Thursday, July 17, 2014

#tbt: Schools and Outfits 1,000s of miles apart

July 17, 2014

Today we went to visit a small school in Ifrane, and met four college-aged volunteers who have been working here during the summer to instruct these students in French.  I feel that being here in Morocco I have learned almost as much French as I have Arabic because when people see a foreigner they typically start speaking to you in French.  Morocco was formerly colonized by the French and even today French is taught in Moroccan schools, and is considered a high status language. The school was a humble one room structure located on a former dump that has been filled in and it now the home of many cows (who get up close and personal with you) and a few dogs as well.  It is also the only permanent structure in the area.






We also walked to nearby village (a shantytown of sorts) where most of the children lived.  We were warmly welcomed by a village elder who offered me a seat next to her in the shade and seemed to enjoy talking to me even though I did not understand what she was saying.   I didn't take any pictures of the village because I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to take pictures of their private homes without permission, but most were makeshift structures formed from recycled materials such as vinyl signs.  This was a far cry from the university housing and the beautiful classrooms of Al Akhawayn School in the same town of Ifrane.


#tbt to my tenth grade year and our church Mission trip to India

The children here are from MBKG Pannai in the Tamil Nadu region of India and I seeing the children in the school that we went to today reminded me of my experiences there.  Mudihiyor Balar Kudumba Gramma Pannai has the English name of Family Village Farm because it the children here were primarily orphans, who are cared for by "house mothers" who are destitute women who are also taken in and help to cook and provide for a hut of about ten children each. After my trip I had wanted to work at King's School where all the school aged children from the Family Village Farm are educated.  Today's visit reawakened my desire to do this إن شاء الله I will apply to work there for a few years after getting certified.



Also kids who have limited access to technology are fascinated with digital photographs, the photo above was taken by one of the children who borrowed my camera to snap some pictures of his friends.  Today I saw the same phenomenon happening where the kids wanted nothing more than to take our phones so that they could snap away.

After the visit to the school and accompanying village we headed back to AUI for a lecture on Arab culture, some fun facts that I learned include:

  • In Saudi Arabia there is a type of religious police who can come up to you and spray paint parts of your body with black spray paint if you are not appropriately covered
  • The belief that depictions of the prophet are not allowed in Islam is incorrect, there exists depictions of Mouhammed in books about his life.  However, such depictions are not allowed in mosques and schools because it is believed that people might ignorantly start to worship the image instead of Allah
  • Minarets (the spires that most Mosques have) are built to a particular proportion.  2/3 of the minaret should be visible above the walls of the mosque as this is a visually pleasing ratio.  Although some minarets are built to different proportions, those who have seen many mosques will think they look weird because they do not have the same visually pleasing proportion.

However, my favorite part of today's lecture was that our professor, John Schoup brought in a large bag full of artifacts, including traditional outfits and veils from different Arab countries.  So of course we had fun dressing up in the various garbs.  Check out some images from our fashion show below.




Perhaps anklets which weigh a kilo a piece are more your style!





Throwback to my sari draping lesson by the sister of a doctor that I met in Vellore, India

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