Spring Camp and Snow...that's right MORE snow

Um, first things first, I would like to rescind my precious claim that Spring is finally here...this is what I woke up to yesterday. 

Ugh. Puuuhhlease. Goaway. Thankyou.

Luckily, the weather was decent enough last Tuesday and the Spring Break Day Camp we had planned for Agoudim that day was able to take place. You may recall that Agoudim is 40 kilometers or so up the mountain from me and is Moses' site. He finishes his service next week, boohoo for me and congratulations to him. 

He wanted to give the children in his village an opportunity to attend a camp as there is no youth club in his remote little village and so the kids are not given many (if any) opportunities to attend camps, like the kids in the larger towns are. Even Toon Town's youth are deprived of this opportunity as while there is a youth center, the mudir (person in charge) came from Rabat and lasted all of a week in her new role as mudir, before deciding she didn't like Toon Town and returned to Rabat. She still collects a nice cushy paycheck from the comfort of her zwin (fancy) home in Rabat, but the door to the Dar Chebab (literal translation: House of Youth) remains locked and the youth hang out in the street instead. Shame. 

Back to the day camp. Max and Patrick also came from their sites to help out for the day. They spent the night at my place the evening before and then we all took a transit van up the mountain in the morning. When we got to Agoudim, we picked up Moses and the first lot of kids. Moses created a permission slip which had to be signed and turned in the week before in order to allocate a place in the camp for the kids. Some kids, never got their slip signed and due to funding and chaperone restrictions we had to drive off leaving some kids behind, crocodile tears streaming down their cheeks. It was sad, but had to be done. Meskin (poor things). 

Our second stop was a neighboring duar (village), where more crocodile tears were shed, whilst the children who had signed permission slips climbed aboard. And by climbed aboard, I mean climbed aboard...only in Morocco would kids transport to Spring Camp look like this...

Would you sign the permission slip?

Once we had all 43 children, we headed a few kilometers back down the mountain to a small field which neighbors a natural spring and was the designated Spring Camp location. The local muqquadem (sheriff of the small duars) stopped by to reinforce that the children were not allowed to swim in the spring. Apparently a few children die each year, thinking that they know how to swim, but really don't know how. 

We started the day out by dividing the children into four groups. I was in charge of marking their hands with a permanent marker so that we could easily identify which team they belonged to. 'Flowers', 'smiley face', 'hearts' and 'team X' were the categories. I was assigned to team 'hearts'. 

Once marked, we began the games. First up, the egg and spoon race, which we won. I may have accidentally told them to use their thumbs to make sure the egg didn't fall off...yeah, yeah, cheater, cheater...hey we won, didn't we?

Egg & Spoon

Next up, the sack race. This resulted in a lot of children falling over and was pretty entertaining. As many times as we demonstrated 'hopping' rather than trying to run in the sack, there were still a few who tried to run...hence a lot of falling over.

Getting in their sacks 

Fall #1 Patrick to the rescue

Cheering Squad

More games followed...

 Three-Legged Race

 Red Light-Green Light

Duck Duck Goose

Lunch was a stew of chicken, potatoes, onions, peppers and carrots and was eaten from a communal plate using bread. Moses' host mom, Mina and her friend prepared the food and cooked it over an open fire...we fed the children in rotation, on two small round tables. 

 Kitchen

 Mina & Hussa 

Mina's Friend 

Chef's taking a tea break

Mina's Chicken Surprise 

While the children took turns having lunch, Max and I supervised the natural spring. There were some "big kids" from the nearby duar who were swimming (the water was arctic and I'm sure they must have been freezing) and of course all the campers wanted to watch. 

Taking an Arctic dip in the natural spring

Campers 

A few members of team 'Hearts' 

After lunch we headed back to the field, to find the water level of the river had risen and we had to find logs to make a makeshift bridge. As you can see, the children just kicked their socks and shoes off and walked through the water...but I didn't want icy cold wet feet and waited for the guys to make a bridge.

 Moses building a bridge

Children crossing the river

Afternoon activities were educational games. We started with a lesson on toothbrushing. Followed by a toothbrushing 'competition'. Each team chose one child to compete and then we ranked them out of ten on how well they did. I chose the smallest girl in my group...she was adorable and deserved nothing but a ten out of ten! Our team cheered her on as she brushed away and she was so excited to win the competition. 

Moses demonstrating the correct way to brush your teeth 

Little Miss Sunshine 

 Brushing Away

Her team cheering her on

We also played a game called 'Secret' also known as 'Telephone' where the children sit in a circle and we whisper a secret into one child's ear and they pass the message along by whispering it into the next person's ear, until it gets back to the original child. The goal is to have the same message by the end. 

We whispered things like 'brush your teeth three times a day' 'wash your hands after you use the toilet and before you eat' and other good health related practices. Mind you, the children don't speak English so the secrets actually sounded like this, "sird tuggamas shrad n tkkal kuyyas" "sird uffasin dart l'bitlma awd kabul tuchit l'makla"...it should also be noted that all day long, every time I spoke to another volunteer in English, a surround sound echo of "mrach ksla shba" or some other jibberish sounding noises came from the mouths of all children in ear's reach as they mimicked me and then fell into a fit of giggles!

We finished up by handing out toothbrushes and toothpaste to all the campers along with a pack of coloring pencils and a coloring book. The kids had a fantastic time and I hope it was a day they will remember for a long time. I know I will. 

Much Love,

Miriam x