Day 7: Waiting for... the king

The first work week is already over. Unbelievable how fast time went by. I want to close the week with less work details but instead with 2 nice events.

But let's first cover work shortly. Today was all about wrapping up the tasks we started: Finishing the survey, scope of work and market research. In the afternoon we went through all of the results with Marwane, Ahmed and later Adnane to get feedback on the scope for the remaining 3 weeks and also on the Business Model Canvas and the survey questions. It turned out that they were quite happy that we worked on a Business Model Canvas as they haven't done one for MCISE before although they have teached this since years. We learned as well that we also have to incorporate some updates into the scope and to add some more detailed questions to our survey. So our plan of sending that out to the start-ups didn't work out, we have to finish that early next week latest.

By the way, we got introduced on the MCISE Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MoroccanCise/posts/1162824220528905. 

Good feeling of being welcomed like that.

So much about work, coming to THE big thing in Rabat today. The king was visiting the city to give his state of the kingdom speech. Initially we were not planning to go there, but when first pictures were dropping in on WhatsApp, we got curious and moved over to Avenue Mohammed V, where the king was supposed to pass on it's way to the parliament. It was great to see all the people on the streets waiting for their king. Everywhere were small groups of drummers, dancers or people in traditional clothes. What we planned to last for 30 minutes turned out to be 2 hours instead. But finally the king was showing up in a convoy of cars standing in his limousine and waving at the people while driving by. At the end, he showed up on the balcony of the parliament before he left to give his speech.

We ended the week with an amazing private dinner: Adnane invited us to his parents' house joined by Marwane, Ahmed and two friends. Earlier we learned that today was his birthday. Good, that we bought some chocolate as a host present in the afternoon. It was really nice to experience the hospitality of his family. And the food was very, very, very delicious. As it was Friday, we got couscous with chicken first, followed by beef tajine with plums and ended the meal with cakes and fruits. We ate everything, sitting on the floor, with our fingers as this is traditionally done in Morocco. Shukran, Adnane, for such a great evening.

Stay tuned what we will experience at the weekend. One hint: water, waves, boards.