Yes, I had to say "Goodbye, Morocco." In the 6 weeks since my last post, I have been so busy and thought I had plenty of time to post a lot more blogs. :-(
February was very busy. I was putting my classes at the university online as a way to deal with enormous classes which only meet for 2 hours, once a week. I had the students read grammar explanations and watch videos about it at home and then come to class and practice in groups. In my essay writing class, I had students submit essays and peer edit before coming to class to discuss structural requirements of an essay and, in groups, outline what they read as a way to see what needed to be changed. I was really excited to be doing this since other instructors could use my ideas in the future. Little did I know how quickly they would need to transition online.
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| Street Art in Casa |
My workshops to train teachers were also going really well, The participants were learning a lot, from me and each other, and valued the training.
I was also continuing to work on the volunteer project that I was involved with at a rural school outside of Essaouira, a coastal city about 4 1/2 hours away. A group of us are looking at how to use tech to get distance learning into the schools for middle and high school students who can't travel back and forth to school in the city, how to integrate local heritage into primary education, and how to train teachers to do these things.
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| Sunset in Casa |
Colleagues/friends from Rabat and Oujda came to visit and we did all of the fun big city things: dancing, bars, shopping, etc. I planned some trips around Morocco and had even planned to come back to Oregon to see Rory's final show.
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| Normal breakfast out in Morocco |
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| On the town in Casa |
Then the COVID spread. First, travel to Madrid from Morocco was suspended, so I couldn't stop there on my way to the US to see my mom. She had cancelled her trip anyway, so that was out.
Then we got the news a week ago (Thursday night) that the State Department wanted us to voluntarily evacuate. Friday the Moroccan Ministry of Education closed all schools. Some of us didn't want to go and said we would take the weekend to think about it. Sunday morning we were called and told that Morocco would be closing its borders and we needed to get out. There was a final flight which had been created with the intention of getting Americans out of the country. We had less than 24 hours to pack and get to the airport. It was less stressful for me since I was in Casa which is where the international flights come. Having volunteered for the Red Cross, I had gone out the week before and gotten supplies for a few weeks (rice, pasta, milk, juice, eggs, NOT toilet paper), so I now had to figure out what to do with all of that.
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| Morning of Departure Empty Casa street |
Monday afternoon we flew out of Casa. We landed at JFK 8 hours later to no health screening whatsoever. Since then, I have watched Morocco prepare quickly and efficiently, closing events and public spaces, announcing a curfew, and today, a week after I left, they have a lockdown. They are not messing around and are trying to deal with the virus in an aggressive way, like China did, to avoid a major crisis. Meanwhile in the US, very few changes have happened and they vary from state to state with some places taking no action at all. The borders with Canada and Mexico are closing, but the state borders (except California) are not. There is still no health screening of incoming flights although the government says there is.
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| Tiny House Airbnb in Portland |
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| Spring in Oregon |
I am feeling very sad. I plan to continue online with my classes at the university for the next few weeks to transition the other teachers. I am also continuing to work remotely on my volunteer project. I didn't want to leave Morocco so soon and especially not so abruptly. I was scheduled to return for a second year in the fall and still hope to if at all possible. At this point, I am trying to deal with the emotions of an enormous change happening so quickly.
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| When one door closes... |
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| ...a window opens. |
