Why I'm so afraid of leaving

I think this was also why I was afraid of leaving home. I left a world I knew, a life I knew and had lived for 18 years. But now going back, I expect life to be the same as it was when I left it, even though I know, logically, that will never happen. I have left home, but just because I left, doesn't mean that life there has stopped.
I'm terrified of leaving because I will Marrakech in one way, and when/if I come back, I will expect Marrakech to stay exactly the same. But the reality is that Marrakech (and everywhere) is changing. People will have graduated, gotten married, moved, and life will have moved on. That is precisely why I am so terrified of leaving. I have learned to love Marrakech the way it is; 5 people to a moped Marrakech, Crazy Boys Marrakech, touristy crowded Marrakech...and I have learned to love the people here.

That is my main problem. If I could leave and Marrakech would stay the same, I would have no problem with it.

Teaching

Today was my last day teaching. I have learned so much from my students, so much I never thought I would learn. About my patience, my love for sharing knowledge and so much more. To know that I positively impacted these 6 students lives makes me extremely happy. Seeing them "graduate" today, seeing how far they've come from day one just makes me...well to be honest, it made me tear up. 
So thank you, thank you to my wonderful class for making my first teaching experience such a memorable and enjoyable one.

To the three girls in my class: I know you three are powerful young women. I hope that you use language to fight your battles in the future. Never settle for anything less, you girls are shining stars that can never ever be tied down. Follow your dreams

To the three boys in my class: You guys are feisty. You guys have an amazing passion for English. Despite not always paying attention, I know you guys love to learn, or else you wouldn't have shown up to class everyday. I want to see you all succeed, I want to see you all chase what you're passionate about. 

I will miss them dearly, they taught me all so much. Lastly, they taught me that teaching is a two way street, you cant teach without learning about yourself, and most importantly, how you're impacting the people around you.  

Research Essay

Today, I finally submitted my research essay. I worked on it for about 3 months, and it was all in Arabic. The topic I chose was the immigration process of Libyans and sub-saharan Africans to Italy and the racist tendencies of Italians. This topic was very complicated, but it allowed me to learn so much more about the MENA region as well as Italy.

In case you don't know, I am Italian, so this issue hits home for me. I really enjoyed spending my friday afternoons translating and researching (this is not sarcasm), typing Arabic and drinking good coffee. However, I am quite happy that this is done. Six pages are typed and submitted, the final result of my Arabic studies here.

I still have about 1 week and a half left of Arabic; I cannot believe how quickly this program is coming to an end. In fact, I do not want to think about it, so I shall not. Tomorrow I have my last English class. I cant believe the progress my students have made. Some of them came in with zero English knowledge, and now they know so much. The progress they have made makes me so happy inside, to know I was able to help them in some way.
Tomorrow will be an emotional day. Hopefully I'll be able to hold it together....

I have alot of feelings with regards to the ending of the program, but I don't know how to express them in writing. I will try, when I have more time. But now I need to go to sleep.

So until next time!

The past week of my life

The past week of my life has been a complete whirlwind.

We left for Fes last Wednesday early in the morning. We stopped in Meknes at about 5pm, and were placed into pairs (I was with Jordan), given 50 dirhams and a slip of paper with 3 tasks written on it, and were told to complete the tasks and then find our way to Fes on our own.
That was easily one of the funnest things I've done in a while. We completed the tasks which included taking pictures of various monuments including the empty zoo, and then found our way into a grand taxi (essentially old BMW that sits 3 people in the front and squeezes 4 in the back). We also met up with 1 other teams so we split the grand taxi with them and two Moroccans. The drive took about an hour, and we were dropped off at the train station in Fes, where we met up with another nsliy team. We then piled into another grand taxi and drove to the hotel. As we were driving we all serenaded the driver in arabic, singing the various songs we knew. I think we single handedly made his night.
The following days were spent exploring Fes and receiving two talks on feminism in Islam (we were lectured by two wonderful women who provided very different perspectives. I will elaborate in another blog post).

On the last day we went to Ifrane and visited the university there. The university is modeled after American universities. Also in Ifrane it snowed, like legitimately. It was wonderful.

After Ifrane, Will and I got on a train to Casablanca since we were going to participate in the USA-Maghreb Youth Debates. We debated for on a Moroccan team with two debaters we know from school. On the first day we had four debates, the topics were: 1.) The rate of  income tax paid by the rich should be increased (con) against an Algerian team,  2.) The natural resources of the Maghreb region should belong to it's people (pro) against another Moroccan team, 3) Prosperity is more important than freedom (pro) agains a Tunisian team and 4) Alternative medicine is a threat to public health (pro) against a Moroccan team. We won all of those debates aside from the last one.
The second day of debating was in Rabat, in which we debated three more times, the topics were 5) Globalization imposes Western Culture on the rest of the world (pro) against a different Tunisian team 6) the UN Security Council veto should be abolished (pro) against an American team. After that we learned that we made it to the semi-finals (since we won both of those debates as well) and in the semis we debated 7) The Arab Spring has positively changed the Maghreb (Maghreb meaning: Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia) (pro) against the same Moroccan team we debated number 4 on.
The final day, we learned that we made it to the finals (AHHH) and we debated: The ban on the Niqab is an infringement on one's freedom of religion (pro) against the Tunisian team we debated number 3 on.
After a wonderful wonderful debate (which part of you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw_3W9bXdtk), we waited anxiously for the results. When they were announced, we couldnt have been more excited, we had won! This meant that we had won the english division of the debate tournament.

We were over the moon, but I think that I was more happy that we had participated. I had gotten the opportunity to meet so many interesting and wonderful people who I never would have otherwise met. It was very fun, very interesting, and best of all, something that allowed all of these countries to participate in a dialogue that is so direly needed by the global community today.