​Friday, January 13, 2012 -- Rabat, Morocco​
 

This was a fantastic "field trip" sort of day, in which we could actively compare the approaches and attitudes toward political and social development from both internal and external perspectives.  Our first visit of the day was to Morocco's USAID office, where two youthful American field officers spoke about the challenges and opportunities in Morocco's development with much candor.  They had us brainstorm funding allocation and then hit us with the reality of a shrunken budget, in a very effective group exercise.  I asked about how they gauged success in their projects, and they answered that there are indicators attached to goals, but alternatively their failures are also considered analytically.  Great discussion.

Parliament came next.  I was surprised at how pitiful their library is, but pleasantly taken aback at the pristine, in not outdated, beauty of the building and its furnishings.  Tellingly, however, our guides in the Chamber of Deputies described one of the powers of Parliament as being "also the ability to suggest new laws," rather than the usual business of rubber stamping the laws handed down from the king.  In my mind, Parliament is just another "golden cage" for the Makhzen. 

Likewise is our final destination for the day - the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), a branch of the Ministry of the Interior.  In a beautiful form with exceptional hospitality, the hosts read a sanitized laundry list of general procedures and abstract goals in Moroccan social development.  Because most Moroccan agencies perform without auditing or oversight, I really doubted the veracity of their answer to my question about target numbers of people benefited and re-employed.  This day was full of fantastic developmental contrasts, and I felt informed even when the answers were oblique.

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Sunday, January 22, 2012 --  Arlington, Virginia, USA
I have now spent a full five days back in the United Sates and have gone through notes from lectures, pictures, recollections of experiences, and have begun researching my paper topic.  My topic will be the illegal movement of people and goods in and out of Morocco and Europe.  It is a topic that was hardly touched upon within our lectures or reading material, though we did have some nonspecific information on the theme from both Dr. Elmadmad and the Fondation Orient-Occident.  Yet it holds a great deal of mystery and interest for me. 

I find that, having visited a new location or country, I often feel sensory overload with new experiences, as well as a reinforced notion that I am aware of what I don't know, what I didn't experience, of all that I have not yet touched upon significantly.  My time after living a year in Colombia was this way, and I expect that it is a natural and humbling response after being exposed to another way of living.  This is why I love to travel - you relearn humility each time.

Najat, my host mother in Rabat, told us "Good lucky in life!" the moment before Scott and I left on Wednesday morning.  That will stick with me for some time - a successful cultural bridge, a new friendship, and well-wishes for the future.

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Maegan Rees



January 15, 2012

After some fresh air in the gardens of Marrakech we headed off to a women’s cooperative in an extremely poor suburb.  We got off the bus and were surrounded by the color brown. There was no visible agriculture or paved roads.  Just a cluster of what appeared to be newly constructed apartment buildings but the builders, contractors, and donors constructed and left.  It appeared that they never gave thought to the lack of resources and finances of this area to maintain these buildings.  So they have dilapidated quickly.  All the while a group of boys stood in a huddle kicking around a deflated soccer ball.  Americans on a bus will come, take a few pictures, and maybe buy some glassware which will feed a lucky few in what appeared, yet certainly was not, an abandoned town.  Americans will leave and these kids will still stand in that huddle while my new hand painted glasses sit on a shelf.



January 17, 2012

In my first journal entry I questioned whether I could feel comfortable in Morocco.  Seventeen days later I am saddened to leave this country that suffers from a split identity, that houses impoverished children next to wealthy tourists, and does not view single mothers as functioning members of society but has laughed with me while I tried to speak their language, has fed me some of the most delicious food, and even scrubbed me clean. 
I look through my journal entries and notes that I have furiously taken in the past three weeks and try to compose what I learned most about Morocco.  Identity crisis is the first thing that comes to my mind.  Three weeks later I am still unable to answer whether Morocco is African or Middle Eastern or more Westernized, Islamic or Arabized Berbers, thriving under a monarchy or in need of democratization, but I think this makes me closer to a true Moroccan.  Although these clashes of language, culture, and daily life has strained Morocco is has also made it unique.  A quote by Howe in our reading on Split Identity sticks out in my mind “Moroccan daily life is a multicultural experience to the extent that any visitor who knows French or Spanish can communicate easily and feel quite at home.”  It only took a few days and at home I felt in Morocco.