This week was pretty good. There was the celebration of Eid al-Adha which is an Islamic celebration of sacrifice. Every family slaughters a sheep and cooks to celebrate this religious holiday. It was a bit too much for me personally, even in the streets everyone was picking up the heads and creating fires to burn the rest of the sheep not being eaten. I decided to take some time during this period of vacation to go to Marrakech which is a city three hours from Agadir, it’s absolutely beautiful. I feel it’s essential to have moved around at least a bit instead of staying in Agadir to see a different side of Morocco I would not have been able to see. This experience overall has been life-changing.
What structural inequalities have I seen in my community? Agadir is a pretty modern city so in terms of any living situations I haven’t experienced an environment I’m not used to. In my stay, we have a chef and woman who cleans so I would consider the area a bit privileged, I’m forever grateful for the experience. Aside from the living conditions, the organization that I’m indulging in works on taking away the large gap and disparity of language barriers for the participants. In Morocco, people speak French; Arabic in two dialects, Darija (local Moroccan Arabic) as well as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA); Amazigh (Native North African); and lastly English. The students in Morocco spend their whole lives learning Arabic in elementary to high-school and then in University switch over to the French language with no prior knowledge. All the important news, dentist, doctors, and anything of higher education involves French. This is a huge problem for the Moroccan youth and so what ‘Connect Institute’ does, is have book discussions, implement workshops and conferences, and gather a multitude of ways to overcome this large issue. Currently, I am helping with a short-story book contest that Connect is partnering with another organization for. It’s geared towards people who come from immigrant families working on improving their English. I will attach a flyer. In the following two weeks, I will potentially be teaching English to a summer camp that Connect will be hosting if enough children sign up and I’m really looking forward to it.
For my capstone project I will be completing a research project that facilitates these language barriers and what happens to the youth when they are provided with organizations like Connect who aid in their professional development while undergoing University. This will be done through journaling, interviewing, and a vlog-style documentary.
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