صفوفي وحياتي هنا

Since classes started, I suddenly have no time to write -- up to 5 hours of Arabic class, 2 hours of Contemporary Issues (which I've decided to pick up), a required movie or club meeting, and then homework homework homework.  But it's a lot of fun.  

Last time I wrote, I was on my way to sit in on the Contemporary Issues in North Africa class, which I'm keeping in my schedule.  There are only 9 students and a crusty Montanan professor who has taught here since the university opened in 1995.  We have 3 two-hour lectures per week, mostly with guest speakers, about all sorts of challenging issues Morocco faces today.  I'll write more about them as they come along, but for flavor: contemporary Sufism, the problem of the Western Sahara, tourism, rural education, etc.  There is no homework but fascinating field trips -- this weekend we will go to Volubilis, formerly both a Roman and a Berber city and now an archaeological site, next weekend we will go to Marrakech, then to a casbah in the Tefilalt Oasis, then to nearby Fez and Meknes.  Since these trips are not with the larger group (70+ Americans), we can use our professor's personal friendships to get to places off the beaten path; we will be focusing more on real history than on tourist sites.  Today's lecture, by an eminent French "Berberist" who teaches here at Al-Akhawayn, focused on the position of the Berbers in Morocco today and the revival of their ancient Amazigh language (in the family of Ancient Akkadian).  The language was rarely written until about 20 years ago, and when it was, it was usually written in the Roman or Arabic alphabet; the ancient alphabet looks more like hieroglyphics than anything else.  The town of Ifrane, in which this university is located, has a large Berber population, but the professor pointed out the difficulties encountered by the French in trying to divide the population into narrowly defined Arab and Berber categories: there are many shades of Arabized Berbers and Berberized Arabs.  In addition, the Berbers have begun to capitalize on tourists' romanticized idea of Lawrence of Arabia desert peoples.  The Moroccan Berbers don't traditionally wear bright blue scarves on their heads, but they have realized that tourists don't know the difference and have started wearing them to bring in rich foreigners.

I haven't heard many people here discussing President Obama's speech in Cairo in depth, only in passing, but so far every Moroccan I've met loves Obama (as well as Hillary and everyone associated with Obama -- in fact there is a "Hillary Rodham Clinton Center for Women's Empowerment" here at Al-Akhawayn).  Maybe I'll hear more tomorrow.

Arabic class continues to be intense, but great.  I feel as if already Arabic words are coming to my head quickly, and I can have basic conversations even in darija with the non-English speaking dining hall staff.  Today, we sat in a circle to represent the United Nations, with each of us representing a country, and discussed our opinions of the United States, George Bush, etc. as that country.  One of our professors is especially fond of the word mumtaaztic -- a combination of the Arabic word for "excellent" (mumtaaz), and "fantastic."  At lunch, he talked for us at length in Arabic about his appreciation for Celine Dion & Terminator movies.  

Last night, a special dinner was held for us with the dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and other dignitaries.  Lots of couscous.  Yesterday morning, as we will have every Wednesday, we had "clubs" for two hours.  This time, I chose Calligraphy Club.  We were given special calligraphy pens and only got through the very basics, but it was a lot of fun.

This afternoon, we were shown a film about Mahmoud Darwish, a famous Palestinian poet who died last year.  It was in Arabic with English subtitles, but we were all surprised about how much we could understand.