Aliza In The Field
Follow here and on Twitter @alizaapp.
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Showing posts tagged Morocco
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Hello everyone!
My name is Aliza, and this summer I will be traveling through Morocco, Spain and France as an In The Field representative for GlobalGiving.
I am currently a graduate student in Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program, where I study international relations and security. I did my undergrad at Northwestern University, where I studied journalism and Middle East studies, and then worked in journalism for a few years in Cairo, New York and New Jersey before returning to school.
A little about me: I love travel, good grammar, spicy food and British TV shows, and am a firm believer that there is no such thing as “bad” coffee. I studied abroad in Madrid and spent a little over a year living in Egypt, so I am incredibly excited to be headed back to both North Africa and Spain!
Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.
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Yesterday we went to the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, which has the biggest minaret in the world and is the 7th largest mosque in the world. The inside is massive, and the guide told us they can fit more than 100,000 people (which usually happens during Ramadan).
It is also literally on the Atlantic Ocean. There is this huge plaza, and just on the side there is a small beach with kids just jumping off one of the mosque walls right into the water. The whole complex was really beautiful.
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Yesterday we had our first site visit, to SOS Village d’Enfants about an hour outside Casablanca. SOS is an Austrian NGO that operates children’s villages around the world, though in each country they have a slightly different purpose. Morocco has five villages housing 700 children, most of whom were abandoned by single mothers due to the religious stigma in this country of being an unwed mother. Many of the children arrive when they are still babies, but others come when they are older from orphanages around the country. They are allowed to stay until they are 23, or if they find a job before that they can still come home on weekends.
The villages have houses with 8-10 children of varying ages in each, plus a house mother and a few assistants. The above photos are from one of the homes, whose residents very nicely invited us in to meet some of the kids and have some tea. The village also has a kindergarten, social workers and administrators, tutors, and facilities for art, music (that’s Bada, above, showing off his drum skills) and sports.
SOS is doing some really great work, and Shonali and I had a fun visit to the site. Read more about the work SOS is doing in Morocco here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/keep-100-moroccan-children-away-from-abandonment/
Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.
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Marrakech is 110 degrees today
Yesterday, Shonali and I took a three-hour train from Casablanca to Marrakech, which would not have been so bad except that it was not air conditioned. So basically the whole time it just got hotter and hotter, until we got off the train with our giant bags into the sun and it got even hotter than that.
Then, we got lost on our way to the hostel and ended up wandering around the medina (old city), continually asking directions and being pointed the wrong way. Finally, we wandered into this furniture store, where the owner immediately took pity on us and had the store’s errand boy show us the way. It involved a lot of twisty alleys, and I don’t think we would have found it on our own. Anyway, we are now here, planning our week and waiting for the temperature to cool down a bit (fingers crossed for 100 degrees!) so we can go exploring some more in the late afternoon and evening.
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In Marrakech, many hostels (including ours) are housed in traditional Moroccan-style homes called riads. The staff at our riad offered to help another girl staying here learn how to cook a proper Moroccan couscous, and they made enough for everyone. They also showed us how to eat the Moroccan way: no utensils, but you scoop up the couscous and veggies with your hands, roll in into a little ball, and pop it in your mouth like that. Messy, but effective! I have had some good food in Morocco, but this was definitely the best so far.
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One of GlobalGiving’s main partners in Morocco is High Atlas Foundation (HAF), which has several projects in rural Berber and Arab villages in the southern part of the country. On Wednesday, Shonali and I went to see two sites with Abderrahim (in grey t-shirt on left), the project manager, who was nice enough to show us around, make introductions to local leaders, translate from Tamazight Berber, and overall be an awesome guide and resource.
The first project we saw was a tree nursery in the rural village of Tadmamt. The project, to plant 50,000 walnut and cherry trees, is one of many tree nurseries HAF has started in the last two years. The trees stay in the nursery for one or two years, and are then given to local families, who can sell the produce at local markets and use the seeds to plant more trees. The walnuts are a local variety, while the cherries are sometimes grafted onto local varieties.
The trees are cared for a rotation of volunteers from the surrounding Berber villages. One of the men, Omar (above in the hat, with some walnut saplings), showed us the plants in different stages of development and the irrigation systems they had rigged up. The nursery is located in a forest, and so we also met with a government official from the forestry department to talk about the importance of the trees (they help combat soil erosion and flooding in the mountains), as well as some of the people who have received the trees.
High Atlas Foundation has several projects on GlobalGiving! You can read more about and donate to the cherry and walnut tree nurseries in Tadmamt here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/community-walnut-and-cherry-tree-nursery-in-morocco/.
Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.
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The second site we visited with High Atlas Foundation was Tassa Ouirguane, a rural village home to Sami’s Project and several other development projects.
When we arrived at the village, we were welcomed into the home of Hassan (above in the black), the local imam and community leader. Over a snack of Moroccan mint tea, fresh bread and butter, and locally-grown olives, Hassan explained to us the way life in his village has changed since they began working with HAF. The village has about 90 families, and each got at least a few fruit trees, so they can sell the fruit at local markets. They were able to use that money to get electricity for the first time — in 2010. Additionally, HAF partners with the local school, so the students learn about caring for the trees and get to help their community as well.
After leaving Hassan’s home, we walked down the road to see the orchards and site where they would like to put the women’s coop. The coop is the next project the village leaders have chosen for their community, and Abderrahim told us total construction time will be about two months. That’s very fast! This is partly because HAF pays only for the building materials, and then it’s up to the men of the village to build it themselves. They work fast because they’re motivated to improve their own community, which makes them more efficient than any Marrakech construction company. Hopefully the next time GlobalGiving representatives visit Morocco, they will be able to see the finished project.
The walk to the orchards was down this really beautiful path. We were accompanied by Hassan and his son Abdelkarim (above in the orange), who brought an empty crate to pick some of the fruit. We saw apricots, plums, nectarines, and all kinds of other ripe fruit, ready to be picked. As we came to different kinds of trees, we got to try all the different kinds of fruits, which were delicious. Shonali and I briefly worried about getting sick from eating unwashed fruit directly from a tree in a rural village, but glad to say it all worked out fine! After a few minutes, we decided to climb up in the trees also to pick our own. It was a fun and interactive site visit!
This also felt rather like coming full circle. In the morning, we were able to see the small cherry and walnut saplings in the nursery. In the afternoon, we saw a flourishing orchard, where village leaders are successfully selling the produce in local markets. Abderrahim bought a box of the fruit to bring back to Marrakech, and gave us a bagful of fresh apricots and plums. Delicious!
Unfortunately, the school was already closed for summer vacation, but we stopped by to see it (that’s Shonali walking in front of the school gate, above) on the way back to Marrakech. The school is for primary education only right now, but considering the low literacy levels endemic to the region, this is a great start for the village.
High Atlas Foundation has several projects on GlobalGiving! You can read more about and donate to Sami’s Project in Tassa Ouirguane here: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/fruit-trees-for-moroccan-school-kids-sami-project/
Aliza is in Morocco, Spain and France as a part of GlobalGiving’s In The Field program. Follow along at alizainthefield.tumblr.com or on Twitter @alizaapp.
