Nicaragua, Morocco, & Tanzania

  “ You’ve got to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you got and remember what you had, always forgive and never forget, learn from mistakes and never regret”- Unknown   Being submerged into a whole new culture has brought me an understanding and acceptance that I have never had before. I came from a very closed off perspective of the religion, culture, and education of Morocco. I now understand to never judge something until you have fully experienced it. From the first day at AbdaSalam Sayah, when Sarah and I walked in to the classroom knowing very little about the student’s level and being nervous, we just went for it. The only thing that gave us the confidence that first day was the fact the Touria, the director of the school, told us that the kids selected to learn from us were some of the hardest working kids in the school. Now it is that last day of our trip and I have never seen an eagerness to improve like our kids showed. At the end of the...

“We don’t learn so much by our successes as we learn by failures- our own and others, especially if we see the failures properly corrected”- Frank Lloyd Wright Coming from a closed off perspective of a black and white society it is hard to see the gray areas in other communities. Whether it is in the classroom with students, a government system, or an old religion that is new to me it is essential to assess the gray areas.             In Morocco we have seen the gray areas largely played out in the government system along the lines of how they perceive everything to be beautiful but than we found out the amount of money a person gets paid. For example in our last home visit we talked with Fatimazahra mother Rabiee about what she does for a living, she told us that she works as a house cleaner for three houses. She works from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening and in the middle she comes home to cook lunch for her kids. At th...

“Limitations live only in our mind, but if we use our imagination our possibilities become limitless”-James Paovinett             From the moment I got the call from Lisa Marie saying I was officially going on the trip to Morocco, to showing up at the school on Monday, I have had endless stress about being able to teach again and having to handle the responsibility that comes with these trips.             However, once we arrived at Abda Salam Sayah Middle School where we were about to begin teaching English for two weeks, my stress slowly began to disappear. First we met the director Touria. She has been at the school for 16 years and is one of the most dedicated people I have ever met to teaching kids. Touria is willing to do whatever it takes to help the kids in their journey of life. Touria gave our group some amazing words of wisdom from her life story and what she had...