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

Two straight weeks of Rain Rain Rain...

Me, Raja and Mama

After a long wait, Spring is finally here. The house has already warmed up a tiny bit inside, which means a small fire early in the evening is all that is necessary to keep my room warm for the rest of the night. But, while warmer weather slowly arrives, the rain does too, which means it is more like mud season. My morning runs are impossible for the moment, with the paths full of mud and street full of puddles.

I'm the only one here disturbed by the rain though. Everyone else has been praying for it...across the whole of Morocco. A long drought has hurt the agricultural produce and the farmers (which Morocco depends upon) are hurting. Their prayers have been answered, but damage has still been done. And rain isn't the only thing falling from the sky, it hailed practically every afternoon this past week. Ugh!

My landlady recently invited me to spend the night at her house. While I prefer to sleep in my own bed and on my own schedule, I just couldn't say no. She explained that her husband, MBarsh and her son, Omar would be going on an overnight trip to Fes to sell all their animal hides (they are our local butchers) to the tanneries in Fes. And since it would be just her and her daughter, Raja she insisted that I join them for the evening.

She told me to come over around 9pm and that we would have dinner, play cards and then sleep. Dinner was interesting...not in a 'guess what organ you're eating' kind of way, but more, 'is this really dinner' kind of way. Cold corn cous-cous with fresh buttermilk and equal measurements of sugar to cous-cous. Hmmmm...I don't really care for buttermilk, especially since it is homemade and unpasteurized which means you risk getting tuberculosis, but buttermilk with cous-cous and heaps and heaps of sugar was all a bit much, especially before bed. I was polite as always and ate all that was put in front of me, but I hope I don't ever have to eat that again...I'd much rather play 'guess the organ your eating'!

After a few card games, which is always a good time, mainly because my landlady is a ruthless cheater and isn't very good at hiding it and it was time for bed. I was told I would sleep next to the wall, with Raja next to me and then my landlady on the the other side of Raja. A million blankets were brought out and stacked up as a makeshift bed on the floor and we all crawled somewhere into the middle of them. A couple minutes after the lights had been out, I heard this squeaking near my head...it got louder and louder and I finally couldn't deny it any longer, I was sure a mouse was about to crawl into my hair! I woke Mama and Raja and asked them to turn the lights on. I told them I could hear something near my head and was pretty surprised that they had not woken from the noise too.

Mama and I pulled the blankets back and low and behold three inches from my head, there was a rather large hole in the corner of the wall. Mama laughed her head off and so did Raja, they told me not to be scared, to which I replied that I wasn't scared, but I wouldn't be able to sleep there knowing that a mouse might run out of it's house and directly onto me.

Mama then thought she would solve the issue by stuffing the hole with a plastic bag. I tried to explain that the mouse would either move the bag or eat its way through it, but Mama wasn't having any of it, she was sure that the mouse was now stuck in its hole. I apologized and explained that I wasn't going to be able to sleep with my head next to the hole and too be honest I was pretty embarrassed as I think they thought I was terrified of the mouse, which to be clear, I am not scared of mice. I just don't like the thought of knowing that it might crawl on me while I am sleeping, plus it was making an awful lot of noise and I'd never have been able to fall asleep with all the racket it was making.

Mama laughed at me...a lot. Then she helped me move places to the other side of the room. Right, time for bed. The lights went out for the second time and off we went to sleep...that is until I then realised that I was now lying in the exact spot where Bahalu (grandfather) had passed away, just a month or so before...

I finally fell asleep after counting backwards from one hundred a million times, trying to not to think about the mouse or Bahalu. And then the mouse found the plastic barrier inserted in its door and began to eat its way through the barrier. I still don't know how Mama and Raja slept through that. It seriously woke me up from the other side of the room.

Needless to say, it wasn't exactly a good nights rest, but I guess it made a pretty good story!

Waiting for the cows to come home...

The cows...coming home

I've accompanied my landlady, Mama, a few times now on her daily trip to the foothills to collect her cows. Basically, she goes to the foothills (five minute walk from our homes) around 5pm everyday and waits for the cows to come out of the mountains. There are 200 cows in Toon Town and each family pays the same lady 50 dirhams a month to accompany the cows into the mountains each morning and bring them back every evening. Sometimes we wait five minutes for the cows to appear and other times it takes over an hour. It's kind of funny watching 200 cows come tumbling over the mountain and even funnier as we herd them back to the house. The cows know where they live, but the occasional, "How How How" is necessary to keep them moving.

Temporary restaurants on souk (market) day in Toon Town 

Toon Town

Cafe Owner, Dris and Me 

Preschool in Toon Town (that is the Tifinagh (Berber) Alphabet)

Souk (Market) Day in Toon Town

Here, There and Everywhere

Souk L'Hdd

View from Cheryl's roof

View from Cheryl's roof

I recently arranged for Rabha to teach a natural dye workshop in Souk L'Hdd, which is just outside of Azrou. There is another volunteer in Souk L'Hdd, Cheryl, whose women were keen to learn and so after a couple weeks of making arrangements off we went.

We arrived to Souk L'Hdd around 11am and were meant to be having lunch and then starting the workshop. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. Sadly, one of the elder and highly respected men of the community passed away that morning and so the women were busy with funeral processions and the works and unable to get together for the workshop that afternoon.

Washing the wool the first day

In order to keep to schedule, Rabha, Cheryl and I went ahead and prepared the wool for the next day's session, documenting the procedure with photos along the way. The following day, we began the workshop at 9am with a recap of the previous day's activities via slideshow.

Cheryl introducing Rabha

Natural Dye Sources: Pomegranate Skins, Madder Root, Henna 3 Different Pots for Dying (each dye source makes three different colors depending on the type of pot)

Rabha teaching

Rabha teaching

Rabha did an excellent job teaching her very first workshop and it was clear that she thoroughly enjoyed her position as teacher. There were about fifteen women in total and all seemed to take genuine interest in the natural dye process. We had tea breaks during both morning and afternoon sessions, which were my favorite part seeing as Cheryl was kind enough to share her care package supplies of fudge brownies and homemade peanut butter cookies, which the ladies also enjoyed!

Coloring the wool

In the afternoon, on the second day, we took the ladies on a small field trip into the surrounding hills to look for natural dye sources. The women showed Cheryl and I some cactus like plants which had edible roots and tasted quite similar to hearts of palm. They also showed us loads of rocks which they cracked open to reveal mineral and fossil traces, which left me wishing I had paid more attention during my college geology classes so that I could have actually identified which minerals we were looking at!

On our field trip

On Sunday, the third and final day of the workshop, we finished up the natural dye process and then took a walk into town to visit the souk (market). Souk L'Hdd translates to 'Market Sunday' and so it is no surprise that Sunday, like Toon Town, is market day. After a brief souk visit and lunch, we returned to the training room to finish up for the day and congratulate the women on their completion.

Souk Taxi Stand :)

Finished Product

The women and dyed wool

Rabha has some extended family in the surrounding hills of Souk L'Hdd and we had planned on staying with them the last evening. Cheryl's family however, were very persuasive and managed to convince Rabha to visit her family for tea in the afternoon and return to them for dinner in the evening. Cheryl has a wonderful host family, whom we ate lunch with everyday except for the final day when we lunched at Cheryl's and did dinner with the host family. We were told dinner was non-negotiable and that we must come that evening to celebrate the success of the workshop.

Near Rabha's Family

And so we went on a short hike into the hills, met with Rabha's family for an hour or so and then headed back into town.                                                      

Looking forward to a tasty dinner, we headed over to Cheryl's host family around half eight. As we walked into the living room, a preview of that evening's dinner was waiting for us. Sitting on the poonj (Moroccan sofa) was Cheryl's host mom, threading heart, lung, kidney, liver and stomach onto skewers. And as if all those delicacies weren't enough, they were all wrapped in a healthy serving of fat.

Knowing that Cheryl doesn't care for the fat, they had prepared two fat-less skewers just for her. I however, was given the whole shabang. I made it through the meal by smothering each bite in bread and washing it down with gulps of sweet green tea. To be honest, it wasn't that bad. The trick is to turn your brain off, but the amount of salt masked any awfulness and I finished every last bite, with zero gagging and maybe even a teensy weensy bit of enjoyment :) Although, I will say of all the organs present, kidney has been and still is my least favorite...I just can't get past the texture.

The following day, Rabha and I set off for Ait Hamza. It had been five months since I saw my original host family and I was most excited about the short visit. As expected, the kids have all grown a few inches and are looking great. It was so nice to spend time with Hafida and even more special that Rabha got to meet her. As always, Hafida outdid herself with a ridiculous amount of baked goods and tea on arrival, then lunch, then tea and snacks again in the late afternoon and then an even more extravagant and delicious dinner. Even Rabha was surprised when we were brought the wash basin in preparation for dinner, she thought for sure that with all the food we had been fed throughout the day, there was no way we would be having dinner!

Hafida, Mimoun and Rizzlane looking at their new photo album :) 

They send a million thanks to you Granddad and Karen!


  

I purposefully brought Rabha with me to Ait Hamza as the women there have a fantastic cooperative which is functionally exporting without the assistance of a Peace Corps volunteer. I told her this was her chance to ask as many questions as possible, as whatever the women there are doing, it's working. The women were reluctant to share any information with her though, but Hafida promised to find out as much as possible and to let her know in May, when we return to Ait Hamza to conduct a natural dye workshop.

Bill, Me and Joe outside the new weaving school

After a most pleasant visit with the host family, we left the next morning for Boumia. Bill the volunteer in Midelt has been working with his counterpart on setting up a weaving school for the at-risk women in Boumia. Boumia has the highest population of sex-workers in all of Morocco and Hayat, Bill's counterpart is determined to give those women a chance at a better life.

The grand-opening of the school took place in the afternoon and there were six volunteers present to show our support. Rabha accompanied me and I was happy that she got the chance to see the result of all the hard work her fellow Moroccan, Hayat had put into the project. It is truly an amazing school and so pleasing to know that Hayat took the initiative and made it happen. To read more about the project check out Bill's blog entry on the event, there are even a couple pictures of yours truly.

That's all for now...

Much love,

Miriam x