Fit for the mountains

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On Saturday, a group of volunteers and I took a jeep to the mountains; a weekend project to volunteer with Berber children in the mountain. The cramp journey in a tired taxi did not dampen our spirits as we watched the mountain range loom larger and larger. I forgotten how green nature is (living in a concrete place like Manchester). We swapped taxis for a jeep to go up the mountain range, with passengers on top of the roof. However, we werent allowed to do so (something about volunteer insurance...) We were dropped off at the side of the road and walked down slopes, rock formations, clear streams to reach a traditional Berber home. The place was made of concrete with a 5 rooms: one room to recieve guests, one cooking area, one storage room, and one open area with a block at the end - the toilet.

We were greeted by a tea ceremony, as welcomed guests, and a basket of bread and olive oil. After this, we walked for 45minutes to a higher level of the mountain. There the children greeted us, we played games on the edge of the mountain, stopped during the Prayer call, and resumed mischief until dusk. This was a surreal experience for me, only ten days ago I was rushing a Stats assignment, now I was playing catch with Berber children at the edge of the mountain range - the only way of communication was gesture, as they only spoke Berber.

Moroccans had different meal times to the English. They have meals at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 6pm and 10pm. After all the running around, we were like a troop of starving teenagers ransacking our bags in the hope that someone had a squashed packet of buscuits with them until 10pm (it was 7pm when we got back). I have learned to appreciate Moroccan time (one hour slower than agreed) and happily ate a half melted yoghurt bar. The group of us started talking about films we like and dislike, books, bowel movements. Anything to not think of food.

Eventually, we were rewarded with the most amazing Tagine. We all ate happily until almost midnight. I fell asleep whilst some stayed up to play cards until the early morning. However, my sleep didnt last long - I was woken up by two guys snoring. Seriously, battle of the snores commenced for most of the night. I was astounded by how loud people can snore.

The next day, most of us were tired (except the snorers) and we hardly had energy to run around with the children. So we settled on singsong instead (clever us). After lunch, we decided to hike down the mountains (???) the jouney took us through the colourful range, with waving children, staring Goats and eroding paths. During the mid day sun, we were baking our scalps and guzzling limited water. We couldnt believe it when we saw a (manmade) waterfall! We all dropped our bags and raced to climb up the rocks, the water was delicious - we splashed around for ages before our volunteer coorinator became grumpy and walked on without us. In total, it took us over 3 hours to decend our previous jeep journey up. Thank God for trainers.

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