Branching Out: Finding the Students that Want to Learn

Alyssa Meredith is a newly returned PCV who served in a rural Moroccan village near Zagora. Her interest areas include environmental awareness, women’s empowerment and healthy lifestyles. She helped lead the first day camp to happen at her town’s Dar Chabab and taught weekly classes at the Dar Taliba and Nedi Neswi. Her favorite pastime in Morocco was sunset walks in the djnan*. Branching Out: Finding the Students that Want to Learn By Alyssa Meredith

No Work in Sight

Many Peace Corps Volunteers have inevitably let the following phrase slip through their lips at some point in their service: “There’s no work in my site.” We all know this to be categorically untrue and yet the frustration of the slow seasons or the unreliability of certain students leads us to utter this hyperbole. So how does one master these feelings of helplessness when all you really want to do is “change the world”?

As the first volunteer in my site, I struggled throughout my first year to establish myself and what my role in the community would be. I naturally attempted to start at my assigned workplace, the Dar Chabab*, but after having various classes quickly fizzle and ultimately spending countless hours sitting in an empty building, I decided to branch out and find somewhere new to work. If the students weren’t going to come to me, I would go to them.

Discovering the Nedi Neswi

One afternoon my host sister showed me her workbook with designs for djellabas and other traditional Moroccan clothes, and I realized that my town must have a Nedi Neswi*. So I stopped by to observe a class and introduce myself to the women that studied there. A couple of the ladies asked me some questions about English in between copying down the day’s patterns and I mentioned that I’d be happy to teach a class if more people were interested. They jumped at the opportunity, and I began teaching beginner’s English along with aerobics.

An English lesson at the Nedi on the alphabet and animals

Many (myself included at times) may question the wisdom of teaching these rural women English when they may not even know the more commonly used French or even standard Arabic and probably won’t have much chance to use what they learn. However, these ladies have a right to an education, an opportunity that may have been denied to them as a young student, and no matter their age or status, we should encourage their eagerness to learn. Additionally, the Nedi is a place for these women to get out of the house and socialize with their friends. It is a safe space for women to express themselves, to gather and to learn, and because of this, I continue to seek out work at the Nedi so that these women have access to these opportunities.

Expanding My Work Site

Attendance at my Nedi classes waxed and waned throughout the seasons, but it also opened up some new opportunities for work. After class one afternoon, two women approached me and asked if I could replicate the class in their village since they actually lived a few kilometers up the road. While I did not relish dealing with the logistical concerns teaching this class would require, I agreed because my week was pretty empty at this point, and I figured that I should be doing something useful with my time. Meeting these women was perhaps the best moment of my service because it led to some of my most fulfilling work. The people in this douar* live just far enough away from the central action in town that they aren’t able to participate in most of the local functions, especially the women. Because of this, I found that these students were especially eager to learn and I had higher attendance rates and better participation than any of my previous efforts.

View of the village where I taught life skills atop a 300 year old kasbah

I started with similar classes that focused on English and exercise and saw some encouraging progress in my students. They even wanted to continue during Ramadan which was quite a feat while we were all fasting in the brutal heat. Through this class I met one of my future counterparts. She confided in me that although she had dropped out of school early, she still wanted to work and to do something with her life. She suggested the idea of working together to teach younger students in the coming fall. When Peace Corps advertised the life skills training, I thought it would be a great way to move forward.

Focusing on Women’s Empowerment

We decided to make the new life skills class  an exclusively female class because we wanted these girls to be able to truly discuss their feelings and to find confidants and role models among their peers. Using the life skills curriculum as our base, we wove in themes of women’s empowerment to give the women additional examples of strong women. We talked about Fatima Al Fihri and the assets that helped her create the world’s oldest university in Fes. We drew community maps and discussed how the spaces available may or may not be open to women and how these buildings reflect the community’s values. When the curriculum presented a story about Nelson Mandela and surviving tough times, we paired it with the story of Malala Yousafzai and read about her speech to the UN highlighting girls’ education.

Working in another douar offered me additional opportunities for work, expanded my community network, introduced new people to the idea of Peace Corps, and gave me an excuse to do some exercise each week as I make the trek to and from class. Over the course of my service, I had to convince myself that it was okay to leave behind the classes that weren’t productive and find the people that wanted to work with me. As a new volunteer, if you find yourself at a loss to start classes, I’d encourage you to branch out and find a new base for your work by getting to know the people in another douar.

Moroccan Arabic References

*djnan: palmary

*Dar Chabab: youth center

*djellaba: traditional hooded robe worn by Moroccans

*Nedi Neswi: women’s center, usually a space for the women to learn traditional skills such as sewing or classical Arabic

*douar: village

--- Posted by Katie Bercegeay