In Morocco, our welcome has been warm and courteous everywhere we go; formal greetings from principals and ministers; platters of dates and milk or tea and cookies served ceremoniously; personal translators and cultural liasons to smooth over any bumps in cross cultural communications. We were roundly scolded with hand gestures outside of the US embassy when I got a little too excited about the enormous nest of Marabout Storks right outside the entrance. Apparently as we were still within the gates it is forbidden to have any electronic devices such as a camera out. The guards are Moroccan and had enjoyed a few hours with our passports while we met with officers of the embassy and US AID, so they knew we were Americans and scolded us with hand gestures and patient smiles, instead of yelling at us in Arabic or Tamazight or French . . . but would this reaction have been the same if the situation were reversed?
As we looked a bit forlorn we were told not to worry, the storks had nests everywhere. If you have never seen a Marabout, they are named for elder religious leaders because of their slight hunched back, red feet, and fairly grand size – they can stand about four feet tall with a 6 foot wingspan. The birds make nests that are about 6 feet across and raise young in the Maghreb or along the Seine in France before migrating back to Subsaharan Africa. The Bambara have some superstitions about their powers. I have an intense recollection of being excited to read about the Marabout as the fairy tale stork in an early French lesson, and of seeing one in the wild in Samburu, Kenya, and seeing glimpses of numbers of them through trees in Marnay France. But I had never before seen them so openly in an urban setting, as many as four nesting pairs stacked in a slender pine tree like a high rise. Or nests behind embassies on top of a lamppost. As a traveler, it’s preposterous that such an elegant and large bird can be seen as an everyday nuisance and not a marvel. We saw at least 15 more nests while driving down the next few blocks, many with chicks in the nest.
Privilege is taken for granted by those accustomed to it. I’ve been quite aware of it here, as we are shuttled from prestigious school to hotel boardroom; addressed in formal French and studied English; kindly escorted to local sites and homes. As Americans, even when warned to keep electronics away, we feel safe enough to forget security procedures and draw cameras before armed guards just to photograph a bird. Yet back in America, a middle school child in Texas was recently seen as a threat when he built an alarm clock for a science project – as his name was Mohammed staff feared his work might be a bomb and arrested the teenager. http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/
Why do Americans often see immigrants (and sometimes their children) as threatening figures? These are individuals who, miraculously and against tremendous odds, have crossed oceans and learned languages and changed careers and evaded threats and done whatever necessary to come to our country for refuge, for opportunity, for a better life. As “No one leaves their home unless the water is safer than the land.” We should rightfully view recent immigrants with as much marvel as we view the wandering Marabout stork; with compassion and admiration for their resilience in the face of human strife.
Americans don’t need a visa to travel to Morocco; we have a longstanding relationship with the nation, which was the first to recognize our independence in 1777. Moroccans seeking entry to the US face more challenges to entry; yet the nation is producing fluent English speakers who have passed the IB exams as well as French-administered universities. How can we increase our hospitality and welcome? How can we approach others with a sense of curiosity and amazement and an open mind?
We are meeting with MACEA to plan the organization of more exchanges between our classrooms this morning.
Do you welcome students to your classroom as honored guests? How do you connect to others within your classroom to teach respect, curiosity, and wonder?
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