Tetouan Follow up trip

Last weekend, on Sunday, I stuffed my sleepy sick self next to Lisa in a grand taxi to Tetouan from Tangier and went to visit the girls who participated in my camp in July. I met with Doha, Houda and Hajar (as well as some young girls who went to the states on a US Embassy football program) at the local football stadium. We had a good discussion about their thoughts on the camp (well, as good as any discussion can be when there are dominating male coaches in the room with them cutting off their responses and answering questions for them). Although I would have liked a slightly more open and honest discussion concerning the camp (which I can do later on alone with them I imagine), we did make some headway on ways they can use their skills in Tetouan to help the community. The idea I found most interesting was working at the girls orphanage, I think called Angel Association. This association is where the other three girls who were at this meeting came from. The place is basically a dormitory for young women and girls with no parents and the director was there accompanying the girls this day. She was talking about the ages of the girls (starting very young to late teens) and how they would love a sports program and are very much in need of sports and health education. Doha, Houda and Hajar as well as the other three girls from this orphanage seemed to like the idea so now they will come up with a proposal among themselves and then reconvene with me to decide the next step forward.

The meeting was interesting because like I mentioned, there were about four men with us (one was the President of a local association, the vice president, a local football coach etc). They all had their opinions on what the girls should do and what type of project we should implement and what players I should bring from the states. They also were great at answering questions for the girls. This has been the case every time I do interviews with women, especially with younger women. I think it does have to do with the gender roles and relationships here regarding whose opinion gets voiced but I also think a lot of it is the barriers and obstacles you face as a young person speaking in front of elders. The lack of honesty or frankness youth exhibit here in front of those older than them is sometimes disturbing. I know that you find a little of this in many other cultures obviously, a respect for your elders and a shyness in being truthful and candid. It was magnified for me in Tetouan and I think it is even more so when you are dealing with younger women and older men. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case here often, groups of young girls formed into teams by older male figures who then play up on the power trip/authority of their position and never allow any true leadership to emerge among the young women (or young men in many cases). Alas, I have learned that next time I go on a follow up interview I will make sure to interview the girls alone.