Way back in 2019 we revisited Fes Morocco to catch up with old friends and reacquaint ourselves with a favorite city, which was great … right up until the police jerked open our car door and yanked our friend right out of the front seat.  All without a bit of explanation.

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Some background before we dive into that little piece of history.  On our first trip to Fes in 2017 we befriended this kid named Asseade and through him his whole family.  Incredibly wonderful folks and we couldn’t wait to return.  

So during our second trip in 2019 Asseade decided to hire a car (he was maybe 16 years old at this point) and show us around his town.  And it was wonderful seeing everything through his eyes.  

As we were stopped at a traffic light on the way home the front passenger door was suddenly flung open and Asseade was manhandled out of the car by two men and dragged back to their car which was right behind us.

What the ****?  

Nikki and I were in the back seat and were just frozen in place.  We had no idea what had just happened and after a few moments tried to ask the driver, but he only spoke Arabic.  We didn’t know what to do when just as suddenly the front door was re-opened and one of the men leaned in and said in stilted English “He is false!”.  And away they went, leaving us sitting in a taxi somewhere in Fes and wondering what the hell had just happened.

Our driver mumbled “riad?” and drove us back.  During the what-seemed-like-enernity car ride back we discussed what might have happened and what we should have done.  Should we have gotten out and confronted those men?  Was just sitting there like we did the right answer?  We had no idea, and not enough cultural knowledge to make a better decision.

Back at the riad (sorry … a riad is basically a bed and breakfast if you don’t know what the word means) we told Asseade’s relative what had happened.  She was furious and knew exactly what had happened, but didn’t really tell us because she needed to go rescue Asseade.  Batoula (her name) then stormed off to right the wrongs and we were forced to wait, still unaware of what was transpiring.

The long and short of it was that they were “police” without a capital p.  No uniforms and no rank, their job was simply to round up young men who were unlicensed tour guides and hold them until they paid their fines.  

Apparently Asseade tried to tell them that he wasn’t a “guide” and that we were his friends … but all of that fell on deaf ears.  Right up until Batoula entered their world.  I have no idea what kind of hell she unleashed on them but she and Asseade were back almost as quickly as she had left.  And crisis over we continued where we had left off … only Nikki and I still had lots of questions (and guilt).

Honestly, I still don’t know what I should have done.  Between the language and cultural barriers, we were completely out of our element during the event.  Part of me will tell you that I didn’t act because I didn’t know what to do.  But that’s only half of the story.  I was also locked in place by fear and confusion, and not acting was my way of staying personally safe until I understood.  Which is where my guilt comes from.

Looking back I can now understand more, but this is a basic fact of travel … one will eventually slam into a situation in which they are completely unprepared for.  We thought we knew Morocco.  It’s safe.  In fact, we’ve never felt safer in any other country.  But having almost zero ability to understand or speak the local language put us in an impossible situation.

I’m so happy that it ended well.  I can still remember the confusion and fear on Asseade’s face as they led him away.  I remember Nikki yelling out the back window “Stop! He’s our friend!”.  And I remember my paralysis.

I suppose the ultimate lesson learned is that you can never be 100% prepared for every eventuality.  Things are going to happen that you will not understand and that you will have no ability to comprehend or act upon.  This is normal, and it’s going to happen again in some other fashion.  But the reverse of that is also 100% true … you are going to run into wonderful situations that you will not understand or be able to immediately comprehend.  And they too will happen when you least expect it.

This is why I travel.