Getting Started

Just want to start out by saying that this is the very first time that
I have ever "posted". It might take me a little while to get used to this.

The main reason that I have started this blog is so you can see the progress of Savor Morocco from the beginning. It is an exciting, yet very scary and frustrating thing to start a business in a foreign country. The language & cultural barriers are daily obstacles that must be overcome, and perseverance is one of the only things that will allow anyone in this situation to become successful.

In the days to come, I will document the creation of Savor Morocco, a cooking school for tourists that venture over to Morocco. For example, just yesterday we committed to purchasing a "dar kbira" (or large house) in the middle of the city. Instead of my white, foreign face looking at this place and wanting a deal, a "national" friend of mine found the house, did all the initial bargaining, and once he got down to the final "non-foreigner" price, I had a chance to see it. After 6 months of looking at houses (at least 30 different properties), my "national" friend found this place in about 24 hours. We committed to buy this 3-story, 2000-plus square foot house for a little over $40,000. Pretty good deal if you were to ask me.

Now we just have to wait for a few days until we get to close on this place. And unfortunately it is not a peaceful few days of waiting. In this country, people's "word" isn't "as strong as oak". We put down a 5% deposit and got a small contract written up and legalized. But that still doesn't mean that the owner won't sell it to someone else this weekend if they offer a better price. So we just wait and see if our 11am Monday morning meeting with a "notaire" will still happen. Gotta love it!