I, Morocco

I landed in Casablanca this past Thursday at 1 pm. I had to stay at the airport for a few hours, waiting for my flight to Agadir. Those three hours came in handy, though, I had to finish Death by Black Hole, so it was kind of perfect.

I landed in Agadir at 4:30 pm. I wanted to re-read The Old Man and the Sea in the plane, but I slept. I think sleeping 2 hours the night before due to the audiobook of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing had something to do with that. Anyway, I slept for an hour and a half. When I landed I found myself in a 15+ C° climate, which was quite nice. I love cold weather, but being within the winter in Europe, and then coming to a much warmer country was a good decision.

Policemen at the border gave a bit of trouble, I do not know why, and I also do not know what they said. I do not understand Arabic. Luckily they managed to ask me some things in French, which I was glad to answer. I gave them the phone number of the guy at YACD, and then they arranged it. However, I still got escorted out of the airport, which is really small to be honest, by the head of security. You know, the usual.

Khadir was at the front, and he spoke with the guy in Arabic, again, I have no idea of what they were saying. After a few minutes, the guy sent us on our way. Khadir showed me a printed paper that read: “Welcome Gerardo to YACD Taroudant 2019”. That was a nice gesture.

After I entered the Association Building, a four-story construction in the center of the village, I met Jörn, a German volunteer and my roommate. Jörn is really smart, interesting and nice.

Not ten minutes after I arrived, we had a class, so I went downstairs to meet the kids. I can´t describe 2 hours of class in a few sentences, so I will only say that it was really nice, the kids were really kind, and the session went very well.

Fast-forward to yesterday morning, we had a little meeting about the classes Jörn and I are going to teach, and the groups that will correspond to each of us. I was assigned to three different groups, two University Level, and One high school level (Which is actually the one I had taught the night before). Also, there are two groups of kids within the association that are going to debate in a Model UN in the UK at the end of January and Mid-February. So I was asked to coach them, help them prepare, and practice with them. Something I, of course, am more than happy to do.

At the end of the meeting, in total, I was assigned seven two-hour classes throughout the week-days. I asked if it was possible to do Spanish classes as well, I was told that it will be discussed later on.

After the meeting, Jörn and I went for a walk around the village walls, and it was beautiful as fuck. When we got back we had lunch, and then we had two classes. Jörn and I decided that yesterday we were going to co-teach both classes, just to set us up to speed.

In the first of those two classes, one of my two university-level groups, we had a very interesting conversation with a girl—whose name I do not know how to write yet. She is in her last year studying Law and Religion here in Taroudant. We discussed several things, which led her to say a few comments that really picked my attention, statements like:

- “In Morocco, we do not have many opportunities”— I do not know if she was using “we” referring to women or young people.

Then, discussing the refugee crisis and violence in the world, I commented about the situation regarding violence in Mexico, specifically about how Cartels get kids to help them, and she said:

-“Can´t the Church intervene and tell the kids what is wrong and what is right?”

To which I replied: “It is common in “Western Countries” to separate “Church” and “State”, so no, technically the Church can´t intervene.”

She explained that she was studying religion because she wanted to find the answers to all the questions she had about her religion. The example she gave me when I asked was, and I quote, “The split between the Shia Muslims and the Sunni Muslims.” Which, to myself, sounded like a very honorable reason to explore her religion, not to mention a very interesting one.

Since she is about to finish her studies, I asked her if she felt like she had found some of the answers, to which she laughed, and replied: “not yet.”

Last night We had dinner with one of the Officials of YACD, “Mr. Hassan”. He is an English teacher at a local public school. During the course of the evening, we had a conversation about how we wanted to handle our classes, what they recommended us to teach and a few interesting techniques.

Then He asked us to pitch ay other ideas we had for any other workshops or events. We both quickly said a few. Jörn is going to give a presentation about “Mathematics and Nature?”—should be fun. On the other hand, I am going to give a 30-minute presentation about Mexico to Mr. Hassan´s English students in a few weeks, and also I will attend the school as an observer, just to see how everything operates around here.

Though, what I am really excited about is the Book Club. So, in the Morning meeting, I pitched the idea of choosing a short book, and to have a few students and I come together once a week to read out loud and discuss the author and the book itself. When we were with Mr. Hassan, I told him about it and I suggested that it would be nice to have some students at his school join. He told me that there was an English club on Fridays and that it would be the perfect day for us to that, and he offered his classroom, so we could do it at the school.

After discussing book titles for a while, I told him that I had a copy of Hemingway´s “The Old Man and the Sea” and I would love that to be our book. He agreed. So, starting in two weeks we will have our first meeting, and there will be about 6 of them within the two months of my stay here. I have to re-read that book right now.

Also, Jörn asked if they had a guitar, and I immediately jumped in and asked if they would like to have a night a week or something, where kids could pick songs, I could play them, and we could all sing together. They, enthusiastically, agreed.

I have been excited about this experience for a while now. Which is odd for me, being excited about something is like being proud of something I have done, or written, for those out there that know me pretty well, you know that it is really unlikely that these things happen often.

I have found Morocco and Mexico to be really alike. Many, Many things in here remind of home. There are palm trees where there should not be palm trees, people sell shit in the streets, and also people walk in the streets; to quote Jörn: “There is a lot of life in the streets.”

It appears I have to read and prepare for my classes that start this next Monday, should be really fun.

I will write again soon.