This trip has definitely been a life-changing event for me. Not only have I set aside 3 weeks of my life to working with students of all ages and levels to teach English to as best as I could, I gained much, much more than I ever thought. I was both skeptical going to a new country, to a house to live with many other volunteers I had never met, to working at a foundation, in a class I had never taught before. The Cross Cultural Solutions Staff gave me so much information to help my transition but nothing can ease your nerves as you walk off that plane into a new country. From the very start I was welcomed with warm smiles and open arms. All the volunteers I lived with from 2-3 weeks were amazing and definitely made my time there extra special. I truly felt we became a large family even in the small amount of time living together.
This trip opened my eyes to the different cultures around the world and how small our problems can really be. The one question that seems to come up quite often when we got back was, "Did you ever feel threatened or fearful?" Never once. The people of Morocco were very grateful and understanding to our different way of life. The home base staff made it very easy for us to dive into the Moroccan culture while all the while having a home to come back safely to. Everyone wanted to know what we thought of their way of life and wanted us to come back to visit. The students enjoyed teaching us about their language, food, culture and city just as much as they enjoyed learning English and American culture from us.
Thank you CCS staff, fellow volunteers, family, friends and mostly, my husband, Dustin for making this trip a reality for me. I know there will be many more trips to come and look forward to growing with each one!!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
3rd and Final Week
Monday, June 16
We each started our final week at placement with 2 other volunteers who had come to CCS that weekend. This was the perfect set up so we could have one week to co-teach each class and have the smooth transition from one teacher to the next. The students made the transition very easily which made me leaving that Friday so much easier. That afternoon we had a session on the demographics and education of Morocco. The children start public school just as we do but their education is all free from elementary to college. The only draw back is after 2 failing grades, they are kicked out for good. There are no special education classes or other resources, thus explaining why they have 60% illiteracy rate.
Tuesday, June 17
Placement went well again with the co-teacher, and the students are really settling in the curriculum. That afternoon we had our 3rd cooking class where we made zucchini and carrot pockets. They are made from shredding carrots and zuccchini and putting them in a very thin layer of dough to be fried and eaten. They were one of the favorites of all the volunteers. That evening the East West Foundation had their opening night of the Cultural Festival so us and 2 friends of ours set out for the Mohammad V Theatre. There they had a few speakers (in French) and the UN representative (in English) followed by the American Gospel group called The Campbell Brothers. They had a great performance which, in the end, slowly incorporated the African drummers and chorus of people from the Foundation.
Wednesday, June 18
Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary!! Following placement, we went to the pottery village which is a whole section of town full of pottery and little trinkets. This village had many spots to buy Argon oil for reasonable cost which is quite expensive in the states. That evening, Dustin and I went out for supper for our anniversary. We started at the shopping area of the medina to get some last minute items we wanted to get before we headed home. We then found a nice pizzeria and finished our night at the East West Foundation Cultural Festival. When we got there they had just started the style show and moved into the African drums and chorus.
Thursday, June 19
Following placement, we took pictures with our classes and started to say our goodbyes to many of the students. We ended up going out for lunch with 4 of our students who took us by city bus deep into the medina and to a nice little restaurant for tajine. We had then used all but 1 of the Moroccan ways of transportation- taxi, city bus, train, greyhound bus, and plane. They then took us for a little tour and ended on the boardwalk along the river. We then made it back to home base for a band the staff had hired to come in a perform for us. That evening we went back to the Mohammad V Theatre for a jazz band who was performing.
Friday, June 20
This marked the final day of our English class and full day in Morocco. Following an amazing farewell with gifts and many good wishes from the students, we took a grand taxi (our final different transportation) to a suburb of Rabat to have couscous Friday with 4 of our students. This was an experience as this was the first family meal we had had outside of our homebase. It is actually a big occasion to have couscous in a tajine every Friday with the family only they usually eat it with no utensils, only their hands. Everyone sits around the ceramic bowl and dives in :) It is quite neat to see everyone coming together for a wonderful meal. We then made our way back to home base and said our farewells so those leaving for their weekend trips. We stayed in that evening to pack and finish last minute travel arrangements for the weekend.
We each started our final week at placement with 2 other volunteers who had come to CCS that weekend. This was the perfect set up so we could have one week to co-teach each class and have the smooth transition from one teacher to the next. The students made the transition very easily which made me leaving that Friday so much easier. That afternoon we had a session on the demographics and education of Morocco. The children start public school just as we do but their education is all free from elementary to college. The only draw back is after 2 failing grades, they are kicked out for good. There are no special education classes or other resources, thus explaining why they have 60% illiteracy rate.
Tuesday, June 17
Placement went well again with the co-teacher, and the students are really settling in the curriculum. That afternoon we had our 3rd cooking class where we made zucchini and carrot pockets. They are made from shredding carrots and zuccchini and putting them in a very thin layer of dough to be fried and eaten. They were one of the favorites of all the volunteers. That evening the East West Foundation had their opening night of the Cultural Festival so us and 2 friends of ours set out for the Mohammad V Theatre. There they had a few speakers (in French) and the UN representative (in English) followed by the American Gospel group called The Campbell Brothers. They had a great performance which, in the end, slowly incorporated the African drummers and chorus of people from the Foundation.
Wednesday, June 18
Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary!! Following placement, we went to the pottery village which is a whole section of town full of pottery and little trinkets. This village had many spots to buy Argon oil for reasonable cost which is quite expensive in the states. That evening, Dustin and I went out for supper for our anniversary. We started at the shopping area of the medina to get some last minute items we wanted to get before we headed home. We then found a nice pizzeria and finished our night at the East West Foundation Cultural Festival. When we got there they had just started the style show and moved into the African drums and chorus.
Thursday, June 19
Following placement, we took pictures with our classes and started to say our goodbyes to many of the students. We ended up going out for lunch with 4 of our students who took us by city bus deep into the medina and to a nice little restaurant for tajine. We had then used all but 1 of the Moroccan ways of transportation- taxi, city bus, train, greyhound bus, and plane. They then took us for a little tour and ended on the boardwalk along the river. We then made it back to home base for a band the staff had hired to come in a perform for us. That evening we went back to the Mohammad V Theatre for a jazz band who was performing.
Friday, June 20
This marked the final day of our English class and full day in Morocco. Following an amazing farewell with gifts and many good wishes from the students, we took a grand taxi (our final different transportation) to a suburb of Rabat to have couscous Friday with 4 of our students. This was an experience as this was the first family meal we had had outside of our homebase. It is actually a big occasion to have couscous in a tajine every Friday with the family only they usually eat it with no utensils, only their hands. Everyone sits around the ceramic bowl and dives in :) It is quite neat to see everyone coming together for a wonderful meal. We then made our way back to home base and said our farewells so those leaving for their weekend trips. We stayed in that evening to pack and finish last minute travel arrangements for the weekend.
The CCS volunteer group from May 31-June 14. It was difficult to come back after our 2nd weekend trip to most of these people gone home. They definitely made our trip amazing!!
Khadija teaching us how to make the carrot-zucchini pockets.
Kelly, Dustin, me and GG before our night out to the Mohammad Theatre for the opening night of the Cultural Festival. Such great friends!
A design in front of the theatre made of candles.
The American Gospel Group, The Campbell Brothers.
The East West Foundation Chorus.
One of the shops in the Pottery Village
The chorus at the East West Foundation.
Our classes minus a few. Such great students!!
Mohammed and Dustin dancing along with the band at home base.
Jazz Band at the Mohammed Theatre.
Gifts our students had given us on our last day of class. We will miss you all!!
Chefchaouen- The Blue Pearl
Our second full weekend, we traveled 4 hours by bus to the Northeast part of Morocco to Chefchaouen, known as "The Blue Pearl." The whole city is painted in light blue and white which is known to repel mosquitoes and be pleasant to the eye. We arrived into town about 7:30 pm where we had a taxi waiting for us thank you to our riad owner. The taxi driver drove us through the medina, little alleyways with shops, right to the front door of Rifandalus Riad. (Thank goodness because we never would have found the one door set back into the wall with only a little sign above) The Riad was a quant, little hotel with only 2 rooms on each floor went up about 5 flights. Our room was entitled Rabat and was on the top floor with the most magnificent patio overlooking the Riff Mountains and the Blue City. We spent the rest of the night checking out the medina and night life.
The hotel owner also set us up with a tour guide for Saturday morning at 9:00 am which ended up being a 74 year old man who literally kicked our butts for 5 hours. The guide started through the medina where he pointed out little spots in the shopping areas. He then took us to his house so he could change shoes to take us into the mountains. The whole town is set on the Riff Mountains so all the streets, actually walkways, are constant hills and stairs, up and down. We set out for the Riff Mountains around 10:00 and wound our way through some rough and rocky hiking trails. It seemed our guide was well known among the country people as he always had some comments to say to everyone we ran into. We stopped at one country house and had tea with the family that lived there. We then made our way up through the wandering goats and past the wheat fields to wonderful lookouts of the city.
We went back down to the city around 1:30 to have lunch at a cafe and finished our tour to the last spots in the medina. We definitely needed a break after that so we took a little nap time and then set off for the Kasbah which is a walled area inside the medina. The Kasbah included a park area, old jail, museum and other historic sites. We spent the rest of that evening doing some shopping in the medina and went outside to have supper in a cute little sandwich cafe. The owner of the riad picked us up again from the hotel and took us in his personal car to the bus station Sunday morning for our 7:00 am departure.
The hotel owner also set us up with a tour guide for Saturday morning at 9:00 am which ended up being a 74 year old man who literally kicked our butts for 5 hours. The guide started through the medina where he pointed out little spots in the shopping areas. He then took us to his house so he could change shoes to take us into the mountains. The whole town is set on the Riff Mountains so all the streets, actually walkways, are constant hills and stairs, up and down. We set out for the Riff Mountains around 10:00 and wound our way through some rough and rocky hiking trails. It seemed our guide was well known among the country people as he always had some comments to say to everyone we ran into. We stopped at one country house and had tea with the family that lived there. We then made our way up through the wandering goats and past the wheat fields to wonderful lookouts of the city.
We went back down to the city around 1:30 to have lunch at a cafe and finished our tour to the last spots in the medina. We definitely needed a break after that so we took a little nap time and then set off for the Kasbah which is a walled area inside the medina. The Kasbah included a park area, old jail, museum and other historic sites. We spent the rest of that evening doing some shopping in the medina and went outside to have supper in a cute little sandwich cafe. The owner of the riad picked us up again from the hotel and took us in his personal car to the bus station Sunday morning for our 7:00 am departure.
View from our room's patio on the top floor
Our room (apartment)
This room is commonly used as an apartment and was probably the most quant room I have ever stayed in.
Beginning of our hike in the Riff Mountains.
View of the city from the lookout at the Spanish Mosque.
A place in the medina where the women take their clothing and items to wash in the water piped in from the mountains.
A blue alleyway in the medina.
Most of the medina were walkways like this painted blue and white.
Horses grazing on the mountainside during our hike.
Women hauling wheat to process into flour for bread.
Mosque in the country side.
Our guide returning back to town. He was fast!
Jail in the Kasbah
Inside the Kasbah
Outside the Kasbah
A woodworker who was making kitchen utensils right before us!! He was fantastic!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Week 2 Complete!!
Day 9, June 9
Monday, we started our 2nd full week at Placement, and we're finally settling into our routine. I have averaged about 10-17 students each day and feel we are really making progress. That class was probably the most exciting one so far as we started putting sentences together and was able to keep everyone on task with the varied levels of students. I still have some that are working on basic words while others that are putting full sentences and paragraphs together. That afternoon's class at the home base was Introduction to Islam which was very interesting. That evening some of us went to the Oudaya (ocean area) and watched the sun go down into the Atlantic Ocean.
June 10
Tuesday, after placement we went right to the train station and took an hour train ride to Casablanca (Casa Port). We then took a taxi to the Mosque Hassann II which the only mosque in Morocco that is open to the public for tours. We grabbed the 3:00 tour and gathered some amazing pictures. More information is included with the pictures on the last blog.
June 11
Wednesday, after placement we all took a tour of the Chellah Ruins which is in Rabat. The ruins were inhabited from both the Muslims and Romans started in 1316 AD. More information is included with the pictures.
June 12
Thursday, we had another cooking class where Khadija taught us how to make a breakfast pastry commonly made here. Their dough is a combination of wheat flour, bread flour, baking soda and 2.5 glasses of water. They measure their amounts by glass cups and spoon fulls. That evening we just hung out at the home base as about 10 of the volunteers were flying home on Saturday, and we were leaving Friday for Chefchaouen.
Monday, we started our 2nd full week at Placement, and we're finally settling into our routine. I have averaged about 10-17 students each day and feel we are really making progress. That class was probably the most exciting one so far as we started putting sentences together and was able to keep everyone on task with the varied levels of students. I still have some that are working on basic words while others that are putting full sentences and paragraphs together. That afternoon's class at the home base was Introduction to Islam which was very interesting. That evening some of us went to the Oudaya (ocean area) and watched the sun go down into the Atlantic Ocean.
June 10
Tuesday, after placement we went right to the train station and took an hour train ride to Casablanca (Casa Port). We then took a taxi to the Mosque Hassann II which the only mosque in Morocco that is open to the public for tours. We grabbed the 3:00 tour and gathered some amazing pictures. More information is included with the pictures on the last blog.
June 11
Wednesday, after placement we all took a tour of the Chellah Ruins which is in Rabat. The ruins were inhabited from both the Muslims and Romans started in 1316 AD. More information is included with the pictures.
June 12
Thursday, we had another cooking class where Khadija taught us how to make a breakfast pastry commonly made here. Their dough is a combination of wheat flour, bread flour, baking soda and 2.5 glasses of water. They measure their amounts by glass cups and spoon fulls. That evening we just hung out at the home base as about 10 of the volunteers were flying home on Saturday, and we were leaving Friday for Chefchaouen.
Pictures from Chellah Ruins
Fertility Pond where women would go to wash and pray to get pregnant. There were eels that one of the people threw egg whites at to get them to come out of the cave areas.
The baths people would wash at before their daily prayer.
One of the door ways in the ruins.
Temple in the ruins.
The overview of the ruins.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Camel Safari and Casablanca Pictures
Our Berber tent village in the Sahara desert
Inside our Berber tent village. Each tent has a full bed, and a light that is powered by solar power which is quite expensive but they said the tourists bring in so much money they want to keep the wonderful experience for them. They also have a kitchen, also solar powered, where they made us Tagine chicken with tea. There are also rugs covering all of the sand.
This is our CCS group minus 4.
We went in 2 groups, each with a person leading the camels. The camels were all tied together.
This is how we all got on the camels.
The CCS group sitting outside the Mosque Hassann II in Casablanca on Tuesday, June 10 after placement. This is the only mosque in Morocco that will allow tours throughout the day. Most of it was blocked off but they shared a lot of information with us. The boy in the back kept sneaking up to our group and sitting by us.
The ceiling of the mosque which slides open from the middle for days that are nice as there is no air conditioning.
The Mosque Hassann II. It will hold 5,000 women upstairs and 20,000 men downstairs. Women are able to pray at home as they stay home to cook and take care of the kids.
Outside of the mosque.
Rick's Cafe from the movie "Casablanca." It opened at 6:30 pm, and we were there at 4:30 so we were not able to go in and eat.
The baths in the mosque as the people have to clean their hands, face, wrist to elbow and feet 3 times each before their daily prayer. This was for the women and the men went to a different room with the exact same set up.
I have many more pictures on facebook if you have access to those.
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