Marrakech, Morocco
08 October 2018
From September 28th to October 6th, I traveled to Morocco with my program for our semester excursion. We spent the first two days in the capital of Rabat where we heard from individuals working with the Ministry of Health, the International Office of Migration (IOM), and many NGOs to learn about the Moroccan health system and evident health disparities. After traveling to central Marrakech and getting lost in the maze of the Medina at Jemma El Fna, we learned about the current king’s initiatives to augment women’s empowerment and health care access to vulnerable populations like disabled children and cancer patients. On Monday, we proceeded to spend a great deal of our trip staying with homestay families in a rural village in Marrakech. There, groups of 5-6 students were assigned different homestay families and I firmly believe this experience allowed me to feel a stronger pulse of Morocco.
From our last night in Marrakech- we danced all night long!
Beautiful bowls at the Medina in Marrakech
The view from the balcony of my homestay family’s house overlooking the Atlas mountains
The homestay element of this excursion consisted of dining, dancing, playing, conversing, and adapting, and most importantly being open-minded about temporarily living a much lower standard of living compared to Switzerland and the United States. Despite this, the architecture, design, music, dance, and food radiated in vibrant colors, sounds, and flavors left me in a state of bliss multiple times throughout our week in El Maghreb. Over the course of the week I reminded myself embrace rural Moroccan culture and to make the most of such a valuable experience while being conscientious of my/our imprint on a pre-existing community.
Me (left) and my host mom Khadija (right)
Situated in the Atlas mountains, this small village of Tanahout exhibits low levels of light pollution that allowed us to stargaze and enjoy the peace and serenity that is indubitably one of the perks of rural life in this middle-income country. After reflecting a bit, I realized that my life’s travels so far have exposed me to either extremely impoverished settings in developing countries around the world or relatively very well-off national infrastructure in many European and North American regions. Learning about the urban-rural divide in this context was truly unique and has definitely broadened the scope of my studies of global health. When it came to understanding Moroccan health care, education, transportation, and many more means of upward social mobility, social disparities took on a deeper meaning. For instance, the role of tourism even in this rural village sustains so many families, including the ones we lived with for a few days. Although there is much pushback against the pitfalls of tourism in such fragile communities, many of our host families embraced inevtaible cultural compromises because it set meals on the table and paid for medical bills that are not covered by their basic health insurance.
Kids of the village being silly after school
My friends and I made connections of a lifetime with Moroccan cuisine, art, and most of all the people. Coming back to Switzerland, I see a stark contrast in the cultural spirit of each country and long to drink sweet mint tea and dance in the golden sunset over the Atlas mountains with my family in Marrakech.
Sweet, sweet mint tea
Sunset over the Atlas Mountains