Paranoia in the Maghreb

Maghreb is the real name for Morocco - it means "Land of the setting sun (or the west)" meaning it is the western-most Islamic country. "Maghreb" also can refer to the general area of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

A few weeks ago the most-read Arabic newspaper in Morocco published an article blasting AUI (the university where Gerald works) as being a 'hotbed of proselytization.’

When AUI was founded by the former King, Hassan II, he established it as a place where the three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) could coexist and dialogue. Though there is no synagogue because there are almost no Jews left in Morocco, the university does allow a chaplain and gives the church an apartment in which to worship. Our tiny services are made up of mostly of faculty and American exchange students. Moroccans are allowed to visit, but cannot attend regularly. Conversely, the mosque on campus is one of the few in Morocco which foreigners are allowed to visit.

Karen, our chaplain, is very visible in the community and is famous literally all over Morocco for being someone who has actively done a great deal to help Morocco. AUI has also allowed several dialogue groups - most recently, we had an Imam (Muslim preacher), Karen and a Rabbi discuss poverty on a panel last week. The year before we came, the Moroccan students decided to watch "The Passion of the Christ" and asked questions of Karen afterward.

We believe all these factors provide a healthy atmosphere and that talking across, about and through our differences is the first step to a more peaceful world. But many in Morocco just don't get it. They are afraid that Christians are pushing their faith on Muslims and they cannot fathom that dialogue is possible or helpful.

This short-sighted paranoia puts those of us who are Christians here in the hot-seat even though we are abiding by the guidelines of the university and Morocco. It also puts our chaplain yet again in an unpleasant spotlight (this has happened before).

About a month ago, the entire Iranian embassy in Morocco was shut down and kicked about because of accusations of proselytizing their brand of Islam which of course doesn't look good to other Muslim countries. So now it seems that something has to happen against the Christians in Morocco to please other Muslim countries. Who knows – Morocco seems to always be in a delicate dance of pleasing western nations and the Middle East.

AUI has chosen to ignore the allegations hoping they will blow over and holding onto its firm belief that progress and peace need to start somewhere.

around-the-world-Mom

My dear 77-year-old mother (who just had a birthday) has arrived safely in Afghanistan. Not that Kabul is a tourist destination or that now that she's off the plane she's safe...

Mom and Dad left Kabul in 2005 after roughly 36 years of involvement in Afghanstian. Dad had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and they had to leave immediately without goodbyes or closure. After Dad's death, I always knew that Mom would need to go back, but that doesn't make it any easier to see her go to the world's hottest spot! But this is the time to go. Brad's family will be moving to North Dakota next year because it's just too dangerous and restrictive for a family to live in Kabul. For example, their teenage boys can never go anywhere alone, they have to take different routes to school each day (to avoid being targets), they have very little electricity, etc. etc. Brad will continue his business of alternate energy (hydro, wind & solar) - by traveling back and forth between the States and Afghanistan.

So this is probably the last opportunity for Mom to visit Kabul, stay with family and assist with a women's project there.

I suppose a world-gallivanting mother is not so unusual when you consider that her mother, Viola Wiebe, got knocked over by a giraffe on safari at the age of 90 while visiting her children in Kenya...

Never-the-less, I would appreciate your prayers for Mom and Brad's family as they spend the last few months in Kabul.

Strike!

The Market - with no fruits and vegetables left

Last week all transport went on a strike. Apparently the lawmakers in Rabat decided to legislate tougher laws on drivers when they hit a person and cause injury or death. Every time I heard the proposed penalties, they were different, so I really don't know what the truth of the matter was. Since those in the transport business are the most likely ones to hit someone, they went on strike. One of their concerns was that people might run in front of vehicles just to collect the lucrative bribes that drivers would pay to avoid the jail time.

It really is a scary thought for all of us drivers. People constantly step out in the road directly in the way of traffic without ever looking.

A transportation strike really paralyzes a country in which very few people own cars. People rely on public transportation to do just about everything. After a few days of this, food started running out in the market and prices began to sky-rocket (since we are in the hills and almost nothing is grown locally, all our food is trucked in). By the end of the week, there were absolutely no fruit and vegetables left, which is what people eat here (vs. canned or processed foods). The city also ran out of fuel. It was a funny feeling driving around almost on empty and realizing it's pointless to go shopping because there's nothing there anyway! And a friend of ours had a visitor who almost did not make it back to Casa to catch his plane out of the country.

But the strike ended on Friday and things are back to normal. Apparently the lawmakers and drivers reached some sort of compromise. Better go eat a veggie.

Holy Week & Easter

Katrina and some of her classmates before their spring program.

They are all dressed up for a Moroccan dance they performed. Later they did the French part of the program which was rather interesting. They took turns reading off of a power point all about former or current French colonies. Picture a room full of Moroccans, all formerly under the French flag themselves, some of whose parents had fought the French for independence . . . sitting through a long presentation about the glories of the French colonies! Later the teacher complained to a friend that several of the parents didn't even speak to her after the program - wonder why . . . One father said he would have walked out had his daughter not been reading. It seemed a bit like rubbing salt into an old wound, although this is not at all what the teacher intended. She wanted everyone to come away thinking what marvelous readers their children are!

Yasmine, our neighbor - all decked out for the program

Easter family picture

Thursday night, we had a Passover meal. Friday we had a tenebrae (sp?) service where, as each passage was read, a candle was extinguished. I had to read the "Crucify Him!" part which was very difficult. When the service was done, everything was completely dark and we went home in silence. Later we watched "Miracle Maker" about the life of Jesus through his death then stopped it. Needless to say, we all went to bed depressed!

Sunday we got up for a small sunrise service on the balcony of the church. It was more of a mist-rise, but we got the idea! Then everyone came down to our house for breakfast. We had our main service a few hours later and it was full of joy, sunshine, trumpet (thanks to Gerald) and singing. The college students then hid eggs for the kids and got a kick out of watching the kids hunt! For the potluck, I made two strawberry pies, rolls and fresh strawberry jelly. Three guesses as to what is in season! Yes, strawberries are currently 6 lbs for $3.00! Oh - and we watched the end of "Miracle Maker!"

It is interesting to celebrate this season here because -

* Lent - Ramadan was most likely patterned after lent - a time of fasting and repentance - but it is a rather touchy thing to bring this up!

* Passover - You can imagine that a Jewish holiday is not celebrated in a Muslim country.

* Good Friday - Muslims do not believe Jesus died. They do not believe God would ever allow a 'prophet' to suffer so much. They believe Barabas died in the place of Jesus and that Satan made his face to look like Jesus. Then they believe that Jesus was taken up to heaven much like Elijah.

Muslims are shocked to find out we believe that Jesus died - that someone who is our king is also willing to be our servant. Inconceivable. One friend I had who had lived in the USA for 7 years had never heard this from her American friends. Last year a student of our friend, Kevin, wrote something like, "You will be so happy and relieved to find out that it was not Jesus who died on the cross!"

* Easter - Of course, if Muslims do not believe that Jesus died, there is no need for a resurrection!

You can imagine we have had a lot of interesting conversations during this season.

April so far

For her birthday, Katrina wanted to "...eat a strawberry - then plant the seeds ... eat an apple - then plant the seeds ..." So we started off by planting seeds and doing seed experiments inside (delayed gratification). Then we moved outside to plant flowers (instant gratification). The weather was lovely. It seemed like a pretty typical day, though - lots of kids at my house getting dirty!

For at least 15 years this has been a DRY lakebed. So dry that runners had made meter markings and used it as a track (athletes from all over train here because of the altitude). The other day we went out there and were shocked to see - a lake! So all that snow & rain we had this winter really did pay off.

too much cuteness

The result of the flower-planting. Everyone is scoffing at us for putting our flowers on the ground because we have notorious flower-abusing children lurking around. So we invited all the would-be meddlers to the party and had them help us plant and asked them to be the special guardians of the flowers. Well, it works in textbooks, but I'm very sad to report that "Naughty Nora" has plucked the flowers that should be on the left... But I'm not giving up. I have several more behavioral management plans in place for her. Too bad she's messing with a former special education teacher!

Donkey rides at Tarmelot - in honor of Palm Sunday - HOSANNA! The little donkey was only 9 days old last year and it was fun to see him almost grown up. The people in this village are so dear and have suffered so much this past winter. It was lovely to see their hardy selves finally dug out of the snow!