I can't believe my trip is over! Well, I'm still in Morocco right now but we leave for the airport in 7 hours. Europe feels like it was ages ago, and the Morocco leg flew by.
Today was our last day at the orphanage. It was very sad to leave. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our favorite nurses because they weren't working today. They kissed us like a million times! These women are such kind, amazing people, and I could tell without even speaking their language. The worst part I think was knowing that we would probably never see these babies again or find out where they go in life. Will they get adopted? Will they live their entire childhoods at the orphanage? Will they end up working at the orphanage? (Turns out many of the nurses actually grew up at Lalla Meriem). I also wonder if they'll have serious psychological issues from having so many people coming in and out of their lives, making it difficult to have lasting connections with anyone.
I already can see that this experience has changed me. Made me see things a bit clearer I suppose. On the other hand, I find myself having less sympathy when I see a child crying who is with its parents. I want to yell at it that at least it has parents! Of course I realize this is ridiculous and I'm sure this resentment will wear off in time. However, I hope my memories of the babies will not wear away. I wrote down all of the babies' names in our room so I wouldn't forget a single one: Zoubir, Walid, Rim, Soukaina, Said, Saif, Ali, Adam, Naler, Riyade, Rayane, Rabie, Rafik, Tarik, Wael, Zinedine, Karima, Anas, as well as Naserlah, Fahd, Khalil and Ooda, who weren't in our room but I don't want to forget either.
I still can't really comprehend how some one could just leave an innocent little baby in a trash can on the side of the road. I think there's something that needs to be changed in a culture where a woman cannot bring her new baby home to her family without bringing shame with her. Anyway, I don't expect this change to occur in the forseeable future. But maybe eventually. Or maybe what this country needs is better implementation of birth control. I'm not exactly sure how available it is, I just know that abortions do not occur. Or maybe the trick is to allow non-Muslim families to adopt these children. There are thousands of families in other countries who would be able to provide loving homes for these children but who are immediately ruled out because of their religion, or lack of religion. It's a bummer. Is it really better that these kids grow up in the orphanage, where there's probably very little religion practiced anyway, rather than grow up in a loving family that practies a different religion?
Sigh, I've made as much of a difference as I could in the short time I was here. A small scratch on the surface, if that. I helped the nurses and allowed them to rest a little more than usual and I gave the babies as much love and affection as I had in me. I think most importantly, this trip was about learning about another culture and their customs as well as letting them see some one from a different culture. It was definitely a wonderful learning experience and I have met so many wonderful people in such a short time.
I think that's it for all my deep reflecting haha. We leave for the airport in about 6 hours. We have a 3 hour flight from Rabat to Paris. Assuming that flight is on time we have exactly an hour and 15 minutes to get to our Continental flight. I really REALLY hope we don't miss that flight. Mostly because the next one isn't until Sunday morning and I really just want to get home at this point. Everything is packed and I'm ready to go, in that sense at least. I'm trying to stay up a bit late so I can sleep on the planes and so the jetlag doesn't eat me alive.
I am so so so excited to get off the plane and meet up with my parents and Ben and see Lacey's family as well. :) I'll update when I get home with any new revelations that occurred during the 8 hour plane ride.
-M
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment