An interesting timing of events. One of the things planned for today was to go to for a school visit at an IB high school here in Rabat. BUT, starting yesterday, all the teachers in the country went on a short strike to protest the move toward privatization and loss of job security.
Truly one of great things about travel is it gives you the chance to see just what other folks have to deal with. You learn to appreciate your own situation more.
Our Fulbright/IREX folks were quickly able to adjust our schedule so we still had a full day. This morning we met with MACECE – there are soo many acronyms this week I have given up trying to keep them straight. We also met with US Embassy officials and had both a program and security briefing. As the security fellow said, he was the doom and gloom guy to make us consider the worst case scenarios, so that we don’t have to worry about them.
One of the presenters was an American female who has lived in Morocco for about 10 years. It was interesting to hear her take on being female in Morocco as compared to the other views we have heard about this from: a Moroccan female and an American male.
This afternoon we continued our training sessions on Morocco. Yesterday it was on Moroccan History and Culture. Today it was the Moroccan education system: Reality and Challenges.