On the Road in Morocco -- March 15th - 17th

Monday, we spent the day in the capital city, Rabat. We meet two American teachers who are beginning their exchange in Morocco, and also American students who are studying in Morocco. Morocco has a very different school system than the US in some ways, and they are alike in other ways. They have elementary, middle and high schools (they call high schools "secondary schools"), and they have to pass a test to move on. They have 12 grades just like we do. But in Morocco, all public schools are run by the central government in Rabat. The individual regions (like states) or local governments do not have a say in the schools. They also have private schools that are paid for by familiies that don't want a public education. What do you think about the idea of private schools? Would you like to attend one? Do you think it would be different than the public school you attend now?

We took a tour of the Chellah, which are ruins from the times that the Romans occupied North Africa. It is amazing to see buildings that were constructed so long ago. In Los Angeles, anything over 100 years old is considered historic. These ruins are almost 2000 years old, and you can still see most of the original construction. We also visited the Oudaya, which was a pirate fort. You might remember that we talked about the Barbary pirates of the early 19th century, but this fort was built before then, in the 17th century. We wanted to visit the Mausoleum where King Mohammed V is buried (he was the first king of modern Morocco when they gained independence from France in 1957), but couldn't get in because we found out that the current king was coming to make a speech, so the mausoleum was closed. I would have been fun to see the king! By the way, one of the interesting things that I learned from the pirate era is that the area right on the beach was considered the worst place to live. Now people want to live near the beach, but during the 17th and 18th century that was a place to put the graveyard, right next to the pirate fort. That way, if they were attacked, there would be a buffer zone between the ocean where the attack was coming from, and the people on land.

Tuesday was a day to drive back to Beni Mellal, and Wednesday and Thursday will be our last days in Morocco before we fly out Friday. I'm going to end my post for now, but I'll continue in my next posts to tell about our conversations with the teachers and students. So for now, au revoir