At the End of the Road

Excuse my Arabic or your possible word association, but I'm currently "fuq Fuigig" (on top of Figuig) or "on top of the world" in world's fair Americana. I'm in the southeast corner of Morocco in Figuig, population 16,000, 2 km away on three sides from the Algerian border, and 100 km from the closest Moroccan town. It's geopolitically a border pimple, a town that sustains itself from the governments desire to mark its boundaries with neighboring rival Algeria. Its also a tourist haven (particularly with the French) for its date palmaries and desert feel. Before air travel, it was the last stop in Morocco for those faithful making the long pilgrimage to Mecca.

The weathers beautiful here, an improvement from the wind, wind, and rain of the last two weeks up North that kept blowing over the bamboo fence in my yard. I'm here in Figuig for the next 8 days for an English training camp with a couple other volunteers and Moroccan staff. Starting tommorrow, we're expecting around 100 campers from the region, with a daily schedule from 7 AM exercises to 10 pm clubs and activities. When questioned about the feasibility of a 15 hour day supervising high school age students, the local delegate responded "but this is Figuig, people only sleep for 3 hours here." Yes, three hours in the summer heat with car horns annoucing local weddings, but not in other seasons. Otherwise, these Figuigi's are to be praised for bringing the big top to this isolated nest. Furthermore, after subtracting 3 hours for lunch and 2 for tea breaks, the schedule was looking more manageable. And coordinating instructions in English instead of caveman Arabic should be a welcome relief.

My English classes will be environmentally theme based and with students rotating, we'll be talking about soils, water systems, plants, animals, and ecosystems over the next week. I'll try to keep you all informed.

UPDATE: When I say "caveman Arabic," I'm referring to how I speak the language; it's not a reference to the language. Arabic is a beautiful and rich language. It's easy to be misinterpreted in the Near East-West relationship, especially when perceptions masquerade as understanding. To say "I watch Al Jazeera (or Al Jazeera English) or Fox News and I know the truth" is to be dubed. To say "I see scantily clad American women or those fully covered on the TV and know what's best" is to be naive.. or worse.

Yeserday while putting up a welcome banner at the Figuig youth center, a student walked up to me and asked me about the star that took the place of the 'O' in the blue lettered 'Welcome.'

"Is that blue star the Moroccan star?" (The one featured in the Moroccan flag is green).
"No.. maybe.. it's just a star."
"Is it the star of Israel?"
"No, no. It's not Israeli just because it's blue."

Israeli's don't own blue stars and Moroccans green ones.