The Morocco Packing List
Photo credit @Zakariae Daoui
By Erin Deborah Waks
I always know it’s time for me to move when I get the urge to make a packing list. It starts out as an idea, a feeling, but when something knocks me over the edge and thoughts start spiralling, that’s when I know. When I start to make a packing list that’s when I know it’s for real.
In 2019, I started planning my year abroad in Morocco. I had it all planned out - where I was going to stay, what I was going to do. But in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic really hit. Spot the problem? How was I, a British South African, going to get access to a country with closed borders? The short answer - I wasn't.
I settled for studying online instead. Sure, it wasn't the same, but I loved it anyway. I won't pretend it satisfied my desire to actually, well - go there.
Cut to nearly 3 years, one French and Arabic degree, one Journalism qualification and one dissertation based on Morocco later, and I'm finally getting the chance to pack my bags.
You'd think I would be used to it by now, having moved to Paris, the South of France, Durham, and back to London. Not to mention a childhood full of moving around, 11-hour flights back to Johannesburg four times a year. But I'm still as nervous as I am every time I leave my life behind. Just because I love travelling, doesn’t mean I find it easy. Doesn’t mean I can say goodbye to the people I love without a care in the world. It's just my desire to change, to move, to grow, wins - every time.
And I remind myself that to cross a border and make a connection to a new place does not mean to sever the ones I leave behind.
But what's different, this time, is me. Now I have more resilience, independence, confidence, passion, support and happiness than I did in 2019. I've been through a lot more, I've lost friends and I've struggled, but it taught me not just to live in the moment - but to really love it. So in a bizarre turn of events that will shock even my close friends, I haven't planned much of my trip at all.
I can't wait to discover Morocco without a printed itinerary and a perfected plan. But at least I know I’ll have a packing list. That’s just always going to be essential.
