91精品

August 7th, 2019   |   Africa, SIT Study Abroad

In May 2018, toward the end of her semester in Rabat, Morocco, Melinda Davis had a memorable encounter.

For some weeks, Melinda and another SIT Study Abroad classmate had been teaching English to a group of teenagers, all of them migrants to Morocco from various sub-Saharan African countries.

The lessons were simple and practical, emphasizing usage more than grammar. For example, the children鈥檚 song 鈥淗ead, Shoulders, Knees and Toes鈥� taught basic anatomy. Contemporary pop songs and classroom games built other vocabulary. The group soon gelled around its two young teachers and Melinda could feel her students growing fond of her.

As the teaching stint neared its end, one of the more occasional students, a 17-year-old with a 2-year-old son, asked how long the pair would continue to teach. Just the month, Melinda answered.

鈥淥h, you鈥檙e just like all the other Americans,鈥� said the student. 鈥淭hey only ever come for a month, and then they leave, and we鈥檙e still here.鈥�

... I can鈥檛 just volunteer. I have to really be all in if I continue to work in aid or teach classes like this again. I need to really be committed.鈥�

The remark struck a nerve.

鈥淭hat just drove it home,鈥� Melinda said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like, oh gosh, I can鈥檛 just volunteer. I have to really be all in if I continue to work in aid or teach classes like this again. I need to really be committed.鈥�

And so, the following summer, after returning home to New Orleans, Melinda agreed to teach a full, three-month English course to a group of middle-aged women from Yemen, most of whom already held university degrees and were looking to add English to a long list of skills. She applied teaching techniques from her time in Morocco, and little by little the class opened up to her, as the Rabat teenagers had.

With a full-time job in addition to her teaching duties, Melinda remembered that summer as 鈥渋ntense,鈥� but also tremendously rewarding. 鈥淚 never thought that I鈥檇 be good at teaching,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 got to think about them as people and also remember my students from Morocco, and that helped me to push through.鈥�

Long before she traveled to Morocco, Melinda was already a veteran of international travel. Her parents immigrated to the United States from India and often returned with their daughter to visit relatives. Melinda grew up with a sense that 鈥渢he world is bigger than my little suburb of New Orleans,鈥� and with that came an awareness of how much inequality, injustice, and conflict exists in the world, too.

That knowledge, in turn, nudged her toward her two majors at the University of Notre Dame: peace studies and psychology. She thought of them as two ways to approach the problem of conflict, one external and the other internal. Conflict, Melinda said, results from severed or disrupted relationships. Peace studies teaches how to repair those ties among people. Psychology shows how to heal them within yourself. 

Notre Dame offered no shortage of opportunities to study both conflict and international affairs, but a desire to move beyond the theoretical drew Melinda to SIT Study Abroad鈥檚 program in Morocco. 

鈥淚鈥檝e spent a lot of time in college learning about migrant flows and push and pull factors and the most common routes that [refugees and migrants] take,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he reason that I wanted to go to Morocco was to just be with them and talk to them and meet them and actually encounter them.鈥�

The country also attracted her because she knew that it would be entirely unlike the United States or western Europe. Still, upon arrival, she was taken with the unfamiliarity of the first 鈥渘on-western鈥� country other than India that she had seen.

I鈥檝e spent a lot of time in college learning about migrant flows and push and pull factors and the most common routes that [refugees and migrants] take. The reason that I wanted to go to Morocco was to just be with them and talk to them and meet them and actually encounter them.鈥�

She moved in with a host family in Rabat鈥檚 old Medina, still partially enclosed by 12th-century walls. Just outside her new home, merchants sold an array of leather goods and carpets in one of the city鈥檚 souks, or markets. Stray cats slunk around the street peripheries. With so many students living with families in close proximity, the group fell into the habit of visiting one another for tea, traditionally a combination of 鈥済unpowder鈥� green tea, mint leaves, and large quantities of sugar. This was also a chance to catch up on the Medina gossip. 

Above all, Melinda adjusted to Morocco鈥檚 more languorous 鈥渞hythm of life.鈥� Dinner came at 10 p.m. Communal eating was paramount. Chatting for hours with family and friends took precedence over nervous glances at watches or phones. 鈥淣ot too many clocks,鈥� Melinda recalled. The pace reminded her of Italy, where she spent two months in 2017.

Her host family helped her acclimate, too. Raised Catholic, and a lifetime student of Catholic schools, Melinda found her Muslim family accommodating of religious difference. She bonded with her host sister when the latter decided to compete in the 鈥淢iss Maroc鈥� beauty pageant. Melinda helped by lending jewelry and teaching her sister how to walk in six-inch heels鈥攕omething 鈥滻鈥檓 kind of a pro at,鈥� Melinda said.

Home in Rabat provided a base for learning about migration in Morocco, which includes those leaving for and arriving from other countries鈥攁s well as some who emigrated but returned to Morocco after finding life abroad more challenging than expected. Many of this last group find their way to the city of Beni Mellal, where Melinda鈥檚 group spoke to Moroccans who had reached Spain and Italy鈥攊tself a major feat鈥攂ut then returned for a variety of reasons. 

鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 able to find jobs or they weren鈥檛 able to create a life, and so they ended up back in Morocco, which is a big shame鈥攚hat they would call hshuma,鈥� Melinda said.

It just really opened up a lot of things that I didn鈥檛 know that I didn鈥檛 know,鈥� she said.

The group also traveled to the Netherlands, which has been an international leader in efforts to settle refugees and migrants. In Amsterdam, Melinda learned about 鈥渢he other side of emigration,鈥� where even small gestures of warmth and assistance from longtime residents can make a world of difference to new arrivals.

鈥淚t just really opened up a lot of things that I didn鈥檛 know that I didn鈥檛 know,鈥� she said.

Now newly graduated from Notre Dame, Melinda intends to take what she has learned about migration in both theory and practice and apply it to her broader interests in international peace-building. As to how exactly she will do that, she is not yet certain. But for now, she is spending the summer as a fellow with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. The Vatican鈥檚 formal representative at the United Nations does not vote on resolutions, but otherwise plays an active role in UN business. Melinda sees it as an opportunity to figure out what she wants to do next.

鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to work with the Catholic Church on a global scale, so it鈥檚 pretty crazy to me that this is what I get to do right now,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think this will be the first step in discerning where my skills are most well deployed.鈥�

Whatever she decides to pursue, Melinda will bring an international perspective鈥攁n awareness of both human diversity and our fundamental similarities.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really important to have even just the conception that there are people out there that are not like you,鈥� she said. Yet, at the same time, 鈥渨e鈥檙e closer than we think we are.鈥�