The
first ever Spelling Bee Morocco championship was held May 25 & 26
in Ouarzazate and was deemed a success by nearly everyone. We crowned
champions in two events – the team bee and the solo bee. While it
is great to introduce a new kind of event for Moroccan students and
provide a touch of Americana, what is most rewarding to me is the
emotional and psychological impact of the event.
Ibtissam
Boulaghmane, the solo bee winner, told me after her victory that she
had never won any medals before, that she was not good in
sports, so she had never been able to compete for anything. But she won two at the finals – first in the solo bee and second in the team bee - and one at her City Bee. Plus the trophy, of course. She added that it was great to meet all these other kids, too.
At
lunch, after the final event, as they were going around the table,
telling me what their plans for next year were, one girl said, “This
is it for me. No matter what happens on my baccalaureate exams, I am
done with school. But what a way to finish! I will remember this for
the rest of my life.” The other kids chimed in and told me her
father and brother insisted that she stop school and adopt the
traditional woman's role, which means she will live and work in her
father's house until (if) she gets married.
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| Three 11th grade girls won the team competition. They renamed their team "Heroines" after the win. |
Despite
stories like that, the role of women in Morocco is changing. One of
the gratifying things about the Spelling Bee Morocco project to me is
that it provides an opportunity for girls to compete with boys on
the same playing field. And in this case, they excelled. Of the 27
qualifiers for the finals, 20 were girls. And all the champs were girls.
Another
deeply satisfying aspect of the competition was that my younger son
Joe helped me out a lot. He was in the country, visiting and
traveling. He accompanied me to several of the trainings I gave to
Moroccan teachers.
On one
we went to Zagora, a southern city on the edge of the Sahara. Even in the spring it was very hot. In
earlier days, it was the traditional staging area for camel caravans
and boasted a famous sign saying “52 days to Timbuctou.” We also
had a memorable day at the training in Kalaa, across the river from
my village. It rained hard during the training, and it rained in the
mountains. By the time we were done, the river had flooded and the
road bridge was washed out. But the transit driver knew of a place a
few miles north and dropped us of there. Following the lead of a few
other locals, we tramped for an hour through flooded muddy fields in
the near dark until we did, indeed, come upon an intact cement
footbridge. Once on our side of the river, I soon realized we were on
a road familiar to me from my running. The rain had stopped, and we
had a pleasant hour's walk home along the dirt road lit by a starry
sky.
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| My son Joe served as score-keeper for the finals. |
Joe enjoyed the experience, too. When we were making arrangements for his
flight home, he said, “I'd really kinda like to stay for the
regional finals.” So he did, and he served as the official
scorekeeper.
His
involvement served another benefit, too. The day after the finals, a
teacher who had been at the Kalaa training as well came up to me and
said, “I want to tell you how good it was to see you and your son
working together. We've been talking about this. You know here in
Morocco we have the impression that in America, when kids are 18,
they leave the home and don't come back again. Maybe they call on the
phone once or twice a year, but don't come home. Now we see that's not always true.”
~~~~~~~~~
Tidbits:
It's
hot here now. In my courtyard (usually a relatively cool place), it
gets into the 90s during the day. Outside, in the sun, between 110
and 115. I bought a fan. It helps.
I had
my mid-service medical exams in Rabat a couple of weeks ago, and all
is well. Hard to believe I've been here this long – 16 months,
actually.
I've
continued work on Spelling Bee Morocco, planning for our expansion next year into other regions of the country.
In a
week, I'll be leaving for a two-week vacation in Germany and the
Czech Republic – Berlin, Dresden, Prague. Really looking forward to
it.
