Mohamed Hammouda, 19, Taza. Behind a successful man a woman, she could be a mother, a sister, a wife, a daughter, a friend. For me she is a second mother who showed up like an angel in my life and changed it, from hopeless to hopeful life. She is a flower which gives its nectar to the bee for free. She can help the others as much as she can, an exceptional woman, she did a lot of things for her friends. Anne came to Morocco in 2016. At that moment I was in the high school and my English was not good enough to start a conversation with her. But after I joined her extra classes at “Dar Atakapha” in a small village called Matmata, my English got better and better. However, she woke up Mohamed the writer inside me, He was going to die but she saved him and helped him to start again until he becomes an active person and a good writer. Thanks to the competitions which Anne used to suggest to me to participate in, I become a good short storyteller and short story writer. I thought becoming a writer in Morocco is like being a dentist in a town where everybody has false teeth but she changed and killed that idea from my mind totally. Although we are from two different cultures, Moroccan culture and American culture, and two different religions, Christianity and Islam, we became close friend like son and mom. I liked her humorous spirit and her straightforwardness. Until now I still remember her advice “a good reader is a good writer”, also I cannot forget the books which she gave me to read for example: ALCHIMIST, THE EMPERORS’S CHILDREN, BALTHASAR’S ODESSEY, THE HOUSE OF UNEXPECTED SISTERS, and IN ARABIAN NIGHTS… I enjoyed reading all of them and that encouraged me to write my first short story “FORBIDDEN LOVE” And get familiar with the storytelling and other literature versions like narration and description. I cannot imagine if that woman does not showed up in my life, I would become like I am now with all these skills and power. Saying the word “thanks” to the women like Anne is
45
