can bring your own DSLR the better.
• If you like snow, better be in Ifrane around March and April.
• Rabat, the country's political capital, but it looks like the Makati Business Center without the malls and the high rise buildings. It's clean, nice city roads and has a beautiful traffic system: NO TRAFFIC. Before I left Morocco, they were putting up tramps there.
•  Casablanca is the country's economic capital. It looks like the Escolta side of the City of Manila. The same old buildings can be found there and the traffic going in the city from the Autoban is terrifically congested.
• Their money is called Moroccan Dirhams. If you will not be given the working visa, you will have a hard time sending money (US dollars) overseas.

I lived in Ifrane and Meknes when I was in Morocco and I had the chance to see beautiful and ancient places there. It is still a backward country with 80 percent of the people not having access to education. Watch out for Islamic traditions, they observe and practice them.

Respect the people there and they will admire you for having an open mind about their culture.

That's all for now and do send me an update about your plans.

Good luck!