July 18, 2008

Today has been the beginning of a sort of project in my site. Last weekend, I got together with two friends in the province to write the Training of Trainers grant. We still need to do the budget, but other than that, the project seems to be coming together well.

Today, however, started our girl’s morning camp. There are three volunteers in a nearby province who are going around and putting on fun camps in people sites, and I’m collaborating with them for one in Tamazitinu.

Unfortunately, no adults from my town really are interested in helping, so it’s just the four of us and, today, 50 girls. We started outside (in the shade) and played Simon Says, sang some songs, and tossed a Frisbee around. Then, they went inside and made nametags, and we split into two groups. I led a health lesson and game with one group, the other group made collages of their dreams for the future. The health lesson was over soon, so we also started learning a little English.

It was only three hours, but I really had a great time and can’t wait for tomorrow morning. I’m also beginning to wonder if this is something I could continue on a smaller scale on my own this summer once or twice a week.

July 23, 2008

Wow. Well, I’d say that the camp was a pretty resounding success for how last-minute it seemed to me.

The next three days went quite well. We started each day with “sports” that included games like Sharks and Minnows (“Big fish and little fish”), Ring around the Rosy, races, Duck, duck, goose (“chicken, chicken, cow”), and Frisbee, then went to songs.

I loved singing the songs with the kids. We did Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Tows, Row Your Boat, Frere Jacques (in three languages: French, English, and Dutch: two girls live in the Netherlands but are from here originally and are visiting for the summer), and a song I learned from French language immersion camp: “Ce n’est pas moi!” The kids all sang the National Anthem of Morocco at the end of singing, and a few were okay leading in traditional Tamazight songs. My favorite part about this is that now some of my neighbor kids will come to me on the street and sing these songs to me. “Katy, Katy, ‘hey sholds neesntoes, neesntoes!’”

We’d break up after songs and sports and I continued with the general hygiene game as well as a dental hygiene lesson, throwing in dances like the Macarena or random English lessons as needed. Some of the other PCVs did art projects. One day, we made friendship bracelets; another day we did a neighborhood trash pick up, and yet another I showed videos on the new family laws and had a discussion with some of the older girls about why staying in school was important.

I wish I had another summer so I could do the camp again, or go around to other nearby sites and collaborate with other PCVs to spread the day-camp love. Or, wait. Actually, summer is my least favorite time of year here. I love that the figs on my tree are ripening at the rate of about 3 figs a day, and I like the culture of sitting outside and “breezing” (“datrwHmt?”), but I really get frustrated with the people coming back from working abroad. The PCVs who came over kept commenting on people not wearing headscarves who were in their late teens, the plethora of cars (though the fact that they all had EU plates should have been a giveaway), and the few kids who came in speaking fluent French, Spanish, or Dutch; it seemed feeble when I told them “It’s just because it’s summer. Everyone’s here on ‘vacation’ visiting family.” My next-door neighbor, a man I never met, has spent the last 36 years in France and his teenaged children are French citizens.

I know it sounds whiny, but I really dislike the atmosphere right now in Tamazitinu with Ait l Kharij (the people from abroad) here in town. I know I’m more of an outsider than they are, but the cars, the fact that there are clumps of men “breezing” on every block who stare at me, and people trying to talk to me in French all the time, or wearing nicer clothes than I own at home really changes the entire feeling of my town.

At least it means wedding season is coming up!