El Jadida Summer Camp: Fasting and Fun

At the end of July, I had the awesome opportunity to work as a counselor at the annual Summer English Immersion Camp in El Jadida. Every year, Peace Corps and the Moroccan Ministry of Youth and Sports, sponsors a camp for Moroccan youth in the beautiful coastal city of El Jadida. There are four 10-day sessions of the camp, and kids come from all across the country to attend. Perhaps the best part is that the Ministry provides scholarships for 2 youth from each Peace Corps site, making it possible for underprivileged youth from the small communities Peace Corps serves to attend, some of them traveling out of their hometowns for the very first time. Through the scholarships, two hardworking, soccer-loving girls from my site were able to attend, and we were even able to be there at the same time!

After a few weeks alone in site with not much to do over the summer break, it was a more than welcome reprieve to be back to work and spending time with other volunteers. There is a certain magic about being around other Americans again after time alone in site, and I think it’s safe to say that all 15 of us were in seventh heaven living, working, and just hanging out together. Plus, I had the pleasure of getting to know some volunteers I hadn’t had the chance to spend much time with (since our group is so big!), and made some new friends along the way.

There was one thing about this camp that set it apart from virtually any other camp experience I’ve had, both in America and Morocco – it was during Ramadan, and everyone was on a fasting schedule: no food or water from sun-up to sun-down, meals only after sundown. (If you would like to learn more about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, please click here and here here!) The Moroccan staff, almost all of the 40 campers, and about half of the PCV counselors were fasting, and those that chose not to had to shop for their own food and eat and drink in private, so as not to cause any disrespect to those fasting. I had been fasting during the first few days of Ramadan leading up to the camp, out of respect for my community and in order to experience a tradition so important to Moroccan culture. Naturally, I decided to keep fasting at the camp, since no meals were served during the day, and I thought it was important to be on the same page as all of the kids by understanding where their energy levels might be at different times of the day.

Now, I’m not going to lie – fasting is hard. As anyone who knows me would tell you, I thoroughly love everything about food – cooking it, eating it, talking about it – and tend to eat every few hours at minimum. The joke amongst my friends is that if I’m acting cranky, someone should probably just get me some food and everything will be better. Plus, I typically cart around a water bottle everywhere I go, hydrating all day almost compulsively. Considering all this, I’m entirely surprised by – and pretty proud of – how well I’ve done with keeping up the fast through the entire month of Ramadan. Though it’s been difficult – especially when I’ve wanted to get something accomplished but simply can’t due to hunger and thirst – I’ve found it to be a truly rewarding experience. Being on the same page as everyone in my community and eating the breaking fast meal with families has helped me integrate further into my community and gain a greater understanding for this aspect of the culture. Furthermore, this article about Muslim feminism opened my eyes to a truly beautiful perspective on fasting – that by denying ourselves food and water during the day, we can begin to practice empathy and solidarity with those around the world who suffer from hunger and thirst every day, due to economic, political, and social forces. As the author of the article beautifully states, “The hunger and thirst we endure from sunrise to sunset during this holy month is not only for food and water – the food and water too many of our sisters and brothers all over the globe lack. It is also a hunger and thirst for knowledge, for piety, for humility, for social justice, and for equality. At its most basic, Ramadan is about love.”

In order to accommodate the unavoidably low energy levels of both campers and counselors during the daylight fasting hours, our camp had an adjusted schedule – activities didn’t begin until 12:30 in the afternoon, and went until just before dinner, which was served around 1:00am! At sundown we were served the breaking fast meal, and it was always great to see the kids light up as we all gathered in the dining hall to break the fast together. The camp consisted of English classes, Moroccan counselor-led activities (usually sports), clubs, and nighttime activities. And though the energy levels of the kids clearly picked up after breaking fast, I was thoroughly impressed by their positive attitudes and smiling faces during the day while fasting!

It has been said that Morocco is a study in opposites – the pull of modernity and traditional values, of rich and poor, and of progress and the things hindering it, are all apparent everywhere you go. This was exemplified perfectly by the campers present in our session; namely, the group of wealthy kids from Rabat, decked out with western dress and iphones, sitting next to kids from rural areas in the same clothes they wore yesterday. Sons and daughters of doctors, lawyers, professors, and ministry officials, these kids nearly gave me renewed culture shock when I saw them skipping about in miniskirts and tank tops, texting on their iphone, and referencing American movies and TV shows. It might sound like I’m describing snooty rich kids with an entitlement attitude, and maybe they are, maybe they aren’t – but they were actually amongst the most helpful and enthusiastic campers there. They volunteered to help clean up, translated for us when we had a hard time (most of them had great English), and encouraged others to get up and dance with them every time someone put on some music. Still, I couldn’t help but think about what different lives these youth lead – particularly the girls – from those in my community and those of so many volunteers. In the cities, especially for wealthier families, things are much different: urban lifestyles, better education, access to resources, and more liberal outlooks on traditionalism are commonplace. Women enjoy arguably more freedom of movement, employment, and education opportunities in the cities, and many of these campers had mothers who were doctors and university professors. This stands in stark contrast with my site, for example, where you rarely see women spending time in the public sphere, girls drop out of school at a much higher rate than boys, and the vast majority of women are housewives. I was so inspired by the amount of confidence and spark that was absolutely bursting from these teenage girls, in a country where girls’ voices are all too often suppressed – and I hoped the girls from my site were, too.

The early afternoons consisted of English classes, and I had a beginner’s group of 8 campers. Though teaching English isn’t my favorite thing in the world, it was good to get exposure and practice with something I’ll have to do in my site come fall, but have next to no experience with. The classes were surprisingly fun, and I think my campers learned a lot; we played lots of games, drew pictures of new vocabulary, and did team competitions for who knew their numbers best.

In the evening after breaking fast, we had “club time” – kids could choose from art, dance, science, leadership, and journalism. I bounced around, helping out with all of the different clubs at least once, and it was clear that the kids loved what they were doing. I was given an awesome throwback to the days of Girl Scout Camp when we made friendship bracelets in art club, and nostalgia for American dances when we taught the campers the Cotton-Eyed Joe dance. The journalism club even put out a camp newspaper at the end of the session, written entirely by the campers in English.

We had a bunch of other awesome activities throughout the week, including a scavenger hunt, talent show, and Halloween night!

 Thriller at the talent show!

The dance-loving crew from Rabat 

My clue for the scavenger hunt - questions about the best state in the union :)

Halloween night! We had everything including costumes,

 bobbing for apples, face painting, and a haunted house!

I was a jack-o-lantern!

Some of the campers' costumes

Though we were busy, we had a fair amount of free time in the afternoon right before breaking fast. El Jadida is a beautiful city, and we spent many afternoons exploring the ocean shore and everything else the city had to offer. It was wonderful to be out in nature, walking with friends, and seeing the sights – we could (almost) pretend like we were tourists during those excursions.

 The beautiful ocean shore

Tide pools

The harbor

Up on the ramparts of the old Portuguese city

The inside of the cistern, a huge chamber where they used to collect fresh water

 There were 10 weeks-old puppies on the camp ground! So cute!

On the last night of camp, there was the SPECTAC! If you’re wondering what a SPECTAC is, its like a talent show, only longer, with a huge feast at the end, and a much bigger deal. The kids spent nearly the entire day leading up to it preparing, and it was a great show. A group of us PCVs even prepared a dance, which we choreographed in less than 2 hours right before the show. It was to “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas, a ton of fun to do, and pretty SPECTACular, if I do say so myself.