Larache, my home away from home!

Larache was my home for two years. Geographically, it is a coastal city of about 300,000 people about an hour and a half south of Tangier in Morocco. It is in between rolling hills, where the city itself is mainly set upon a large hill.

 A lookout point in the Old City

There are several daily markets but the serious business comes with the market on Sunday that is large enough to give Picadilly a run for its money. The market on Sunday is in an area of town that is called: Market Sunday, so you are sure to find it.

Historically, the city was colonized by Spain so the culture, language and architecture of the city, especially at its center, is almost purely Spanish. Coming into the center of the city… the plaza, rightly named Plaza Espana, is a place for large gatherings like parades, the Africa Cup Triathalon that takes place every May and many, many other celebrations.

 gathering of a parade

 

aren’t the buildings beautiful?

 entrance to the old city

Many cities in Morocco can boast of an old city (medina qdima) the most famous being of course, Fes, Marrakesh and Chefchaouen. But many smaller cities have claim to them as well, one of them being Larache. The old city in Larache is smaller but still has a Spanish flair, if a traveler knows what they are looking for they can find remains of an old Synagogue as well as an old church. 

 

 

 view of the city and old city from the lower part of Larache

The main plaza in the old city, not all of the old cities have one of these.

Larache was my home for two years. To say that in the past tense is a little surreal, but having lived there I can speak to the fact that the people of Larache are its most prized possession. Our friends that we have come to known will forever be in our hearts. The students we taught at the Youth Center and its director were the center of our world for the past two years. As we learned their language and they learned ours, there were moments of all kinds: frustrating, happy, momentous, and crazy. Having difficulty in the most basic of conversations has been our ‘normal’ for the past two years, it will be interesting being able to communicate effectively everyday, all day!

 some of our students with their certificates

our amazing Youth Center director who made our service the best that it possible could be!

 students from a Summer Camp

 students from a Spring Camp

 a musical group that we saw perform several times throughout our two years

Leaving the beautiful city of Larache on Sunday was very emotional, as we don’t know when we are able to return. Our friends left us with many gifts, memories and of course delicious tea and cookies. We are trying to process our return to the States and in that frame of mind, I wanted to give you another small tour of our city. It is not a top tourist destination but it has plenty to see and do, the most unique aspect about the city is its’ feel. The culture, history and the people give it a tangible feel that is different from any in all of Morocco.

Linking up today with:

 A Compass Rose : Travel Tuesday

Let’s be Friends: Southern Beauty Guide

an amazing sunset picture from our roof… We will always have Larache in our hearts

Moreover Monday- From Gaga to Malala

As mentioned before, I am going to try and bring more information to this page… whether that be about Morocco or as I have decided today, about Islam. Being someone who is not a Muslimah (a Muslim woman) I am going to mainly bring stories found on Muslimah Media Watch or other sources that rightly represent the religion or this part of the world. I am calling it “Moreover Monday” because I want to try to add to what is provided in mainstream Western media.

This is a story that was recently post on Muslimah Media Watch

From Gaga to Malala: Muslim Women as Stereotypes and Exceptions

October 21, 2013 By amina Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: Malala Yousafzai has been extensively covered in media lately, and several MMW writers wanted to weigh in on the way she is being portrayed.  Today’s post is by Amina; stay tuned for reflections from Nicole and Eren later this week.

Lady Gaga’s pink burqa. [Source].

Just a couple of months ago, Lady Gaga wore a ridiculous, sheer pink burqa. While I didn’t buy her reasons for it, she allegedly did it as some vague, old attempt at empowering Muslim women by trashing a form of hijab.(Read Eren’s take on “Pink Burqas, Gagas and Madonnas” here.) Mariam Elbaprovided a great analysis of Gaga’s “Bura/Aura”  lyrics for PolicyMic; the lyrics include “I’m not a wandering slave, I’m a woman of choice … My veil is protection for the gorgeousness of my face.” All of that, as Elba, points out, sounds okay, maybe even promising. And then, the chorus dives into stereotyping and  hypersexualizing with  “Do you want to see me naked, lover? Do you want to peek underneath the cover? Do you want to see the girl who lives behind the aura? … Do you wanna touch me? Let’s make love.”

As Elba writes:

“The heavily erotic images ultimately dehumanize and degrade burqa-wearing women and turn them into animalistic beings. In a society that automatically associates the burqa with Muslim women and Middle Eastern culture, a song like this only adds onto the monolithic image of the Muslim woman being quiet, sheltered, and owned by a man.”

With her recent American tour, internet campaign to award her the Nobel Peace Prize, and alright media bonanza, stories about Malala embed a similar rhetoric. The mainstream media has largely personified her an exception, rather than the rule; as if with her courage, bluntness, and conviction, she is unlike most Muslim women. Omid Safi’s post, “How to Keep Malala from Being Appropriated” makes a great case for the need to avoid an “exceptionalizing narrative.”

Don’t get me wrong. Malala is indeed incredible. But the media discourse about Malala often insinuates that her commitments to women’s education are derived from Western influences and values juxtaposed, again, against the backdrop of stereotypes that characterize Muslim women as downtrodden and dreaming to be saved by the white knight in shining armour.

Her boldness seems acceptable largely because of that narrative. The reactions to other “brazen” Muslim women aren’t nearly as warm. When the Boston bombing suspects were named, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the suspects, came immediately and fiercely to their defence.  Zubeidat was rarely grieving, somber or apologetic in the media glare. Instead, she remained consistently defiant and insistent of her sons’ innocence. The media reactions to Zubeidat were almost instantly vicious, labelling her a terrorist and questioning the “extreme” nature of her religious views. If she were less outspoken, more apologetic, and weakly sobbing behind a microphone, Zubeidat would have better fit social expectations of a grieving mother and of Muslim women, in general.

Then, there are the stories that rarely make a ripple on the Western media circuit – like the “Speed Sisters,” a group of female Palestinian street racers that draw crowds along the roads of Ramallah. And the Saudi women who embrace regular acts of civil disobedience and challenge their social status quo by driving. And the Sudanese women who recently staged a silent protest demanding female detainees be released. I’m grateful for Anneke’s weekly Friday Links because her posts generally host links to healthy counternarratives of Muslim women, in contrast to the typical stuff we read about in the mainstream media.

[Source].

There’s something immensely telling about the stories mainstream Western media decides to promote and those that get swept under the rug. The stories that are told and ways in which they are told say as much about the storytellers as those that are the actual subjects of discussion. Mainstream media actively homogenizes Muslim women into meek, weak beings who lack the audacity and know-how to challenge patriarchal systems. That narrative – one that denies a Muslimah’s autonomy – makes it difficult, if not downright impossible, to engage with Muslim women on the basis of solidarity. Instead, the West just sells itself as the ultimate saviour, bound by a superficial chivalrous oath to protect Muslim women from those evil, evil Muslim men who must ALL be pledged to the Taliban.

As I establish my professional career, I’m cognizant that I stand on the shoulders of giants, that my values, passions, and drives come from brilliant, fierce Muslim women: my unapologetic Nani, my strong-as-steel mother, countless activists, and brilliant academics. Yes, I am a Canadian woman. But my opinions on education, independence, empowerment, and self-sufficiency are heavily borne from my cultural and religious influences as a Muslim woman and the two aren’t mutually exclusive. While the Muslimahs I know are exceptional, they are by no means the exception. If the mainstream, Western media ever intends to genuinely engage with Muslim women, then it’s seriously time to acknowledge the depth and breadth inherent to Muslimahs.

English Class… Bump, pump, pimp?

I am sure every Peace Corps volunteer has had their fair share of awkward/frustrating moments when attempting to refute or explain something that their student has seen on an American tv show or movie.

The other night… Tyler had a particularly interesting moment with his Level 4 or Communications class. In the class, they were reviewing phrasal verbs (i.e. take out, make up etc. etc.)

Setting: At the Dar Chabab with 12-13 students with fairly fluent English.Student 1: What is bump up?

Tyler explains that it is essentially to go up to the next level or on Facebook, a post can be “bumped up to the top”

Students all at once: Wait, is it with a ‘b’ or a ‘p’

Tyler writes “bump” with a ‘b’ on the white board.

Student 2: O! That sounds like the word that is for the thing to fill a bicycle tire

Tyler: right, pump, with a ‘p’

Student 3: ooo! That sounds like pimp!

Tyler: uhhhhh, yeah but that’s not a great word

Student 3: No, it just means make better, like “Pimp my Ride”

Tyler: yeahhhh but do you know what a prostitute is?

Some shocked faces because Tyler said the word ‘prostitute’ and quick explanations for those who did not understand, in Arabic

Further careful explanation ensues for the last two minutes of class about what a pimp is and how it is related to a prostitute….

End Scene

Even after a year and some months, it is still interesting as to what aspects from American culture via tv/movies are absorbed here… apparently “Pimp my Ride” is one of those things!

TOUBKALLA!

I just realized that I never ever talked about climbing Mount Toubkal! That is crazy… considering now that it was OVER 3 months ago.

Well first things first… for those that have never climbed a mountain before (and before this one, I hadn’t). It is THE* most physically challenging thing I have done, to date.

I went with 7 other fabulous girls and it was an ADVENTURE!

We all decided to go after our Mid-Service Training that took place at the end of June. From Rabat we took the train to Marrakesh, then a taxi from Marrakesh to Imlil. Our taxi thankfully dropped us off at our hostel, which was wonderfully comfortable and quaint. We were all soooo excited! We got up early the next morning, had breakfast, and began our trek.

on the train!

The guy at the hostel made a fabulous little map for us and OFF we went! We were so excited!!!! I remember that feeling of not really knowing what was coming and a little nervous but still thinking- this is going to be FUN!!!!!!

before the hike!

So as we were following the map, I didn’t realize that we had a small hill to climb before we even reached the base of the mountain…..so we start going up this hill and here I am thinking that we were already climbing the actual mountain- BOY WAS I WRONG!

breakin…walking up the hill!

We got to the river bed, which at the time I didn’t realize was the base of the mountain, and well, we took a well-deserved break!

Then as we started to really climb… we started to realize how serious it was. We were climbing a mountain- CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woof! I remember someone telling me before we went that it would be a nice, lonnnnggg walk.

Well. It. wasn’t.

Now, I feel like I am climbin’ aboard the complain train. But, it was really hard, we climbed for 7 hours the first day, with food breaks and short water breaks. The lovely girls I was with- we made goals for ourselves… okay, make it to that rock, okay we will walk for 15 minutes, twenty minutes. It was crazy how difficult it would be at points to keep going, all I wanted to do was stop and take a break. Sit and enjoy the wonderful view….

this was actually on the way down, but more on that later

A very big POSITIVE, we saw a herd of mountain goats with their incredibly cute kids and by kids I mean, baby goats!

So we climbed and climbed before we FINALLY made it to the refuge!!!! Let me tell you, my dogs were barkin’- LOUDLY!

We had dinner and decided to head out at 6am! Fortunately for me, I was able to fall directly to sleep- um not. I actually didn’t get one ounce of sleep, which was to say, very exciting.

We headed out in the dark to get to summit… this was the most difficult part. If I had known about this part the day before, I might not have complained so much….might not have.

At one point, I could only describe myself as straddling the rocks like a frog, crying and saying…. this isn’t worth my life.

Mayyyyybbbbbeeee a tad dramatic, but have you even been on the side of a mountain with loose rocks falling every which way? Well, I hadn’t either.

After three hours of climbing almost straight up, we could finally see the top. These three hours included all types of climbing- big boulders, small rocks, loose rocks, sand…. ziggin and zaggin. I am sure that I was a sight at times, I remember another time where I wasn’t sure which rock to grab and I look over and several Moroccan climbers (who I am quite sure they had either rock climbing ancestors, related to spiderman or had more monkey in their blood than me) were jumping from rock to rock like it was an every day occurrence. Hmmmm….all the while, when I was straddling rocks holding for dear life, I couldn’t help but think about how the climb up the mountain related to my Peace Corps service.

Serving in Peace Corps is so similar to climbing a mountain, its pretty scary. With everything that someone goes through…. learning a language, adapting to the culture, leaving life behind, building a new life, leaving friends and family, building new relationships with new friends…. it is SO much! And is all really within a short period of about 3-4 months, it is necessary to know when you need a break but it is also really vital to knowing when you need to push through the hard times and just keep on going. The people that are there to support will provide words of encouragement or, it is just them being there going through it with you that is important. There were times climbing to the summit, we were quiet for hours (I know it is difficult for some of you to picture me quiet for more than a few minutes) but it happened! And it was going through it together that was important, it was being there at the top with others that made it feel that* much better.

almost there!

WAHOO! we did it!

puffy fingers and all!!!!

Little known fact (to even myself before this), that I am terrified of heights. Completely and utterly terrified, I couldn’t really stand up on the top! Who knew?

ps, it was REALLY cold up there

So… after awhile, we started our descent! We were planning on going ALLLLLLL the way back down to our hostel in Imlil…. and all I could think was, here we go, this has GOT TO BE easier than the way up. Well folks, if you thought that too, then we were both wrong.

Also, I didn’t get that many pictures on the way up to summit- it is pretty difficult to take pictures when you are straddling rocks.

why yes! That would be grabbing onto rocks with fear of falling, on the way down. But again, even when sliding down on my hindquarters on slippery rocks… I couldn’t help compare it to my service. At the year point (our Peace Corps summit), I remember thinking… okay! It all gets easier from here right? I am integrated, I can somewhat communicate, I have everything I need!!!

Not exactly… the second year has shaped up to be a difficult time as well! Yes, I am integrated, yes I have completed a project, yes I have a schedule and people who know me, but* how do I really make my time here worth it? How do I get to know people better? How do I keep from going crazy with the prospect and excitement from going home?!?! I’ll let ya know as I am still currently on my Peace Corps mountain descent.

the refuge in sight!!! Note* this is still about an hour away

Well, it took us another three hours to climb down back to the refuge (a total of 7 hours). We had an hour break for lunch and then kept on truckin!!

 little goat!!!

just some fellow mountain climbers… with their chickens and sheep

I was hoping that the trek down would only take us 5 hours and we were really well on our way… until we got a little lost.

Which… I am sure is the way that I will feel when we have about a month left. Unfortunately, I kept insisting that we were on the right path… when in fact we were the complete opposite of being on the right path. Mer 😦 Fortunately, I was with really really forgiving people who weren’t mad at me for too long, I hope.

do you remember the first small hill? It was a glorious site!

With getting lost, we ended up walking for about an hour and a half extra…. so it turned into about 6.5 -7 hours… which if you were calculating that would be 14 hours of walking. After a day of walking 7 hours…. woof!

ALMOST THERE!

We literally collapsed when we arrived at the hostel. Thankful that it was over and in awe of ourselves that we did it.

I think maybe next time, it maybe easier to start with something smaller and not climb North Africa’s tallest mountain as a first mountain climb… but hey! Go big or go home right?

Our congratulatory McDonald’s meal

The most important aspect though, that both Peace Corps and Toubkal have shown me, is that I am capable of much more than I think I am. The human will is profound.  When pushed there are soo many possibilities! There is an incredible amount of strength inside that sits stationary and quiet until it is tapped into. I am grateful for the opportunities to learn that about myself and consider myself blessed to be able to learn those lessons early in life.

Who knows what mountain I will climb next?!

GLOW Camp- Career DAY!

Whoops! Got a little lost there… September FLEW by… now it is October and I haven’t finished updating everyone on GLOW camp! It is crazy… GLOW camp has been apart of my Peace Corps life- whether it be “finish grant” on my to-do list or email this person- talk to this person or meet with this person, I have to be honest, I have been in a post-planning funk. I recognize the feeling from after the wedding was over, when I would sit on the couch and think, shouldn’t I be doing something? Like then, I do have things to do but they don’t *feel* the same way, I know that getting a report done or doing my site profile (to prepare for the next volunteers -EEK!) won’t culminate quite the way GLOW camp did. So I am in the process of finding things that feel similar… we went to our regional meeting in Fes and then I stayed after for a bit to spend time with friends. Then last week, a beautiful and wonderful friend had a birthday so I went to Rabat for that! Hopefully our English classes get started again soon and we can have a sort of routine going. But… without further ado.. to help me get out of my post-planning funk I will tell you about CAREER DAY!

We had exercise of course in the morning…

then we had our regular team-building exercises….

Then we started off the morning with workshops on Goal Setting

And a workshop on building a C.V. (or as we call it, a resume!)

a break for lunch, which of course being Friday they brought out delicious* cous cous!

(each table had two giant plates and then of course lben (buttermilk-yum!) to drink

Then art time, making friendship bracelets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course our snack HAD to be delicious too- normally I am really full on cous cous days, but when they brought out bastilla (a delicious pastry stuffed with chicken) my stomach thought it was going to explode!!!!

At night our workshops were about good governance of organizations

and career gender stereotypes, which, I wish I had a video of because the girls got very heated about what career belonged to which gender!

This day was particularly interesting because we had to deal with a problem that never in 1000 moons would we ever have thought would happen. Even with all of the planning and thinking about insurance, safety, and rules, I ALWAYS know that there is going to be something else, but I am still never prepared for it. However fortunately, the provisions that we had put in place helped to relieve some stress off of the situation and we were able to solve it. Thank goodness!!!

We were ready to go for our Beach Day!!!!

GLOW- Opening Day!

Okay…. so I have been promising for awhile that I would talk about GLOW camp. I think the things that everyone knows thus far is that….

1) GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World

2) it is a camp for girls!

I apologize for my secrecy… it has been in the works for a long time. But… up until the girls started arriving I was SO nervous that it wouldn’t happen! I didn’t want to go on raving about this camp that was going to be amazing and fabulous and one of the hardest things I have ever worked for… and then it not happen! But… now! I am ready to share!!!! 🙂

GLOW camp is a Peace Corps world wide concept that volunteers all over the world can use for their communities. It was originally developed in the Ukraine and spread from there. There are pamphlets and books developed to give volunteers ideas and guidance to do a camp in their site or country. One volunteer who had a big part in this camp found out that she knew someone that participated in a GLOW camp in their country  with Peace Corps volunteers when she was young.

Last year at our IST meeting (In-service training) at the end of September, a group of 6 girls got together (myself and 5 others who are located close to Larache). We had nothing but the idea to go on but we knew we wanted to bring girls from different places into one!

As time went on, we had one girl with family plans, one volunteer E.T’d (not extraterrestrial-ed but early terminated) and sadly, one girl moved out of our region. So… it ended up that girls were going to come from Ksar El Kebir (a town 30km east of Larache), Assilah (a town 30km north), Ouazzane (a town in the mountains an hour to an hour and a half way), and then Larache! After some deciding early on, we figured it would be good to have it in Larache! So we spent months getting all of the details ready for the grant, translating things, getting permission to use the center, deciding on workshops and finding Moroccan women to do those workshops- and that is just the cliffs notes version!!!

Now, to be honest, I was a little sneaky about the project. I didn’t really mention anything to my mudir (director) until April for two reasons. 1) I didn’t really want him to be involved because he was a man and 2) it always seems that when I say I want to do things and it happens to be 4-5 months out- there is always a HUGE* inshallah added at the end. I wanted to inshallah until my voice was gone… I and the other volunteers WANTED* to make this happen, we were GOING* to make this happen. I will admit, that not really asking for permission to do the camp did make things a little difficult. I asked for permission to use the center for our activities and overnight stay from the delegue (my mudir’s boss) but never really specifically said “Is it okay if there is a camp for all girls here in Larache?”. The delegue gave us permission to use the center in May and after that it was mostly up to the other volunteers and I to do the leg work until my mudir was ready to inshallah his way to making this happen.

Fast forward to the end of August

My mudir, counterpart and I are meeting almost every day. Tshirts are ready…. booklets for the girls are being put together, everyone is working their butt off to find girls to attend the camp and we are almost ready to begin in a week. The meetings consisted of printing out papers, putting our logo onto things, deciding the menu, talking about insurance, calling the girls about a meeting to meet their parents and completing packets of information for both the local government and the delegation.

Our fabulous logo!!!!!! Designed by a family member of a volunteer!

With the day of approaching, the atmosphere was tense. We had to completely change the vendor of the food at the last minute and it caused a minor explosion. We also had a tiff at the center because it was somewhat occupied! When all this time, we thought that the center would be ours to use- who knew? This all* the day BEFORE* camp! The only people that were stressed out about these things appeared to be the volunteers…. the Moroccan counterparts seemed completely relaxed! We finally got the food situation sort of figured out…but were still working on getting things in order on the day of, let me tell you, this was not due to our lack of planning. Moroccans are so good at doing things last minute and getting them done right. The day of… woof… called into the delegue’s office to listen to a LOT* of words I didn’t know and had NO idea what he was saying but in a tone that let me know something was up… then to only be released and told “I’ll see you this afternoon, but we need to push the time up half an hour because I need to travel”. So the camp can go on? WAHOO!

My mudir ready for action!!!!

Me… ready to go!!!!

Then… we were off!!!

schedule for the week, others were posted in Arabic

Girls arrived…..

waiting for us to start!

One of the fabulous volunteers checking the girls in while another assigned them to their rooms

our Regional Manager and Program Manager from Peace Corps arrived to help us welcome the girls.

Amina giving a welcoming speech

 and then we had kaskrut (mid-afternoon snack) with the parents.

kaskrut treats- including date cookies! YUM!

first camp photo of everyone!

Our regional manager helped us kick things off by being kind enough to share her story with the girls… she grew up in a family full of boys and made her way through her education and has been working for Peace Corps for 25 years!!!!!

Then after dinner, the first workshop was held and the girls made a “family crest” of how they define themselves!!!!!

We had some hiccups but the first day went wonderfully and set a fabulous pace for the rest of camp!!!!!!!

I am ready for anything…..

There’s no looking back! Tomorrow, my fellow volunteers arrive to start this GLOW camp (Girls Leading Our World), which I will write more about later. I haven’t been very vocal about the planning of this project… mostly because it has taken quite a bit of time and well, failure sometimes seems imminent so I didn’t want to jinx myself. I have been trying to reflect during the process and will definitely do a lot afterwards.

One of the most apparent realizations, to date, is how important and vital the support of other volunteers has been. I have said before that other Peace Corps volunteers serve as sort of a new makeshift family during a Peace Corps service. This family of volunteers that has helped to plan and support the project in so many ways and overall made the process a much more worthwhile experience. There are still quite a few kinks to work out… not at all unsurprising even though there are T-3 days until the launch of the camp… but I am somewhat calm. I am really excited to give the girls a new opportunity and spend some time with some of my volunteer family members.

In order to prepare for the camp, I visited souk today and found one of the best finds ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 dirhams= $1.20

15 dirhams = $1.90 with my belt that I bargained for at a thrift shop in Dublin!

And last but not least… ladies and gentlemen- you all are never going to believe this!

So the story goes… walking around my main hangouts at souk, saying hello to my homies and getting a feel for what’s going down. Generally, Saturdays and Wednesdays have been my best purchase days but I don’t like to get my hopes up, it is really about getting the feel and trusting your instincts. My strategy is alllllll about the instinctual vibe, if I am looking through a pile and I don’t find anything good within the first couple of minutes… I peace out. Now, yes… this may mean that I might be missin’ out but so far my strategy has led me to some pretty good finds. Anywhoodles, I am at a table of a man who I have been frequenting lately. I am a big fan of the sellers who come back day-to-day and set up in the same locations. I notice he has a lot of pajamas and I am going through them- who knew you could find Winnie-the-Poo satin pajamas? I couldn’t find the bottoms though, so that was a no-go. Then, a kind lady (I like to refer to her as my guardian angel) turns to me and says (obviously paraphrasing), “This is good for you”. I kind of shrug her off and pull up the beautiful garment and this, my friends, is what my eyes beheld…

Obviously, the excited me was not in the snug and warm cuddly-ness of the ONESIE yet! Yes! YES! I found an adult ONESIE for 5 dirhams! THAT IS A LITTLE OVER FIFTY CENTS! AND, and I know you are thinking there couldn’t possibly be any more benefits to this, WITH A POCKET! With this find, I just can’t go back for awhile… this is like hitting a jackpot on a coin machine in Vegas! All I have been able to hear when I think about my new pjs with a cartoon mouse for entertainment on them- is the ching, ching, ching of the coins!!!

I am ready for this GLOW camp, whatever it has to offer, with my onesie by my side.. I am ready for anything!

In the swing of things!

No no no…this is not a camel from Morocco… but he seems pretty excited about Wednesdays!!! Which is something that he and I have in common… WEDNESDAYS!!!!! I am not really sure why I like them… but my affinity for them has increased tenfold since I learned that Wednesdays are our best souk days!!!!

This summer was not as slow as the last, in fact, it was really busy! We had some amazing visitors and recently had a SUPER successful day camp at our Dar Chabab. Of course, we could not have done it without three incredible other volunteers, I mean seriously, these girls were rock-stars! Pulling out icebreakers/songs/activities out of nowhere! Friendships bracelets, hands of Peace, collages about self worth! It was beautiful!!!! Here is one collage/poem that a boy wrote about himself that I found particularly charming….

And then we were blessed with wonderful gifts from our mudir and the kids… it was amazing!

We will have another camp this coming week, which Tyler and some more rockstars will lead. I am stepping to the side on this one to focus on my girls camp coming up the first week of September. Inshallah, both will be a success!!!!! Then hopefully after the camp we will have a little downtime before our schedule kicks-in in October!!!!

The girls and I also had some really really really GREAT luck at souk last week, here are some of the items that I found!

Booties – 10dh = $1.20

Wonderful Blouse (the little polka dots are actually hearts!) 14dhs = ~$1.80

BLAZER! 15 dhs = $1.90

I have been asked to focus my spending exploits on specific items… so I am going to try to find nice office clothes! Plenty of blazers, booties and hopefully blouses and pants! We shall see!!!

HAPPY HUMP DAY EVERYONE!

My Best Friend’s Wedding

There she is, friends! Isn’t she beautiful?! That person there, is MY best friend, not Julia Roberts’. In June, I was fortunate enough to be able to go home, spend some time with this lovely lady, AND* attend her wedding! I know! Couldn’t be better right, well sprinkle that with some wonderful family time and you could say that I had an AMAZING TRIP!Me and this girl go wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back- est. in 1994!! Crazy, I know! I bet she is at least a little thankful that I currently don’t have access to all of our pictures from the past. We’ve had some good times together over the years…. birthday parties, sleepovers, trips to the mall, tennis,  trips to starbucks, etc. etc. etc.  Her friendship is like the white center to my oreo cookie… the deliciousness would not be complete without both. I am so proud to say that our friendship has navigated many many paths from living across the country from each other (several times) to living across the world from each other. She is someone who inspires me (because she is a rock star) and as a best friend should, compliments my loud personality with being witty, intelligent and amazing and most of all- she makes me a better person just by being herself.

Here is the PICourney (picture journey) of the wonderful and amazing weekend of celebrating her and her amazing husband (who is also a complete rock star!).

whoops! A little blurry!

And last but not least… one of the best pictures that I have had the honor of taking!

Congratulations best friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You just had your two month anniversary!!!! CRAZY!!!!

Love you like a high school girl LOVES her prada backpack…. and if she doesn’t have one, like she LOVES her sketchers!

**an extra special THANK YOU to my sister who took some pictures at the Bachelorette party- without her this picture post would not be possible!!!!!

Morocco Gender Equality Plan

Found this article at the Edmonton Journal and thought it would be a good short read!

Morocco presents gender equality plan modified by Islamist party

By Smail Bellaoualli, The Associated Press July 5, 2013

RABAT, Morocco – Morocco’s Islamist-led government on Friday presented a new European Union-funded plan to promote women’s rights and equality, but without earlier measures to legalize abortion and support single mothers.

The plan, which is funded with 45 million euros (about $58 million) from the EU, contains 150 measures to improve women’s equality in the health and education sectors, and access to government employment, Minister of Women, Family and Social Development Bassima Hakkaoui said.

Her predecessor, Nouzha Skalli, told The Associated Press that an earlier draft of the plan included a law legalizing abortion in certain cases as well as protection for single mothers.

The Islamist Party of Justice and Development had originally opposed the plan when it was in opposition, and then altered it after they came to power after elections in November 2011.

Hakkaoui said she had informed the EU about the revised approach and there had been no objections.

Though lacking some of the progressive legislation of Tunisia, Morocco passed a new personal status code in 2004 that has been welcomed by feminists.

The new constitution passed in 2011 after popular protests inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa also guarantees equality between women and men.

While female representation in Moroccan governments has never been high, the current Islamist-led coalition only has a single female minister, Hakkaoui. When asked why women weren’t being nominated for more high level posts, the minister replied that few applied.

“The problem is that the number of women applying is low, of 245 candidates, only 27 are women,” she said.