Meeting English speakers in Morocco

N.Z makhlouf wrote:

Hi, I'm from New Zealand and have been living here for the past 2 years  between Azailah and tangier(closer to tanger) on the coast with my moroccan husband and three children.I Homeschool and look forward to meeting English speakers here. My Arabic is basic, but my family are all fluent in Arabic.

Welcome to the forum.  My family has not yet relocated to Morocco, but that is our goal.  How do you find the area you live in?  Had you visited much before you decided to move?  I've only been there once since my husband and I married, but love it enough to make that leap if we have the chance.

We bought and built on land that is close to my husbands family village. I have been to morocco 2x before the permanent move here over the space of 7 years.  Morocco is really really nice. Weather, culture, people.  I have 3 children, 14yrs, 9yrs and 2 yrs.  as I homeschool the two older ones, it's good but I find the lack of friends for them disheartening, especially my older one.
We have a lot of contact with my husbands family and their children but not many other people. We love in a village also.

Hi N.Z makhlouf & UmmYasmeen,

Welcome to Expat.com.

@ N.Z makhlouf

I have created a new thread from your posts on the Tangier forum

Cheers

Mishna

UmmYasmeen wrote:

N.Z makhlouf wrote:

Hi, I'm from New Zealand and have been living here for the past 2 years  between Azailah and tangier(closer to tanger) on the coast with my moroccan husband and three children.I Homeschool and look forward to meeting English speakers here. My Arabic is basic, but my family are all fluent in Arabic.

Welcome to the forum.  My family has not yet relocated to Morocco, but that is our goal.  How do you find the area you live in?  Had you visited much before you decided to move?  I've only been there once since my husband and I married, but love it enough to make that leap if we have the chance.

I've came across people who decided to relocate there because of loving it while on holiday. Unfortunately they realized they didn't have what it takes to be expats in a developing country, and returned back. As you know, many places are nice as a tourist destination only, but living there is a completely different story when you have to deal with many things that are taken for granted in the developed world.

Yes, the problem of schooling is an acute one. In so much of the developing world, learning, even in many private establishments, is by rote. No spirit of enquiry is engendered unless one sends one's kids to a very expensive foreign-owned AND FOREIGN-RUN private school/college. Please think about that before you move. The disadvantages of homeschooling are clear from the person's post upthread - no friends, isolation, social development inhibited etc.

http://www.middleschool.net/negative-homeschooling.htm

Hi,

I read with interest your post. I'm a NZ author (Diana Noonan). Do Google my name to check out I'm real!

After 25 years of publishing mainly for young people, I'm now engaged in social documentary for adults and have my first book in this genre coming out with Otago University Press in 2016.

My second project is a collection of interviews with NZ women (I'll call them subjects for the purpose of this email) who have made the decision to live abroad in order to be with their non-NZ husbands. For each of the subjects I'm working with, this is how the process goes:

The subject and I talk together by Skype for 1-2 hours, talking about whatever comes up, for example: "How do find the environment where you live?" How is it for your children, living in Morocco?"

I record the interview, shape it into a text of around 1500-2000 words, and send it to the subject. It goes without saying that nothing would ever be published that the subject did not feel comfortable with.

With my last book (which is a collection of interviews with 28 women from the remote Catlins region where I live), I collaborated with a a professional photographer. With this current book, I'm working with women from all over the world so the book will be illustrated in 'scrapbook' design ie with the subjects own snapshots of things such as special family events - births, birthdays, wedding, festivals, or a wedding certificate (or equivalent) - or a page from a passport. For this reason, subjects will need to feel comfortable supplying copies of personal memorabilia - nothing professional, just the sort of thing you might have floating around in a bottom draw. I am also considering commissioning from my husband (who is an artist) a portrait of each subject.

I should make it clear from the start that I am not able to offer a fee for your time. I am a professional writer but books in this genre are not my 'day work'. Due to the impossibility of a realistic return for my time, I treat them as a hobby. The publisher is likewise dependent on publishing grants from the NZ Arts Council. But it's good to know that such work, although not commercially viable, is taken seriously enough that highly regarded, independent publishers want to publish them. Books like my social documentaries are seen to be contributing to the body of work that helps New Zealanders understand who they are and what their place is in the world.

I do hope you might be interested in taking part in this new project. Your family make-up certainly fits the bill.

Kind regards
Diana Noonan

Hi, I'm trying to contact you in regard to a book I"m writing about NZ women living abroad with  their non-NZ partners. Would it be possible to contact me ? My name is Diana Noonan. YOu can google my name to check out my writing background.

Thanks so much
Diana