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sign outside elementary school in Oujda, Morocco
“Rise to the teacher and honor them for they are almost a prophet.”
We need to work with these amazing young people who are finding time while studying very hard at University in Oujda to volunteer in this outstanding and diverse science program .
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Shopping for ingredients
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on Not only are we getting the opportunity to actually go into high schools to meet with current Moroccan students, we are also getting the opportunity to meet with their future teachers who are in advanced educational training.
Thank you to the Ecole Normale Superieure in Rabat for welcoming us.
Notice the bulletin boards there – even though this is in Morocco, it looks pretty familiar to this American educator’s eyes.
Also these Moroccan teaching students know the value of a good universal meme to get the point across.
And here, a fellow Alabamian, Abby Becker, shares some of her alma mater’s (UAB) chap stick and wins more friends.
on is to meet Moroccan students and their teachers and to share experiences. And our first school visit could not have been a more positive example of this. We visited our Moroccan host’s (Meriem Lahrizi) school where her students welcomed us with traditional foods, music, and dress. They also displayed their projects and proudly and willingly talked to us about their work.
Thank you to the students and faculty of Lmssalia High School in Casablance for sharing all their hard work and talents with us
IT WAS AMAZING!.
on We toured the Moroccan Parliament building today and they were decorated in many flags for nations that belong to the OIC – Organization of Islamic Cooperation- which was just finishing a meeting here in Rabat.
See how many countries you can name!
on 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.
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Kasbah, Rabat, Morocco
outside the Kasbah walls
on As a western female I was a bit apprehensive when it came to appropriate dress for this working trip.
Words like “modest” and “conservative” were frequently mentioned.
But those words are pretty culturally dependent.
I basically got the idea that though western women were not expected to wear head coverings for the most part, they should cover their legs and arms.
And that for the most part seems true.
A very rough unscientific survey (aka me people watching in Rabat over the past few days) would say that:
1) maybe about of 2/3 of the women do cover their head/ hair in some fashion
2) almost all of the females cover pretty much all of their skin
BUT
3) a significant percentage of them cover their skin in pretty form revealing ways, thru tight pants, leggings, etc and form fitting tshirts – and a significant percentage of these women are also covering their heads/hair.
I find this to be an interesting juxtaposition of modest skin covering and proud shape revealing.
on Our wonderful TGC on site coordinator, Meriem, arranged the most marvelous traditional Moroccan meal for us at Dar Naji today.. See if you can match the captions to the photos!
Two different Chicken tagines
Beef with Prunes and Apricots
More salads that can be named in a single blog
tasty tasty cookies, some sprinkled with rose water!
traditional washing of hands before the meal
Pastilla – traditional meat pie (this made with chicken but sometimes made with pigeon!)
