School Stuff

Hi everyone, I have just handed in my final journal entry for school, and thought I might post it up here for those of you wondering what i'm meant to be doing here, aside from eating lots of yummy food etc. It's pretty long, so feel free to skip right over it :-)


"Well, this was my final week of volunteer work in Morocco. I am very sad to be leaving so soon, and it was hard saying goodbye to so many people that in all likelihood I will never see again. Before I address how my goals and expectations have been met, I have to say what a great experience this has been, and that I would certainly recommend it to anybody who is looking to broaden their cultural understanding of other countries.

I chose to work for Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS) as I wanted to gain a better understanding of how NGOs operate in developing countries. Obviously there are thousands of NGOs working in developing countries across the world, but I was particularly interested in those that primarily focused on sending volunteers from wealthier countries into poorer countries with the aim of providing assistance, most often in areas such as education and child care. I have always been curious to know how much could be achieved by sending volunteers who are for the most part unqualified into a country where they know little of the history, customs, or even language. After six weeks of working with CCS I have mixed opinions on what can be achieved through a program of this sort.

My initial impression was that volunteers really needed more training, particularly if they were going to be responsible for teaching children or adults English. I still feel that training would of course be a bonus, but if this were a prerequisite for volunteering how would this affect the number of volunteers that CCS was able to attract? I know that this experience would not have been possible for me had I been required to first take the TEFL course for example. The way it stands now, there is a steady stream of volunteers who are able to fill a variety of positions, and offer a number of free services, which simply would not exist if CCS or other NGOs didn’t operate in Morocco. I have been told many times by people who have come to my English classes or my conversational groups just how much they appreciate my being there; I may not feel like I have achieved a lot personally, but I think that overall we have a really positive effect.

My second big concern was that volunteers were being placed with partner organizations which were often less helpful or less positive than the volunteer might have hoped, maybe due to poor organization, uninterested staff, or perhaps even just cultural differences. The role of CCS is limited to providing volunteers for these organizations, so it is in no position to advise, make suggestions or influence the activities of the local organizations. This ensures that local people, who know what is valuable and most needed in their own community, are able to carry out their own set of objectives rather than CCS imposing its idea of what is appropriate on the organization. I still agree with this philosophy, but I think that perhaps CCS could perhaps be a little more selective in the organizations it chooses to provide volunteers to; certain work placements have repeatedly caused frustration among volunteers who feel that their time could be much better spent elsewhere.

The area in which CCS is most successful is in cultural exchange. I know that I have learnt an incredible amount in these past six weeks about a culture and a religion that is often misrepresented in the media, and I hope that I have passed on a little bit of what it is to be an Australian – hopefully enough for people to distinguish me from an American! This sort of influence is subtle and hard to evaluate, but I don’t think we should underestimate the value of this sort of cultural exchange, which can help to promote understanding and tolerance. I know that at times the American volunteers in my group felt that they were fighting an uphill battle to overcome prejudices caused in large part by the Bush Administration, the invasion of Iraq, and other American policies (i.e. Israel), however on the other side the Moroccan people I met seemed determined to make me aware how much they disapproved of fundamentalist Islam and the violence that goes with that. We all have stereotypes that we struggle to disprove, and this sort of interaction goes a long way towards that.

I would like to also say something regarding the language difficulties experienced by myself and other volunteers. I can’t stress enough the value of knowing the local language, and to be honest I am quite ashamed that I have gone all my life without even trying to learn a language other than English. Most of the people I was teaching English to already spoke Arabic and French, and very likely either Berber, Spanish or Portuguese as well. I think that this really influences how people view us - when we only speak English, it almost implies that we expect everyone else to make the effort to know our world, but that we have less interest in theirs; at least this is the impression I got here.

So to sum up, I believe that CCS is most successful in its primary aim, that of cultural exchange. It is harder to gauge the effectiveness of its work with the partner organizations, but I believe that it would be possible to see generally positive results over a long period of time. We’re not exactly putting an end to poverty, but we are aiding in the empowerment of people so that they might have a greater opportunity to improve their own lives. When you think of not just CCS, but of all the thousands of NGOs working in countries around the world, it’s not possible to easily dismiss the influence that they have, and what they can achieve."


Now if only this was all I had to do; I am not looking forward to writing a big essay when i get back!

Syrian Music Festival

Oops almost forgot, I went to a Syrian music and dance concert last night which was absolutely gorgeous. It was sort of a combination between ballet, Middle Eastern, interpretive, and the occasional spinning dervishes thrown in. The costumes were amazing, so colourful and beautiful, and the music and dancing was fabulous. I felt really privileged to be able to see something like this live in Morocco - and for only 30 dirham, which works out to be about $5.50 AUS. The guys from Rockside arranged for us to go, which was really nice of them. We all had mint tea - what they call Moroccan whiskey :-) - afterwards and it was a really nice night.
One last thing, a friend and i went on a culinary expedition of the souk the other day, determined to try all the food and drinks that we had been too chicken to try until now. So we had freshly squeezed orange juice, dates, the best donuts either of us had ever eaten, and freshly 'squeezed' sugar cane juice, which i had been a little hesitant about but was actually really delicious. Everything only cost a couple of dirham each, and was so yummy I don't know why i haven't been doing this sooner! I think that in Marrakech I am just going to eat my way from stall to stall, belly be damned :-)

Farewell to Rockside

Rockside
Originally uploaded by kirijae

I had to say my final goodbye to the guys at Rockside today, which was really kind of sad. Rockside is a group of guys who just want to improve their conversational english, so request volunteers to come and chat with them. I started just going on Fridays, then Wednesdays and Fridays, then finally Mondays as well. It was just so great talking with these guys - they are interested in absolutely everything, and give a lot more thought to deeper questions of religion, identity, culture etc than I ever did at their age! Actually more than I do now probably...

Anyway, this is a photo of myself and Narbil and Vivienne - another volunteer who goes to Rockside. Narbil spends his weekends reading poetry, and he was always bringing in poems for us to discuss. This was my favourite one, by the poet Rumi;

Come to the orchard in spring
There is light and wine
and sweathearts in the pomegranate flowers
If you do not come these do not matter
If you do come these do not matter

They took a small video of me saying goodbye to them, and saying what my time with them meant. It was pretty hard being put on the spot (!!!) but they promised to put it on facebook, so I will have something funny to show you all soon :-)

So this is my last full day at the house - I leave after lunch tomorrow. I've been running around with my camera for the last couple of days trying to capture my time here at Rabat, which is of course impossible. It's hard because I'm sad at leaving, but also really excited about seeing Damien again and doing lots of stuff with him. Thank god I've broken up my goodbye's a bit - if I had to go home right now I think I would be devastated! Maybe in two weeks time I'll be a little more ready. Not that I'm not looking forward to being in Darwin again, and seeing everybody, but Morocco is a fantastic place which I will be very sad to leave. Hopefully I will come back someday - inshallah!

Rockside

Rockside
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This is our group; Rida crouching a little in front, behind him is Narbil, Trezoar, Larbi, and at the front is Vivienne

Hammamming

I finally got around to visiting a hamman today. You probably all know what a hammam is, but just to let you know this one consisted of three rooms of varying temperature - lukewarm, warm, and steamy. You basically just strip down to your underwear and pay a woman to scrub you to within an inch of your life from head to toe. I find it interesting that Moroccan women, who find it riske to go with an uncovered head in public, have no problems with the whole semi-naked thing in a hammam, whilst the American volunteers here, who have no problem with bare arms, mini-skirts, low-cut tops etc totally freak out at the thought of being topless amongst other women. I fell somewhere in between - not too phased about being mostly naked, a little weirded out by having another mostly naked woman scrub me, but pretty comfy overall - except for the losing skin part I mean. The most awkward part for me probably was that I couldn't communicate with the lady scrubbing me, so i wasn't always sure what she wanted me to do; it pretty much worked best when she just treated me like a doll and moved me around how she liked. I have to say that I feel pretty good right now. It's a tough life here sometimes; finishing work at 11:30am, having lunch served for you, then going for a nice walk, visiting the hammam, and then getting home just in time for mint tea and crepes. No wonder I started to feel sad about leaving Morocco this week! I'm very glad that I have Damien to look forward to this weekend, because otherwise I would be feeling very sad to leave the home base where I've been living for the past 6 weeks. Only 5 more sleeps until he gets here :)

Friday Couscous

Friday Couscous
Originally uploaded by kirijae

I'm not sure if I've stressed enough in this blog just how good the food is here. To help you get an idea, here is a picture of Friday's lunch - chicken and vegetable cous cous (Anybody know if cous cous is one word or two?). I was nearly lynched for making the others wait before digging in so that I could take this photo, it is really that good. Other days are good too though; tagine Tuesdays, fish Wednesdays, Sandwich days on Thursdays, and of course Cous Cous Fridays. My favourite is a dish which is a mixture of chicken and crepes and lentils and peas, it is so good. But then there's also the pastille, which is incredible; it's meant to only be cooked for certain holidays, but we nag the cooks to make it as much as possible. Mmmm.....

Shopping at the souk

I'm pretty proud of myself today, as I have finally made my own way into the medina by bus and around the souk all by myself. Until now I've usually travelled with at least one friend, who has usually known a lot more French than me - and we usually split a taxi instead of taking the bus, but turns out the bus is a much cheaper option when travelling solo. Now that I've worked out where to catch it I'll be using it a lot more I think; there's not really bus stops as such here, just places where people gather and jump on to any bus that slows down enough - never actually stopping - for them to get on.

Once in the souk I successfully haggled my way through to buying a new daypack, using broken French and hand gestures. When I paid he actually congratulated me on my success - not sure how to take this; I'm fairly certain he was laughing at me. I then made straight for my favourite dvd sellers, turning down one marriage proposal along the way with a firm 'la!' Somehow I think he had a fairly short-term marriage in mind :)

I guess most people reading this are fairly aware that I enjoy watching the occasional dvd now and again; I was actually thinking that I wouldn't be doing much of this in Morocco - wrong! When the only book I have with me is Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose, (I chose it thinking that it would take me a little longer than most books to read - correct!), and there's not much to do in the house after 7:30, dvd's take on a whole new appeal. The process of buying dvd's however is not always straightforward. They tend to be sold by guys at the souk or at the side of the road, from a rug on the ground - or occasionally a basket. Something about selling burnt dvd's (I haven't seen an original since arriving) must bring something out in people because most of the guys selling them are fairly unpleasant. I've managed to find two that are pretty decent, and now they pull things out for me that are in English and chase up things I ask for. Now that they've stopped trying to sell me that crappy comedy 'scary movie' - a misunderstanding that arose when I was trying to explain to them that I liked horror movies - we get along pretty well.

I have no idea where to catch the bus that actually takes me home, so a taxi it was. I timed it perfectly so that I arrived home in time for the afternoon tea - a staple in the Moroccan diet; mint tea with cookies or crepes/pancakes/cake. Mmm... So that was my afternoon today; obviously I have more time on my hands now that most of my group have gone home - look out for more long and rambling blogs! On the upside, only 9 more sleeps until Damien gets here :)

Bludging in Morocco

Well I've been pretty lazy since the desert trip, so no new fabulous stories to tell. It's just been a lot of eating, sleeping, reading, going to the souk (a leetle too much) and very occasionally going for a jog. Oh yes - and going to work in the mornings! See, I do work; it's only 1 1/2 hours a day, but I see nothing wrong with this :) In fact it's something i could suggest for the library... Actually having read some of Peter's emails regarding everyone doing extra shifts on the desk maybe I'd just better keep my mouth shut re work!

The English classes have been going fine; i really enjoy one group i work with, about 4 young men trying to improve their conversational English. It's just a matter of sitting with them and chatting about pretty much anything that comes to mind. They're all very curious and intelligent too, so the conversations are never boring, and range from whether it's possible to buy a koala, to Morocco's political system, to 'how did the aborigines get to Australia'? One thing i've run into though is that we're just not going to see eye to eye on any topic involving women; it's very bizarre to realise that we can't even begin to see each other's viewpoint on this, so now we don't discuss gender issues too much. And this is the younger generation - the older generation is much more likely to talk my ear off about how western marriages are all failing because the women don't respect their men's needs; I try to be as diplomatic as possible about this sort of thing, whilst imagining something wet and slimy hitting them in the face.

I think this has been the hardest thing for me to become accustomed to here - the general attitude towards western women. I was prepared for the fact that i would obviously stand out, and that it wasn't seen as acceptable for women to do certain things like go to cafe's, travel alone, drink or smoke etc. What took me aback was that even when i dressed perfectly modestly, and didn't do anything like drink or smoke or even have a coffee in a cafe, I'm still regarded as being 'loose', or 'easy'. I can understand why - i.e. western women do have sex before marriage, and generally have more sexually liberated lives than moroccan women - not to mention backpakkers visiting Morocco and behaving like backpakkers do all over the world - but it is a really weird feeling to be looked at in this way! Anywhere you go there is a constant stream of comments, and several of the other female volunteers have been offered money for sex, or been randomly hugged and kissed by strangers. Mostly you just have to laugh, as i did when a friend was coming home recently with another volunteer - a male - and was refused a lift by a taxi driver, who kept insisting that she was a prostitute and he wouldn't have her kind in his car! She was wearing jeans and a jumper with a turtle neck - nothing that i would call provocative at all, but like I said, you just have to laugh. In Australia I rarely consider my gender to hold any real importance for me - aside from helping me to multitask of course! - so this has been quite an experience for me to feel so defined by both my gender and my nationality.

Most of the group of volunteers who arrived at the same time as me left last weekend, and a new group of about 9 have arrived. I was really sorry to say goodbye to many of my old group, I've made some fantastic friends here. Although the new group are all nice, I really feel like I'm ready to move on. I can't wait till Damien gets here - 9 more sleeps to go! We have a fantastic 2 weeks planned, including mountain climbing and camel riding and hammaming. Then it will be back to sunny Darwin, where I can thaw out at last. I am very much looking forward to having a beer in the sun (after which i will probably duck for airconditioned cover). Hope everyone is well, look forward to seeing you all soon!

Photos

I took just under 400 photos for my trip to the desert, I think it was lucky that my camera battery gave out on the drive home! It was tough but I've picked out my 10-12 favourite ones for here. Anyone who wants to see more photo's just let me know and i'll send you an invite to my flickr account, where i've posted 150 of my desert photo's - don't worry, i won't be offended if nobody wants to go through all that!!!

View from Middle Atlas region

P1000555
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This was taken early on the drive to the desert - soon after this we started to see snow, which I haven't seen in years so i was pretty taken with it.

Mountains

Mountains
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This was taken from the car, so unfortunately it's a bit dark due to the window tinting. I was pretty excited to see real mountains though!

Valley

P1000673
Originally uploaded by kirijae

All around this area it was completely barren, except for these little valleys that wound through the entire region.

Village

P1000672
Originally uploaded by kirijae

I just loved these little villages in the valleys, really amazing places.

Merzuga

Merzuga
Originally uploaded by kirijae

It was so strange seeing the sand dunes for the first time.

dunes

dunes
Originally uploaded by kirijae

As you can imagine, i have a LOT of photos that look pretty much exactly like this

shadows

P1000855
Originally uploaded by kirijae

I know this photo beats even the henna hands for cliche, but often things are cliche for a reason!

Sunset from the top of the dune

Sunset from the top of the dune
Originally uploaded by kirijae

Our beautiful sunset which made the hike up all worthwhile :)

Relaxing with tea

Relaxing with tea
Originally uploaded by kirijae

We're sitting having mint tea outside our tent, which is to the left. I must have had at least 2 glasses of mint tea every day since getting to Morocco.

Climbing the dune

Climbing the dune
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This was taken from approximately three quarters of the way up

us

us
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This is all of our group who made it to the top of the dune, no mean feat.

Desert Trip

Well, I just got back from a fantastic trip to the Saharan Desert on Sunday evening, and it was definitely worth all the muscle pains and sore nether regions that I’m feeling this week. It was an eleven hour drive each way, and although that sounds awful it was actually almost as good as the actual desert because we were driving through such an incredible landscape that went from beautiful green rolling hills, to mountains with snow, to barren rock lands with lush green valleys. I was so excited when I saw the red sand dunes in the coming up in the distance – they almost looked fake, like someone had just popped them there for a movie set. I will post some photos on here asap.
We arrived at the base camp, which is at the edge of the dunes, at about 4:30, where we had tea (of course) before getting on camels to ride an hour and a half out to our camp in the dunes. I am ashamed to admit that I was a little bit chicken about riding a camel – they’re a lot bigger in real life! – but soon I was cruising along with my water bottle in one hand and my camera in the other, whilst twisting myself into contortions to find a more comfy part of my butt to sit on – unsuccessfully I might add.
When we arrived at our campsite we were told to start climbing, in order to be at the top of the dune for the sunset. This may have been the most strenuous thing I’ve had to do in quite some time; we were half convinced that this exercise was purely for the entertainment of the guides watching from below, but it was worth it once we reached the top, for the amazing view of the sunset. It was also worth it for the run down again, which was heaps of fun and almost made it worth climbing back up just to run down again :)
The guides cooked us a beautiful meal – tagine of course – then finished us off by getting us to dance to their singing and drums. We all slept pretty cosily, 9 in one tent, and then stumbled up at 5am for the ride back to base camp so that we could watch the sunrise on the way. The drive back was long, and I can now say that I’ve had my first meal in Morocco that didn’t taste great – I guess roadside café’s are the same all over the world! All in all though it was a fantastic, wonderful weekend, and I can’t wait to do a longer trip into the desert with Damien when he gets over here.

Moroccan Wedding

We had fun last Thursday as the organizers here put on a mock Moroccan Wedding for us. Everyone got dressed up in traditional Moroccan gear, we had some traditional food, and a group of musicians came along too. The musicians were great, although I could not for the life of me find the beat in what they were playing; actually when I think about it I'm sure the guy with the symbols on his head must have been playing to some beat. We all got up and tried to boogie, but I think it takes years of practice to be able to shake your bootie to this sort of music. The kitchen ladies showed us girls how it was done - I swear their butts moved independently of the rest of their bodies :)

I had a fairly quiet weekend this last weekend, although I did a day trip to Fes, which, as I think I've mentioned, I am completely in love with. This time it poured with rain the entire time i was there, so I spent a good 8 hours completely saturated. It actually got really cold for a couple of days there - it was only 10 degrees in the middle of the day yesterday; i put on my flannelette PJ's under my jeans, much to the amusement of my American counterparts. This reminds me of something I need to tell Rachel if she is reading this; Rachel, pack three pairs of jeans/pants, not two. What I forgot was that you always have to be wearing one pair whilst doing the laundry, which means pretty much that one pair is always dirty. Just trust me on this; three pairs.

My second day at the orphanage was a little easier than my first; I spent a lot of time dressing the kids, which petrified me at first - working out what goes where is not as easy as you might think! - but now i think i am a pro. A lot of the kids are disabled or handicapped in some way, I guess because these are the kids that are either given up most often or they find it hard to be adopted. I was a little unnerved having to put diapers on 4/5 year olds as everything seems a little awkward, but they seemed to find it a bit of a hoot thank god. I really admire the volunteers who work with the severely disabled kids. These kids stay at the orphanage for as long as they live, which usually isn't very long - the oldest there is 19 years old. The volunteers working in that section do such an awesome job - always smiling and laughing even though it's both physically and mentally draining work.

I had an interesting insight on the views of the nurses yesterday; we have an American/Kuwaiti volunteer - Darah -who can speak Arabic, and hence she has been able to actually converse with the nurses. The nurses, it seems, can't understand why Americans (and Australians) would leave their own country to work in another - i.e. your countries have problems of their own, why are you working here instead of in your own country? Also the prevailing view is that the Americans in particular all hate the Arab world, even those who say that they disagree with the Bush administration. Darah was trying to tell them that that wasn't the case, but they simply told her 'we don't believe you'. It's sad because even working next to each other we're still struggling with cultural understanding. The language barrier is a much bigger problem than I had anticipated it to be - i guess that's part of my own cultural snobbery that I expected everyone to speak English!

That's all for my ramblings for the moment; I have a trip to the desert planned for this weekend, which I am really looking forward to, and I am sure I shall have much more to say after that :)

The 'Bride and Groom'

The 'Bride and Groom'
Originally uploaded by kirijae

This is two of the volunteers - Shelley and Dan - who were dressed up in traditional Moroccan clothes to be the bride and groom for the day. The belt around Shelley's waist weighs a ton.

Mock Wedding Fashion

Mock Wedding Fashion
Originally uploaded by kirijae

We all got to play dress ups, which was of course a great photo op. The girl immediately to my left is Rachel, and then Darah; the girl on my right is Grace.

Khadija's designs

Khadija's designs
Originally uploaded by kirijae

Yes I know it's not terribly original of me having my hands henna'd, but it looks so pretty! I'm the hand on the left by the way :)