My work week was busy this week, though it's a flexible schedule that I have! Every morning (at the crack of 11:00!) I have a Darija lesson with Adil. He is a good teacher, and I'm learning a lot (bzef) though it is really hard for me to make some of the sounds of Arabic/Darija. For example, there is a sound that you make somewhere in the bottom of your throat, like where you gargle, and it's a pretty common vowel. Adil says it is the "sound that sheep make". Well, I can tell you that American sheep do not make that sound! So I struggle with it, and sound a bit like I'm choking, and eventually I get something like it coming out of my mouth. But putting it into the middle of a word is something else entirely. The struggle is real. I got to go to a dissertation defense this week. The gentleman who was earning his doctorate went to public schools all the way through, and my advisor Prof Mderrsi thought it would be interesting for me to see the eventual possible outcome of a totally public education. There was an audience of his family, friends, and colleagues, and some students who came to see what a doctoral dissertation defense looks like. He explained his research for about 20 minutes with a power point, and then a panel of five judges who had previously read the 250-page written version each made 20-minutes-worth of comments. What was most interesting to me was that their negative comments had to do with his French writing style and the composition of the dissertation, not with his research, which was in the field of management of a large public project for transportation and development. Ultimately, they gave him high honors after their deliberations, because, as the president of the jury said, they weren't conferring a doctorate in French. His mother yipped, his wife cried, and I felt honored to be a witness. Afterwards there was a reception with tea, fresh fruit juices, and sweet and savory finger foods. I saw a cat come streaking through the reception room and into another connected room, where my advisor was talking on her phone; she shared some hors-d'oeuvres with the cat, too. On Thursday, I accompanied some of the MACECE staff to the International Book Fair in Casablanca. Publishers from all over Africa and Europe have booths there where they have their publications on display and for sale. MACECE went to the Dar America booth, hosted by the Consulate in Casablanca, and talked to people who might be interested in study abroad in the US, and the Fulbright Commission. There was also a booth hosted by the Presidents of Moroccan Universities, for which Mme Mderrsi had handled some logistics for UM5. There were TONS of school children. It must be quite the annual field trip. Think of it as the Scholastic Book Fair at an elementary school on steroids, with an adult version layered over top. There were guest speakers and hand-on activities. I wandered, bought posters for my classroom (of course! fruit and vegetable posters with the names in French, Arabic, and English, etc) and met an interesting man who was a Fulbright scholar in Michigan and teaches English to the blind at a school in Casa. He invited me to come and observe a few of his classes, and I will be taking him up on that.
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Marcie StutzmanTeacher, Researcher, Adventurer, Explorer; Maybe crazy; Possibly too old for this Archives
October 2018
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