It's finally time....

To party! The camp was a huge success!!!! Not only were 14 Peace Corps Volunteers (including myself), 8 Moroccan ladies, and a few men from the association empowered, but so were 37 girls from T-town and the villages! 

The first day of the camp went by pretty smoothly. All 37 girls arrived by 10 a.m. and we had our opening ceremony where we handed out badges, folders, pens, and ran over the schedule with the girls. We had a representative come from the next big city to talk to the girls about abuse and issues common for Moroccan women. Then the next hour we had the girls take a career path test, to help them decide what work could be in their futures. Then after lunch, the campers  did two more workshops on women's rights and goal setting. Both workshops were lead by Peace Corps Volunteers but supported by Moroccan staff.  The day went by so fast, before I knew it, it was dinner time! Before bed, we managed to squeeze in a film about career motivated women in Morocco. I really wanted this girls to know that if they wanted, they could go out and support their families!

The second day was also pretty fast paced. We had more guest speakers and a field trip. We had women from the local midwife association speak to the girls about the facility where they could give birth and recover and then all the girls saw the local birthing house. I thought seeing the birthing house was important to the girls since so many of them will likely stay in or near T-town and be having babies here. Also, the girls attended a health workshop lead by another Peace Corps Volunteer and a local doctor. And, much to the happiness of the girls, there was a natural beauty workshop. The girls learned how to make their own hand scrub from lotion and sugar and a face mask from natural yogurt, parsley, and cucumber. Then the girls had the evening to party and sing their songs, because of course, 16 year old girls LOVE to sing in front of all of their friends. I am not joking. The singing and dancing went on for like two hours before bed, haha. 

The third day was probably the lest hectic day of the camp. We got up, ate breakfast, did a dance and henna workshop. Even the national news came to check us out. If you want to see a clip, click here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=242430759169118 

Sorry, it's all in Arabic, but it's me and my counterpart and a few of the girls saying that we loved the camp and would love to do it again next year. 

Then we lunched and had a 3.5 hour award ceremony. I kid you not, these things are impressive in length. My counterpart had a bunch of little kids come and do dances and songs for the girls. But the girls themselves were not to be outdone! They h of skits and dances for everyone as well. There were a lot of community members there and it really made an impact on everyone who attended the ceremony. 

When the girls and volunteers finally did go home, I felt like I could finally breathe again. I think this experience really made an impact for me and I learned a lot of valuable lessons on management, scheduling, designing a camp like this, and how to affect and empower girls from small villages. I think this camp is probably the defining week for my service here in Morocco. The girls were seriously interested in goal setting and women's rights. These young girls want to have successful and interesting lives! I sincerely hope that they take all the information they learned here and take it to the villages. 

And now it's time for me and my counterpart to thank everyone and pay all the vendors. It's all part and parcel of writing a grant and doing a successful project. I'm still beaming from accomplishing this event. 

Here are some photos from the camp:

All of us together!

Here's a great shot of Liz and Abby leading morning aerobics for the girls. 

Here is Hannah in the cha-cha line with all the girls. 

And here is team T-town-otherwise known as my best friend Simo, myself, my sitemate Sairah, and my counterpart Abdelaaziz. We're standing in front of the Dar taliba (the girls boarding school. The sign says that this is a 3 day camp supported and run by Peace Corps and Ahlam Taffoula (Abdelaaziz's association) and funded by Peace Corps and the International Rotary Club). Thanks Rotary, Peace Corps donors, and Ahlam Taffoula!

And seriously, for those of you who funded this grant, (Including Rotary International) God bless your parents! You are amazing! You helped empower and inspire everyone who was a part of this camp. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The day before the camp!

Hamdullilah (Thanks be to God)! It's January and that means we have been rushing around in a flurry of activity preparing for the camp.  In the last two months, El Jallali Abdelaaziz (my counterpart) and I have been having meetings everyday, crossing our 't's and dotting our 'i's for this three day camp. 

This is a picture of me, my site-mate and my counterpart (Seated in front of the computer). 

Let's go over a checklist of all the things me and my counterpart have been doing.

• We've been talking to all the women who are: going to be counselors for the camp.
• I've been coordinating between all the Peace Corps Volunteer girls who want to be joint counselors activity leaders.
• We've been arranging spaces for all of us (that is a total of 85 people all told. I know the camp is for 50 girls, but that is plus 14 Peace Corps Volunteers, 3 kitchen people, 8 Moroccan Women Counselors, and a few members from the association that I work with.)
• We've sent out faxes and called local tv stations to get media to cover the camp.
• Gathered the permission slips of 50 girls and acquired the permission from their fathers (No small feat for girls from very small, conservative villages.
• Printed 100's of pages for girl empowerment workshops
• Finalized and handed out the order slips for the food for the camp (this seemed to take the most time out of everything else).

This is the majority of last week's activities. But let's also quickly preview the program for the camp:

This weekend on Saturday the 28th, all the Moroccan and American volunteers will meet before the camp so that they can become acquainted with each other and do a general introduction of activities, rules, and expectations of the camp.

Sunday, the 29th, is the beginning of the camp! The campers come at 10am, and then it's introductions, the outline of the camp, lunch, and then the workshops begin. The workshops on the first day cover a range of topics like women's rights, a personality test, and a guest speaker from an organization against violence. We're also showcasing the Moroccan and Peace Corps Volunteer film called, 'You Can Dream,' which interviews empowered Moroccan women who are working. 

Monday the 30th, is more of the same, but with a woman doctor and a midwife from the area who are going to talk about their experiences. There will also be workshops on health and a henna workshop!

Tuesday the 31st is actually a really fun day. We're having workshops on dancing and on how to make natural makeup. We're also having a party and an award ceremony for all the girls. My counterpart has also asked the children he works with to do a dance for the older girls. And then after that, the girls will return home. I think this camp is going to absolutely swimmingly. I am really excited and am keeping my fingers crossed. 

T-town is really pulling this camp off and I'm so proud to say that this project is not just a dream but an actual working experience for all the participants involved.

Wish me luck! 

 

Actually, this is gross.

So today has been stimulating and sort of soul crushing.

I mean, it started out alright. I came to Rabat this last week because I chipped a cap on my molar and had gone to see the dentist. I left this morning on the train and then transfered to a taxi in order to get to my friend's site. I got into the taxi with two seemingly very nice little girls and their dad. Now, have I actually ever told you what it's like to ride in a taxi in Morocco? Just in case I haven't, you're in a normal sized sedan, with 6-8 people in it. Usually 7, but in hard times, more. This means that you're usually squished either in between the driver and the stick shift (think: stick shift continually shifting where your hip is resting) or you're squished between a variety of fun people (think anywhere from big Berber mommas to very skinny men). It's a regular box of chocolates; you never know what yer gonna get.

Anywho, I thought today's trip was going to be a breeze. Two pumpkin sized children who were napping and the father was looking out the window. I wasn't smushed or bothered at all. I really only had a 45 minute taxi ride from the train station to my friend's town. Lo and behold, 5 minutes until my friend's town and tragedy strikes. Not only do I look out the window in my happy reverie to see an over-turned vegetable truck! but little squirt has actually dumped the contents of her lunch on my white pants. The only time I wear white pants in this country and it was disaster. I'm actually pretty confident that my wearing of the white vestments actually challenged the universe and the only thing the universe could do was but smite me in it's deeply self-pleasing and ego-centric way. You ever know notice how the universe only cares about itself? It's down right un-conscientious.

I do feel bad for the kid though.

So, anyways, after meeting up with Liz in one of my most disgruntled moods, I basically ran to her house and hosed myself down. Then I washed my pants with tide, then bleach, and then more tide. They are currently drying over the window. This is really an unfortunate matter concerning clothes here....I mean, either they're ripped, gross, or covered in God knows what. I really do think that dressing like a hobo here has its own sense of propriety. At least it's modest. 

So, on my way to Rabat for a yearly medical exam, I have stopped at my friend Liz's site near Casablanca to help her with a project. We have also had some time to make some freakishly delicious food. I know I talk a lot about food but I think it's because it's something I really miss a lot since I'm not at home for the holidays. Needless to say we've been making orange chicken, teriyaki beef, and most importantly today apple turnovers. Not only did we make applesauce to go into the turnovers but we were listening to Christmas music while making them. 

Liz enjoying orange chicken (which we called for sake of the dish, but it's actually orange turkey)

Watching Liz cook the turnovers on the stove. You never know what cool things you can do with a stove until you don't have an oven. 

Liz wanted to give a box of applesauce and turnovers to her shop keeper who lives nearby.

Well now that we gave the turnovers to the nice hanut lady, she invited Liz and I to her house. Hooray! She happened to have a bunch of family who lived upstairs and they had a baby. They let me hold the baby and I got to coo at it! I was stoked, haha. And then of course we watched the baby naming ceremony they had on dvd. Basically an Usbu3 (baby naming ceremony) is a party where everyone comes to the house and greets the newly-named baby. So, why are we watching a baby-naming party? Generally at parties or weddings there will be someone taping everyone and the bride and groom or baby and mother. Therefore, you can show every friend and relative who wasn't at the party what they missed! 

And thus ends another good day here in Morocco. :D

Girls Empowerment Camp

Since September, I've been working with my counterpart, El Jallali Abdelaaziz on designing and funding a Girls Empowerment Camp. I walked into the Dar Chebab (Youth Center) one day in September and we sat down and I asked him if he thought it was a good idea to make a camp whose goals were to encourage education, employment, and self-reliance among Moroccan teenage girls. The camp will be held at the end of January during the winter break holiday at the local girls' boarding school. The 50 attending girls are from my town and the surrounding rural villages, ages 15-17. Jallali and I have asked a female doctor, lawyer, and  leader of a carpet cooperative, all from my area, to speak to the girls. I have also asked 10 other Peace Corps Volunteers to come to the camp to help implement activities such as discussions on women's right's career development, women's health, and of course, dancing. The camp is also designed to empower more adult women in my community. I have asked for 10 women from the community to pair with a volunteer so that they may better instruct the girls through each activity.

Honestly, Jallali has been meeting me almost every day to help plan this camp and I'm pretty sure it could not have happened without him. He's helped me get this camp off the ground by turning in paperwork to the president of the community, arranging the camp space in the girls' boarding school, and talking to the ministry  of youth and sports about the camp. He's also been curious about writing his own grants, which in my opinion is fantastic. I am really looking forward to helping him make connections with various international and Moroccan organizations that will help him continue to do development projects. In my opinion, this is Peace Corps' goal number 1 in action (goal number 1 being: volunteers bringing technical assistance to interested countries).  

However, El Jallali and I are now looking for grantors, which happily, can be you dear reader! Feeling the Christmas spirit? Interested in International Women's rights? Why not donate to this camp and see the direct benefit to a camper's life? I invite you to donate to this project by clicking here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=378-175

And of course, picture time: 

Here are the wall paintings that Rachel and I did during 3id K'bir (and talked about in a previous post). 'Bismillah' means, 'In the name of God.' You also say it when you eat and this is why we painted it in the kitchen. 

Here's the hand of Fatima we painted in Rachel's salon!

And here's me being ridiculous with Rachel's monster refrigerator. It's literally a monster. 

Do you see how ridiculously good our Thanksgiving was? It was SO good. Myself and a bunch of other volunteers celebrated Thanksgiving at Rachel's (another volunteer who lives close to me). We even had bacon-wrapped turkey! Egads!

And, of course, during 3id k'bir (the big holiday) I got bored and made pickles. :D They were delicious!!

So now you've seen some holiday fun with us. Please support our holiday fun by donating to my grant! You'll have my thanks forever, and if you tell me you donated, I can send you something neat in the mail! 

:D :D :D

The day the sheep came early.

Today I shall not post any pictures but I would like to forewarn you that this post will run a bit to the gross side. Prepare yourselves. Or don't read it because it's 3id Kbir-Al-Adha time in Morocco, which means, Moroccan Christmas time, a.k.a., 'let's kill the sheep!'

This holiday season I have decided to spend some quality time in my friend Rachel's town. She has dubbed her town 'Christmas Village,' in an order to provide a little anonymity. Anyways, Rachel asked me to accompany her during this 3id (Arabic for Holiday) because like me, she was a vegetarian in America. Neither she nor I relish the thought of seeing sheep being slaughtered ritually. But let's recap what this holiday is about. 

Recall the story of the prophet Abraham's attempt to sacrifice his son Isaac found in Genesis 22. I'll quickly paraphrase the story: God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son but at the last moment, He intervened and stopped Abraham's hand. Abraham then noticed a ram caught in the bushes nearby and slaughtered it in sacrifice to God.

 Muslim's commemorate this miracle in two ways. The holiday not only signifies the end of the Hajj (or the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca made by Muslims) but it also is celebrated by ritually sacrificing a sheep. If you'd like to know more, click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/islam/eid_haj.shtml

So Aly, you might be thinking, 'I was reading your title of this post and it occurred to me that wouldn't it be odd that a sheep would come early since it's not the Holiday yet?" (The holiday is November 7th this year). Why yes, dear reader! You are correct! I was not expecting to see a dead sheep yesterday, but see it I did. Here's the story: Rachel and I wanted to get some neat looking Berber Henna (think interesting geometrical lines traced in dark brown color on the hands and feet). Rachel had previously arranged with a family to find a woman to give us henna. At noon yesterday we went to the house, expecting to find the henna artist waiting for us. Instead we found a sheep carcass freshly killed, waiting for us in the entryway of the house. Rachel and I were both a bit surprised because we thought the holiday wasn't until Monday. In any event, we entered the house and waited patiently for a few hours before it became apparent  that henna wasn't coming but lunch was. Rachel and I have both done 3id kbir before and have explained to both our communities our feelings about meat (i.e. we don't eat it). So the family, wanting to please us, gathered some eggs and boiled them and asked if they could give us chicken. We agreed (I mean...you have to eat some meat here....it would be too offensive not to). They then served us a plate, which they called 'chicken,' but in reality was actually goat meat with boiled eggs around it. 

Retelling this story just makes me want to put my face in my hands. Anyways, we left back to our house and spent the evening drawing a mural on Rachel's wall. I'll post pictures of it soon. 

Happy 3id everybody! 3id Mubarak!

Henna and applesauce

Yesterday, in attempt to do work, I ended up going to my friend's house. Turns out she wasn't there so I took a nap on her couch for an hour. Eventually she did come back and offered to do henna on me and paint my nails. Spa day? Yes, very. 

This is my friend posing in her beautiful jelaba.

 This is my friend's sister who now lives in a big city so I don't get to see her too often. But it was nice that she was there so I could hang out for a while.

Um, this is us pretending to feed each other cookies.....but everytime I go over to my friend's house, she always feeds me these elaborate cascrutes (snacks). Score.

Here's a picture of the henna the following day. 

Yay for getting henna'ed!

Also, today I made applesauce and put in cinnamon and nutmeg. It's making my kitchen smell like Christmas. Haha. Love it.