ISA Morocco: Amazing Country, Terrible Program Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I took two classes while in Morocco: Advanced French, which was excellent, and Political Islam, which was terrible. The professor was a lovely man, but he was unqualified to teach the course. He was non-Muslim from Spain who did not speak a word of Arabic and whose normal focus was on the European Union. It was very obvious that he simply did not have the background to teach the course well, and it seemed that the only reason he was teaching it was his close friendship with the program director. I was initially enrolled in an Advanced Arabic program, and although the teachers were good, the content was completely misrepresented by the ISA website. They claimed that Advanced Arabic would cover the third book in a common Arabic series, but in reality the course never left the first book.) That was a significant problem for me, as I had enrolled in the program largely to advance in my Arabic so that I could graduate on time. When I contacted the ISA office in Texas about the problem, it took them nearly 6 months to even update their website (which still is not accurate, although it is less false than it had been.) They flatly refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing on their part, despite the drastic differences between the information they gave and the realities of their program.

On-site administration of your program

One of the onsite specialists was wonderful, but the other two were terrible. They really just wanted to be "part of the gang" and have a fun time, while completely ignoring their responsibilities as directors. Often, that didn't particularly matter, but there were times where I personally witnessed it endangering the health and/or safety of fellow program participants. As just one example, one of the faculty members led students on an excursion that involved us spending a night in the Sahara Desert. We rode camels into the desert, one of the students became sick, and we (only then) learned that there were no medical personnel available, the nearest city was a 90-minute camel ride away, and that there was no other way to get any kind of help. Luckily, the student was fine, but if anything more serious had happened, they had absolutely no resources to handle it. After returning from the trip, I contacted ISA about it, and they claimed to have done a full investigation into the matter and said that they were sure that, had something serious been wrong, the director would have been able to handle it. No details were given about how that would have been possible without any access to medical help. I am deeply concerned about the fact that not only is the on-site staff often irresponsibly under-prepared, but that the staff in Texas is either unable or unwilling to do anything about it, even when they are made fully aware.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The housing was very nice. I lived in an apartment with five other students, each of us sharing a room. The apartment was fairly "modern" although not fancy, and the program hired a few local women to do basic cooking and cleaning for us. Be warned, though: while I got along very well with all the girls I lived with, the girls in the apartment below ours frequently had extremely loud parties late into the night. ISA staff never did anything about it, despite several complaints (and despite their early claims that such behavior would not be tolerated.) In addition, while most of the people who took part in homestays had a very good time, two girls were placed with a family that had not been screened at all. The directors had never visited the house, didn't even know how many rooms it had or how many people lived there, and had only ever had contact with one of its members. The girls who lived there were treated very poorly and had a miserable time, but it took several weeks for them to be moved to another living arrangement. To my knowledge, neither of them ever received any sort of compensation for the mess they were put in.

The food in Morocco is absolutely delicious. Don't bother with the expensive restaurants - some of the best food can be bought for no more than a few dollars. There is also a McDonalds and a Pizza Hut in the city if you ever get hungry for some American food. Although ISA claims that you are given three meals a day, that isn't really accurate: you're essentially on your own for breakfast (although there's usually bread and jam available if you'd like it); lunch is usually delicious and cooked by local women (but if you have class or are otherwise busy when they serve it, you're out of luck); and dinner is generally a soup or pasta that they prepare and then leave behind when they leave around 4:00. In addition, they don't provide food on the weekends. If you're determined not to eat out, you could probably manage to get by on leftovers, but I didn't know anyone who didn't feel the need to eat out fairly regularly for dinner and on the weekends. Again, the food is delicious and cheap so it's no great hardship, but be aware of the issue when you're planning out your budget.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

The program did absolutely nothing to help us connected with local Moroccans. To be fair to them, that may have been partially due to the fact that I went over the summer when much of the local college crowd was gone, but the program didn't even attempt to inform us about local events that we could take part in. Nor did they offer any sort of cultural awareness/sensitivity training, nor (as previously mentioned) did they do anything to help us learn even a few basic words in the most commonly-spoken local language. The program did offer field trips most weekends. Some were very fun, some were pretty awful. They took us to a lot of the major cities in the area, but our experiences in each city were generally limited to us being marched in a line through the market, perhaps stopping at one store, and then being marched out, before being marched on to view some of the major sites of whatever place we were in. Until the very end, we were rarely given any real opportunities to explore the cities for ourselves, which was very frustrating (especially because a group of mostly white Americans gawking at the "locals" makes for nothing but awkward interactions all around.)

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I've already mentioned a few safety-related incidents. Let me just say, generally, that the program directors showed little-to-no regard for any student's safety at any point in the trip. They could offer health tips for students with stomach aches, but that was about the extent of it. Neither they nor the main ISA office seemed very interested in doing anything about this problem. As far as the city itself, overall it is very safe. If you are a female, expect to be occasionally harassed, especially if you go out alone, but it is unlikely that you will ever be in any real danger. Your best bet is to travel with a small group (4 or so people at most) and/or with a male. Big groups of foreigners stick out like a sore thumb, and while you probably won't be in any sort of danger, you will get harassed more frequently. In my experience (as a female), travelling with one or two guys usually worked best. I never had any major health problems in Morocco, so I can't comment on their healthcare, except to say that pharmacies are everywhere and it's easy to get basic medicine like painkillers or stomach medicine. Expect to have some stomach problems at some point in the trip, but it's very unlikely that they will be anything serious. Drink lots of water (bottled at first, then - if you'd like - slowly introduce tap water if your body seems able to handle it) and don't do anything stupid like eating obviously undercooked meat. Be smart, pay attention, and you'll almost certainly be fine.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

The French instruction was excellent, and there were many opportunities to practice it on the street. Despite the program's claims, however, they did not offer any sort of language exchange program. In addition, they never taught any sort of "survival" Darija (the local Arabic dialect) or French, despite the fact that there are areas in the city where English simply isn't enough to get by. The only Arabic instruction they offer is in Fusha (formal Arabic), which few people in Morocco understand and even fewer can speak. There were some program participants who didn't speak anything other than English, and they managed just fine, but they rarely felt comfortable going out without at least one student who did speak French or Arabic.

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