Points for Morocco today

Somewhere between walking out of the Nedi Neswi this afternoon (women's center) and walking to go buy some lemons, I dropped my purse- which is just a small blue clutch. I didn't realize it until I was buying the lemons. Most of what was in there was not too important-- my carte se jour (residency card), which would be a pain to replace, but still possible. 100 Dirhams- which is a solid amount, but nothing worth losing my mind over. But I was very worried because my house keys were in there.


So I went frantically back to the Nedi Neswi, back to the lemon vendor, walked the streets... It turns out I'd dropped it on the sidewalk outside the Nedi Neswi. Some kids had picked it up and given it to some adults who were working construction by the Nedi Neswi.

When the construction workers saw me on the street, my eyes scanning the pavement, They approached me and pulled out my purse. They emptied all the contents and said "we found it- it's all still here, we didn't take anything!"

I was immediately so relieved. I showered them with a million "Thank You"s and "God Bless Your Parents" plus some other common phrases and I gave the kids a little reward.

As I was walking away, the main guy who'd been explaining that nothing had been taken just kept saying "You see, we didn't take anything- we are good people. We fear God. We are true Muslims- NOT terrorists. A true Muslim wouldn't take anything- we are not terrorists." And I acknowledged that I knew that, and I love Moroccans, etc. etc. he continued that if he hadn't seen me on the street, he would have taken it to the police and turned it in.


What is worthy of note is that everywhere I go in Morocco, people feel the need to explain/prove/swear by the fact that true Muslims are NOT terrorists. It's like they have collective guilt for the things that terrorists do. I hope that one day there will be no more violent Islamic extremism and Muslims will not feel they need constantly defend their religion- which, in my experience has been nothing but peaceful.