As new volunteers, our first three months in site are meant to be focused on community integration and analysis. Before diving straight into projects, it’s important to learn about the community I’ll be serving, get a grasp on what’s needed, and at the same time become known and trusted by the community. This means everything from (seemingly) basic tasks like finding and making a home for myself, learning where everything is in town, and meeting the main people I’ll be working with. It also means observing the current activities at the Dar Chebab and Nedi Neswi, learning about the other local associations working in my community, and trying to grasp the bigger picture of my community as a whole through informal interactions and conversations with people I meet. Soon, I’ll also be conducting some more formal PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) meetings, like the ones that we had some practice with during training (See the blog posts about those experiences here and here), in order to really dig deep into the current assets, problems, and needs in my community.
Perhaps most importantly, this is a time for community walks, for chatting with the person who sells me vegetables, and for being stopped in the street by random students on their way to school, curious about the new American in town. It’s a time for accepting every invitation to breakfast, lunch, tea, and kaskrot (Moroccan afternoon snack) that I can, and trying my best to remember the names of the countless kind-hearted women I’ve met along the way. It’s a time for knowing the students who come to the Dar Chebab, and doing something as simple as playing soccer, reading, or drawing pictures with them, just to build some trust and confidence between us.
I’ve been grabbing every opportunity I can to meet and interact with people in my community now, since things are really going to be slowing down in a few weeks for the summer months. It gets so hot here in the south that the Dar Chebab, Nedi Newsi, and most of the other associations shut down sometime in the month of July, and don’t start fully operating again until mid-September, when the kids go back to school. The timing really isn’t the best, and it’s going to prove a bit problematic for us as new volunteers trying to meet people at a time when a lot of the activity comes to a near standstill.
Luckily, things haven’t quite slowed down for the summer just yet in my site, and I’ve had the chance to attend a number of great events in the last few weeks – most of which either run by or attended by huge groups of women. They were wonderful opportunities to meet lots of women, and a few men, in my community who are engaged and interested in working with others. Sometimes, I knew about these events, and attended them purposefully – other times, I literally stumbled upon them when walking down the street, or heard about them that morning in conversation with a friend:
- Drug prevention event: One day during my first week here, the Mudir (director) of the Dar Chebab called in the afternoon to let us (the volunteer whom I’m replacing was still here, and she was in the process of showing me around) know that there would be an anti-smoking / drug prevention event at the Dar Talib and Dar Taliba later that evening. The Dar Talib (for boys) and Dar Taliba (for girls) are essentially boarding houses for students whose families live in one of the many duwars, or small farming communities, outside of my town. Though my town is small, it is a sort of central meeting place that offers schools, souk (weekly market), and other things that can’t really be found in the duwars. In order to attend school, some students need to come from the outlying duwars and stay in my town for the school year, and they stay at the Dar Talib or Dar Taliba. The association that put on the drug prevention event works closely with the Dar Talib/a, putting on events regularly and working with the youth who stay there. The event was fairly well attended, considering the proximity to impending end-of-year exams, and it was a great chance to introduce myself to the students I’ll be working with in the fall when school starts again (they will have all unfortunately left for the summer in only a few weeks’ time now).
- Women’s craft fair: About a week and a half ago, a newer association in town held a women’s craft fair at the Dar Chebab. The association helps women build skills in making artisan crafts and other goods, and every so often they host an event like this to sell their products to the community. The event was amazingly well-attended, and complete with tea, harira (Moroccan soup) and delicious cookies made by the women. Inside, there were over a dozen tables covered with crocheted and knitted goods, pottery, paintings, jewelry, household décor, food items, and much more. Outside, women and children sat at the tables in the courtyard, enjoying the food, listening to music, and talking with one another. I attended the fair for three afternoons straight, meeting the women from the association and talking to anyone and everyone I could. The association is done for the summer, but showed a lot of interest in working with me when they resume activities in the fall! I exchanged numbers with a few of the women there, found out where they were located, and made plans to go see them in September to start working with them. As an added bonus, an association from Taroudannt (the closest large-ish city to us) brought a huge moonbounce/slide to the Dar Chebab during that week, and the kids seemed to LOVE it! I have to admit it was a bit of a bizarre sight to see in this town, though!
- A women's celebration to remember: The association that put on the craft fair had their big end-of-the-year celebration early last week, and I was invited! The biggest room in the Dar Chebab was absolutely packed with women, and I felt so lucky to be a part of it. Women who had gone through their artisan craft training program received certificates in a type of graduation ceremony, and it was clear that it meant a lot for them to be receiving recognition for their accomplishments. There was also an incredibly talented music group made up of women from the association, playing various drums and signing beautiful music. And, of course, many glasses of tea were passed around along with assorted dates, cookies, and nuts. As if all of that weren’t enough, I was invited home for tea and kaskrot by the woman who teaches the women’s literacy class, and of course accepted the generous offer. Moroccan hospitality is an incredible thing – especially when you’re new to town and looking to make friends!
- Summer block party: Last Sunday afternoon, I decided to head to the local park to sit, read, and talk with people. The park is a beautiful place, with plenty of shade, benches, and places for both kids to play and adults to sit and chat; I like to go there to get out of the house and find some space to be with other people and feel social. When I arrived, however, I found that there would be no quiet reading and chatting to be had on that particular Sunday, for I had stumbled into what can only be described as a huge neighborhood block party! There were tons of people, big party tents, music, speakers, everything! As soon as I walked in, I ran into girls I know from the Dar Chebab and women from my morning exercise classes, and they all cheerfully invited me to sit with them and chat. I wasn’t sitting for long, though, before someone come over, asked me if I’d eaten yet, and insisted that I come with her to eat – yes, you guessed it – cous cous! She led me to a spacious tent where women were making enormous amounts of cous cous by hand in wide plastic tubs, and soon I was sitting at a table with a big group of women and girls, eating cous cous, chatting, and enjoying the celebratory atmosphere. In conversation, I found out that the local neighborhood association near the park puts on a party like that every year, to celebrate the close of the school year and bring people together - how awesome is that? I spent the remainder of the afternoon hanging out at the party with groups of women and their children, thanking my lucky stars for such an awesome opportunity. I had left the house that afternoon seeking some social interaction, and got way more than I ever could have asked for! For someone new to town looking to meet people and have some casual conversation, stumbling upon a block party is surely one way to do it! To top it all off, I was invited home for coffee/kaskrot by two women from my exercise class, and got to sit with their family for the rest of the evening enjoying delicious food. Not bad for your first Sunday on your own in site!
The park where I come to sit, and where the party was held
Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the party itself!
In addition to going to all of these awesome events, I’ve started doing some small projects at the Dar Chebab in the last few weeks. It’s nothing huge, but I’m trying to do as much as I can now in order to get some meaningful interaction going before things slow down for the summer:
- Women’s exercise classes: This is something that the volunteer before me got going, and I’ve decided to continue with it in my service as well. Obesity and diabetes are becoming a problem in Morocco, especially for women who spend the majority of their time inside with little to no opportunity for physical activity. Getting access to exercise can be problematic for women in Morocco, especially in conservative sites like mine where it isn’t very socially acceptable for women to go out jogging or play sports out in the open. The women’s exercise classes aim to give women an opportunity to get some needed physical activity, while at the same time starting to break down the notion that it’s unacceptable for women to exercise in public. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, we go walking in a big open field on the outskirts of town for about an hour, talking and enjoying the morning air. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I lead an aerobics/general fitness class in the big open room in the Dar Chebab, and we do everything from kickboxing to ab workouts to some dance moves. The women seem to really enjoy it, and they’ve recently started bringing new exercise ideas to class to share with everyone. The project has been a great way to ‘hit the ground running’ with something meaningful to contribute to the lives of women in my community. Plus, it’s been helpful to have something consistent to look forward to every day – something to get me up and moving early in the morning, interacting with people and starting the day off right. The women from my class love to invite me over for breakfast after we exercise, and I really enjoy accepting those offers: they help with integration, and come on – who doesn’t love breakfast with new friends?
- Afternoon youth activities: I haven’t started leading any classes at the Dar Chebab yet, since I need to take the time to first get to know the youth, understand the community, and get a grasp of what would be most beneficial here. I have been going to the Dar Chebab every afternoon though, leading various activities and simply getting to know the boys and girls who come. I typically go around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and stay until 8 or 9 in the evening – and the time flies! We’ve done everything from playing basketball, drawing, playing monopoly, learning origami, playing table tennis, reading books, tossing a frisbee around, and listening to music in English. I definitely want to do more purposeful activities with them in the fall, but for now it’s been nice to give them a safe space every afternoon to come play, interact with each other, and learn a few new things along the way.
Some of the drawings the kids have done - I LOVE how creative the one on top is!
- Girls’ soccer club: Every Saturday, the Mudir of the Dar Chebab and I take a group of about 20 girls, ages ranging from 10-15, out to the field to play soccer! There are plenty of boys’ and men’s soccer teams in town, but none for girls or women – this is their chance to get out, compete, and have fun with the sport loved by nearly everyone in the region. We’ve been trying to not only play the game, but also do skill-building exercises and drills to help them learn how to handle the ball, shoot, play strategically, etc. In the future, I’d like to connect them with other girls’ soccer teams in the area (perhaps through other nearby Peace Corps volunteers), and give them the opportunity to travel a bit and compete against one another!
I have a ton of ideas swirling around in my mind for future projects, clubs, and initiatives, and I’ve been writing them down in a notebook to try and keep things straight. The important thing to remember right now, though, especially since we’re headed into the slow summer months, is to take things step by step. If you know me well, you know that that’s not the easiest thing for me to do – I’m the kind of person that likes to dream big, get things rolling, and stay busy. Life in a new culture, adjusting to a new community, forging relationships, and taking the time to understand the community at a deeper level, though, are things that should not be taken lightly; and I look forward to the road ahead. Shwiya b shwyia!
