The Environment Club and the Library

It’s amazing to me how flustered I’m getting just wanting to write about two seemingly simple things. Let’s address the environment club first.

Ashley, an environment volunteer near me, had the idea for our collaboration on this club, so my first task was to find an adult counterpart from the community to be in charge of it. Aziz is a man who works at the high school in some capacity, and who likes to hang out at the dar chebab and play guitar.

He and I actually had a tiny bit of a run-in a few months ago. He had been wanting to learn English from the very basics, and finally we realized that that wasn’t going to come from him coming with my high school students. So I told him I’d help him learn in our free time. Then one afternoon he asked if it would still be okay if he came to Youth Café. I said, of course. He said, it wouldn’t be a problem? I said, Oh! Would it be? I don’t know…because, you’re a man, and there are girls…at that point, someone was pulling me off somewhere, and I realized that I had horribly offended him. Oops.

So, the next time we saw each other, I said, I’m really sorry, I still don’t understand everything in the culture here and I thought that maybe that YOU were saying you shouldn’t come with girls. I don’t know anything! I can get really confused about the gender role stuff here.

He said, he has his own culture, and he really just wants to hang out and play guitar.

I begged his forgiveness and we became friends. Then, whenever we saw each other we would engage in dialogues about the local community and closed-mindedness. He seemed pretty frustrated with what he characterized as people’s archaic habits, whether it was gender roles or littering. I said, well, you should share your thoughts with them. Why don’t you DO something about the problems you see? He seemed skeptical and we left it at that.

When it came up that I needed to find an enthusiastic older person to be in charge of a club, he seemed like the perfect candidate. So I went to him back in November when we had this idea, and he agreed whole heartedly. Our goals would be to have local kids educate people in the community about problems that result from abusing the environment and how we can solve those abuses. Then Ashley and I both went to America and things got put on hold for a month…

Back in the dar chebab in January, Aziz and I greeted each other, but didn’t mention the club. We both sort of eyed each other from opposite sides of the dar, and I thought he had lost enthusiasm and was scared I’d try to cash in on the commitment. I said, Aziz, are you still interested in doing that club? He said, “Yes! I thought you’d forgotten about it! I have a lot of ideas for bringing in kids, maybe getting the high school principal involved, and for the campaigns that we can do.” I said, excellent, let’s wait until my friend comes in February.

So, Ashley (“Rachida” is her Arabic name) came Wednesday. But there is still the issue of the dar chebab administration. What IS the role of the dar chebab administration? I don’t know and I wonder if I’ll ever know. I went to those who work there and who frequently hang out there—who are men aged 35-50, mostly—and informed them of the creation of the environment club, and asked if they wanted to participate. Because if I appeared to be doing something subversive or exclusive, it would make things a lot more difficult.

The mudir (boss) informed me that there already IS an environment club. Redouan is the president. They have done such things as acquiring the four potted plants that surround the dar chebab fountain, and planting flowers in the garden in front of the dar chebab.

I explained that the objectives of this one are going to be a bit different, and are going to focus on the participation of high school students and their taking an active role in the community. Anyway, I said, Ashley, Aziz (who has agreed to be responsible but I’m sure we can find a role for everyone), and I are going to hold a meeting at 5:00 Thursday for anyone who’s interested in participating in starting this club. I also spread the word to a few kids who hang out a lot.

So at 5:00 Thursday, Ashley, Aziz, and I sat alone in my classroom. At 5:30 we said, okay, guess it’s just us! And we conducted our meeting.

I told Aziz: we want you to facilitate this club, but to have young people run it. An example of how it would work over the course of a month is that, during the first meeting, you would teach kids about a topic that you had researched—for example, litter, why it’s a problem, and what the solutions are (and Ashley and I can help you get some books on the environment and some online resources). You might do an activity with them. Then the next meeting, the kids would figure out, how could they share this knowledge with people in the greater community? And you could come and encourage them if you wanted. Then, they would do something, like a trash pick-up, or a soccer game with information tables, to spread awareness about the topic in question.

We want to start the club with a kick-off event at the dar chebab a month from now. We’ll call it Environment Day and we’ll do it on a Sunday. We’ll try to get speakers from regional associations; we’ll also invite all the Peace Corps Volunteers in the region and do an afternoon of stations with activities (each one to be conducted by an American and a Moroccan).

So, I continued, the next step is for us to do a meeting where we invite as many kids as possible. You and I can do a presentation to introduce the idea to them. From there, we’ll form the club and work on planning the kick-off day.

Aziz said: I love it and this is exactly what I was thinking.

…at 6:30, 8 other people filed in for the meeting.

I said, Oh. I’m sorry, everyone, I thought that maybe you weren’t still interested in doing this so I already talked about everything with Aziz. Aziz, can you tell them what we talked about? My Arabic…

Aziz: Well, we talked about a lot…

Annie: Hm, okay, well, I will just tell you then…

I don’t really even know how to describe the meeting that ensued. It was mostly really intense discussion of, and the expression of extreme skepticism towards, potential projects. The original three of us zoned out for most of it, though notes from Ashley (who only learned Tamazight due to living in the mountains) incited me to occasionally try to steer it back on topic, with the use of my Arabic, which becomes surprisingly bad in front of a group of 15 men (more people trickled in throughout the evening). One person engaged in a 20-minute speech in the middle, which I didn’t catch much of. I’m starting to have a very clear and disturbing notion of what power can mean to people.

The meeting went until about 7:40, when I was finally able to go over to my students who were forlornly slumped in a corner.

I met with Aziz Friday morning to make flyers for the next meeting, which we want to have on Tuesday evening. We did so, but because we’re handing them out in the name of the dar chebab, we had to run it by the administration, who felt the need to make a variety of changes.

When we left the dar chebab, Aziz told me this Amazigh (“Berber”) joke: A married woman and her husband lived out in the countryside. One day, the man—a hunter—saw a frog. He killed it with his gun. The woman said, “What is this?! Why did you do that, kill such a small thing with your gun? Shame on you!”

The man said, “Get out! I divorce you, and your whole family!”

The woman went back to her family’s house and asked her parents what to do. Her wise mother gave her some advice. The next day, the woman went back to her husband’s house, pointed at the dead frog, and said, “Oh my! Who has killed this dragon? What strong man killed this horrible creature??”

Then the man came strutting over, admitted his accomplishment, and married her again.

I’ll leave the library for tomorrow.