Some thoughts on teaching and life in Ifrane!

Anyone who says teachers don't work hard is crazy.  I know I have a steep learning curve but it's hard, challenging work and I don't want to short change my students.  I played "Born to be Wild" and "Betty and Al" in one of my listening classes today.  They couldn't understand Paul Simon's New York accent but we had a lively discussion of the imagery in "Born to be Wild".  They told me that the song was about individual freedom without the constraints of law and commitment.  It was about enjoying the moment without goals, possessions and  rules to restrict one's freedom.  They all agreed that it was a "male fantasy" that the guys found attractive but the women found unappealing. It was a fun class - really good students.  It's amazing how quickly you can connect with people here.  Several students asked me the name of some good writers in English.  I told them that I would check with Doris - she would have a better selection for young women than I would.  One student is a big fan of Jane Austen so I advised her to check out Downton Abbey on BBC.  She is also a big fan of BBC News and has a delightful British accent with some words.  Living in Morocco has given me a completely different perspective of the world and especially the Islamic world.  It has given me emotionally what I always believed intellectually that you can find good and decent people everywhere.  Ifrane is an incredible place to live and AUI is an incredible place to work - it's all about the people.

I survived my first day of teaching!

Great day!  Great students - very engaged and intesting.  I have 60 students - will have to work on their names. My attempt a pronouncing them properly was very...very funny.  The door was locked for my last class but it was near my office so we all cramped in for the class - desks make useful chairs.  Later we were offered a class but the students wanted to stay...very cool students. Right now I am wired to the max and I need someone to turn me off...too much adrenlin. I will be glad when I relax and get into routine - better for me and better for my teaching.

Tomorrow is first day of class!

Tomorrow I have my first four classes to teach.  Take a deep breath and relax.  There's lots of work to do but I will do it.  I'm so focused on "work" - sound familiar my sibling - that I hardly notice that I am in Morocco so...no culture shock or fatigue - I hope.  AUI is a separate little academic bubble in the middle of nowhere - located in a beautiful little city in the mountains.  It already seems that I know everyone and it seems that everyone already knows me.  It is a very social, intimate enviroment.  I have an office but no working computer and I can't access the campus database or my campus email.  I'm constantly having to do "work arounds" but I must admit that it's lots of fun.  I hope I can still say that two weeks from now. Got to get some sleep - big day tomorrow.  It's showtime!

This is Doris writing: The semester in Ifrane has started, the campus is buzzing with students, in the summer you see the starkest contrast, miniskirts, tanktop-clad girls holding hands with veiled young women. There is a large number of foreign students this semester as study abroad programs in Egypt had to be cancelled and those students have been diverted to peaceful Morocco. Mike is busy embarking on his new career as a university lecturer, thus far he has been assigned a lot of classes but has yet to see his contract, get a computer and a phone on his spartan desk which is wedged between a young American couple, first time abroad. It is a bit like living on a military base, everyone knows everyone, frequent get-togethers for lunch, coffee, diner with colleagues who converse in all manner of languages aside from Arabic, French or English. So it is a very stimulating environment and Mike, I believe, is a bit overstimulated but thriving.

Rtirement is over - I have a job!

I was hired by the Language Center at Al Akhawayn University as an English instructor in a full time position this week.  Classes start tomorrow.  I will be teaching 2 sections of Academic Grammar II and 2 sections of Academic Listening and Speaking II.  I should have about 60 - 70 students.  It will be a busy semester.  I really like the department and everyone there has been great - very helpful.  I'm looking forward to starting my new career in teaching.

62 and living large in Morocco!

Doris and I went to Rabat last weekend.  We stayed with Souad at her new apartment near the beach.  She has an apartment on the top floor where she has a beautiful balcony.  From the balcony there is a perfect view of roof tops stretching to the Atlantic - satillite dishes grown from the roof tops like mushrooms after a summer rain.  We spent a lot of time on the balcony but I never saw anyone else on a balcony while I was there.  Souda told me that Moroccans are not "balcony people" - everything is directed inward toward the interior of the apartment.  You can see this with the blank walls of the medina where beautiful court yards within blank, ugly walls. I also got to meet Margaret Peron - she has the most fabulous, huge old colonial house near downtown Rabat - it was full of kids, cats and dogs...oh my.  We had a delightful lunch there - good company, good food and good conversation.  A large cat sat at the end of the table during the meal.  The kids at the end of the table spent most of their time building barriers with the dishes to stop the cat from stealing the fish in the center of the table.  It was a really good weekend.  I got to see a completely different Moroccan and Souad is a most delightful, interesting and funny person.  I'm looking forward to our next trip to Rabat.  My only regret is a very sore ass.  Is there any comfortable seat to be found on public transportation in Morocco? The grand taxi from Meknes to Ifrane must have had an iron plate under the seat and the driver must have hit everyone pothole and bump in the road.  Oh vey, what a pain in the ass that ride was!  I looked all over Rabat - millions of people - huge city - for oatmeal and nada.  I come back to Ifrane and walk the the Superette two minutes from the apartment - oatmeal on the shelf.  Oh, the irony!!!!

I enjoyed the train ride back and forth from Meknes to Rabat.  The train was packed because of the long weekend holiday.  Doris has taught me to scramble so I was able to grab a couple of seats in 2nd class before the train filled up. I sat and watched the landscape pass - wheat fields, corn, olive groves, cacti and huge succulents.  I thought, you're not no Kansas anymore Dorothy.  It was beautiful though. The train was airconditioned which surprised me.  I'm not sure why...erroneous expectations.  Nice thing about reality - it screws with erroneous expectations in the most delightful way. I tried not to have "expectations" about Morocco but I did and I do.  I prefer the reality to the fantasy created by the media and our own cutltural bias. This is a complicated country with a rich and varied culture and history - much to experience; much to learn.

This has been a busy week.  We had orientation Thursday and Friday.  We are trying to get all of our paperwork completed - the beauty of beureaucracy.   Doris is getting settled in to her new job - they didn't order any of the books for her classes so life has a new challenge for her right now.  I have any second job interview at the Language Center at AUI today.  Hopefully, I will know if I have a job or not today.  Classes start Wednesday so not much time to prepare if I get hired.  If I don't get hired, then my life will have a new challenge.  Zen mind is good here.  Everyone is friendly, incredibly warm and helpful. Lots of really interesting people at AUI from all over the world - many have worked and lived all over the world.

Morocco is what they call a high context culture - more is implied than what is said.  Life here is all about relationships and connections.  It is very diffferent from the West which is a low context culture. It reminds me of the Old South of my childhood - ask about the family before getting down to business.  When people complain about the heat here, I think...wow, this would be a perfect day in Tallahassee and they think I'm crazy.  I've found that retirement is not the end of an old life but the beginning of a new life.  It's good to be 62 and living large in Morocco.  I feel a tremor in the FORCE - Doris must be waking up!  Got to go.

The le grand taxi to Meknes!

Wednesday we took the le grand taxi to Meknes. We went to the Marché to catch the taxi but the location had _changed.  Doris asked someone where the new location was?  He pointed down the road and told us right at the round about.  We kept walking to each round about and kept asking where the taxi stand was?  Everyone kept point down the road and said right at the round about.  We finally ran out of town and road.  We arrived at the last round about and saw the taxi stand to our right. 

There are two types of cabs in Morocco.  The le grand taxi that travel on a fixed route between towns and the le petit taxi that carry passengers within a particular town – each town has a different color for the le petit taxi. There is set fee for the trip in le grand taxi and the cost is divided up among the passengers while the le petit taxi has a meter.  A single passenger can “rent” the le grand taxi but he or she would pay the full fee.  Tourists will do this but not local Moroccans.  By splitting the fee, it is cheap and affordable transportation.  The taxi can sit 6 people and a driver – 4 passengers in the back and 2 in the front.  If you sit in the back, you are packed in like sardines – you are intimate whether you want to be or not.   The grand taxi only leaves when the taxi is full – 6 passengers.  If you are lucky, it fills up quickly.  If not, you wait.  The taxis have no air conditioning.   Usually the driver’s window is open but Moroccans seem to have an aversion to opening any of the remaining windows not matter how hot it is.  Also many of the windows do not have a window crank so you have to ask the driver for “the crank” to roll down the window. Whoever sits by a window, controls the window.  Even if you can get someone to roll down a window, it mysteriously keeps closing.  Shared taxis are a cultural experience.  We’ve used them in Ghana and in Tunisia.  It’s a simple cheap system that works.

Our taxi filled up quickly for the trip to Meknes.  We sat in the back next to a slender young mother and her baby who was in a car seat.  Yes, the baby had to pay for a seat – a seat is a seat.  No one else in the car is going to pay for more than one seat.  This was incredibly lucky – there is nothing worse than sharing a cab with “large people” – you can’t breathe, you can’t move and the “forced intimacy” is uncomfortable for many westerners.  I actually enjoy using share taxis – it is a cultural experience that most westerners don’t allow themselves to experience.  Also it is an incredibly cheap way to travel.  Doris and I each paid 28 dirham ($3) for a 40 miles trip to Meknes.  The trip took about 45 minutes.  The driver drives like a bat out of hell, weaving in and out of traffic on curves and hills – it is better than the “scary ride” at Disney world.  

The countryside between Ifrane and Meknes reminds me of Colorado or New Mexico.   As you drop in altitude the heat increases dramatically – it was 90 degrees in Ifrane and 104 degrees in Meknes but a dry heat.  Along the way I noticed fields of onions and potatoes, corn, olive groves, apple and peach orchards and huge vineyards – Morocco is a major wine producer.  Once we arrived in Meknes, we caught a petit taxi to the Marché where Doris bought some flowers from a flower vendor – she has been buying flowers from the same vendor for years.  He always remembers her and gives her a few extra flowers from his people to her for her loss.  This always touches Doris deeply that he remembers.  From the Marché we walked to the French cemetery where visited Lancey’s grave. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Medina.  We had lunch at the Restaurant Riad and coffee later on a roof top café overlooking the city near the Mellah, the Jewish Medina that is separate from the regular Muslim Medina.  The original meaning comes from the Arabic world “mel” = salt, it took this name because the Jews were the salt sellers at the time.  High walls surround the Medina – we passed through the Bab Mansour gate and entered the Medina.  We wandered through the streets and alleys of the Medina until we arrived at the Restaurant Riad where we had a lovely lunch in the garden.  We then visited the Mausoleum of Mouley Ismail that was constructed in the 18^th century.  The inner chamber had always been closed to non-Muslims when Doris had been there before but now it is open to tourists.  The inner chamber has fountain and is incredibly cool.  We hung out there for a while to escape the 104-degree heat.  After the Mausoleum we visited the Mellah, the Jewish medina, which lies outside the walled medina.  We stopped for coffee at a roof top café where we had a panoramic view of the Medina, the Mellah and Meknes.  By then we were ready to head home so we caught a petit taxi and then a le grand taxi and headed back to Ifrane.  The heat dropped dramatically as the altitude increased.  It was good to be back home again.