Last Week: Coming Home

So for my final week in Morocco, I lived in a hotel by the old Medina in Rabat. On Monday we started the day at 8:00am and half of my program presented their Independent study projects. It was wonderful to hear their projects and see the ways in which they tackled the project. Then on Tuesday, we went through the rest of the program. Those days were very long but it was nice to be finished with “academics” by Tuesday. I presented on Tuesday and was happy to have many of classmates compliment my presentation.

Then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I basically relaxed and caught up on much needed sleep. I walked around Rabat, finished a book and chilled with friends. It was a very nice way to end the trip. The entire time thought, it did not seem real that I had been in Morocco for over three months and that my time was coming to an end. Was I really leaving??

Then Saturday came and to the airport I went. Luckily, I was with friends from the program each leg of the flight. The flight went smoothly and I can’t really complain. I was able to catch up on some american movies 🙂

When I finally got off the plane and finally grabbed my luggage, my two wonderful parents were waiting for me! Bless their hearts, it was amazing to see them.

I then went to the Tosi’s house and enjoyed a wonderful meal and even better company. My first meal was some quality pulled pork sandwiches. Couldn’t have had it any other way. It was the first time I was eating pork in three months 🙂

I am happy to be home and even happier to catch up with people in person. I told my professor in Morocco that this experience was amazing but also challenging, sometimes very challenging.  But I’m glad I did it and I have learned so much about myself and the world. Part of me also feels as though, I am just a car ride away from Morocco, instead of an ocean away. All my memories and experiences are fresh in my mind and vivid in my memory. I am happy that I kept this blog so that I can go back and read about my own experience. I also am happy that many friends and family followed me on this journey.

Morocco definitely changed me for the better and I am excited to see how this journey impacts my education and my future.

Week Sixteen

This is my final week in Morocco. I honestly an so happy and I can’t wait to come home. This past week, I focused on writing my ISP and figuring out how to draw conclusions from my findings. I always forget how hard writing can be, but I feel pretty satisfied with the end result. My Independent Study Project is more similar to a preliminary research rather than an in depth research project. By looking at the project this way, it makes it easier to draw conclusions and also is much less stressful. When I have my finished product, I would happily email you the finished product if you would like to read it.

With that said, I really have become very fond of Morocco. In someways, I wish I wasn’t so happy to leave. But after living in a hotel, to living with a family, to living in an apartment and back to a hotel, I am read for my home and a place that I am familiar with. Not to mention every two to three weeks I was having an excursion. I learned a lot about migration this year and in more ways than one felt like a migrant myself. I am very happy to have gone abroad to Morocco and seen this country with its huge development projects and legislative changes. This is a very unique country with pressure from Europe to ‘develop’ but at the same time trying to navigate through social change as well.

I love getting a taxi and chatting with the taxi driver. I love seeing the buildings seemingly stack on top of each other. I love the mint tea and the cous-cous. I love walking everywhere. I love buying groceries only for one day. I love seeing hijabs and djlabas. I love hearing the call to prayer. I love that I have lived here long enough to make to sparkle go away but become part of the society. I am extremely thankful this experience. Thankful for the program and the people I met here, also thankful to my parents for trusting me to be safe and do well.

This week is filled with lasts. Last day in the apartment, last Monday, Tuesday ect., Last day in the Medina, Last day in Rabat. Last time in the airport. Last flight home.

First time home. First hug after Morocco…

I can’t wait! Love you all 🙂

Week Fifteen!!

WOWOWOWOW I have been living in a completely different country for fifteen full weeks. And I have less than two till I’m home in my own bed. So this past week was both very productive and holds some of my favorite memories from Morocco. First I was able to interview a musician who is from Nigeria. He was a really cool person and had an even cooler life story. I really enjoyed talking to him. My friends and I went down to Casablanca and traveled to the Morocco Mall. The cool thing about this mall is that it is the largest mall in Africa. (Egypt might have one that is larger, but the internet isn’t clear) It was super fancy and filled with stores that I could only dream of shopping in. But it was really fun to go the mall, it felt very ‘home’. They even had a huge fish tank that you could scuba dive in!

Then I was able to interview another artist. This was awesome as well! He had an exhibition at the mega mall, so it was really neat to talk to him with his work right in front of us. I had a really good conversation, even if it was mostly in french 😛 That same day, my flat mates and I decided to try our hand at making Thanksgiving dinner. This was lots of fun. It did make me homesick but it was super nice to make the food and just enjoy spending time together. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, cheesy cauliflower, turkey sandwiches and tagine- apple pie.

Then because Kait an I had worked hard that week, we decided to treat ourselves and go to Chefcheuon. This is a beautiful city on the side of a mountatin in the north of Morocco; and was just what I needed before I hunker down this week and write my paper. Only thing is that it was freezing! I’ve really gotten used the the ‘cold’ 50 degree weather in Rabat. But I will these pictures speak for themselves.

So this city was beautiful and I’m so glad that I went to see it. Today I drove back and we have two other students joining us in our appartment. I got some good writing done and I’m feeling fine. I am feeling very happy and hopeful. I’m starting to enjoy everything about Morocco because I know I’ll be leaving it soon but at the same time I’ve been thinking about all the wonderful things I’ll do at home in the states! I’m caught in a weird place this week and I hope that b focusing on writing and revising I can make the week fly.

Beslama!

Week Fourteen

Wow, I have been in Morocco for fourteen weeks. That’s almost three full months and one hundred and thirty two days. I have still have three full weeks left, but only three. Gaaahhh!

With that this week I was able to make some headway on my research. On monday, I did some more research and wrote part of my paper. Then on Tuesday, I was able to go to the African cultural center and meet with Dally. Dally is an artist from Cote D’Ivoire. I was able to have a really neat discussion with him about his art and the different ways that being a migrant has affected his works. The next evening I returned to the cultural center and listened to a storyteller also from Cote D’ivoire. It was very neat to see and experience. The performance was in French so I was able to understand most of one story, but then the storyteller started to speak quite fast. As I have said to many times, my French comprehension is shooting through the roof and I can really understand most things especially if people speak with good diction but my speaking is very much that of an elementary student. When I get back to the states I want to continue working on my French to hopefully become fluent one day.

My research is progressing although I still find the language barrier frustrating.

On Wednesday, I video chatted with my family and found out that we have a new puppy! Not going to lie, this made me very happy and has consistently made made me happy. If I’m feeling down, all I have to think about it that little guy there and me meeting him for the first time. I’m so excited!!

On Thursday I met with my advisor and he was able to give me some helpful pointers on how to analyze the art work that I am looking at.

Morocco, the city of Rabat especially, has really started to feel “normal”. I actually enjoy the calls to prayer during the day and I don’t mind the bustling noises of the city. Arabic is fun to listen too and I don’t mind venturing on my own.

I do apologize for the short post but all of things that I do are planning for interviews, thinking, reading, shopping for small items of food. Nothing dramatic or exciting. I have two weeks left for my project and then one week for presentations.

Can’t believe I am coming to the end section of my trip!

Week Thirteen

This week I started figuring out how to live on my own. Although many people my age live on their own, this was really a first for me. I had to start thinking about all the basics which I normally take for granted. Laundry, food preparation, even my daily schedule. This transition was a bit jarring at first but I’m getting used to it now. I believe the hardest part is getting my mind motivated to accomplish the research. On Wednesday, I had a wonderful conversation with my mother, where  she helped me think through my project. Not only that, but she and my Dad helped motivate me to keep going. Its less than a month till I get home! But I need to stay focused.

On Friday, I had cous-cous with some other friends from the program. It was so wonderful to touch base with them and hear how their projects are going. Its also a bit sad because I normally saw these people everyday and now some of them I wont see till the end of the program. Feelings aside, the cous-cous was delicious and the company was swell

My friend Kait is letting me borrow her camera so I have more pictures for you! Here is my apartment.

Today I tried my hand at baking chocolate chip cookies. I was trying to fry them first, but ended up baking the all the dough in a skillet to make a cookie pizza sort of creation. But the yum factor increased the desirability.

  

Week Twelve

Week Twelve

Twelve is a wonderfully spelled word. I look up the etemology of this word because I was interested to know how this word came about. It derives from the words “two left” as in you have ten of something with two left over. Therefore twelve. There are some similarities to german and Danish but it’s neat to see how ideas of numbers shape the ways in which we count. Anyhow, I am officially closing out my twelfth week in Morocco. This was a week of ‘lasts. My last week of Arabic class, my last week with my home stay. My last week having lectures and my last week walking in the old medina each morning. *Sigh* I really will miss it, a lot. Although I have complained and nagged on about my host family, they really are wonderful people. My host mom, who is the grandma of the house has been so sweet. She really does take care of my here. She will make me food whenever, buys me toilet paper and even gave me a house key. I can’t say thank you enough. Today as a parting gift, I am going to give her some origami flowers. It’s not a lot but I figure it’s more personal than something that I could have found in the medina, not to mention she lives here and can get medina things anytime.

I am moving into an apartment about 10 minutes away where I will be living with two other girls from my program. I am still concentrating my project around Sub-Saharan migrant art and was able to contact the administrator for a African culture center. My friend, Cassandra and I are meeting him on Monday so we shall see how it goes! I am excited to start research. Cassandra is working through the same center as me, so we will be able to talk about our projects and help each other out. I am both excited and nervous to be living on my own. I know that for some people living alone isn’t new, but this is new for me. I haven’t really had to consider my meals before with much thought. Everything about this month will be new for me, just another way this abroad experience is challenging me.

Basically this week, our classes kinda tied up the loose ends. We had a session covering more information about the IRB and then we talked about past ISP’s. These sessions were pretty low key and allowed us to discuss our topics and research questions. There was one session where divided up into groups based on topics. I was able to discuss more detail what I was hoping to do for my project.

Yesterday I met with people from the African cultural center. They were super helpful and very excited to work with me. (Thank heavens!) Also the head coordinator assured me that it would very easy to get in contact with Sub-Saharan artists. I also am trying to creat an art book for the center so that they have a physical documentation of different artists that have showcased their work in the Center.

Today was more or less a relaxing day. I needed to catch up on sleep and rest because my body and brain have just been going, going and going. With that, I was able to find some good sources and watch and interesting movie about President Bush’s presidency. Pretty nervous about conducting my own research and so we shall see how these next four weeks will pan out!

Belsma!

Week Eleven

This week, I was trying to transition for having a busy weekend to going straight into school work. It was quite hard because I did not have the two days I usually do to recuperate and recharge. When I came home from the village stay, I had bought my homestay mom a bottle of olive oil from the village. Every excursion I have been bought something for homestay mom to show here that I really appreciate her. Because of the language barrier, my hope is that actions speak louder than words. The next day my homestay mom gave me a tea pot from the medina! It is super nice and I will be able to make tea away from the homestay! I’m quite excited.

On Monday, I received a lecture about social movements and watched a documentary about the Feb. 20^th movement. So you know how there were protests and even uprisings in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria and Syria? This is called the Arab Spring and similar demonstrations happened in Morocco. It was not as big, but in some ways just as controversial. Then on Thursday, I was able to receive a lecture from my advisor Yousouf El Alamy. He showed our class some interesting points about modern art and read us an expert from his new book. It’s exciting to hear from individuals who are so accomplished. Then on Friday, we were lectured by a woman who is doing her doctorate studies on Hip hop and Rap culture in Morocco. Again super interesting. There are a couple very famous rap artists that actually talk a lot about Moroccan pride and identify rather than touching on social issues or conflicts. One rapper even made a song speaking out against the Feb 20^th movement. It is pretty evident that he has been paid by the king to produce these songs.

This weekend I relaxed and spent time catching up on emails and classwork. I worked on studying for my Arabic final and figured out my class schedule for spring semester. I also now have an apartment that I am going to share with two other girls in less than a week. We will use this apartment during our Independent Study Projects. I have been thinking more about what I want to during my month of research. Still keeping with the theme of art, but I am planning on going to a Culture African center and use them as a home base of sorts.

On Sunday I was able to video chat with my family and it was so nice to see them! I love talking with them and catching up. It was noted how cold Maryland is getting. I said that I wish we could switch weather because I miss the rainy, cold, windy weather of fall. It still reaches low 70’s here and I usually find myself sweating when I walk from one place to another. I realized how much I love fall and winter weather and will fully appreciate the dreary weather of January, February and March.

While talking with my family, I realize that I still have about a month and a half left here in beautiful Morocco. I have been trying to navigate between enjoying everything about study abroad and also being homesick. I don’t want to miss moments because I’m thinking about home. But at the same time I do miss the US and college and my family. Looking back on everywhere I have been so far, it’s cool to see all the things that I have learned. Looking forward to living with my friends and conducting research, we shall see how it all goes!

Belsama!

Things Learned; Things Gained

So as I have been living here in Morocco, At first everything was new and different. Things seemed to stand out even more when I was unfamiliar with them. The other afternoon, as I was sitting in my home stay house, I realized there are a number of things that don’t even phase me anymore. I thought it would be a fun list of things to share. ( I do apologize for using the word ‘things’ about 5 times within three sentences)
So here they are:
First, language. When I fist arrived in Morocco, I was very aware that I did not speak the language. Sometimes it bothered me to the point of anger that I could not communicate properly. I would try to listen to every conversation and understand what people were saying. I was thinking that the more I tried to decode the language the more I would retain. Now I sit in my home stay and don’t really care when I don’t understand. If people speak to me, I am happy. If they don’t, I am also happy. The language barrier is still present but much less annoying. I realize I’ve tried hard to break it but during my stay here I will not be able to overcome it.
Second food:
I don’t even think twice when I reach for the bread and use it a fork. When people tell me to “kuli” or eat more, I just do. I no longer try to fight it. I actually like eating bread with every meal and have gotten used to eating large meals with no snacks in between.
Third trash:
As I walked to my class today, I stepped over a pile of trash sitting in the middle of the road. When I first arrived the trash was a bit unbearable. I have been in dirty areas but I couldn’t seem to get away from it here. I took the trash in the streets as a sign that people here don’t care about where they live. First, this is not the case, in Morocco people view trash differently. It is not a sign of disrespect when you leave your trash on the street rather part of the collection system. Men will come around with big carts and pick up most of the trash, but it has to be on the street first. I now just step around it and understand that here there is a different standard to cleanliness.
Fourth the cats:
Now this might sounds weird but when I first arrived, I could not believe the number of cats I saw. At first I was sad that there were all these homeless cats around, then I got disgusted because of all the germs they probably have. Now I walk through the Medina and don’t flinch when I see cats napping together in the street. If they scurry by me, I just watch and let them be.
Fifth the Americans:
When I first got here, everything about my American classmate annoyed me a lot. They would do and say things that I thought were completely obnoxious. I think this was partly because I also do these things, and think I myself am being annoying or childish. Anyway, now when people say and do things that bother me, I see it more as a reminder of good ole America. Personality quirks are no longer reasons for me to be annoyed, but rather I smile and think “oh they are just being silly; imagine them saying that in their class at home.”
Looking at this list, I realize that I’ve become more content with my surroundings, but also with myself. I have finally decided to be ok with where I am and who I am. Although I still have challenges some days, I try to focus on the things I have already accomplished. When learning Arabic get frustrating I remember that I have learned the alphabet and how to read a significant amount in less than two months. Every day I am still learning more about myself and Morocco and I am starting to really enjoy both.

Week 9

This week passed with much less jazz and paszzaz as the other weeks. I went to Arabic in the mornings and spent time in class in the afternoon. On Wednesday, Kait and I went to the modern art museum that just opened at the beginning of the month. It was so cool to see the different art. All of the artists in the museum are Moroccan. The art was very unique and intriguing because it reflected various different movements within art but did not necessarily fall into specific categories of cubism or surrealism. This notion also may have come from the fact that the art was not displayed in that way. Either way, it was really cool and I was happy to spend over 2 hours there. My friend Kait and I were able to have fun conversations about the art. It was nice to have someone else interested in discussing art. Then on Friday, my class and I went to Faq min Saleh which is a small village west of Casablanca where we stayed with a village family for three and a half days. We actually stayed outside of the town in the ‘douwar’ or surrounding countryside. When we were driving there, we passed farm after farm. The countryside does not visibley lend itself to successful farming. First the soil is extremely and second the soil is clay and very rocky. After arriving to the ‘douwar’, we walked to a house where we were going to have class the next day. The road was bordered by farms with a lot of olive trees. There were cows and horses. Carts with vegetables and lots of dist. When I first stepped if the bus, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy my stay in the village; I am too in live with the city. We then walked to a house that didn’t look like much on the outside. After entering the house, we saw a beautiful room that was very well furnished in the typical Moroccan style. You sould tell that this family had money. Then men from the village filled into the room with us and waited to take us home. We were given a brief introduction by Dr. Abni who is a sociologist that grew up in this ‘douwar’. It was such a blessing that he knew these families personally. Two by two our names were called and my friends went with each family. My class mate Jesse and I were romming together and after all the other students had left, we still hadn’t been called. Our assistant professor Widad then told us that we would be staying in the beautiful house that we were in. Jesse and I couldn’t believe it! We were so happy and excited. Both of us would have been happy staying anywhere but we were given a palace. The family is: Mustafa (the dad), Ne’eema (the mom), Ptsimmen (the daughter, 16), Said (brother,14) and Ismail (brother, 7). The house way beautiful but our family was even better. Jesse is much more outgoing than me and so was able to keep the conversation going. I became the translator when something couldn’t be said through hand motions because I somehow was able to remember quite a bit of Arabic. Woot! We ate a wonderful meal of harira, a soup served at Ramadan, and some spaghetti. Yummm. That night I was not able to sleep super well because of the roosters and dogs that literally did not stop making noise. You know the saying that the rooster crows at the crack of dawn? Yes? Well, that is completely false. The rooster crows all through the night and into the morning. The rooster could care less if it was “just before dawn”. Just my little rant.
Anyways, the next day we held class at our house and had a session about how to do good research in a village setting. There are different challenges that a researcher will go through in the village as opposed to the city. Then we were able to talk about to women and men who were impacted by migration. The area we were staying in is heavily influenced by migration. First, everybody has at least one family member abroad. Almost every family receives remittances from abroad. In this area, though, men go to Italy or Spain rather than the Netherlands. The regional differences come from the fact that migrants rely heavily on family relations to be successful abroad.
The women that we talked to both had husbands abroad and were raising their kids by themselves. The impact of migration definitely had an emotional impact on these women. Then we talked to the men, their experiences were focused on the different jobs that they had abroad. They didn’t really touch on the emotional impact that migration had on them. We were given a “tour” of the village where we walked around and saw a clusters of houses by the mosque. We also saw the school, were my younger host brother went. He grabbed my hand and showed me around his school. It was so sweet!! Ismail reminded me of Luke my younger cousin. After this we had these interviews everybody left and spent the night with our homestays. Jesse and I went over to our extended families house were we a big dance party. All the girls were dressed up in beautiful djlabas and dancing to Moroccan music. When I walked in a mom grabbed me and dressed me in a purple djlaba with an embroidered covering. Dancing was so much fun! Moroccans dance much like a belly dance where the hips move at a different beat from your shoulders and arms. Because I was wearing three layers of clothing, I stared to sweat SO MUCH. I had to sit down with my friend and just watch everyone else. It was really cute cause the kids even the younger boys danced around to the music.
The next day, we went to the souq near the dowar. One of the families brought around a horse and cart and about 15 people piled on. Only the men and children came with us, none of the women. It was about a thirty minute drive to the souq. When we arrived, there were a ton of tents set up in this dusty area. As we walked around it was evident that there were certain sections of the souq such as the produce part, the butchering part and the clothing part. These tents were strewn across at least an acre or two. Our family was buying vegetables. First we wandered around looking at all the produce and then the head of the family would stop and starting picking up vegetables. I forgot to mention that all the produce was in big piles on tarps on the ground. Potatoes, pepper, squash, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, yams, beets, carrots, and many others were all within the souq. The interesting thing is that there were no signs with prices on them. Instead everyone seemed to know the prices of the produce. It was busy and loud, but also fun and exciting. My host sister came with me and she told me that this is one of the few times she has ever gone to the souq on Sunday. Then we got back the same way we came, on the horse carriage thingy. Trotting back, it reminded me of the slow paced country lifestyle that can be so alluring at times. Although there is still a lot of work to do on the farm, there seems to be no emphasis on time whatsoever. That night our hands were decorated with henna and we danced some more. The next day we helped collect olives from an olive tree. Again we were a big spectacle and the kids and the neighborhood came out to join us. I really loved staying in the village. Leaving them was like leaving my family back in America. Even though I was only with them for three days, they so willingly opened up their homes to let us stay there.
On a school sort of note, I have been getting ready to start my ISP. I have decided to look into a Cultural African Arts center instead of just focusing on visual art. I hope to just focus my ISP around how the center operates and interacts with the community. I am currently looking for an apartment in Rabat. Knowing that I six weeks left is both crazy and exciting. I am looking forward to conducting my study but also having time alone away from school. Again, I am very healthy and have little to complain about, just tired.
Beslama!

Week 8

Week 8

So as I said before, my class was taking an excursion to the North of Morocco. This area is referred to as the “Riff”. This word translated literally means border. With that the Riff area has an interesting history with the rest of the continent of Morocco. When the French colonized the southern regions of what is now Morocco they allowed the Spanish to colonize the north of Morocco or the Riff area. Due to the fact that Spain was not as wealthy as France, they were not able to invest that much into their colony. Because of the differences in French and Spanish control, the Riff area was never very well connected with the south. The Riff is also very mountainous and the main economy cannot come from agriculture. These different factors have created the Riff to be a place that is very undeveloped. Even the city of Al Hociema relies heavily on tourism and is now where near as large as other cities in the south. With all this in mind, European countries started to recruit Moroccan manual labor. For people living in the Riff, this was an excellent opportunity to help send money back home and provide for their families. Going abroad became very popular and over the course of history, entire family groups and villages have migrated. In this way, migration to Europe has directly affected many different communities in the Riff. This is why my group and I traveled to the north. We met an organization that dealt directly with return migrants that were having legal trouble with the Dutch government. Recently there have been a lot of different laws passed concerning retired Moroccans that have returned back to Morocco. Many times these migrants cannot read Dutch, so this organization gives legal help. It was first started by a Dutch priest but is now continued by a Moroccan lawyer and his wife. Moroccans abroad are in a super interesting position. While in their host country they are still treated as citizens by Morocco BUT their host country also provides different programs that can help them. The Dutch government is now trying to get rid of legal responsibility that they had previously given to Moroccans abroad. I, personally, think there is a huge lack of responsibility on the Moroccan government side. Although Morocco counts migrants abroad as citizens, they do not provide much legal protection within those host countries. There is also a weird desire to keep migrants abroad “Moroccan”. Second generation Moroccans are encourages keeping ties with their heritage and their parents country. In contrast the US expects integration and second generation immigrants not given any special recognition. Just some interesting differences. Also the politics of migrants abroad is very charged at this moment and very complicated.

After visiting Berkan, we went to Nador which is a city/town right next to the city of Melilla. Melilla is a Spanish enclave in Morocco. There are two Spanish enclaves in Morocco and also some military ports. Just some remnants of colonialism. Melilla is important though because Sub-saharan migrants try to pass this border and then claim asylum in Spain. Nador has become a transit city both for people and goods. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and there were not than many people out. I walked around the market to see the smuggled goods and was surprised to see second hand things from spain. The market looked more like a garage sale. Some of my friends walked close to the border and were not even questioned by the police. Many times the police will allow goods to come across even though it’s obvious that they are smuggled. There is a very peculiar informal economy that goes on between Nador and Melilla.

After Nador we finally arrived to Al Hociema, the most beautiful part of the trip. Here we spent three days, learned some history of the area and went in a national park. Here are pictures that I took:

This place was absolutely breath taking! The mountains were right on the coast. Coming from the slopping hills of the Appalachian Mountains I never had seen cliffs going straight into the sea. We met Hakim who is a activist in the area and he explained a bit more to us how promoting Berber or Amazight culture is actually quite political. During our drive through the national park we stopped at a town called Bades. We visited an elementary school and played a game with the kids. Many of these kids will only reach the 6^th grade. This makes me sad because I think education is so important, at the same time this is their way of life. More education would be beneficial but it’s not necessary if you are going to stay in the village and be a farmer or fisher. Then we went to a beach where there is a Spanish military base. Its super-duper small. The most interesting part of this beach was the “border” between Spain and Morocco. On the ground there is a thick blue rope lying about 20 meters from the Spanish base. Yes, just a rope splitting two countries. It’s hilarious actually and just re-enforces the absurdity of borders in general that were drawn by colonial powers. No one really knows about this place. No you might ask, why does Spain still have this small military base? Well, because Spain likes to have a foot on Morocco “just in case”. Ah, again, the joys of colonialism. With that we ate lunch at a village house and were served fish straight from the Mediterranean Sea. I really loved staying in al Hociema and breathing in the fresh air. I wrote some poetry regarding this excursion. Normally I don’t share my poems or whatever you want to call them, but I think they help you understand how happy this excursion made me.

In Al Hoceima

Driving around. Seeing everything beautiful.

It’s at these moments I am in awe of everything.

I cannot imagine a more beautiful place.

This area. The sea. The buildings the charm.

Mer* beckons me and entices me to go in.

She is there waiting. He is restless

Then I see a cactus and a humble home.

The cast capture of the landscape reminds me of my individuality.

I am put in my place as I see everything wonderful.

Their beginnings remind me I do not need to be powerful in

this life

Humbly I can live. In a world of my own.

What is this notion of a global traveler?

Why do I think I need this?

Here against the mountains

there sits a mosque.

Backed by the darkness of the tall beings behind.

An Ode to Al Hociema

I gasped when I first saw you

Your mountain ranges expanding far

There you sat on the coast. What could I expect?

when I saw this city, It was humble.

A beautiful garden there is was

Then those tall buildings with the red on the sides

Men sit in cafes and watch as the bus drives by

I feel the sun on my face

First it shines on the sea, then the reflections

brighten up this city

In the morning the cars hum be

there are crisp breaths taken by the walkers.

As I leave, I see those staircases of houses

homes of the rich.

Outlined in blue they sit ontop of a mountain

looking over the whole city as if to say “this is mine”.

The towering expanse in the background catches my eye

These cliffs of ridged rock. Their harsh stare as I drive by.

Nothing covers this being; it sits amoungst

its brothers all rising tall

Right on the border of the sea

The mountains give off power and justice

Then I look back and Al Hociema sits in between

A quiet city nestled safely by the surroundings

Al Hociema you surprised me, I loved you more than I thought I could.

Please keep well while I am gone.