Of course I make my daily appearances at the nedi when I am in Assoul, reminding them of the next steps they need to be taking in preparation for the official formation of their cooperative (even though they’re in bureaucratic limbo at the moment, that’s no reason to put the organizational discussions on hold!), and lately, trying to get them focused and prepared for going to their first big craft fair in a couple of weeks (let’s hope that all comes together!). But I still have various GAD (Gender and Development) projects going on – some little and some bigger. One evening this past week week, as I was preparing for an early morning departure for some meetings in Errachidia, my neighbor Fatima, who has one of the stronger business minds among members of the new cooperative, dropped by for one of the one-on-one troubleshooting chats she likes to have with me. I explained, yet again, that among other things, I had a GAD-related meeting to attend with other community leaders in the region – perhaps a little too apologetically noting that this work requires some extra travel and that women and development (I don’t know how to say “gender” in Tamazight) issues are really important to me too. Rather astutely, Fatima echoed a thought that I have often had as well, saying “Well, you need to develop the women at the nedi.” Indeed. Some are more prepared than others for the responsibilities of running a small business, and more and more, I see my “Small Business Development” work as being more of an extension of my GAD work – not only teaching basic business skills, but also pushing them to take initiative, risk new opportunities, and build confidence and leadership skills. In the end, I’ll be happy if even just a few of the women with whom I am working come out a little stronger, because right now I am not sure they will see too many financial rewards from our efforts until after my Peace Corps service is over.
As far as other GAD projects go, last week, I stayed in the town of Rich with several colleagues. There, we partnered with a local association to host a GGLOW Camp, with a variety of educational and recreational activities ranging from nature walks, hygiene and nutrition sessions, English lessons, discussion of gender roles and issues, and world music, dance and yoga! I still hate that I don’t have enough confidence in my Tamazight to be very effective in large-group discussions in that language (but it just didn’t seem right to use French when only half the students understood that), but I was fine helping out with small-group work. Of course at my nedi I have mastered the art of yelling out made-up yoga pose names in Berber, so that worked out all right, and for African dance and group sing-alongs I just used what God gave me. Oh, do I miss doing all those fun artsy things sometimes! Other sessions were led by volunteers with better substantive/educational expertise in those areas anyway, although I was a little disappointed that all the gender discussions were held in Arabic. Some of those girls really got into it, and I would have loved to have understood more! (The upshot of that is that we passed along resources to local association members to allow them to facilitate the gender sessions, fulfilling Peace Corps’ “capacity-building” goals by encouraging the association to hold similar programs on their own in the future!).
As I noted last time, Rich isn’t my favorite town in Morocco, but since I am there so often, it is nice to have had the opportunity to forge some new relationships there, both with members of our partner association – who were remarkably enthusiastic and open, often getting up on stage and dancing and singing along with the children – and with some of the young girls who enjoyed talking to some of us one-on-one, some inviting us into their homes… I really fell in love with one girl in particular, named Nadia, who had a genuine sense of joy about here, discernible in a huge smile that never left her face. Nadia has a clubbed foot, but seems to refuse to let it drag her down either literally or figuratively. Even though we were exhausted from all the invitations we’d received by the end of the week, Nadia had put in her request for our company very early in the week, and it was a pleasure to spend the final evening of the GGLOW camp eating couscous at her house, meeting her family and talking with them about their efforts to improve Nadia’s situation. My thoughts will stay with her, and sooner or later, I have a date to go back to her house for henna.
Also, as I had a whole week in civilization, I got to watch both of the semifinal matches for the World Cup. Even if no African teams were left, as one of my friends reminded me, France was basically an honorary African team. But then again, another friend was happy to see Italy’s success due to their, um, aesthetic appeal (she was actually hoping for an Italy-Portugal final on those grounds). So I felt a little like a real person, watching the sports! Of course there are a couple of cafes in Assoul with solar panels where I could have gone to watch other games if I had really felt passionate about that, but like most cafes in Morocco, those tend to be male turf. As an American woman, I could probably get away with it, but that’s just one of those judgment calls where I prefer not to stir things up too much. I get enough extra attention already.
Right now, I am on my way back from hot hot Errachidia, where I sweated all night while my friend’s crazy cat kept trying to chew off my toes! It was my first opportunity in a couple of months to talk with my government supervisor face-to-face. He is incredibly helpful and encouraging with our efforts to form the cooperative in Assoul, and he seems genuinely interested in making sure that the volunteers under his supervision (he works with all the Small Business Development volunteers in this region) get a lot out of being here. Even though he knew I was primarily in town to help facilitate an evaluation session for a previous GAD conference (a first step towards planning our next one, to be held this fall, in sh’allah), he made sure that my colleague and I knew about a cultural festival going on in Errachidia this weekend. So that evening, after the sun went down, I went with another volunteer and Houssein, a Moroccan friend from the town of Tinjdad who is super laid-back and speaks great English, to Errachidia’s main square. There we checked out some local crafts and live “Moroccan” music ranging from Ganoua (which I love for its strong West African influences) to perhaps the worst rapper I’ve ever heard and some guy dancing and lip-syncing to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” (that’s about the time we left). Then we went to Houssein’s house to grill brochettes on the roof. Turns out, Houssein is actually in the process of building the house, so here I am in a real city with real infrastructure (i.e. electricity), and it feels just like Assoul, with buta lamps and flashlights. But it was pleasant – more like camping when you’re out in the open air (and it’s not your own, somewhat furnished house that you are tripping around in the dark).
One thing is for sure – I must buy a fan if and when our electricity ever gets hooked up!
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