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Hi my name is Janet Leamy.
I’m an ESOL teacher are Sylvania PCC.
I went on an international faculty development seminar
to Spain and Morocco in 2011.
It was entitled
“exploring the coexistence and challenges of neighboring cultures”.
When I was in Spain we went to Seville.
And one of the things that I noticed
was the connection between Spain and Morocco.
In terms of architecture,
the first thing that we visited was called the Alcazar.
And the Alcazar has moorish architectural elements.
Such as, arches and many tiles of intricate design
that really reflected the connections between Morocco and Spain.
Because later when we went to Morocco, we saw very similar tiles.
And I found the aesthetic appeal
both in Morocco and Spain to be amazing.
Also in Spain, we visited the cathedral in Seville,
which had formally been a mosque.
The minaret there has now been converted to a bell tower,
but formally was Muslim.
Further on into Cordova, we saw what is formally another mosque.
It is now called a cathedral,
but it was once called the Mosquita of Cordova.
The Mosquita has red and white arches with columns supporting those
in a beautiful Islamic mosque feature in the interior.
We visited an elementary school,
which was fantastic to see little kids,
who were of Arabic Language background,
doing the second language program there in the elementary school.
So we saw a little program,
where the children were singing essentially the equivalent
of “It’s a Small World After All”.
And it did feel like a small world when we saw them.
There are only 14 km in distance at the Straits of Gibraltar.
We crossed by boat
and literally, physically felt the approximation
between the two countries.
Immigration is something that the EU countries
would like to be able to control better.
There are illegal immigrants.
There are people - who according to EU people
they would be better off staying in their own country.
So the strategy is to bring up
the standard of living a country like Morocco.
We visited a farmers coop in the Riff Valley.
They were producing olive oil in a modern facility.
This place had even developed a way
to use the by-products of the olives after they had been pressed,
rather than dumping them down the hill
where it would have been an ecological disaster,
because it poisons the soil.
They were using the by-products to sell as fuel.
The farmers cooperative also visited invited us
to go to their village where we had a lunch.
I speak French and I was thrilled to be able to speak
to a man who was in charge of the project in French.
And really made connections with him.
Morocco was fantastic, exotic, because it looked like the old world.
Something that I didn’t understand and didn’t expect was
that I wouldn’t be able to see windows in houses.
I only saw doors and they were kind of fortress-like,
which kind of was intimidating.
The reason being that they often tried to keep privacy
- especially women are not generally expected to mix
outside of the home.
So the inside of the home was a place of
privacy and protection.
And the houses tended to be very beautiful
with an aesthetic appeal I found that was amazing.
Even in the simplest places
they were whitewashed white with blue walls.
We were lucky enough to have a tour
of one of the private homes near Tangier.
The historic house had tiles, ceramics inside it’s atrium.
And we were able to look around
on the first floor of the historic house,
which was inhabited on the second floor.
I wish I had the sound to go with this,
but maybe I can paint a picture of sound for you.
There was a canary up on the second floor on the balcony,
that was singing and singing and the echo was
so beautiful to listen to as we were touring the house.
I enjoyed the accommodations we had.
They were also decorated in characteristic Islamic colors and patterns.
Thought to beauty in any situation.
You can see the sensibility here.
The little lantern in the left corner.
Just there for beauty.
The displays of food in the markets was fantastic.
You can see the colors of yellow and orange and green and red.
Even display above - the lights green and white.
There’s a real sensibility to arranging things.
The proximity as one was walking through the medina,
through the shopping areas, you were near all of the goods.
Everything was in narrow pathways,
so it made you want to stop and look and admire.
My thrill of going to Morocco was having a chance to taste their food
and to see the presentation increased the pleasure by double.
They often used saffron the yellows, the green olives.
And so tasty. So delicious.
Cookies with almonds, which is an agricultural product of Morocco.
So this was a great treat at the end of the meal.
We were always served also some sweet mint tea
as a traditional end to the meal.
It was hot and lovely in its golden-rimmed glasses.
[Call to prayer]
On our last night in Morocco,
we visited the grand mosque of Casablanca.
It’s purported to be the second largest mosque in the world.
I felt small in front of it.
I enjoyed having the opportunity
to actually hear the call to prayer five times a day.
And this would be an example of a minaret
where the call to prayer would be issued.
It was astonishing. It was spine-chilling
to hear the sound of the call to prayer five times a day.
[Call to prayer]
Well, the trip effected me
in that it kindled my enthusiasm for teaching.
I teach ESOL.
I teach people right now who are from Morocco
and I got to see their country.
That made a great impression on me.
And it made me feel excited about teaching them.
It also made me feel stronger in experiencing new things.
It made me realize that I can travel.
That I can be someone who doesn’t know anyone
and doesn’t know a culture and yet feel a connection to those people.
And not to have been intimidated by that experience
of going to a strange place.
[Music]