EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALJune
14, 1999
Meknes, Morocco
Only To Touch Our Money?
We’re deep in the Meknes medina and coming up on a souq street of delicious
tapestries and carpets. I’ve been waiting for this moment. The souqs are calm. The
medina’s handleable. Nobody’s bothering us. Perhaps we might…browse?
A man steps from a shallow enclave, one stacked with inside-out rolled woven rugs of
every possible shade. He approaches me. I’m the one with the googly eyes and watering
mouth. "Won’t you come upstairs?" He is overwhelmingly soft and charming.
"Just to look. Just to look." He never loses his smile, his warmth, his eye
contact. He’s my best friend. "Please, just to look." Rich appears from
behind a wall of hanging double-knotteds. The man’s arms are outstretched.
"Please, is this your husband? Only to look."
"Up there?" I’m wondering what could possibly be up those impossibly
narrow spiral stairs. The souq is no bigger than the average bathroom. I mount the stairs
with Rich behind me and after turning a tight circle find myself peering into a room
stacked library-style. Carpets everywhere. Nothing but carpets. I can’t help it. I
gush.
An hour later, after gentle conversation, pleasantries, jokes, discussion, offerings of
tea and then lemonade and then beer, our new friends, brothers Abderrahim and younger
Quadghini Bettani have got us narrowed down to two large carpets – one, a woven wool
Berber tapestry called a Kilihm, and the other, a hand-knotted wool Berber Jewish carpet.
Our strategy – name a price regardless of how much we think the carpets are worth
– name a price that we feel the carpets are worth to us – and stick to it. The
brothers Bettani start us at 4000 Dirhams for the two – still a steal by Canadian
standards – around $700. Rich and I stick to our price of 2400 Dirhams. Rich walks
out of the souq. Quadghini coaxes him back. They’re writing numbers on a piece of
paper. I walk out of the souq. Rich descends the stairs with both carpets at $200 each
– our initial price. Quadghini will drive us to the Meknes Post Office and mail the
carpets directly to Canada. Abderrahim swipes the Visa and we exchange business cards. The
Bettani brothers close the pleasant sale with, "We want only to touch your
money!" The words have etched themselves permanently to Rich’s Moroccan
experience.
Thirty minutes later, at the Meknes post office, Quadghini is in an argument with the
ensemble of customs officials and Postmaster. Five postal representatives stand behind a
large counter shouting undeterminable words because of an institutional echo of
Qu’ranic proportions. Finally Postmaster throws up his arms and gets silence from the
other four. "You can’t bring this bag in here with these carpets and mail it to
Canada without it sealed or anything!" Young Quadghini says, "let’s sew it
up!" Postmaster says, "The sewing guy went home 10 minutes ago! You’ll have
to come back tomorrow!"
Customs unrolls our carpets. My they’re beautiful. How much did you pay?
That’s okay.
Now we take our carpets back to the Hotel Majestic for overnight storage. The taxi
driver is thrilled to see us with the carpets. The hotel concierge welcomes us.
"Let’s see your carpet! How much did you pay? That’s good." It seems
everyone is curious about the carpet prices. We know our price is exorbitant by Moroccan
standards, but at the same time feel accomplished at the deal by Canadian standards. The
two fellows in the lobby, loitering with mint tea since this morning, pull the corner of
the carpet to see the design. "Very good, good, how much did you pay?"
