Monday, October 17, 2011

Tutoring Aymene

For just a couple weeks now I've been tutoring a 12-year-old boy named Aymene. He is the son of my seamstress, Fatima.

She is friend of my Moroccan mother's so I have known her well over my two years in El Gara. She has made me a robe and a jelaba. She approached me asking me to teach English to her son and I accepted willingly because I knew I wouldn't have too much work in my final weeks here.

I wish I had been tutoring Aymene long before this, because being with him is a pleasure. He is so incredibly smart, motivated, and polite. He just started in his second year of middle school, his first year of his English instruction. When I started with him he hadn't had more than a few weeks of English classes and he quickly began to pick up what I taught him. We just started with greetings, numbers, colors, and other basics but he understood and retained them with ease, making me proud every time. He understands me, we understand each other.

His mother Fatima is a woman I have always admired. She  has three sons aged 18, 12, and seven. She keeps up a stable home for the three of them and her husband by cleaning and preparing meals, and she is the boss at a highly active sewing shop. I have always admired her for being a female entrepreneur in this small Moroccan town, where something like that is extremely rare. Fatima not only makes beautiful clothes she educates and employs many young women in her shop. At any given time there are several women working  on pieces that people have ordered.

When I arrive at 10 am Fatima brings us a tray of tea and bread  for breakfast. And as sweet as she is, she has Aymene bring me lunch after I leave on his way to school. She is kind, generous, and always hospitable.