More than just a postcard picture

When describing a country that is as rich in culture and history as Morocco, it’s often easy to forget that poverty can still be seen everywhere. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but the areas that I walk through first strike me as being rustic, picturesque, and quaint and it’s only until I willingly look past the brightly coloured façade that I see the poverty right in front of my face. As I mentioned before, we took a bus tour of the city so that we could get the lay of the land and see areas that we might not otherwise make a point of going to see. Because I’m still getting used to turning corners and being confronted with beauty in the strangest places, I tend to forget that Morocco is a third-world country (despite what I have heard many people argue) with deep-rooted problems, but the tour we went on reminded me just how true this is. It becomes even more apparent when you take a look at numbers and do a comparison with the US. For example, Morocco’s GNP was around $50 billion (in 2004) and the United States’ GNP was 13.84 trillion. $2 billion of Morocco’s budget is ear-marked for the Ministry of Education, and while I don’t have the data for the U.S., it’s no doubt that the Department of Education receives many times this amount (the state of the U.S. school system is an entirely different subject). Private universities in the States operate on a budget close to the entire Moroccan’ Ministry of Education’s budget. I do realize that Morocco is a substantially smaller country than the US (population of 30 million vs. 300 million), but there is, without a doubt, a notable difference in the wealth of the two countries and the opportunities available to each citizen. The concept of Americans wanting to leave their country to seek education in a less-wealthy country (i.e. Morocco) is still a foreign concept to some and I’ve already been asked on several occasions by Moroccans why I left the States to come here. They seemed very surprised (and flattered) when I told them it was because I wanted to learn more about the culture associated with Islam and to study Arabic. To them, the U.S. seems to be full of opportunity and I almost feel guilty to have left a place that can give me so much. At times I catch myself feeling like I’m taking it for granted, but then I remind myself that I want to understand and live in other cultures and the only way to do that is by leaving the “Orange Bubble.” Don’t be confused; I would never give up traveling or studying abroad—this is just one of those situations where you have to step back and see it from all angles, no matter what it might show you.
Moving on to something a little lighter…my roommates and I had a little bonding session tonight. We decided to go out for some traditional Moroccan tea after we got back from the Center and let me just say, this entire program could be terrible but the tea would be enough to make me want to stay. It’s the super sweet mint tea (with a green tea base) that I’m absolutely obsessed with, and I’m betting that when I get back home I’ll have to get at least one cavity filled. The cafés are traditionally men only, but we walked until we found one that had at least one other woman there…the best lesson that I’ve learned in Morocco is that when in doubt, check to see if anyone else is doing it. Drinking tea is a very social pastime so you really have to get used to it being kind of time consuming, but it’s definitely all worth it. They drink it out of small see-through glasses (think larger than a shot glass, smaller than a water glass) and it’s poured from metal théières (teapots) that can either be plain and simple or very ornate.
I could go on about this tea forever but my battery is about to die so I’m cutting this short. I hope all is well with you!