Reflections from the Experiment in Morocco

 

Jenna Spencer in Morocco

This past summer Jenna Spencer traveled to Morocco with the Experiment in International Living. Though Jenna has always enjoyed traveling, this was her first adventure outside of North America. Jenna wishes to thank the many generous donors who make the Experiment possible for students like her, who would not otherwise be able to afford the experience.

On my last day as an Experimenter in Morocco I made sure to take in everything.  The heavy smells of spices and oranges hung over the crowded streets of Rabat. The booming voices of vendors swarmed in my ears as I navigated the Medina. The sweet taste of mint tea still sat on my lips from breakfast. One last time, dissecting an unfamiliar language and weaving my way through identical winding streets. What once felt like a hectic routine, easy to get lost, now felt comfortable and safe. After four weeks of travel and immersion into many different aspects of Moroccan society, I had gained a newfound sense of independence and confidence that seemed to lead the way.

Experimenters gaze into the Sahara

My mind wandered back to my homestay in a small, rural village called Aberdi. During my two week stay there was no electricity or running water. I went to the bathroom outside and lived amongst the family’s animals. I slept on the ground with my whole family in just one room. It was a simpler, more relaxed way of living which I grew to love. I would wake up to the sound of roosters without the worry of showers or what to wear. Instead, this time would be spent sipping tea and laughing with my host mother, or picking pears with my host brother. I learned to wander the long dirt roads that spanned across my village, feeling utterly safe and confident. Whether it was weaving with the local mothers, teaching English to the village children, or dancing Ahidous with the village fathers, I was constantly absorbing and learning.

A language gap that once seemed huge slowly closed between my host family and me.  Through survival language lessons and miming, we shared many stories and laughs ranging from light topics, such as family and friends, to heavier ones comparing Moroccan and American clothing, religion, and marriage traditions. My host family opened my eyes to a different, yet valuable, way of living. They taught me acceptance, compassion, and empathy. The homestay reminded me never to judge the unfamiliar, and taught me to embrace those who are different, for they also have the most to teach.

Jenna and her Experiment group with Moroccan friends

As I left my homestay, after the two most rewarding weeks of my life, I sobbed. I could not imagine leaving the people I had grown to love but I was so grateful for the invaluable chance to meet and learn from them in the first place. And of course the learning did not stop there. Whether it was riding camels in the Sahara desert, exploring ancient Mosques, or learning to bargain, everyday my mind seemed to open and grow in a way I had never known before. Needless to say, on that last day navigating my way through the vibrant Rabat streets with all my senses being engaged, I was not the same person who had entered Morocco nearly four weeks previously; I had grown into so much more. I am so grateful to The Experiment [EIL] for giving me this opportunity that will forever be imprinted in my mind.

Jenna lives with her family in Cambridge, MA. She is currently a student at Concord Academy, where she is an A Better Chance student.

Experiment alum helps spread spirit and values of World Learning

Ann and her Italian host sisters in 2009

Ann Friedman, World Learning former Trustee, recently traveled to the shores of the Adriatic Sea for a family reunion, an Experiment host family reunion. When Ann was just a teenager, she participated on an Experiment in International Living trip to Italy where she took intensive Italian language courses and lived with an Italian host family on a small farm. “As an Experimenter I was emboldened to live far from home and learn to live in a very different culture and community,” says Ann. “I had to learn how to be flexible and adjust – important attributes for anyone to carry throughout life.”

Ann's Italian host sisters during her Experiment days

The recent reunion with her Italian host sisters was just another small way in which Ann has helped to spread the spirit and values of the Experiment and World Learning. After college, Ann was inspired to be an Experiment group leader to France, which eventually led her into the fields of education and international relations. “I wanted to make sure that the kids in my group learned about their host country and appreciated its history and beauty as much as I did,” she says. “I would say that the experience ultimately led to my developing a world cultures extracurricular program and then eventually becoming a classroom teacher.”

Ann’s passion for travel and experiential education has certainly rubbed off – not only on her students, but on her daughter Natalie as well. Natalie participated on the SIT Study Abroad Senegal: Lens on West Africa program in the summer of 2007. Though Ann has always believed in the importance of global citizenship and cross-cultural understanding, her daughter’s experiences have highlighted the growing need for young students to have authentic intercultural interactions.

Ann and her Experiment host family in Italy

“I think that because we’re all connected now to whomever we want to be connected, we face the very real danger of believing that those somewhat superficial connections are the equivalent of real connections – connections which you forge in homestays and by living or studying abroad,” says Ann. As a trustee Ann has donated substantially to the World Learning capital campaign, and has even started an Experiment scholarship program at the Iowa high school where she was a student. “It’s important to support World Learning.” She adds, “Only through the hands-on, lived programs provided by World Learning do young people gain intimate knowledge of other cultures and their own capabilities, interests and strengths.”

This belief, in the importance of real-world intercultural experiences, motivates Ann to continue to support World Learning. She has not only made the World Learning experience a reality for her own daughter, but has also provided many high school students with an opportunity they would otherwise not have.

SIT Study Abroad Panama Alum turns field research into education scholarships

In the fall of 2008, Tim Soo traveled to Panama on the SIT Study Abroad Panama: Tropical Ecology, Marine Ecosystems, and Biodiversity Conservation program. Soo, a student at Emory University who plans to become a doctor, spent the summer of 2008 working in a medical lab in Japan before heading directly to Panama. Once in Panama, the stark contrast between his homeland and the research lab in Japan struck him immediately, but the turning point occurred a few months later when his group visited the Comarca Ngobe, a reservation for the Ngobe indigenous group.

Though Soo and his fellow group members spent only one night in the Comarca, the experience was transformative for many of them. The Comarca Ngobe have traditionally been a nomadic people, but recent population growth in Panama has severely limited their movement. As a result, the Ngobe of the Comarca have become isolated in a small reservation in the mountains, virtually unable to produce enough food for survival. Language and cultural barriers only make the situation more severe, and the group receives very little help from the national government.

Soo originally planned to conduct research on medicine, but found the conversations always drifting back towards more basic needs for food and shelter. It was the first time he and the other group members had truly observed extreme poverty, and they decided that they needed to do something about it. “Through various discussions afterwards, we attempted to come up with a solution to escaping this endless cycle of poverty, to escaping these difficulties; we decided the best way was through education,” he says. The group then started “Few for Change,” an organization devoted to raising tuition money for students of the Comarca Ngobe. To date, the group has raised enough money for two scholarships, and has begun working with ASMUNG and Padres Familiares, two local organizations in Panama, who will help to identify scholarship recipients.

The organization is now up and running, and a prime example of the impact that field research can have on SIT Study Abroad students. To learn more about “Few for Change,” visit the organization’s website at: http://www.fewforchange.com/

Dreams Come True for One Experiment Participant

By Megan McBride, SIT Graduate Student/World Learning Americorps VISTA

When asked to reflect on her experience on The Sights and Sounds of Italy – Language, Culture, and Travel program with the Experiment in Internatational Living, Yasmine Holloway describes her feelings as “a sensation reminiscent of one who has just woken from a very good dream.” 

Yasmine had never left the United States before taking part on the Experiment program but she has always loved languages and desired a chance to explore new cultures.  She was drawn to the program’s focus on language training and authentic interactions with local customs and culture.  With great excitement, Yasmine participated on the Experiment Italy program as an Outbound Ambassador in the summer of 2008.  “I shall be forever grateful to the Experiment, which has motivated me to continue my pursuit of cultural knowledge and to surmount all trivial anxieties and hindrances to make my dreams reality.”     

Participants on the Experiment Italy program begin their five week experience by exploring Rome.  The architecture in this city awed Yasmine.  “I appreciated how I seemed to be surrounded so much by history (that) it was almost tangible. I felt privileged to tread where the ancient people of Rome once walked thousands of years ago.”

Language training classes in Tuscany follow Rome on the Experiment Italy itinerary.  Yasmine notes that these classes gave her a solid foundation of the Italian language that she was later able to build upon with her host family in Cosenza.  After language training, participants live with a host family and Yasmine was impressed by the effortless manner with which her host family incorporated her into their daily routine. “Meeting my host sister’s friends allowed me to engage in a social environment in which I learned practical Italian and the customs of the locals.”

The Experiment Italy program ends with a quick tour; for Yasmine, highlights of this tour included hiking on Mount Vesuvius and a gondola ride in Venice.  Finishing the program was a bitter-sweet experience and Yasmine was troubled by the thought that she would not hear the Italian language or see her host family again.  She promised herself that she would return to Italy one day and that has become part of her new dream. 

Yasmine stays connected to her dreams of international understanding by participating in her high school’s letter exchange program with students in countries across the globe.  Her pen pal is from Germany and Yasmine hopes to use these interactions to continue the cultural learning she started on the Experiment.  She is thankful for her experience on Experiment in International Living’s Italy program. “(It) has inspired me to be continually courageous in new and sometimes intimidating situations.” 

Yasmine’s future is full of possibility but she is sure about one thing: “I plan to travel more in my lifetime, to meet new people and see new and exciting places.”

Jordan homestay: Why we host students

While Alejandra was visiting SIT Study Abroad in Jordan last month, she spent time visiting and chatting with homestay families about their involvement in our programs.  In this video, a Jordan homestay family explains why they enjoy hosting students as part of a homestay.

The homestay experience…a family away from family.

I was amazed at the welcome we received. In Jordan, we visited four different homestay families and each one welcomed us as they do our students, with open arms, full meals and laughter.

A critical component of our SIT Study Abroad programs is the homestay. The homestay provides our students with the opportunity to live with a local family for several weeks, days or even months. The homestay not only helps improve language skills but it provides a direct, personal connection to the local culture.

Although the idea of the homestay is often the most frightening aspect of the program, almost all of our students end up saying that it is one of the most rewarding and powerful experiences of their semesters. Departure from a homestay often ends is hugs, tears and years of friendship.

SIT Study Abroad Jordan: Homestays and Language Practice

Duncan Pickard, SIT Study Abroad Jordan Summer 2008, talks about speaking Arabic during his rural homestay experience in Jordan.

A whirlwind trip to SIT Study Abroad in Panama

Over a long weekend in mid-May, World Learning’s Executive Vice President and SIT Provost, Adam Weinberg, had a chance to visit the SIT Study Abroad Conservation and Development program in Panama. The goal of his trip was to gain a better understanding of the SIT Study Abroad ISP (Independent Study Project) process, and to see examples of the positive impact our students are having in several Panamanian communities. Panama is a unique study abroad experience because there are very few Americans and international tourists, and SIT Study Abroad is one of the only study abroad programs working in the country. These and other reasons made the visit to Panama compelling.

Adam spent four very packed days speaking with faculty, homestay families, and students in Panama City, Bocas del Toro, and Loma Bonita, and was incredibly impressed by the things that he saw. He met with several students who were in the process of working on their ISPs – some of which who were partnering with Smithsonian Institution scientists and conducting original ecological research. The Panama program – like many of our programs – provides students the opportunities to research the topics they are interested in, with a particular focus on environmental sustainability and knowledge transfer to local communities. As a result, students in the Panama program regularly add to the growing body of environmental sustainability research – opportunities most PHD candidates would kill for!

Coming Soon to Mongolia, Experimenters in yurts!

For the first time ever, The Experiment in International Living will be running a program in Mongolia. Chris Frantz, Deputy Director of the Experiment, recently returned from Mongolia, where he was helping organize the program, which is being run in partnership with SIT Study Abroad staff there.

The program, which is fully enrolled at 12 students, will focus on Mongolian arts, culture and life in nomadic villages. It will begin in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, with basic language training and an exploration of Mongolian arts and culture. Students will then move to the Steppes, where they will spend several days with Mongolian high schools students doing a service project at a school. They will also spend three days in the Gobi Desert and five nights living in a homestay with nomadic villages.

This program is the culmination of a years’ worth of work and is a great example of the ways in which our program units can partner to take advantage of the strong local networks that we have in place.

An Exchange of Hospitality and Pancakes

Jo Koski, a student currently studying abroad in Vietnam this semester, shares a story about learning to cook during her homestay in Can Tho. To learn more about the SIT Culture and Development program in Vietnam, please visit our website.

April 11, 2008

Its 5:00 in the morning and my alarm is infiltrating my dreams. My initial reaction is to shove it under my pillow to silence it and go back to sleep for another three hours, but I roll over and grudgingly nudge Caroline to wake up. It’s the last morning at our home stay in Can Tho, and we had a promise to fulfill. I found my way out of the tangled web of mosquito net I was in, fumbled for my glasses, and felt my way down the steep spiral case that led to the kitchen.

Earlier that week, Caroline and I had expressed our wish to learn some traditional Vietnamese dishes during our studying abroad experience. Co Cuc, our home stay mother, was ecstatic at hearing this and demanded we cook with her the following night. Not knowing what we were in for, we hesitantly agreed to the proposal and made mental notes to eat a big lunch before returning home. When we arrived home that night, Co Cuc ushered us directly into the kitchen where bowls brimming with ingredients waiting to be diced, mixed and cooked.Usually, either our home stay brother, Truong, or sister, Thao, would be home at this time to help with translations, but for some reason neither were to be found; we were going to be forced to learn in Vietnamese.

After surveying our materials and using hand gestures, we deciphered the fact that tonight we would learn the fine art of making Ban Xeo, the traditional Mekong Delta pancake. Co Cuc pointed to each bowl and pronounced the Vietnamese name slowly, allowing us to absorb the new names. Then it was time to begin. Handing me a big bowl, Co Cuc motioned to beat the eggs. Seeing that the eggs were smooth, she began alternatively pouring water and flour into the mixture, making a yellow paste. While I was beating the batter, Caroline was finely chopping the green onion, making a pile of little green “o”s. This was then added to the mixture, along with a little coconut milk. Not once did Co Cuc refer to a recipe; it was as though the process was as natural to her as waking up in the morning.