Monday, November 5, 2001
The end of a big day.
Many memories refreshed. Word
and memories buried deep have sprung to life after 25 years of dormancy.
Words that have not crossed my lips for many years are still there
waiting to be called forth.
What seemed at first to
be a formality, a meet and greet. To
say we had done it and to be on our way turned out to be an opportunity to lay
some perspective and understanding on the new US Ambassador to Morocco of
Morocco and of Peace Corps volunteers transforming themselves, Morocco and
Moroccans. Margaret Tutwiler three
months into the job and bound for the US the following day met with the group
along with Jack McCreay, FOM and now Public Affairs Officer with the Embassy .
We departed the hotel at 8:00 so as to have adequate time to clear
security and to be ready for our 9:00 meeting.
The bus was stopped a block from the Embassy.
I don’t believe Embassy staff was aware that we were traveling by bus
and that, while optional, all the group wanted to participate in the meeting.
That turned out to be good in that we demonstrated the size of our
delegation and the diversity of RPCVs. That
temporary hesitancy by Embassy security was quickly overcame with the arrival of
Barbara Durr, Peace Corps Morocco Director who waved us in and expedited our
passage into the depths of the Embassy.
Meeting started at 8:40
with a brief introduction of FOM, the composition of the group and the reason
for our trip. Each of the group
then introduced themselves, their connection to Morocco and their present
position. I guess I had expected
that trip members would be clones of myself but much richer is the diversity of
the group. Ages 22 to 70, frequent
visitors, first time back and first visit to Morocco.
RPCVs, spouses, brothers, a daughter, and friends of Friends.
The Ambassador had some ideas on our message and process urging us to
meet with the press, which we had already done the evening before, and to
connect with Moroccans on the street. She
would have loved to see us, from the moment we gathered at the Royal Air Maroc
desk in JFK spewing our own unique form of Moroccan dialectical Arabic to
everybody we met. This is no group
of shrinking violets and I sense that we leave a wake of a cultural anomaly
behind as we pass through time and space.
After the meeting with
the Ambassador, we proceeded to the Peace Corps office where we were warmly
received by all of staff. Barbara
Durr and team have substantially spiffed up the space with a new terrace and
shrubbery, lockers and meeting rooms for volunteers.
One special surprise was the coincidence on a wall of photographs of
former volunteers was the photo of Dr Stan Olivier, who was on the trip but who
served in Rabat 1970 to 72.
I think both Peace Corps
and the group got caught up in the symbolism of our visit, that we represented
more than ourselves in returning to Morocco but rather that we were but a
sampling of the 4000 volunteers that had passed through the Peace Corps office
(and the office on 21 rue Van Vollenhoven), had Morocco branded into our hearts
and now were coming home to share what this experience had meant to us and in a
thousand ways had subsequently shaped the rest of our lives.
Barbara Durr welcomed us and outlined the present program and character
of volunteers today. Very few
volunteers in major cities; 90%, however, with an email address and many with
cell phones; home stays from day 3 onward.
Every volunteer gaining a second set of mother, father, sister and
brother; new programs in small business development, youth centers and working
with women and girls.
FOM recognized M’Hamed
El Kadi for his volunteer role as liaison to Friends of Morocco in Morocco.
Appreciation was given for his weekly electronic News clipping service
which is emailed to volunteers and posted each Saturday to the FOM web site, for
his reproduction and mailing of the FOM Newsletter to Peace Corps volunteers and
staff as well as other addresses in Morocco and for his support in helping FOM
connect to volunteers before, during and after their Peace Corps service.
In addition to
participant individually purchasing sweatshirts, T-shirts and cookbooks from the
Volunteer Assistance Committee, FOM presented a check for $500 to the VAC for
continued VAC efforts.
After a quick trip back
to the hotel to change clothes and check out, we proceeded to the Tour Hassan
and the Kasbah of the Odayas. Hassan
Samrhouri started his story of his participation in the funeral of Hassan II,
which needs to be a separate story elsewhere in this epic.
At the Odayas, Tim Resch sprinted off to find his former apartment but
found no one at home and had to be content with a couple of forlorn photos of
the door, walkway and balcony.
Onward to Meknes, with
dreams brochettes in Khemisett dashed by the reality of the freeway and the new
rest area with its special area for truck and bus parking but, thank God, a
pretty good restaurant offering kefta brochettes and tagines.
Each of us with a can of cold coke rather than a shared tall bottle of
warm coke.
Driving through the cork
forest of Mamora, Doug Teschner shared the story of his work in 1971
inventorying the forest and carrying the punch cards to the IBM facility in
Casablanca for processing. Tim Resch
told of the process of harvesting cork from the cork oak and the establishment
of Eucalyptus and pine plantations.
Stan Olivier shared ….
A drive through Meknes
had value with the comments of our guide Ismael who pointed out the three walls
of the city and the archtecture of the various parts of the city.
A stop at Bab el Mansour and the olive market gave time to sample olives,
buy spices and shebekia and starch our legs.
Too much Morocco and not
enough time forced the cancellation of a visit to Volubius but allowed slightly
more time in Moulay Idriss. We
exited the bus in the rain, l’hamdula, but unfortunately it stopped as fast it
started. Morocco is now in its third year of drought, is sustaining
some agriculture by mining the water table and as a host to the Conference of
Parties on Global Climate Change in Marrakesh is starting to realize, as is the
rest of the world, that the climate has changed and will change.
There remains, however, joy when the rain does come.
We climbed to a high point in Moulay Idriss for a photo opportunity
pausing on the way for a snack of sweet bread.
We also caught the fourth call to prayer, which was subsequently
translated by Ismael and re-sung on the bus to Fez.
We got to the Sheraton
in Fez about 7:30, checked in and met for dinner at 8:30.
Dinner was good five star hotel food, but paled in view of some of the
fine Moroccan food we had sampled earlier in the trip.
