Final few days in Morocco & Back to the US

Thursday March 29

We got on the bus to Casablanca at 6AM.  The return trip seemed so much quicker.  Found the train station and got tickets back to Rabat with Kristen and Stephanie.  A short walk from the train station and we were back at LeDiwan, our hotel in Rabat.  We were on our own for the rest of the afternoon and it was fun to meet up with other members of our group and hear how their experiences had been.

Friday March 30

Our time in this wonderful country is drawing to a close.  The group reconvened to discuss and reflect on our experiences in Moroccan schools.  We also discussed our essential questions and considered how we could utilize our experiences and to continue working on globalizing our classrooms.  With the debriefing complete we spent the remainder of the day seeing the sights in Rabat.

Surf's Up Rabat!

Hanging 10

Masoleum

Saturday March 31

Leaving the hotel for the airport at 3AM...ugh.  Found the blog of my partner teacher in Benimellal.  Her pictures and information can be found at http://srosamorocco.wordpress.com/.  Lots of hours in and out of airplanes and airports.  From Rabat back to Charles de Gaul in Paris, then to Atlanta, and finally to Denver about 9PM MDT.

Sunday April 1

Started the day by handing out 2,500 basketballs to kids up to age 18 for the Mile High Dribble, which was part of the Women's NCAA Basketball tournament being held in Denver.  My wife and I volunteered and helped with several events during the day.  Tourney town was pretty cool with lots of different sporting activities.  It was a fun way to help reset my schedule back to Wyoming time.

Week #2 The Learning Continues

Monday March 26, 2012  We had round table discussions with all four of Mrs. Massaq's classes.  One thing that I find that I really like about the Moroccan students is that they are not afraid to talk about religion or politics.  We have seen multiple examples of the tolerance and flexibility of the Moroccan culture, and the hospitality has been second to none. More students expressed the same concerns that all Muslims were being judged by the actions of just a few.  I will be having that conversation with my students when I return home.  I am also hoping to help find host families for a pair of YES scholarship http://www.yesprograms.org/ winners for the 2012-2013 school year. In my humble opinion, nothing helps to tear down stereotypes and build positive relationships than direct person to person interaction.

In the evening, we went on a drive in the mountains with Mr. and Mrs. Massaq.  This provided us on a different perspective as we were able to gaze out over Benimellal and see the whole area.  The mountain roads were very similar to some of the winding roads that can be found in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado.  During our drive, we encountered many people walking, and riding mules.  I kept thinking about how their life must be very different than my own, and in many ways, more difficult.

54 km from Benimellal

 On our quest we were hoping to see that goats that climb into trees.  This is as close as we got:

Mrs. Massaq showed us the almonds in the almond trees and how to pick them.

Harvesting almonds

Almonds in the trees

Large trucks on narrow roads

Midway through our drive we saw a large lake, Bin el-oudine.  We have been told about the drought that Morocco is experiencing this year, and I am guessing that people that live near the lake may not suffer as much from the drought.

The lake

Little boat...big lake

If you look at a big map of Morocco, the lake is just a bit south of Benimellal.

Motto: God, King, and Country

Small rural schoolhouse

Tuesday March 27, 2012

We had round table discussions with the private school students in the morning and presentations.  The classes with seniors were obviously working hard preparing for the upcoming baccalaureate exams in June.  We were treated to a wide array of presentations on the culture of morocco, music, marriage customs, Jews and Christians in Morocco just to name a few.  The students seemed so well prepared and so confident.  I think I would have been very nervous making those kinds of presentations in a language other than my primary language.

Wednesday March 28, 2012

We were treated to more presentations and got another healthy dose of politics and religion.  There was even a really good discussion on equality and women's rights in one class.  We learned that women are way tougher than men, and that if men had to give birth, they would hate their sons.  After lunch I got to try my hand at sports photography.  The 10th graders were challenging the 11th graders in a soccer match.  Our fearless leader Kristin Laboe was allowed to join them.  Ms. Laboe even scored two goals during the match.

I enjoyed taking the pictures and must have gone through three rolls of film with my black and white camera.

Mrs. Rosa and I went back to class with Mrs. Massaq while Kristin finished up her soccer match with the private school all stars.  We sat in on two really good presentations on pollution and on global warming.  Again I was really impressed with the English proficiency of Mrs. Massaq's students.

We were all a little sad to be leaving Benimellal.  Mr. and Mrs. Massaq treated us to a lovely going away dinner on our final evening in the city.

amazing!             ya salam             يا سلام