All the same

Are small towns all over the world the same? Here are some similarities I have noticed between Ifrane and small towns in the U.S. with which I am familiar. (Powellites, this is for you!)

-When you fly into the airport (which is in a nearby [or not so nearby] big city), it's probable that you will either be on the plane with someone you know, or you will run across someone you know somewhere along the way. (In the U.S., whichever one of you has a car will offer a ride to the other; in Morocco, you will share a taxi home.)*

-You cannot go out anywhere in your town without seeing at least a few people you know. If you are a teacher, you will see your students, and sometimes they will explain to you why they missed class on Friday; they will ask about the assignment due on Monday; etc.

-When you go to the nearby “big city” to shop (at Wal-Mart, Target, or Marjane), you will, in all likelihood, see some of your coworkers there doing the same thing.

-People you have never met know who you are.

-You don't need the Yellow Pages because any time you need goods or services, you just ask everybody you know who they would recommend.

-When you go to your town's coffee shop, you don't actually have to place an order because they already know what you usually get.

-You evaluate the restaurants in your small town with the highest rating being "[name of small town] good." For example, if someone asks you, "Does this restaurant have good food?" you will respond, "It's Ifrane good."

-You will drive for three or four hours just to get to a place where you can go shopping, eat at a truly good restaurant, go to the dentist, go to the doctor, have a surgical procedure done, etc.

-Any time you try to walk someplace, people driving by will constantly stop to ask if you need a ride.

*Last August, when T and I were flying to Morocco for the first time, on the plane from New York we sat across the aisle from a nice couple and their baby. They asked where we were going, and we told them that T had a job at Al Akhawayn University. The woman said something like, "Oh, my husband's father teaches there." We probably responded with something like, "Oh, that's nice." Fast forward several months. I am in Rabat with my friend LW. She is stopping by the house of her friend Steve to visit his son and son's wife because they are also her friends. Son's Wife opens the door and looks strangely familiar to me. She is much quicker than I am and realizes that she and her husband and baby sat across from us on the plane several months earlier. She even has a picture she took of her baby on the plane in which you can see T and me in the background. This was a weird reminder that the world isn't nearly as big as we sometimes think it is.