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.
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.
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