Fast forward through a 3 hour flight with some obnoxious twat waffle Dutch high schoolers, we are in Casablanca airport with our guide Nabil, who tells us that we have a two hour busride ahead of us. Yippee. Exhausted, we schlep onto the bus and I kind of sleep until we arrive at the Hotel Majestic in Rabat. Julie, Devra and I woke up an hour earlier than we should have because we forgot that we had gone back a time zone. So we were the first to the magnificent breakfast that we had been so eagerly anticipating. Chocolate croissant, fresh jus d’orange, and Moroccan mint tea with fresh mint and LOTS of sugar. This trumped the Croatian breakfast of bread and margarine a thousand times over. Nabil took us to his workplace in the Medina (the old city), the Center for Cross Cultural Learning where we had an introductory lecture by this admirable woman named Farah (Marm—she reminded me of Monique!). After a delicious lunch we had some free time before the next lecture so we ventured out of the Medina to cross the street and go to a public garden. Duh it was gorgeous and felt really Biblical, or should I say Quranic? We also had our first encounter with the hard selling people of Morocco as a couple women followed us around offering to give us henna tattoos.
The afternoon was a flashback to Croatia as we were all still very sleepy from getting in late last night and once again remaining conscious during the lectures was a struggle. But overall I found the lectures in Morocco to be more engaging than they were in Croatia. Farah gave us a lecture on Islam in daily life in Morocco that was unlike anything else I have learned about Islam, since I first learned about it in 7th grade. The Quran is considered the direct word of Allah, and has remained unchanged since each part was revealed to Mohammed in the late 7th century. The Hadith is a collection of sayings and stories from the Prophet while he was alive and it is used as a support to the Quran. Traditionally, women were not allowed to practice Islam or read the Quran, in fact most women could not read at all. Morocco still has a high illiteracy rate for women, but it has decreased significantly in the last century because women have started demanding the right to education so that they can read the Quran. While many people in the West believe that Islam is oppressive for women, the truth is that Muslim women have been empowered by reading the Quran and participating in a practice that once excluded them. Also, when women read the Quran and Hadith they can use the texts in a way that we might describe as “feminist” and work against oppressive practices that have been extrapolated from the Quran but aren’t directly mentioned.
Tourist moment!! Taking pictures from the rooftop terrace of the CCCL.
Farah’s husband and academic director of SIT Rabat gave us a lecture on Moroccan politics. Morocco is one of the last functioning monarchies where the King serves a political purpose, not just a nationalistic one. Their current King is Mohammed VI and everyone loves him, maybe because it is illegal to speak against him, or because he is bringing lots of reform or because his father was not the nicest guy. We joked around and called him Moroccobama since Mohammed VI and Obama incite similar feelings in their nations. So the King picks the Prime Minister, who in turn picks the cabinet and the legislators are democratically elected from many parties. Ultimately the King has final say on any laws and can pass a law without approval from the cabinet or legislators, but usually they all work together. Sooo different from U.S. politics. Being abroad has made me really aware of our messed up and ineffectual our two party system is. That being said, the Dutch government fell last month...but things seem to be fine still.
Back to Morocco! We had a lecture about sexuality and Islam, which was pretty much a review of my sexuality and religion class that I took last spring. He explained that sex is not forbidden by the Quran or Islamic scholars, in fact they have written a lot about it. How it's so great for both partners, and which acts are not allowed. Of course this lecture was super hetero and focused on marriage, which is what the Quran does. And honestly I spaced out during most of it and had some profound personal realizations that I will share later. After the morning lectures, we paired up and went to have lunch in a Moroccan homestay. Ari and I had lunch with Fatima, and her mother and daughter, who was the only one who knew any English. So lots of hand gestures, nodding and smiling took place. It was a delicious meal of chicken, french fries, almonds, bread, eggplant and prunes (which I mistook for dates and sorely regretted later). Everyone eats from a big dish in the middle and I learned that it very important to respect your "zone" but apparently that rule can be violated because my lunch sister ripped off pieces of chicken for me since I was struggling. The student staying with that family came home at the end of our lunch and we chatted about our programs and how different they were. She walked me and Ari back to the CCCL where we learned about different types of veils and traditional Moroccan dress. Then it was SIT fashion show! Almost everyone got the chance to try on an outfit. I am wearing an outfit for males from southern Morocco ie Western Sahara. Check out these hotties!
The discussion with Moroccan students went better than I thought it would. Although it was still kind of awkward, we didn't have to segregate. Two Moroccan guys were in our group and one of them talked for most of it but didn't really say anything. He really wanted to discuss how to achieve world peace but no one had any ideas on that subject so instead we talked about Obama and dating. Then he asked me if I had a boyfriend. (Pause for laughter) I smirked and said no, but I wanted to say "Actually, I am the boyfriend" but that would have been too much to explain. On our free day we went through the market in search of cheap presents. My god was it stressful. You would glance over at something and the owner of the booth would start talking to you and not take no for an answer. On top of this, there were tons of people and so much stuff to see. It was a sensory overload. But I scored some cool things for real cheap!
Early in the morning we left for Fes, with plans to stop in our guide's village Tiddez for lunch at his home. We all wanted to sleep on the 3 hour bus ride but Nabil talked at us about the Royal Institute for Amazighi (Am-uh-zir-i) culture that Mohammed VI created. The Amazighi, aka Berbers, are the original inhabitants of Morocco who had been living there long before the Arabs arrived. Now the country is about 50/50 but there has been so much mixing between the cultures, that distinction is arbitrary. Nabil is Amazighi and he said that the only way to distinguish nowadays is whether or not you speak the language of your tribe and one thing that the Royal Institute has done is to establish a standard dialect. This is of course problematic because it privileges one dialect over the other two and thus erases some of the cultural differences in favor of creating a singular Amazighi culture. The linguistics nerd in me was really fascinated by all this, but everyone else on the bus was passed out. We got to Nabil's village and visited an NGO that is trying to eradicate the shantytown there but they face a lot of opposition from the local government whose best interest it is to keep people impoverished. Then we visited the shantytown, which made me really uncomfortable because we were a bunch of rich Americans just there to gawk at the poverty and then leave. I was hyper aware of my privileges and positionality in that moment, something I had never felt so intensely. We ate a huge couscous lunch at Nabil's house and got kisses from his grandma and a handshake from his grandfather.
Then it was onwards to Fes and guess what?! Morocco is surprisingly lush! Probably because it rained the whole week.
There is not much to report on regarding my time in Fes. We stayed in a really nice hotel, where I spent most of my time. There was this conference about marginalized women that we were attending, but most of it was not in English and their translators were really bad. I wish I could somehow demonstrate how bad it was, just ask me to do an imitation next time we talk. We did another NGO visit, this time everyone from the conference went to an NGO that helps women in "difficult situations" namely single mothers or victims of domestic violence. This NGO was HUGE and way more funded than the one in the village. They trained women in skills, like computers, cooking, sewing and hairdressing. Again, I felt really uncomfortable in this situation with everyone running around snapping pictures of these women who were still trying to learn as the place buzzed with a hundred people. I don't remember much else from Fes except for some frustrating restaurant experiences due to the language barrier and laying in my bed with cramps watching celebrity drug addicts on Larry King. I also took these pictures on the cleanest street in Fes with these lion statues from Burkina Faso. Also, I fail at jumping.
