Salaam, Morocco!
It took an extra day due to a delayed connection and a standby, but I got to Morocco on time! It is the tenth day of this journey and so far we have visited Rabat (their political capital), Marrakesh, Ouarzazate, Tasselmante (a small village outside of Ouarzazate) and the beautiful Dades gorge. So much has happened these past 10 days so I will share with you the highlights. Since I have gotten here, I feel as if I am constantly surrounded by rich history and beauty. The photo showing some detail of some tile at one of our hotels is only the tip of the iceberg! Moroccan design and its Moorish influences is everywhere, from floor to ceiling. I find myself taking just as much if not more photos of the architectural and interior design details compared to the landmarks and monuments we have seen. Speaking of which, it’s been amazing to see in person the historical sites that I have only read and watched documentaries about. The historic inner city medinas here have also been around several centuries, bustling with vendors selling all things Moroccan. Tajines, turbans, handrums, jewelry, escargot, you name it. I wasn’t brave enough to try the escargot, but I did eat a kidney!
For the academic part of this trip, we have met with several organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, discussing Morocco’s developmental future. Given its prominence in most of the discussion, energy independence seems to be a major part of Morocco’s own definition of sustainable development. Their plans announced in 2009 for 42 percent renewable energy installed capacity by 2020 (14 of those percentage points to be solar and 14 to be wind) reflect a strong desire to transition from the current energy matrix that largely draws upon foreign resources to one that utilizes some of the country’s own sources of energy (largely the sun). Morocco seems to have a lot of ambition in pursuing these goals, as seen in our visit to the Noor solar plant outside of Ouarzazate. Words cannot describe how huge that place is! Since last year’s visit, they have made a lot of progress as it becomes a full solar thermal plant with some experimental variations in different sections. The fields of mirrors that have been installed made me feel like I was driving around the surface of a planet-sized disco ball! And that was just a fraction of what is yet to come.
Although this is a large source of Moroccan ambition, technological advancement and pride, sustainability teaches us that there are always more stakeholders and unintended consequences to consider when implementing a development project such as this. One of the many examples in the case of Noor includes the effects on nearby rural communities, such as Tasselmante. Despite the project going on next door, this small village that lies just on the outskirts of Noor’s property still does not have healthy drinking water and gains no economic benefit from the construction because the villagers are not trained to have the necessary skills to be hired. In fact, there have been protests by the villagers in response to this issue. According to anecdotal evidence, the road that leads into Tasselmante also brings issues of crime and late-night disruptive drinking by non-resident Noor employees.
Despite the issues with Noor, the people who inhabit Tasselmante are actually very kind and hospitable people. As a group, we got the privilege to visit them and spend the midday helping to host a program for the children. One of the activities was face painting, and it was a blast! I found myself painting hearts, stars, guitars, music notes, rainbows, etc. on the children’s’ cheeks, foreheads, chins and noses. They loved it! After there was an educational musical play put on by a group called the Animators. I couldn’t understand it because the whole production was in Darija (the Moroccan Arabic dialect), but it was still very entertaining to watch it and the kids having fun. Of course we all shared Moroccan mint tea and fresh made bread afterwards. One thing I have noticed about the Moroccan diet is that they sure love their bread, and they know how to make it well. It is served for breakfast, with every meal, and it is snacked upon all day. Before we left, we partook in a collaborative painting with the kids while the Animators jammed out some Moroccan songs with their hand drums. I watched it turn from a blank canvas into a beautiful finger-painted hodgepodge of names, drawings and colors.
After the visit, we returned to the Dar Taliba, a boarding house for young women from rural communities to live in while they attend school in the city, where we were staying at Ourarzazate. So far, this has been my favorite cultural immersion experience I’ve had in Morocco. There were six of us to one room in bunk beds, living out of our backpacks and suitcases. The bathroom and shower facilities were so primitive but they worked. All of the girls here were so welcoming to have us as we ate out of the same plate of tajine during dinner and exchanged cultures. Every night here I learned something new. One of the girls even gave me the most beautiful henna tattoo on my arm the last night we stayed there. There is such a close knit community among these girls; it was such a lovely and genuine experience to be able to be a part of it for a few days. Here, they can create their own fun by simply drumming on the dining room tables and dancing. So much positive energy circulated around every night we got together for dinner. Materialistic things didn’t really matter here; it’s about what you do for the community and the relationships you have with others. Here, I saw so much beauty in simplicity. I felt like less was so much more.
