Friday, May 23, 2014

New Mentality



Rabat Beach






My name is Katrina Qaryouti and I have recently returned to UM and will be a Junior in the fall semester. Looking at internships, I applied on a whim to Morocco thinking that it'd help with my Arabic as well as being an opportunity to teach and learn more about North Africa. I am working in Sale, Morocco which is the sister city to Rabat, where I live...with FATIMA!

Sale isn't as well off as Rabat. From what I've seen there isn't much for the youth to do with their time.


 The picture above is the meal that two of our English students prepared for us during out 3 HOUR break. Yes, 3 hours. We normally sit at a cafe and take advantage of some wifi.

I have fallen in love with teaching as well as Morocco.  Our students aren't required to attend the classes, but many wish to learn English as it is quite expensive to take private classes. French is the second language and widely spoken...I clearly need to get on that train!
 One of my fellow teachers at Wafa Association is leaving, so the students decided that we needed to take an adventure to the forest for a picnic. Some of the transportation options were taxis (we didn't want them to pay), a horse contraption, or a truck. We ended up in a truck. They planned everything from tents to ingredients to make tagine, a traditional Moroccan dish. We spent the day working on conversational skills and piecing together French, Arabic, and English!






So .... all in all ... Moroccans are a TON of fun, I love working with youth, I love Morocco, and safety measures aren't always a priority (as seen in the video to the left!).

1 comment:

  1. Katrina,

    My name is Tammy Mida. I am interning in LSA International Internships this summer, so I will be reading and responding to your blog posts. I am marking this as your blog post about 5/18-5/24.

    I love that you're teaching and that you're so passionate about youth! I come from a teaching background as well (I used to teach at the elementary-level). How old are your students? They look like high school or college? The students look like a ton of fun. It really says something about them if they come to class voluntarily. You must be doing a great job so far! But, yikes- the truck ride!

    Are you planning any excursions? I really liked all of your pictures and can't wait for your next post!

    Best,
    Tammy

    ReplyDelete