Goodbye Letters to Morocco

all the host brothers and cousins making an exodus with us out of the medina on the last day.

This wonderful adventure has now come to an end. From being here in Morocco I feel like I have gained a sense of culture awareness beyond anything I could have gotten in Seattle. This trip has opened up another side of me I thought I never had. This was my first travel abroad experience, but it definitely won’t be my last. Going home with all of me new knowledge of the Moroccan culture will be hard to keep inside to myself. I have never felt so comfortable with people in my life until I came to Morocco. Their warmness and readiness to make you feel at home was amazing. Being away from home was hard, but the host families were so loving that being homesick was way in that back of my mind. I would love to come back to Morocco one day to have an even fuller experience, but until then I am ready to tell the world all that I know and hopefully other young adults will get to have this experience. – Lacresha Lowery

There is only a day and a half left and I don’t want to leave. Every night I think about how close the days are and soon it will be the day for me to leave. I will miss my family so much and the friends I made here. Going back home would be so hard for me because of how much I have adapted to Morocco and the culture. It would be so different for me because I am so used to eating with my hands and having fruit after, also eating bread all the time. The people in Morocco are so different than in New York. People over in Morocco are one of the nicest people I know and will ever meet. A part of me wants to go home but I also would love to stay here. I hope that I can come back to Morocco and be able to stay with my host family. The places in Morocco also will be missed. I loved Tanger so much, its one of the prettiest places. Also Marrakesh had a great night life. Fez was okay, it was not my favorite but of course the mansion/ ryad we stayed in was awesome and I would love to bring my family over to see it. Rabat is one of the places where everything started and that is why I would miss it oh so much. I wish these days can go by slow so I can still be here with my family until it hits tomorrow, we go to Casablanca. So today I hope to make the best out of me and my host family who I would still stay in touch with when I go back to New York because they are not just my host family they ARE my family. Goodbye Morocco and see you soon. Insha Allah. - Rebecca Reyes

Today is our last full day in Rabat. Looking back on this trip, I can reflect on how different I was at the beginning of the trip as opposed to now. Living in Morocco and being so immersed in the culture have completely opened my eyes and have altered my perception of the world for the better. While anticipating this trip in Seattle shortly before it took place, I remember or even being able to guess what to expect. That is why I loved this experience so much because now I have completed it, and I have learned from it. I have seen things that I never knew existed, I have discussed problems that I never knew were problems, and I have become close friends with people whom are completely different from myself. I am so grateful from the bottom of my heart for the people who put so much time into making AmidEast and OneWorld Now! the programs that they are, because as a product of their programs, I can vouch for the fact they are successful. This trip have changed my life and made me into a better and more well-rounded person. – Amy Taylor

Asal sunset!

It is the last morning we will be staying in Rabat, and I still wake up not believing I’m in Africa! I’ve learned so much studying abroad! I came to Morocco for multiple reasons and one was to break stereotypes among the Arab/ Muslim culture. Conforming to a predominant Muslim country was awkward at first but as I became closer to my host family I began to learn and see what their values and cherish their great hospitality and family. I never got homesick on the trip. However, I began to realize how much my family means to me and how much it means to be around them. I never saw this coming but I am glad the realization hit me. Almost everyday, one day was planned out and scheduled. I wonder how it’s going to be like when we go back home. This trip was a privilege to have and I am thankful I was one of the few who got to live the experience. All of my reasons for coming to Morocco have been lived and answered. I am so excited to go back home and share how much fun I had and also about how much I learned about Morocco as well as their culture. I was very excited to have spent my 17^th birthday here, which is a day I will never forget. Thanks to OneWorld Now! and Amideast I have lived my dream instead of reading and hearing about it! – Michelle Moises

I can’t believe were leaving Rabat tomorrow and Morocco the next day. It really just feels like home, and it’s been an experience that I don’t want to just let become a distant memory. The most valuable part of the experience for me has been having a host family. My host family has made me more comfortable by providing a surrogate community, and significantly boosted the level of cultural immersion for the trip. Going on city tours and visiting attractions can be interesting, but provides a surface experience compared to spending time getting to know the people around you. I know almost everyone who living in our ally and there is always something to do; be it visiting the public bath house with my host sister or playing soccer with all the little boys in the ally. I think what I’ll miss most in Seattle is community here, where I can have a good time with people of all ages despite considerable language barriers. This trip has wet my appetite for the world. – Inness Wragg

Over all this trip has been the most amazing thing I have ever done. It’s so weird how in a few days we will be leaving “home” to go home; a cultural custom and a whole new way of living we have gotten used to. I guess now we have to play this whole adaption game over again but this time in Seattle. What confuses me the most is when people come up to me and ask “How’s your trip? How’s Morocco and what is your favorite thing you have done so far?” I just stare and wonder “what a broad question?” Because through my eyes and mind there’s flash backs every moment and every adventure. We did so many wonderful things that is so difficult for me to grasp the feeling and experienced and then ask yourself what’s your favorite moment, impossible. The past couple of weeks of living here has taught me a new way of living. For the first time ever, I am comfortable with myself as a whole. I have a complete understanding of my surroundings. Being on this trip has given me a reality check on how much we complain in life. I recall some moments of unnecessary complaints, I was perfectly fine and yet I still found something ridiculous to complain about. It’s funny how we complain so much in life that the time when there is nothing to complain about we do it unintentionally. And if I was to come back, insha allah. I wouldn’t do it any differently. Looking back from the first time we met, I thought, “wow! What a random group of ten.” But now, I feel honored to be with such amazing people. Morocco had been good to me and I most definitely wish to come back sometime. So you ask me, do I want to go home, no, because I am already home. – Sundus Abdilahi

These last weeks have opened my eyes and have made me love this country. I will miss a lot of thing like bartering but mostly the people. I also will miss the house and our ally. I had many great times just hanging out in or alley on top of our roof in our house. –Trevor Elder

last night at cafe Bahia.

…and so comes the last blog entry. I have bittersweet feelings preparing for departure, through first and foremost the BIGGEST “thank you” to OneWorld Now! and AmidEast, most especially Molly, Suzanne and Naoufal! I would also like to sound an “unheard thanks” to my family and neighborhood for their unique hospitality and embrace as a brother, son, peer and friend, to which by all means I am forever grateful. And also to Trevor, Sundus, Michelle, Lacresha, Rebeca, Inness, and Amy, for countless reasons, I am honored to travel, live and experience with. Disregarding emotional acknowledgements, I was lucky to take a “spur-of-the-moment" "day excursion” to Tanger, a beautiful Northern- most African/Moroccan city in the Strait of Gibraltar, from which we saw the South tip of Spain! Though viewing Spain was understandably a memory in itself, I will rather miss the ally, Arabic class with Madam Zubidah, couscous, nights with Mostapha, cards, the roof, taking pictures, excursion, check-in, being with everyone, the one-eyed cat, lenient driving, the boy in the window, the cornerstone, the sour strawberry/pistachio ice cream, volleyball at Rabat beach, the call to prayer, Radio2M, Mohammad: our bus driver, camels, Café Bahia, cross-cultural conversation, broken Arabic, my family and everything else that has been to me “Morocco.” Until next time, insha allah! – Jim McGowan