Ten days have passed since I arrived in Morocco. It has been an unusual pace compared to most of my travels: something not frantic but yet not wandering and relaxed. Gradual persistence granted by my physical presence has built what I hope to be an adequate basis for cooperation with our partners here in Rabat. My primary activity has been to spend as much time as possible with the project team: whether it's talking shop after a User Oriented Design tutorial, or grabbing a tagine in the evening, I take what I can get. Having worked in a distributed fashion before, I feel establishing a tangible and personal impression of the project will enhance its chances for success. Yes, there are real people on the other end of that Cat-V line!
(Just discovered that the email interface dropped the rest of this post: Please find it below!)
ReplyDeleteVoila the project team: Two faculty advisors and a whopping six students have stepped up to join us in our mission of do-learn venture design for social benefit. Our allies are from ENIM, which is a high-end post-secondary public institution referred to as a Grande École in the French academic system (adopted here in Morocco). Our connection started through the Moroccan Fulbright Alumni Association, leading us to the two faculty and the students in their respective departments. Namely, our partners are in process engineering and computer science, with one bonus student in electro-mechanical engineering. Back in Boston, we've got five students (four Olin, 2xE:C, 2xME, 1xECE, and one Babson, 1xE!) and a project advisor. This is starting to sound like a lot of people to organize in a coherent fashion. Pour le moment, I'm focused on engaging the Moroccans.
Our conversations vary back and forth from French to English. My years of study with a semester in France have granted me an indispensable basis for successful communication. I'm amazed at how well, and how frequently, people speak French here, considering it's their second language (third if you count Darija [Moroccan Arabic] and Fus'ha [standard Arabic] separately.) This makes it all the more impressive (or maybe just daunting) that the ENIM students are jumping in to a collaborative work effort primarily conducted in their third language, English.
With regards to communication, we have executed our first teleconference with the Olin/Babson student team. It may not be worth the effort to get a solid voice connection, let alone video, at least via VOIP. (Strangely, we found during a Skype-to-cell call that Haya's higher frequency, feminine voice sounded clear while Kevin's lower baritone was completely garbled somewhere between Needham and Rabat). We plan on trying a text-based chat forum for future meet ups. I think the scrolling record of past statements along with the ability to have a web dictionary open in tandem could make this the best on the ENIM side, where wi-fi is fickle and voice distortion complicates third-language discourse.
From time to time I've snuck in a bit of tourism or two, waltzing the central pedestrian zones of the medina and Kasbah des Oudayas with its blue walls and winding streets. Yesterday I snuck a peak at a walled Roman ruin called Chellah. Seeing the crumbled remains of civilizations past leave me wondering how durable is our civilization.
Today I'm on a train for a long-anticipated visit to a cooperative of cactus farmers around Moulay Idriss, near Meknes. With three Moroccans, an empty 32GB SD card, and a list of questions the length of my arm, I'm ready to get my UOCD on.
Wish us luck: maybe we can put a few years back on the clock for this civilization.