As I sit here in my absurdly comfortable hotel room in Kampala, Uganda, and attempt to fill out my grant assessment forms (amendment to my previous post: in addition to Maroc Telecom, PAPERWORK is satan incarnate!), I realized I have yet to do the real grant assessment: a blog entry about Tameslouht’s first annual Interfaith Dialogue!
A few months ago, I described the joys of project planning in Morocco. It’s been quite an experience! In my former life, I actually did have a few projects under my belt that I had planned. However, not only were those all in a university setting (cough ivory tower), but they also happened to be in the great US of A. 110% of this project just happened to be in Morocco– and we all know what they say about “location, location, location!”
Mustapha and I began this project with just a simple idea. We talked it out, filled out paperwork for grants, and then hit the pavement trying to get everyone else as excited about the idea as we were. And, well, that was kinda tough. Like I said, this was not the ivory tower, where anything for the sake of education seems to be supported enthusiastically. Also, this was not America, where interfaith anything is pretty standard in most civilized areas of the nation. We were advocating a completely unprecedented gathering of three faiths– all of which have extensive histories in Morocco, and therefore, extensive positive and negative interactions– and it made people nervous! A meeting with the Catholic priest confirmed that this was an initiative that could and would only happen if proposed, organized, and managed by an Islamic organization. In a country where proselytization (try to write that one without a spellcheck) is illegal, it made total sense.
In addition to the caution that people felt about the subject, we also got to deal with the bastard of all bastards: discrimination. As I mentioned earlier, because of these religions’ long presences in Morocco, there have been a plethora of both good and bad religious representatives in the country. Throw in the whole Palestinian-Israeli conflict on top of that, and, well, we’ve got some slight misconceptions about other faiths that we had to navigate a bit. But that made the actual project all the more important, right? So, taking a cue from my exceptional counterpart, patience became the name of the game. Which ended up being integral to the success of the entire project.
In our initial project proposal, we wrote about and stressed organization. Committees would be formed, tasks would be delegated, oversight would be abundant. In the reality….organization was the redheaded stepchild of our project planning process. It’s so hard to get people to plan for an event that is happening in 6 months, but at the same time, you need every second of those 6 months to be used for very detailed project planning! People wanted the date pushed back. People wanted to know who were speaking. Speakers wanted to know who was coming. Attendees wanted to know when the date was. And so forth. After nailing down a date (after several changes), we just threw our momentum towards that light at the end of a rapidly corroding tunnel. I think there were two or three weeks in January and February where Mustapha and I went into Marrakech every single day to work with graphic designers on our event’s “propaganda” (banners, posters, brochures….you get the idea.) Our mantra that began every single day was, “So, what’s the program for today?” and every day was ended with “So, what’s the program for tomorrow?” Even within those two brackets, our answers to those questions had the potential (and likelihood) to change drastically. Designs had to be amended after the checking of an email. Speakers had to be switched with the ring of a phone. A French translation needed to be corrected after a third or fourth revision. People didn’t show up to meetings. Information given to people got messed up. The amorphous nature of the project was a little problematic…and a little stressful.
There was one thing that wasn’t quite so slippery though– the support of fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. We had an amazing response from a rather impulsive post I put on our Facebook group, asking if anyone might possibly be interested in helping out with our event. We had a plethora of responses and 14 warm bodies who showed up to help. Additionally, a group of 10 American high school students studying in Marrakech agreed to help us out as well. With all of this new responsibility, I asked my fellow PCV Lucia if she would be interested in serving as our Volunteer Coordinator. Ask anyone from our group who you would want if you had a situation that needed order and professionalism, and I guarantee the answer will be this girl. Within a week or two of our event, she was taking care of every volunteers’ concerns and lifting a giant burden from Mustapha and myself. If you ever meet this girl, give her a hug. I’m sure this won’t be the last time she saves a friend from drowning!
The night before the event, we had boxes of all of our carefully designed folders and other materials lining the hallway of my apartment. All of the PCVs were gathered in my apartment for a feast and run-down of event protocol. It was nerve-racking! If the event blew up (literally or figuratively– both equally bad!), it would be bad for a lot of reasons…but the PCVs made it feel like the event was really going to happen instead of just being some far away idea that I spent all of my time working on.
The next morning, we all woke up early, got dressed up in whatever the Peace Corps equivalent of “business casual” is, and rode our minibuses to the Private University of Marrakech, located about 5 minutes outside of Tameslouht proper.
I should mention at this point that the location of the project had been a point of contention during our project planing process. We had a meeting back in December or January where we spent time specifically looking for an event space in Tameslouht. We decided on hosting the event in the ancient zaouia, or religious school. I loved the idea. Not only was it picturesque and symbolic, but it was a really empowering move for the people of Tameslouht. Event attendees would be coming to a part of Morocco they might have never been to before and might never go again, but that beautiful site would leave such an impression on them.
Some people we were working with, however, were concerned about image. The zaouia isn’t in the best condition, and asking important government officials to sit in the grass under plastic tents isn’t the best photo op. I get it. I really do. But, if you couldn’t tell from what I just wrote, I was pretty emotionally invested (on top of everything else) in the location. AND the invitations had been mailed with the zaouia as the event location. Minor deets. I fought hard for the zaouia, and, in the end, we struck a compromise– the event would be held in the UPM, and lunch would be in the zaouia.
So, the morning of the event was the first time I actually got to see the UPM in all of its glory. Mustapha told me it was nice– I didn’t realize just how nice. We’re talking tree-lined, fountain-equipped walkway into the conference hall. Reception tables in the entrance. VIP room off to the side. Romantic lighting. Plenty of chairs. It was perfect!
PCVs set up in the lobby and we got to work signing in all of the guests. It’s a good thing we had so many volunteers– over 250 people ended up coming. As I spend time reviewing my initial grant proposal for my final grant assessment, I’m looking at the number of attendees we predicted– 100– and remembering how Mustapha and I considered that an amazing number to end up with.
The event started out with what I kept referring to as the “boring, obligatory” speeches. You know, the important people who speak on behalf of the event and what it means to them– the part that we as Americans usually sleep through when attending events. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by how well the speakers captivated the audience with their opening words. French, Arabic, and English were all used to emphasize the importance of the event and its goals. I think that the three languages coming together is symbolic in itself!
Our wonderful speakers included the President of the Region of Marrakech Tansift El Haouz, the President of Tameslouht, the President of the Jewish Communities of Marrakech and Essaouria, the Head of the Catholic Church in Marrakech, the Head of the Synagogue in Fes, Mustapha (the director of the event), and yours truly!
From there, we had our panelists speak. We had four professors from Kadi Ayyad University in Marrakech speak about various topics related to Islam. We had two Jewish speakers, including the head of the new synagogue in Fes. Lastly, we had one Catholic priest give a great talk on the history of Catholicism in Morocco.
After all that chatting, it was obviously time for lunch!
We departed in various modes of transportation to the zaouia. From there, the “VIPs” (speakers and their cohorts) were invited to dine in the riad owned by the President of Tameslouht (who also generously paid for all of the food— hollah!). The rest of the event attendees got to enjoy couscous under the tents by the old religious school.
This was my first (to my knowledge) interaction with Kosher food. Obviously I’ve been chowing down on Halal food for quite sometime, but Kosher food is another entity. I un-knowingly sat down at the Kosher table and wondered for quite sometime why all of the delicious, steaming plates of couscous were passing right by us. It was a moment of sadness, but I did still get to chow down on Moroccan sweets after lunch finished.
We also had the idea to advertise our women artisans at this event. We had them set up all of their goods in the zaouia so that all of the lunching attendees could have the chance to browse and– inchallah– buy!
After lunch, we returned to the UPM for a question and answer session addressing the topics discussed. We had the awesome, flawless idea of asking all attendees to write down and submit any questions they had. This was our method of controlling the content of the questions– no inflammatory accusations about anyone’s ancestors killing someone else’s ancestors in the Crusades and the like. However perfect this theory was, it didn’t quite translate to reality. We ran out of questions, and people are more used to standing up and asking them anyways, so we just transitioned into that format– and it worked out really well! At least, I think it did– everything was in French and Arabic– but everyone made it out alive, so…success!
The day ended with the formation of a new association that will be working towards building and sustaining the interfaith community of Morocco. We had such a positive response at the event, and met so many enthusiastic youth in the process of planning the event, that I really think we made something happen.
If you’re interested in keeping up with our association (and hearing about NEXT year’s interfaith dialogue), “like” us on Facebook! If you want to read more about our event (and happen to be fluent in Arabic), click here! If you want to see us on TV, track us down on the 2M website….and then let me know if you find the video clip, because I sure can’t.
Thanks to all of you who supported our idea and helped to make it a reality. We really, truly could not have done it without you!