The
Friends of Morocco 40th
Anniversary Celebration tour
had high expectations going in and due to the work of many people exceeded those
expectations. The
tour by 18 members of FOM October 5-15, 2002
visited the coastal cites of Rabat, Casablanca, El Jadida, Safi and Essouira
then went inland to Marrakech and back to Agadir on the coast and into the Souss
Vally and the Anti-Atlas towns of Taroudant and Tafarout over
10 days by chartered bus celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Peace
Corps in Morocco. More than half of the participants extended their time
in Morocco to visit friends “family” and former sites.
Those subsequent visits will be the subject of separate articles in this
and the next FOM Newsletter.
Like
the Moroccan-American Friendship tour in November of 2001, the touristic was
combined with visits with serving volunteers, meetings with Peace Corps staff,
reunion with Moroccans connected with Peace Corps and the U.S., such as the
Moroccan Chapter of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
We visited a women’s
shelter and pediatric cancer ward in Casablanca, the American Language Center of
Marrakech, schools for the deaf in Agadir and a large commercial orange-clementine
farm in Taroudant.
Below
are some of the highlights:
Arriving
by car, train, plane and taxi, the group assembled at JFK airport to board a
evening flight JFK to Casablanca.
We had three volunteers from Morocco 2 serving 1963 to 1965, two starting
in 1968, three starting service in 1970, one from 1990 and another from 2000.
Also on the tour were former residents in Morocco as well as family and
friends of travelers. We
were a diverse group reuniting and spouting fragments of Moroccan dialectical
Arabic in the Royal Air Maroc section of JFK.
A
portentous omen was an article on the group’s visit in the October 5 issue of
Le Matin handed out passengers boarding the flight titled “Une delegation de
l’organisation americaine “Amis du Maroc” a Rabat.
The article was based on a News Release by the US Embassy and Peace Corps
and had been picked up by Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
During
hotel check-in in Casa, we had a set of press interviews.
Mike Smith 63-65 Coach in Casa was interviewed by (and subsequently
published by) the Arabic Language Newspaper “Al Bidaoui”.
Tim Resch did a short television interview and then he and Hassan met
with 15 print journalists. Thanks
here to Boubaker Mazoz, US Embassy Public Affairs Specialist in Casablanca.
After
a visit to the Hassan II mosque on the waterfront, we went for lunch at the
“Association Solidarite Feminine” women’s shelter.
See http://www.lamarocaine.com/solidaritefeminine.
Programs and challenges were explained to us.
Afif Bennani, a noted Moroccan artist, had donated a painting to the
Center for revenue generation, which was generously purchased by Linda
Whittington. Linda
had also assembled in the States collections of toiletries that she also
presented to the Center.
Onward
to Rabat, for a tour of the Peace Corps office and then to the residence of the
Peace Corps/Morocco Director, Barbara Durr for a reception.
Attending were the volunteers of the Volunteer Advisory Committee; Peace
Corps staff, past and present, including the four staff with over twenty years
of service to Peace Corps/Morocco Daouia Belmokadem, Abdou Laanaya, Najia Ben
Bella and Abdesslam El Khomri and the FOM liaison, Mhamed El Kadi; Embassy
representatives, Steve Hanchey of the FOM 2001 tour and now resident in Morocco
as the Director of the Casablanca English Learning Center and Dr Fouzi Msfer
Aloui, Director of the Unité d'Hémato-oncologie
Pédiatrique at the Hôpital d'Enfants de Rabat to which FOM made a donation of
it’s profits from the NPCA 40th Anniversary Bazaar.
Appreciation here to Barbara Durr, Lisa Mirande-Lind and Mhamed El Kadi
for these arrangements and the Peace Corps contacts throughout the trip.
FOM
was presented with a banner “Celebrating 40 years of Peace Corps in Morocco”
prepared by the Dar Chabeb (Youth Center) kids, with the help of PCV Cynthia
Kerr in Ait Ourir, El Haouz –close to Marrakech to carry on our bus and for
the celebration over the next year.
The
next morning in Casablanca we started our day with a visit to the Service d'Hémato-oncologie
Pédiatrique de l'Hôpital 20 Aôut 1953 of Casablanca where we made another
cash donation. Brenda
Byrant Petta had brought three suitcases of toys gathered from her school which
were presented to the children there and in Rabat.
Drs Mhamed Harif and S Benchekroun received the group and provided a
brief welcome and introduction, describing the activities of the ward.
The Director of the Hospital expressed his appreciation via a telephone
conference call.
Most
heart-wrenching was discussion of triage among the children, most families not
having health insurance and generally unable to handle the high cost of
interventions, let alone experimental, unproven procedures.
There was, however, a success wall with photographs of children where
their cancer was in remission.
For some children, it was simply a question of easing the pain on the
road to death. In
Rabat, there was a rest house for a parent but in Casablanca families also
needed to find their own housing as they coped with the illness of their
children. At the
closing ceremony, after having visited the cancer ward, along with the donation
of Friends of Morocco from the sale proceeds at the NPCA 40th
Anniversary Bazaar tour participants passed the hat and more than doubled the
FOM donation.
Safi
our next town is famed for its pottery.
Thirty years ago, the pottery centers of Safi, Sale and Fes each had
their own distinctive style and the municipal style did not vary much.
Like the early Model T, one could get any color you wanted as long as it
was black. Today,
however, the craft and tourist industry have fostered greater diversity and
development of new styles and products.
In
Essouira, we had breakfast with health volunteer, Anna Magarita Cebollero,
based in Akermour. Adding
wood products to the pottery and rugs already purchased started filling up the
bus. By the end of
the trip most nooks and crannies of the bus were filled with new possessions and
people were shopping for bags to carry back their goods.
In
Marrakech, in addition to the Menara , the
Koutoubia Minaret, the Saadian Tombs, the Medina, Souks, the Majorelle Museum
and the exhilarating Jamaa El Fna Square both
during the night and the day, we visited with Michael Abdurrahman Fitzgerald of
the American Language Center of Marrakesh.
It was opening night of the fall quarter and therefore we had the
pleasure of watching students arriving for the 17 classes to be taught that
evening. Hormones
were heavy in the air. FOM
list serve manager, Dave Keiser RPCV Safi '98-'00 is now a teacher at the Center
and after class he joined part of the group for drinks at our hotel.
On our last night in Marrakesh we went to the Moroccan cultural
extravaganza, Chez Ali, where Hassan’s connections got us terrific seats for
both the meal and the entertainment.
In
Agadir we were joined by Marilee McClintock
who entered Peace Corps as a small business development volunteer after a 30
plus year career in urban planning and local government, real estate
development, logistics and international business. She became so enamored
of Morocco and Moroccans that she is making her permanent home in Agadir.
Nick Petit, Small Business Development volunteer joined us for a dinner and Tim
Resch and Mary Garrison met with a dozen mid-term environmental volunteers
coincidently in Agadir for their in-service training.
A
trip to Tafrout allowed the group to meet with education volunteer Victoria
Fletcher, who gave us a tour of the town and shared a slice of her life with us.
For many of us, it was a nice reminder of the joys of connecting with a
community and the affection that a community can give to a stranger.
The subsequent morning in Tiznit allowed the group to purchase
significant volumes of silver and other crafts.
We
took a one day trip to Taroudant for a tour of
El Boura farms, a large commercial irrigated orange-clementine farm managed by
University of Minnesota alumnus Abdellah Radouani. Operation also includes
modern tissue culture lab and environment-controlled glass greenhouse for
mini-tuber production of disease-free seed potatoes (first of its kind in
Morocco, reducing country’s dependence on imported seed) and breeding stable
for Arabian horses. It
was also an occasion for a gathering of the University of Minnesota Alumni
Chapter of Morocco. It
was clear from discussions that Moroccans who have studied in the US have
retained similar affection for and connections with the US as have Americans who
have lived in Morocco. A
terrific Moroccan feast of Mechoui and couscous was served.
We
rushed back to Agadir that day for a meeting the Mohammed
Gharrabi, Wali de la region Souss Massa Draa (subsequently covered in 10/15 Le
Matin) to describe our journey, the impact of Morocco on our lives and Peace
Corps service in his region.
The meeting had been arranged with the Fax and phone intervention of the
Moroccan Ambassador to the US, Aziz Mekouar.
While
part of the tour group returned to the US and the end of the communal portion,
most participants continued their time in Morocco for a couple of more days.
S. Louise Hoare, 90-91 Rabat and at 80
the oldest participant continued on to Rabat and Fes to visit with friends;
Linda and Tara Whittington dallied in Casablanca with an adopted family; Jabeen
Bhatti, the Washington Times reporter accompanying the group went on to see the
desert and to meet with female legislative leaders; Dan Cahill 68-70 and John
Kopec 68-72 journeyed to Kenitra to visit the school where they taught and where
their student was now the Director; Bob Zambrano and Mike Smith traveled to
Tangier to meet with fellow volunteer Richard Netherlin
Ouezzane 63-68 and now Director of the Tangier American Language Center and to
Tetouan to his former school.
Polly Scoville 63-65 visited with friends in Rabat, Tangier and Fes and
participated, along with Hassan Samrhouni, in the swearing-in of the 2002 class
of volunteers.
Travel
arrangement were by Casablanca Travel and
Tours. Owner Hassan
Samrhouni (and FOM member) accompanied the group and was instrumental in dealing
with glitches such as delayed luggage, press interviews for the group and
contacts for the Washington Times reporter traveling with us, and coordinating
special needs and subsequent travel for participants continuing onward travel in
Morocco after the main group trip.
