Ramadan Karim!

Coming back from America was not the easiest transition. Knowing I’m not going to see my family, friends or country for another 14 months is a tough pill to swallow. I’m trying not to focus on that but to rather find positive things to focus on here in Morocco.

 

When I first returned, all I could focus on initially was the heat. Oh lord, the overwhelming heat. But then! it was time for Summer Camp!  While I was packing I found this little munchkin in my house. I set him free out doors, after scooping him up in my shoe (I wear a size 11) He was HUGE!

 

A few days before leaving for summer camp we met with the US Embassy in Zagora who did a teaching workshop using poetry. It was a great workshop and afterwards we went and had tea. The RELO (regional english language officer) for the Embassy is a RPCV from Yemen. I’m sure I impressed my fellow Americans with my tea pouring abilities. Make bubbles Rachida!

On my way up to El Jadida, where summer camp is held, I stopped to see my friend Sam. He made me nachos. Have I mentioned I love Sam?

A cafe in Sam’s site. 

I also stopped off in Tinghrir, to have a meeting about summer camp with Wes. He coordinated session one, and I coordinated session 3.

Then we had cake for Jeff (Jawads) birthday! This cake was super exciting because it was made by our french pastry chef, Giam. A lot of Moroccan pasteries (in my experiences) look totally beautiful, but dont have a ton of flavor. This cake had both! Yay Giam!

Jawad got many excellent gifts for his birthday

Including Chwarma

and Tinjedad the Whale. I crocheted him and he turned out awkwardly perfect!

Then we arrived in El Jadida for Summer Camp! We were greeted by a little car fire on the way to a grocery store. Exciting.

Our schedule…

Our camp was divided into three tiers. We had English classes (beginner through Advanced), clubs (art, games, theatre, dance, creative writing, and culture) and teams (Jamaica, Ghana, UAE, Canada, India) These are the tents were at least four of these classes met daily.

We did a hands of Peace Project the first day, where all 80 campers traced their hands, wrote fun facts about themselves on each finger along with where they are from and their name.

My hand!

The Peace Corps bunks. We have two rooms, sleeping nearly 20 PCVs at a time.

Team Flags! The campers compete the whole 10 days of camp to win the camp cup. They get SUPER competitive.

The Peace Corps volunteers get into it as well.

We have all sorts of nighttime events after the academics are over. We have trivia night, talent shows, fashion shows, Halloween, dance party, game night, among others.

These are two girls from down south who participated in the traditional category at the fashion show.We are currently on our second day of Ramadan at camp. Yes, I am fasting. It’s going pretty well so far. We only have two days of camp to go, and lots to get accomplished. Tonight we just finished one of the biggest nighttime activities, which is Halloween. We all dress up and have a Halloween movie, bobbing for apples, pin the nose on the Jack O latern, face painting and a haunted house. The kids loved it, and were definitely scared. Now we are mostly just tired and wanting to go to sleep.

The key to fasting though is staying up until about 4am and eating several times during the night. Then sleeping until about 12 in the afternoon. We can afford to do that because announcements aren’t even until 12:45 during Ramadan schedule.

I’ll have more photos from camp soon. I can’t wait to post them. It’s been a rewarding blast so far. Can’t wait to see what the next few days have in store.