During spring break I went to Morocco with a non-profit organization to do a cultural exchange program for four days. I first heard about the program from a flyer that I noticed in my study abroad program's office. After getting in touch with the founder/director and learning more about Morocco Exchange, I knew it would be an amazing opportunity for me to meet some great people and to immerse myself in a culture completely different than my own. The nature of the Morocco Exchange program caught my attention. While most programs that take students to Morocco simply arrange a few tours and hotel accomodations, Morocco Exchange sets you up with a host family and facilitates open discussions between American students and Moroccans about culture, religion, gender issues, etc. Morocco Exchange was founded upon the idea that formal education is great, but there is also something to be said for going and asking the questions yourself, and then coming to your own conclusions. Morocco Exchange is geared toward American students studying abroad in Spain. I went with a group of 16 American students from around Spain. I didn't know anybody going into the program, but two of my friends from WSU who are studying in Barcelona happened to be in my group. It was a cool surprise to see them and to get to travel together.
DAY BEFORE PROGRAM
I left my dorm in the afternoon to take the train to Algeciras, a small town on the Southern coast of Spain, in order to meet the group the next morning to take the ferry to Tangier. The countryside I saw on the train ride was beautiful, and it was exciting to set out on an adventure of my own. When I got to Algeciras I checked into my hostel and settled into my cozy one-person room. Since I was traveling alone, I wasn't looking forward to searching for dinner and eating alone. However, I ended up sitting with a guy with a mullet from Mallorca, Spain who plays flamenco guitar. Other people traveling alone kept coming into the restaurant and by the end of the meal I was sitting with three new friends. The guy from Mallorca, another American girl, and a guy from Chicago who teaches in Barcelona.
DAY ONE
I woke up early to meet the group at the port. At the port I ran into my two friends from WSU and was excited to discover that we'd be traveling together. On the ferry our guide, Allen (a former Peace Corps volunteer and long-time resident of Madrid), provided us with some basic information about Morocco, a packet of articles about some of the themes/issues we would be discussing, and an overview of our itinerary for the next four days. When we got to Tangier we went to a women's center where we met two Moroccan students and had a large group conversation about cultural diversity, education and women's rights in Morocco. Rather than skirting around difficult topics, the group was encouraged to get right to the big questions - stereotypes of Islam, the attacks of 9/11, Al-Qaeda, and the Israel/Palestine conflict. The conversation was very eye-opening, as the students explained their frustration with the negative stereotypes that surround their religion. The students emphasized that while some of those stereotypes may be characteristic of certain radical sects of Islam, they do not reflect the values and teachings of mainstream Islam. They expressed their deep sadness that Islam has been given a bad name due to the actions of these radical groups. Mainstream Muslims disdain these radical groups just the same as those of other faiths. After our discussion we ate lunch at the women's center. We ate a typical Moroccan dish called tagine. It is cooked in a conical shaped ceramic pot and has chicken, potatoes, green peas, and olives. It was one of the most delicious meals I've eaten all semester.
After lunch we left Tangier in a private van with a local driver who would accompany us for the whole trip. Most people in Morocco speak Moroccan Arabic and French. It was neat to hear Allen and the driver communicate in both languages. We drove along the Atlantic coast to Asilah, with a stop along the way to ride camels. We were just cruising along and all of a sudden Allen said, "anyone want to ride a camel?" I've never seen a van full of sleepy students jump up so fast. It was a complete surprise to us since it wasn't listed on our itinerary. Riding camels was a fun highlight of the trip. We were warned that camels can be pretty temperamental, but we didn't have any problems.
After riding camels we got back in the van and drove to Asilah to walk through the Medina (old town). The architecture was amazing - all of the white and blue made it look like a small Greek village. In Asilah we stopped for Moroccan pastries. Since our four days were packed full of activities, Allen was always buying us snacks and tea to keep us energized. He carried a snack bag everywhere we went. In the Medina we saw a community oven pit where people bring bread dough from home to bake, and come back later to pick it up. We saw a lot of kids rushing into the little house to pick up the family bread.
After exploring Asilah for a couple of hours we drove to the capital city, Rabat. When we got there we met our home stay families. My two friends from WSU and I stayed with a young couple and their 5 year old son. We had a great home stay experience. The mom was the only one who spoke English, although the son liked to run around saying "Hello. How are you? I am fine." It was pretty funny. One stereotype about Islamic families is that the woman is expected to serve her husband and do all of the domestic work. However, in my host family the father was constantly helping his wife, taking care of his son, and making sure we had everything we needed. They are one of the most loving families I've ever met.
In the discussions we had with Moroccan students and professors we learned that Morocco is a very modern Islamic country, tending to be a bit more progressive than others. For example, my host mom works as an Arabic teacher to students from Boston University. In previous generations, it most likely wouldn't have been possible for her to work outside the home. We also talked about the veil in Moroccan society. In Morocco there are women who wear the veil, and there are also women who choose not to wear it. It's a personal decision, and different people decide to wear it, or to not wear it, for different reasons. Our host mom told us that before she was married she didn't wear a veil. However, after she married she decided to wear one out of respect for her family. It was interesting to see her come home at the end of the day, take off her veil, throw on some sweat pants and hang out with us. The veil is so often stigmatized as something negative, dark, or oppressive. After witnessing the normality of the veil in my host mom's daily life and her pride in her decision to wear it, the veil no longer stood out as a symbol of our differences or something unknown to be feared. While in some societies the veil may be used as a tool to oppress women, many mainstream Muslim women choose to wear it for personal, positive symbolic meaning. My host mom wears the veil to show her commitment to her family, her faith, and her pride in who she is. In that way, the veil stood out to me as a symbol of our common humanity. Although we're all different, we all have similar hopes and dreams for ourselves and for our loved ones. That night we ate dinner with the family and our host mom took us on a walk through the neighborhood. The energy in the streets and the market smells were like nothing I've ever experienced. I have never felt so far away from my own culture. It was a powerful feeling.
DAY TWO
We woke up and had breakfast at home, then headed off in the van to have a facilitated discussion called "West and Islamic worlds - images about each other." Our group met with a female university professor. The discussion ended up focusing the most on gender issues. We talked a lot about dating in Morocco and family relationships.
Next we went to the Roman ruins of Chellah. We walked around the site for awhile and even saw a pond of black eels!
That day we also drove by a shanty town. The one we saw was one of the smaller shanty towns in Morocco, but it seemed to go on forever. It was sad to see, and it's an image that will stay with me.
After the ruins we went home for lunch. This is a picture of my host mom and her friend right outside our host family's apartment. They waved goodbye to us as we left to go meet up with some Moroccan students.
We were put into small groups of American and Moroccan students to spend time in the city together for a few hours. My two friends from WSU and I were put with three male Moroccan students. They're students at Rabat University and are part of a program called AMIDEAST, a non-profit that works to promote cooperation between Americans and people from Middle Eastern and North African countries. One of the students was wearing a University of Oregon t-shirt that he got from a friend in the U.S. He told me he would like to live in Oregon someday. It was striking to me that a college student from Morocco, who has never traveled outside of the country, has pinpointed Oregon as his dream place to live. We talked a lot about differences between the U.S. and Morocco and he loved hearing about Oregon, especially Eugene, where his friend goes to school. The students had an amazingly advanced level of English. We spoke at a speed and level equivalent to two native English speakers having a conversation. It was very impressive.
The point of spending time with Moroccan students was for us to get some individual time with young Moroccans, to ask them questions, and for them to show us what they like to do in Rabat. The guys took us to the beach, and then later to a pool hall where they like to hang out. We had tea and played a game of pool. Later we went to the market because I had asked if they could help me buy some spices for my sister-in-law. They were happy to take me there and to help me figure out what everything was. They even recommended a spice that is only found in Morocco that is very typical of their region. Before we had to say goodbye we took some pictures with the guys, but they're on one of their cameras so I'll have to add them later when they send them to me.
Talking with the Moroccan students was a lot of fun, but it was also very confusing. Many of the things we learned in our previous discussions with Moroccans (i.e. dating, sex before marriage, drinking, smoking, etc.) didn't match up with what the students told us. It was difficult to sort through all of the competing information and put together an idea of how these topics really play out in Morocco. When talking with Allen later, he told me that Morocco is full of contradictions (like all societies), and even after traveling to Morocco 40+ times, he still hasn't been able to put it all together. As Morocco becomes increasingly more modern, the role of Islam in society continues to change and become more complex.
After exploring Rabat with the Moroccan students, we met with a Peace Corps volunteer and a Fulbright scholar who are currently living and working in Morocco. We did a question and answer session about their experiences in Morocco and about the Peace Corps and Fulbright programs. This was one of the sessions I was most looking forward to on the trip. As a lot of you know, I've applied for a Fulbright grant to do research in Paraguay next year. I've made it past the first cut, but am still waiting to hear the final word. The possibility of going to Paraguay next year is very exciting, and it would also be a very big step in my academic career. The session in Morocco was the first opportunity I've had to speak with a Fulbright scholar. I asked her a lot of questions, and even got to meet with her one-on-one after the group session. It was great to be able to speak with someone who has gone through the application process and is now carrying out her research. Our conversation added a lot to my understanding of the Fulbright program, and reaffirmed my decision to go for this opportunity.
Later that night we went to a hammem (public bath). My host mom told me it's typical for Moroccans to go to the hammem once a week in order to get really clean. Not very many houses have showers. It's usually just a bucket of water and a dipping cup to wash with. (Side note: they use Turkish toilets. This means you're standing up over a small hole in the ground.) Allen asked my host mom to go with the girls from the group to teach them how to use the hammem and the proper etiquette. Men and women go to separate hammems. The men bathe with shorts on, but the women go nude. You have no choice. We learned this. Whenever we put our arms over our chests the Moroccan women swatted them down. It was pretty funny. The hammem is a series of three sauna rooms with varying levels of heat. You start in the hottest room and stay in there for awhile. A lot of us got dizzy and left that room pretty quickly. Then you go to a room a little less hot than the first. That's when you put some sort of honey on and use a scrubbing brush to exfoliate. You can pay to have one of the workers scrub you, but we were advised not to since they like to scrub realllly hard. The scrubbing brushes are really abrasive but it's worth a little bit of pain for the final result. You use a dipping cup to get water from the communal bucket to rinse yourself off. Finally you spend some time in the least hottest room. Once you get out of the hammem you feel cleaner than you have ever felt in your whole life. True story. That night the hammem was really crowded. You're supposed to sit on the floor on the room's perimeter. Since there wasn't any space, all the American girls were standing in the middle. We were told Americans almost never go to the hammem because it's a very local thing to do. We looked pretty out of place there to begin with, but especially because we had to stand in the middle of a room full of naked Moroccan women sitting on the floor. We got a lot of stares, but the women were very helpful with showing us the right way to refill buckets, scrub, etc.
DAY THREE
We said goodbye to our host families and headed off to the Rif Mountains to spend the day with a family in a small village. We had an interpreter with us for this part of the trip. It was neat to talk through an interpreter since I've never done it before. We had lunch in the house of the family and had a conversation about education, simplicity of life and economic challenges of rural areas in Morocco. Visiting the mountain village was a great experience. There were so many little kids running around. A lot of us were wearing scarves and the kids thought it was funny to put them on us like veils. We talked with the parents about their experiences growing up in rural Morocco and also about their daily life experiences raising their own family in the village. The parents talked to us about the difficulty of someone from the village making it to university and then finding work in the city. For them this was never a possibility. The mother never went to school. However, the parents have many hopes for their children. They said they'll continue to send their children to school so they may have more opportunities, and may someday go to university. The father was very insistent. He said his children must go to school.
After lunch we went on a walk to the top of a hill to see the countryside. The little girls from the village took us by the hand and led us to the top, picking flowers along the way. They were really cute. We didn't learn very much Arabic on the trip but I remembered how to say "my name is." I introduced myself to the little girl I was walking with and she got the biggest smile on her face and told me her name. I was pleased I was able to pull that off.
After leaving the village we drove to Chefchaouen and settled into our hostel. Chefchaouen is a pretty touristy town with lots of market-style shopping. We had a couple of hours to explore the town on our own and do some shopping. Since bartering is expected in Chefchaouen, Allen gave us a little lesson before we went off on our own. The starting prices were ridiculously high and it wasn't too difficult to get them cut in half. Like Allen told us, the best bartering move is to walk away. It really worked. After doing some shopping I went to a café with some friends and had an avocado milkshake. They're very common in Morocco and they're delicious...although I regretted drinking it later that night when I was sick and didn't get any sleep.
That evening we had a special celebration dinner to enjoy our last night in Morocco. The restaurant was beautiful and I enjoyed one last tagine.
After dinner we went back to the hostel and had a group meeting to share thoughts from our journey. Allen had some good questions for us to reflect on all that we had learned and experienced in the last three days. We all shared our impressions of the trip, meaningful experiences we had, and what we will carry with us after leaving Morocco. We all had very personal and unique experiences. Allen talked about the importance of furthering our interest in cross cultural learning and service. He shared some inspiring quotes and stories, and suggested some organizations and resources to help us stay involved. I can't say enough positive things about Morocco Exchange. There should be more programs like it.
DAY FOUR
We said goodbye to Chefchaouen and drove to Ceuta (a Spanish territory in Morocco). Our driver dropped us off and we waited in line to cross the border. Allen said it's not too uncommon to see small outbreaks of violence between border security and people trying to get past the border illegally. In 2005 the border was stormed and Spanish and Moroccan authorities opened fire. Fourteen migrants were killed and many others were wounded. Luckily our trip across the border was uneventful. After crossing we took taxis to the port and boarded the ferry. Allen bought us all a beer/wine/soda on the ferry (drinking is mostly prohibited in Morocco so we had a completely dry trip) and we reflected on our trip some more before saying goodbye. My train was scheduled to leave the next morning from Algeciras so I stayed another night in a hostel and returned to Granada the next day.
Here are links to two photo albums:
And finally, a link to a video about Morocco Exchange. The video was made by Arnd, the founder of Morocco Exchange. Arnd was the leader of the other group on my trip. The story behind Arnd's decision to create Morocco Exchange and his determination and success in making it happen are truly impressive.
