A mixed day

Today was a day of ups and downs. Well, that’s overstating it a bit. Most everything went very well, but I did have one disappointment on a personal level.

The Ups

This was the big day. A group of 20 people from different project offices came together today for me to lead a training session. Most of the people in attendance were administrative staff — not very high up on the pecking order. As it is Ramadan, we worked pretty well straight through the day from 9:00am until about 2:00pm. In that time we took a break or two, and coming back from one of those breaks one of the people mentioned how happy she was to attend. She explained that until today she had never had a chance to meet her counterparts from these other projects in a professional setting. I could see from the stack of business cards in her hand that she would most likely keep in communication with at least some of them.

All in all, the training was well received and the participants were very attentive and asked good questions. We had a visit by the Mission Director and the head of the Education Team; again, these are people that my participants would not normally have a chance to interact with. It was a long day, but now it’s done. Tomorrow I give a brief presentation to the management of the Mission so that they know what I told their partners. All pretty standard stuff.

The Down

Anyway, on the drive back to the Mission from the training site, I was sitting in the front seat and talking the the driver.

A friendly, animated and curious guy, he asked me if this was my first trip to Morocco. After I answered yes, it was, came the inevitable follow-up, “do you like it?” Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do, and I was surprised by a few things like the climate, the greenery, and the cliffs. “And that the Moroccan people are friendly?” he said.

My heart sank. I know he was joking, but this is what it has come to. There is an expectation that Americans assume pro forma that other cultures will be unfriendly and that we are surprised to find out that people are people (for good and bad) the world over. There’s an element of truth to it, and that’s why exchanges are so important. Ah well. Still, it was a pleasant ride back to the Mission.