A Different Kind Of Spring Break –

Learning Through

 Giving In Morocco

By Jan Howard

A Dartmouth College junior from Newtown recently had a chance to see another part of the world and learn about another culture while making a difference in children’s lives.

Reid Warner, son of Dr Neal and Diane Warner, recently spent his spring break in Morocco with a group of fellow Dartmouth students helping to build an orphanage in the small town of Ain Leuh, which is one hour south of Fez. He is a 1998 graduate of Newtown High School.

The March 15-26 trip to Morocco was through the Navigators Christian Organization at Dartmouth.

“I learned of the trip late in the fall through my regular participation with the group, which usually consists of weekly praise meetings,” Mr Warner said. “As soon as I heard about it I was immediately interested and thought it was an opportunity that I could not turn down.”

“Traveling to a new continent, serving God, helping those less fortunate than myself, and being immersed in a completely different culture were all characteristics of the opportunity that attracted me,” he said. “Leaving for the trip I was friends with no more than two people in the group. Coming home I had built bonds with 25 fellow students that I could have never imagined.”

Mr Warner said he did his own fundraising to pay for the trip. Preparations included obtaining proper immunizations and reading and learning about the culture. He said men and women students participated in the trip. “Actually, I think there were more women than men overall.”

The ten-day trip included some sightseeing, which ranged from the opulent, ornate Hassan II mosque in Casablanca to the poverty-stricken towns of Rabat and Fez.

“Most of our time was spent at the orphanage, where our main task was building a stone retaining wall. The orphanage is still in its initial stage of construction and will be a project ongoing for the next five years.

“The work that needs to be done there is overwhelming, and the people that they have to help out are few. We were all so motivated to give all that we had when we were there working, because we knew that there was still so much to be done,” he said. “It was such a liberating experience, an experience where it was gratifying to work so hard, and so meaningful.”

The orphanage was isolated, with no running water, and needed painting as well as the construction of the retaining wall. The students and leaders managed to build a wall that was 1½ meters wide, 1½ meters high, and 20 meters long “with one wheelbarrow and few other available tools,” he said. There was electricity for only a few hours at night.

“They are always open to having people come in there to help,” he said. “If people are interested in going over there, they can email me for information.” Mr Warner can be reached at Reid.A.Warner@Dartmouth.edu.

Culturally, Mr Warner said the trip was a learning experience dealing with the overwhelming poverty, seeing the treatment of women in Morocco, learning about the Islam religion, visiting local markets, and eating couscous with one’s hands, according to their tradition.

“We tried very hard to keep to their traditions,” Mr Warner said, “such as asking permission before we took photos. They are very suspicious of that.”

He said American women either wore long skirts or slacks with long-sleeved blouses because they had to keep their legs and arms covered. Women also never went anywhere alone without male escorts, he said.

Though they never felt endangered, the American women got a lot of looks from Moroccan men, who became more respectful when they saw the women were escorted. In Fez, the women students had to eat upstairs, separately from the men.

Because of the poverty, there was a lot of begging, Mr Warner said. Only two people could share a cab so more drivers would be able to earn fares. The people were also very forceful in trying to sell their wares.

The best part of the trip, he said, was sleeping under the stars on the roof of the orphanage and making a difference in a child’s life.

“They had never seen candy, which I had brought from home, and even children in the cities would run up to us for hugs, just because we looked different and were Americans,” Mr Warner said. “I’d go back in a minute. There is so much more to do.”