Weaving, Math, and Color

Lessons in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco

Bertramson and her Moroccan Mom

When she began her undergraduate career at Washington State University, pursuing a degree in international business and a minor in Chinese, Anjie Bertramson (’07) had no idea where in the world her education might take her.

She studied abroad in Denmark, took part in a faculty-led program to Scandinavia, and completed an Honors thesis that involved two trips to Azerbaijan to collect data.  Her extensive international background, which also included spending her formative years in Indonesia, made her a perfect candidate for the U.S. Peace Corps.

Since November 2008, Bertramson has worked as a small business developer in the Ouarzazate Province of Morocco where she is learning to adapt to yet another culture and language.  She spent three months completing intensive Peace Corps coursework before settling into her placement site in the High Atlas Mountains.  On the two-day journey from her training site to her new home, she says she “saw everything from mountains covered in pine trees to oases in the midst of the desert."

She wrote to friends in an email, “Yes, I finally saw camels."

For two months, Bertramson lived with a host family in her small town with “aspen, fig, olive, walnut, almond, peach, and pomegranate trees everywhere,” she says.  Olives are dried on rooftops and taken to the next village to be made into olive oil.   In her own house now, she has a small but private center courtyard with an almond tree in bloom, three rooms plus a kitchen and bathroom, and electricity.  “Most of the time I have running water, although it is freezing.”

Olives drying on a rooftop.

Her town has boutique stores and hotels but no Internet.  She accesses email at cyber cafes on Wednesdays and Fridays when she travels 40 minutes to the town of Boumalne du Dades for tutoring in the regional language.

“Learning the language is my work at the moment!

"When the Peace Corp (representatives) told us to spend the first six months integrating and learning the language, I thought they were crazy.  Now I understand!  First you must know the language, second you must be trusted, and third you have to take the time to truly be able to assess the needs (of the people).” 

She already has some ideas.  She wants to clean the community’s donated computers of their dust buildup so they don’t shock users or randomly shut down, and then find or make computer covers to protect them.  She also would like to teach a dental hygiene seminar at the local school.  “I may even teach English at some point,” she wrote.

Her primary job assigned by the Peace Corps is to help local women at their weaving cooperative in a one-room structure called a "neddi," which currently has no electricity and unstable roofing.  She wants to show her weavers “what color combinations appeal to foreigners,” so she appreciates the pictures of American rugs that friends and family have sent her.

Woman at loom

Bertramson has also done some teaching.  She uses marbles to demonstrate basic math skills to two 14-year old boys—her host brother and a local shepherd who helps with the family’s sheep.  She also uses a few colored pencils to demonstrate the concept that mixing two colors will result in a third color.  Her college years as a Brownie Scout Leader definitely are paying off in this unique aspect of her Peace Corps work.

She commented in a post-Thanksgiving note, “Take a moment and really appreciate the education you have!  Can you imagine not knowing how to mix colors or even do simple multiplication? I realize that I have skills learned in college, high school, and even middle school that I can pass along to others.”

In a sense, then, Bertramson knows now where her education was taking her: half-way round the world as an emissary of the United States to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of Moroccan villagers ... at least for the next few years.  No doubt this young Honors alumna’s career journey will take her to many other places around the globe.