Morocco Day 1

Last Friday I went to Morocco with the Teaching Development group.  Woke up at 515am and met up with the group at 6.  We took a two and half hour bus ride to a port where we got the ferry.  The ferry took about an hour, then we had another hour and a half bus ride.  When we first got to Africa, it was beautiful.  We were on the water and there were mountains in the distance and colorful buildings.  It was a warm day in the high 60s.  The first thing we did when we got to Morocco was visit an elementary school.  We up a hill where we had a really pretty view of the city.  There was a crazy looking cemetery that I got some pictures of.  We entered this doorway that led to an area of really small streets.  There were dirty looking people sitting outside of a store staring at us, some animal fur hanging to dry, a blanket with a bunch of bread laying on it - and flies all over it.  Not a great first impression but we walked up some windy stairs of stone, up a hill, and got to the school.  We entered the door and it was a big open lobby, but it was a playground area.  A big patio with basketball hoops.  Some kids were there and they were very friendly.

the cemetery

The little streets

The elementary school

 We went upstairs to an office and met someone important, maybe the principal.  They talked a little about how the school is run, and we had some delicious pastries and tea.  He told us how tea is very, very popular in Morocco.  It was amazing.  It was green tea with spearmint and sugar.  They serve it everywhere after meals and stuff.  We went out to the hallway, where you could see down onto the patio, and we watched the students line up and salute the flag.  They sang some song in Arabic as the flag was lowered.  So from there they split us into two groups - half observed an Arabic class and half a French class.  I picked French.

The tea and pastries in the principal's office

saluting the flag

French class

The classroom was little and brightly colored.  The desks were tables made of wood with benches.  We sat with the kids and watched them learn French.  Some of the students went up to the board one by one, and with a ruler pointed to and read some words and phrases in French.  The teacher corrected their mistakes and helped them with their pronunciation.  Everything was pretty fast-paced and the teacher was very enthusiastic and a little scary.  The kids were so cute they kept looking at us and smiling.  When the teacher wanted someone to go to the board they'd all jump out of their seats and way their fingers in the air.  They read a passage from their book a few times and went over some vocabulary words.  On our way out we went into an infantil class full of four-ish year olds.  They were adorable.  One little boy was sitting in the corner being punished.  Then we left.  Walking through the little streets it was obvious we weren't in Spain anymore.  The people just kind of stared at us, as we were clearly foreigners.  It was pretty dirty.  There were stray cats everywhere.  We got to the place where we were eating lunch.  It was really cool.  Everything in Morocco just seemed dirty though.  There was an ant on my plate when we sat down.  We got served bread and soup first.  The bread was okay.  Nothing special.  The soup was, I think, a bunch of spices and vegetables blended.  Then they put a big plate of chicken, couscous, carrots, cabbage, turnip, and potatoes in the middle of our table.  Apparently it's normal for everyone to just eat off the big plate, so that's what we did.  It was really good.  Tasted like a corn beef dinner except with chicken.  They served oranges with cinnamon, sugar and a little salt which tasted really good.  While we were eating some guy came out with a tray on his head filled with a bunch of little candles.  He spun it and danced around.  Then he laid on the ground with it still on his head, and did some weird thing where he put his hand on the ground, and leaving it in place, he spun his body under it kind of?  I don't know it was strange.

The American and Moroccan students at the University

From there we walked through the little streets some more.  There were a lot of vendors and markets.  It was weird because when you were in the streets you almost feel like you're in a building because the walls are white, tall, close together, so it feels like a hallway.  But the top is open.  Anyways there'd be guys selling souvenirs or jewelry or something and they'd follow you all the way down and try to get you to buy them.  Pretty annoying.  I've never been anywhere as bad as far as the vendors.  If you stop just to look at something, they're showing you a million things, and no matter how many times you say no they won't leave you alone.  It's also great though because it's very easy to bargain with them, they'll rarely say no and you can get things for really cheap.  We then caught our bus and headed off to the university.  Not your typical college.  First off because it was Friday, and they don't have class on Fridays, it was dead.  But it was also clearly old and non-American.  There were palm trees and orange trees like in Sevilla - so pretty.  The buildings were made out of brick and painted white.  We got to an English class and sat near the back to observe.  There were about 30 students.  The teacher explained who we were and why we were there.  She's from California and is there teaching.  She printed out Obama's speech about how he wants to fix the relationship between American and Muslims.  A few of the students read parts of it, and then we split into groups to analyze it.  Yes, we, including the American students.  She had us count off by number so that there'd be a mix of Moroccans and Americans.  We introduced ourselves in our groups and we had to find the seven points that Obama wanted to address.  All of the students spoke English very well, and some of them have only taken formal classes for a few years.  It's crazy how many languages some of them know.  Most know French, Spanish, English, and Arabic.  A few I talked to knew more or less, but that's crazy.  We then had to decide which issue of Obama's speech was most important.  We asked the Moroccan's what they thought.  They chose religious freedom, democracy, and women's rights.  One of the girls and one of the boys were very opinionated.  She was saying how Morocco is making steps towards democracy but the boy disagreed and said that the politicians are just good liars and that things are just getting worse.  They talked about how outside of the elections people buy votes.  They girls also said they wished they had more rights.  They can do a lot of things, like voting and driving, but they're still not equal to men, especially when it comes to working.  They also picked religious freedom because they hate how they are viewed when they go to other countries.  We also discussed religious issues between other countries and how they're unnecessary.  It was really cool being in class with Moroccans and discussed world issues.  They have the same opinions as us.  It's just crazy to think how some people in America hate Muslims and are so judgmental because they Moroccan students aren't very different from us.  After class everyone kept talking and we all exchanged Facebook information.  As we were getting on the bus, the students came with us.  We were a little confused but apparently our teacher's had invited them to hang out with us for a little while.  We went and walked along the beach.  It was beautiful.  Went and put my feet in the Mediterranean.. so nice.  We all sort of split off.  I was with Nicole, Sarah, and maybe eight Moroccans.  I was talking to one kid for a while about different places that we've traveled and I was asking which countries were his favorite. His favorite was Germany and he told me it was because they were nice there.  He was telling me in England he went somewhere and someone who worked there asked where he was from, and then they told him to get the fuck out.  I was surprised, and he said that happens a lot and it's hard for them in some places.  That's sad. I talked to one of the girls for a while and asked her about her hijab.  I was curious why some girls wore them and some didn't.  She said that it's just a personal choice whether or not they want to wear it.  I also discussed music with a few of them.  They listen to Arabic music but also some American music - mostly rap and hip hop.  They love Eminem, Tupac, Dr. Dre, Rihanna, etc.  I learned so much hanging out with the Moroccans and observing their classes.  It was funny they all would come up to us and ask for a picture or our emails.  They were really nice.  Two different kids told me I looked like some actress.  One thought I was a Spanish actress from some movie he'd seen.  Sweet, if I can perfect my accent maybe I can pass as Spanish.  After we left, went to our hotel, and ate dinner.  We had vegetables, an omlette, potatoes, and rice.  Kimby, Sarah, Nicole, Kirsten, Michelle, Kaitlin, and I hung out in Kimby and Sarah's room and played a game called loaded questions.  Everyone writes down some questions and folds them up.  Then someone picks a question, and everyone has to write down an answer.  Then you give your answer to the person next to the one who picked the question.  The person reads the answers, and the person who picked the question has to guess who said what.  It was actually a lot of fun and a good way to learn about your friends.  My answers were apparently predicable because they were able to pick mine out almost every time.