Ma-salaama Morocco!

Well...it is 10:18pm Morocco time and in about 5 hours I'll get in an Al Akhawayn van with all my stuff and head to the Fez airport...my time here is official done.

It's a little weird to say that. For the past few days I've realized that my time here is ending but I've been so focused on getting the papers and finals done and out of the way and then getting packed that its really only in the past couple hours that I've begun to realize that I'm actually leaving. Amazing how sitting and seeing packed bags in your periphery can do!?! Luckily, it feels pretty good. I mean, I've had a wonderful time here in Morocco, but I think I'm ready to come home for awhile too. So a bit bittersweet, but it feels like my time here is done for now, so not too sad either.

So, I suppose that is time for a few reflections?

For those of you who've read a few of my little posts throughout the semester you know that I've had a lot of wonderful opportunities, which I'm very thankful for. I've had the chance to do quite a bit of traveling around Morocco (Fez, Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat, Kinetra, Tangier, Assilah, Sefrou, Meknes...) and had a few European adventures meeting up with friends in Madrid, Cambridge, and Paris...oh yeah and I can't forget my 48-hour jaunt to Cairo too! ;-) Just looking at that last is pretty cool. I had no idea what kind of traveling I'd be able to do while I was here, but I certainly think I made the most of it! It was very cool to see some of the different sides of Morocco, as well as see what it feels like living in this part of the world where it is completely possible to go to Madrid for a weekend on a whim! Though, I think my traveling bug is certainly satisfied for awhile...my body is already aching just at the though of 4 airports and 3 layovers in the next 24 hours...

I've had the wonderful blessing of finding a wonderful Christian community while I've been here filled with people from the states, international students here at AUI, as well as professors and their families, plus a Belgian and an Armenian to keep things interesting. ;-) That's certainly not something you necessarily expect when you go abroad, especially to a country where everyone is Muslim, to find a community there to welcome you, but that's certainly the case here. It's been wonderful to worship with them on Sunday nights and talk with them about faith and Muslim-Christian relations and life in general on Wednesday nights. We had the chance to go on a retreat together a couple of weekends ago and I was hit again by what a blessing that group has been.

Through our pastor Karen, we got hooked up with a couple opportunities that I'm really glad to have had. The first was teaching English at the local high school here in Ifrane two nights a week...such a fun experience. Got to use a little of my Arabic and hopefully help them a bit with their English. We had our last night last week...they swamped us with pictures and hugs and henna! It was a really great way to break up the school/travel schedule and also serve in a small way.

I guess the other opportunities I'm most thankful for were the opportunities to visit/learn about some of the hard issues here in Morocco. The school I've been studying at is a bit of a bubble...most of the students here are very well off...everyone speaks English pretty well. And while we got many opportunities to visit cities, even that is a bit more touristy, so sometimes it was hard to really know what goes on around us. But I had some opportunities to get out of the bubble which was great! I got to visit a women's center a couple of times here in Ifrane where women were working together on crafts and literacy projects...recently I got to go meet some of the women who live in a very poor area right outside of Ifrane and learn about their weaving cooperative...at the church retreat we got to hear about a couple's work with African refugees here in Morocco...I think all of those experiences helped sort of flesh out Morocco for me. I think one of the coolest things I've found being here is that there is a lot of complexity here - economic disparities between the rich and poor, intriguing political dynamics, religious practices, etc. I've liked getting different perspectives and learning about the country first hand. I like books...but traveling is more fun that just reading about a place....and its hard to get across the essence of place only through words.

Ironic, since that's what I'm trying to do here, eh? :-)

The essence of Moroco for me....hmmm...
...crowding 6 people + the driver into grande taxis for hours at a time...winding walkways through old medinas...shopkeepers telling us to come into their shops "I will make you good price!"...the call to prayer...seeing something ridiculous and uttering "T.I.M" (This is Morocco)...rugs, the special shoes, jalabas...couscous, tajine, freshly squeezed orange juice, harsha...the smell of spices that make my nose squirm as we pass...walking quickly pass the butchers/fish sellers in the market which display everything raw and hanging from the ceiling...dirhams...the essential Arabic phrases "humdillah" (praise God!), "saafe" (enough), "insha'allah" (God willing), "shukran" (thank you)...techno music and random American songs from the 90's...haggling and being told you're a Berber if you really go low...the ocean and the Mediterranean...the Middle Atlas mountains and the beautiful landscape that changes so rapidly (forests to rows of olive trees to cactus and desert to mountains)...the ridiculousity of Al Akhwayn University...henna...bright starry nights...trains with unmarked stations...the crazy mix of French and ridiculously fast Arabic with a bit of English thrown in...hospitality...the kiss-kiss greeting everywhere you go...the tss tss sound of guys trying to get our attention as we walked or the fantastic greetings we'd get "welcome! it has been long time since angels have come to our city"...

That's enough of that, if you're interested you can always ask me for more or what some of that means.

What else? Oh, that crazy thing called school. I started out very enthusiastic about my classes as I actually got to take a lot of classes in my subject area. By the end...not so enthusiastic. Two were great...Middle Eastern Politics and International Law (though I will remember that class mostly for the constant sparring match between myself and my professor about things like international human rights law). Two of my professors were not so great. Arabic was...frustrating because we didn't move very fast, but I did feel like I learned some. I'm glad to be done. And glad to have a different sort of spectrum of classes for next fall. But I did enjoy learning in an atmosphere where all of the examples were from the Middle East/North Africa region...so I learned International Law but from the perspective of Moroccans...Middle Eastern Politics with a lot more emphasis on the actual on-the-ground politics...that was really cool. And it was great to be in classes with a lot of other perspectives, one because they care about the issues because they are important to them, and two because most of my classmates grew up here so they had a lot of different perspectives.

Good friends...I had dinner with my "roommates" - my official roommate and her three friends who are always in my room - Narjisse, Nada, Faty, and Lubna...they're my girls. I so enjoyed laughing with them and visiting Narjisse's family...plus the random motley crew that is the group of international students here. People I probably would have never crossed paths with otherwise which made some days really hard...but a lot of days really interesting and very amusing. And hey i have some new perspectives on communities. And now I leave with friends from West Virginia to West Point to Idaho...much less here in Morocco. :-)

Ah, a good semester. Lots of great experiences (if you want to see pictures click on the link to the right) and fun memories...and now time for home.

Sort of. I fly into New York and then head to Duke where I have staff training for the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation which I'm working later this summer. So I get back into Indy on Saturday!

I hope all is well with you! Thanks for reading about my experiences this semester!

God's peace!