About a month after my return, I think that it’s finally about time to tell you all about my trip into the heart of Africa. Ok, maybe “the heart of Africa” isn’t exactly the appropriate term for Morocco (both geographically and culturally speaking). Actually, it was more like being thrown into the streets of Aladdin’s Agrabba minus the Arabian Nights theme playing in the background. I kid you not, I saw at least 5 people sporting Aladdin theme notebooks/shirts while we were there. In all seriousness though, the trip was very impactful and one that I will not soon forget.

I had never anticipated visiting Morocco in my lifetime. Nor had I particularly wanted to. That is, until I read more about the Granada program and realized that a trip there was included in the cost. Suddenly, a trip to a country I had never desired to go to became one of the main reasons for choosing where I spent a year of my life. Crazy how that works. Fortunately, the trip lived up to the hype I had created for it. Though (almost) everyone else was just as pumped as I was about this journey, I think that in a lot of ways I had a very different trip than them simply because of some of the knowledge I had going into the 4 days I spent there.

Previous to going, I had a class on Modern Middle East history with the delightful Professor Schaefer. Though not always on topic, he shared so many stories of actually living and traveling within the Middle East and Africa, and as a consequence, broke a lot of previous misconceptions that I didn’t even know I had about the culture and people there. (Side note, if you haven’t read the book Ramza, do it. Now. Go spend the $5 and order it off of Amazon. It’s a fast read and I promise you won’t regret it.) I think that having that base of knowledge really allowed me to come into this trip with fresh eyes and an open heart. (See guys, education really does make a huge difference! I’ll get back to that thought when I post on Teach for America eventually….)

               The tour group we went with was actually much less a tour group and much more an educational experience. Most of our guides had spent a lot of time in Morocco, could speak the language, and were personally connected and invested as a whole. As a result, we got to interact with the local culture on a level much deeper than your average sight-seeing trip. Yes we saw the Roman gardens, and rode camels, but we also got to stay with host families and actually sit down and talk with real Moroccans about pretty much anything. For example, from almost the moment that we docked in the port city of Tangier, we were off to a women’s shelter to hold discussions with local women about their rights as citizens and the changes within Moroccan society as a whole. Overwhelming at times? Most definitely. Possibly one of the most valuable learning experiences I’ve ever had? You betcha.

       Though we had many interesting conversations throughout the 4 days we were there, my favorite by far was meeting Kawtar.

Photo: Isabelle Hicks

Dressed more fashionably than any Spaniard I’ve met yet and completely fluent in English, immediately upon first impression, Kawtar does not appear to be what one would expect a normal 20-something woman raised in a Muslim society to be like. Yet she is. Within the 3 hours she spent showing Gigi, Isabelle, and I her favorite spots in Rabat, we quickly learned that partying, dating, and college, is all so much the same as what we’re used to- even in the “exotic” place of Morocco. We talked about everything from faith to boys and while sipping Moroccan tea, we even had a heart to heart about working up the confidence to tell a guy you like him.

        What stuck out most to me however, was our discussion about opportunity. One of Kawtar’s biggest dreams is to study abroad in America. While that dream might seem totally accessible to some, for her, even though she’s already fluent in English, it’s almost impossible. 

          You see, while for us the process of getting a Visa to travel abroad might seem like a tedious annoying process, for many Moroccans, it’s not simply annoying, it’s nearly impossible. The Moroccan government requires one to have a certain amount money in a bank account before being allowed to travel outside the country. For many Moroccans, that amount of money is more than they will ever see in a lifetime. So, while it is possible for some people to leave the country,  those people are among the vast minority. Most Moroccans will in fact never be able to leave their own country and cross the border to the little section of Spanish land that borders theirs in Africa simply because they will never have the right to a visa. Though they will meet people from all over and see pictures of hundreds of places, many of them will never get to see those things with their own eyes and experience things in their own ways,

        So as Kawtar told us her dreams of studying in the US and my Moroccan host mom showed us a million pictures of all of her past host students from every part of the globe, my heart broke. Not just broke, shattered into a million pieces. Here was I, a white American woman spending a whole year in Spain, who only the night before complained about not knowing what country I should book a flight too next after Morocco; complaining because I didn’t think I had enough money to last the year and complaining because my Fulbright and Teach for America advisors are back in Valpo and I had applications to complete; complaining because after the group talk the previous night, I didn’t know how I was going to choose between applying for a Fulbright, or to Peace Corps, Americorps, or Teach for America.

In other words, complaining because I had too many options. 

If there was a way, I would give my abroad experience to Kawtar in a heartbeat. With all that she has already accomplished in life, she more than deserves it… I wish that there was a way that I could somehow give every Moroccan that chance to travel. Not just to travel, but to have the freedom to travel. Never before have I felt more blessed to come from the country that I have. In these last few weeks amidst the shut-down, I must admit, I may have not shown the most national pride. However, despite the many faults of our (and every) government, most of us, are blessed to come from a country where getting a visa is not impossible. A country where study abroad is so common that now almost half of all students spend at least one semester away from home. Travel here is not a dream, it is a reality. Next time you find yourself complaining about the security line in the airport or the endless paperwork of a visa, remember that not only are you blessed to have the opportunity to do so, you are also blessed with the freedom to do so.

              So go out, explore the world! Even if that ‘world’ is only the pizza place down the street that you’ve always meant to try, but never end up actually eating it. You may find that the place you end up and the people you meet are totally different than yourself, or maybe, just maybe, you will find what I came to know in Morocco. Maybe, we are all much more similar than we give ourselves credit for. Different people born into different economic and cultural situations, yes, but in all actuality, the world you thought was so big and different, might not be so big after all.