Author: mcdesmarais

home away from home

Posted on by mcdesmarais

I am extremely happy about my choice to complete my humanities in Morocco. I can honestly say it was the best two months of my life. This country has shown me so much in the short 7 weeks I spent here. In the months leading to and at the beginning of this trip I was extremely nervous. I thought I would hate it. I had never been away from home for so long and I thought I would get extremely homesick. Though I certainly missed my friends and family (and my bed) I never once wished that I was home. The experiences I had on this trip are memories I will keep for the rest of my life. I met so many amazing and kind people who helped me so much and I am extremely sad to be leaving them behind. I am so happy that I chose a place like Morocco. A place outside of my comfort zone. A place with a completely different amazing culture. There are so many aspects of Moroccan culture I wish Americans could integrate into ours.

One thing extremely valuable to me is the lifelong friends I made on this trip. Without my Humanities Girl Gangäthis trip just wouldn’t have been as fun. One of the other things I value was how kind people can be. While not everyone was kind and or accepting of tourists, so many were. We made several friends that I wholeheartedly plan on keeping in touch with. So many of the Moroccans we met were ready to help at any minute we needed. The university students were so open and inviting a few even offered to host us. Imane and Khadija especially made this trip valuable. They were like our older sisters here helping us with so many things. Without Khadija we wouldn’t know how to make half the Moroccan meals we know and the hammam would have been a disaster.  Luckily we had them both.

I would absolutely recommend Morocco to other students I think it’s an awesome, beautiful country. The people are nice, the shawarma is to die for and there are so many cool places to explore. It’s a country you have to spend an extended amount of time in to really fully appreciate it. A few days or a week just wouldn’t do it justice. You don’t fully get morocco until your no longer phased by the driving or incessant horn honking. Until Salam and Shukran are just part of your vocabulary.

This trip has just reinforced my desire to travel.  I want to explore more cultures and countries. I would love to come back to Morocco and see all my friends again. I would love to see more of this gorgeous country. I don’t think I would ride another camel though.

sad streets

Posted on by mcdesmarais

One of the things that has time and time again caused me to stop in my tracks and really made me think is the enormous number of beggars in Morocco. It sometimes feels impossible to walk two while city blocks without encountering at least one. And if you are clearly not Moroccan it’s even worse. One look at someone who they know isn’t local and they assume that you have money to spare.

 Panhandlers and beggars have always made me sad. Even in the states I hate it. It’s a strange feeling because it makes me uncomfortable and I don’t like seeing them, but I also feel such a large pit in my stomach that this is what a human person has been reduced to. Begging on the streets. It’s not that panhandlers are an uncommon occurrence in America because that’s not true. You can see people holding signs asking for money in many places. However, at home it usually seems to be older men and therefore doesn’t make you nearly as sad as when a mother and her child are sleeping on a cardboard box or when a 10-year-old asks you for money. It’s insane that there are so many people in this world with nothing that we are able to decide that a 40-year-old homeless man just isn’t as sad as a mother and child asking for money.

The sheer number of people who beg for money in Morocco is crazy. At every major tourist location, you can see them. At ATM’s. Outside mosques. In the Medina. The list goes on and on. It makes you wonder, are there no systems in place to help? Are there no government funds that go to help those who have nothing? America’s welfare system is flawed to say the least, but it does help those who need it. Struggling young mothers left on the street makes me depressed but what can you do? I certainly can’t afford to give everyone money I don’t have enough. And then how do you pick who gets the money you can give. How do you decide who needs it more who is more deserving? And does giving them money really placate your feelings of pity? 5 dirhams isn’t going to buy much more than a couple loaves of bread or water. What do you when it seems that there is no true way to help?

The whole situation of begging has been one of the things in Morocco that has struck me for reasons I don’t really understand. I give what I can but I continuously feel likeits not enough and it still makes me incredibly sad.

moroccan home

Posted on by mcdesmarais

The longer I spend in Morocco the more comfortable I become. The stares and calls don’t bother me as much. The begging for money is more of an annoyance than an inconvenience.  I don’t feel nervous or scared walking around. The language barrier remains but the more we try to speak to people the nicer and more receptive to us. People laugh at our Darija but I know they appreciate the effort. 

One of the things in Morocco that could use some effort is the buses. Public transit in general is usually not prime however the buses in Rabat are especially horrendous. They look as though they shouldn’t be running. Like the engines might fall out at any given minute. The windows, if you can even call them that, are shattered like someone threw boulders through them. I have seen one or two buses that actually have duct tape keeping them together. Some look like they don’t have doors. A few look like they’ve actually been set on fire. I wonder why the buses haven’t been fixed. Not fixed so much as thrown away. They could be put on display in a museum. The trams are beautiful and new and don’t even have the stench of stale urine that public transit is characterized by. They are efficient and smooth, so it confuses me that people choose to take the bus when it looks like it could give out at any minute. Unless they are really that cheap to ride I don’t see an upside. 

I think I have officially started to be homesick but not for the reasons I thought I would be. I miss the comfort of my own bed and my own room sure I knew I would miss that, but I miss the convenience of having a full-size fridge, a shower I don’t have to wear shoes in, a car, speaking the same language as everyone else around. The easiness of living in your own home and not being a resident for two months. And of course, I miss people at home too it’s so weird living in the age of social media where you can see everyone doing everything and almost feel like you’re there until you realize you aren’t, you’re 3000 miles away. I would never trade this opportunity for the world it’s been some of the days of my life, but I does sting a little to see everyone having fun without you no matter how much fun you’re having. And I can’t say it’s been all fun and games in Morocco it can be really hard here. No matter how safe and easy you feel you always need to remember you aren’t really familiar with your surroundings. If something were to happen to one of us we wouldn’t even really be able to communicate with the police and we aren’t sure they would even try to do something because they simply might not care. It’s a scary thought. Not that the police in America are flawless people but for the most part they will help you if you call. Here you can’t be so sure of that.

With such little time left in Morocco I’m determined to make the absolute most out of this country that’s been my home for the past month.

staring problems

Posted on by mcdesmarais

I’ve seen a lot of things in my two weeks in Morocco. This country has so many good things and amazing people and places sometimes it seems like it’s more than just one singular country. You can look at an amazing view from the Kasbah only to be interrupted by someone selling you tissues for the equivalent of 10 cents in the US so they can survive. That’s definitely one thing that’s thrown me off in my time here. I’ve seen panhandlers and beggars and people trying to sell you things on the street but it’s more intense here. It could just be because I don’t speak the language and I don’t feel as comfortable but it seems to bother me more when they get angry for not giving them money. Which brings me to another hard thing about this country. For the most part in the US beggars and panhandlers are older people who you can clearly tell are not going to use the money to survive. But here it’s young children or women with their babies or elderly women with canes. How do you choose?

You can’t give everyone who asks for money your money because then you don’t have any. I usually will give the children money maybe that’s just my maternal side but I find to feel the worst for them. I’m sure they aren’t choosing to sell magnets, flowers, and tissues to survive they’d rather be acting like children.

Moroccan people are especially nice. They treat guests like kings and are nice and helpful during most interactions I’ve witnessed. Even interactions with police officers are different than in America. However Moroccan people stare. I can’t tell whether as a culture people just stare for a long time as opposed to American standards but its noticeably long. In America if you are staring at someone and they make eye contact with you, you look away- in morocco that is not the case. They will continue to stare even going so far as to turn around after you’ve walked past. It’s almost unnerving as staring usually doesn’t mean something good. I know that I obviously look different than most people here and I am quite obviously a tourist. But the way people stare is borderline rude. And then when they make no effort to hide the fact that they’re talking about me is really strange. Americans have a stereotype of being rude and obnoxious, but I would never openly talk about someone that has done nothing to me. But that could be a cultural or an upbringing thing.

The catcalling in Morocco is new level. Never have I been talked about so much. No matter how you dress or act the men here still have a comment some even go as far as following us for a short while. Even American construction workers have nothing on young Moroccan men. But even though I think they genuinely think we are your typical American floosy they don’t actually want us to respond to them they would have no idea how to react if we walked up to them to talk. Maybe we should do that one day as a social experiment see how they react if we don’t seem scared. Because I think that’s why they do it. Men need to have control. Its in their DNA and in a country like morocco where its not a great political or economic scene it’s their form of power. They know that we aren’t from here so we don’t feel totally comfortable or even safe at times. And they are from here they know the people the police the language the streets and they exert that over us.

Overall Morocco is filled with amazing culture and people peppered with the same sad problems every country faces.

adventures

Posted on by mcdesmarais

I have tried extremely hard to keep my perceptions to a minimum. I wanted to go into this experience with an open mind and form my opinions based on what I see and hear myself rather than what other people tell me.  I think all my anxieties are based on spending so much time away from my family rather than being fearful of spending time in Morocco. I have never been away from my family for 7 weeks and have my reservations about it. The only time I’ve even been out of the country was 12 days in high school I am close with my whole family and while I’m excited and grateful for this opportunity I’m still nervous about leaving them. I have a lot of anxiety about not letting myself have the time of my life because I’m too homesick. I don’t want to focus on the negatives of this trip I want all my attention to be on why it’s going to be amazing.

 

Every time I call my mom I have a little buyers remorse. Two months isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of things but when your sick and exhausted emotions tend to run high. My mom was also very against the trip from the start. She loves Holyoke and sees no reason to venture from her safe comfort zone. I love my mom with all my heart but I don’t want to go through life uneducated about the world. I want to see, I want to experience. Massachusetts isn’t enough for me no matter how much I love the people there. I need more.

 

I think once I’m in the beautiful country of Morocco taking in all there is to offer I won’t be homesick anymore. I hope to gain a lot of perspective on this trip. Being from the United States there is no real culture division. I want to immerse myself in the culture and get as much as I can. I also want to learn to spend time away from home to prepare myself for the future.